Email Sent 10 December 2020
Dear Parent/Carers
As you may be aware, the Department for Education announced yesterday that schools could close early for Christmas and can use an Inset day to achieve this. As the vast majority of Bracknell Forest schools have planned their inset days already for this academic year, the Council has taken the decision that, where possible, schools should move to online learning on Friday, 18 December, meaning that face-to-face learning for students will end on Thursday, 17 December.
As the majority of schools were due to break up on Friday 18 December, it should only entail one day of home-schooling for most students, including key workers and vulnerable students.
Please find our end of term arrangements for 17 and 18 December, which have been planned to fit in with this guidance. In addition, it has been announced by Public Health England, that all schools need to provide full contact tracing support for six clear days after term finishes in physical school buildings.
This is an essential part of keeping our community safe. We know that this will not be welcome news for some parents/carers and we apologise for the short notice, but school staff will be able to complete the bulk of the contact tracing, which can be complicated and complex, before the Christmas bubble system comes in on 23 December.
It also means that all contact tracing by schools will be carried out by Christmas Eve, which will hopefully provide a little more certainty for you for Christmas Day itself. From Thursday, 24 December, all contact tracing will be carried out by NHS Test and Trace.
If your child tests positive for COVID 19 you should email the school using COVID19reporting@epschool.org giving your child’s name, date of birth, tutor group, and the date they tested positive for COVID 19. Please include the names of any siblings if relevant.
We will use the information you provide to inform Public Health England and inform close contacts from your child’s classes. Calls will be made to parents of the children affected up until the 24th of December. After this date, please report your case to the school for information only as Public Health England will be notified of your test result and start tracking and trace from this point. We will use the information to assist us in planning to open safely in January.
Please do not post on the school’s Facebook page as this can cause unnecessary anxiety to others.
Thank you for reading through the arrangements. Please find the schedule for the last two days of school below to help you make suitable arrangements.
Yours faithfully
Liz Cook
EPCSHeadteacher
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