Important Information on How to Report Covid -19 cases during holiday and Winter Covid Grant

Dear Parents and Carers,

As the end of term rapidly approaches, we have been waiting for clarity from the Department of Education regarding the plans for the end of term, and in particular how we are able to support both parents and staff with potential Covid-19 cases at the start of the Christmas break.

On Tuesday afternoon, we received confirmation of what the Government would like us to do and following a meeting of Trust Leadership I am now sharing that information with you.  As a Trust, we are going to be following the Department for Education recommendation to close the Academies to pupils as of the end of the school day on Thursday 17^th December.  Friday the 18^th December will become a staff INSET day with no pupils being present on site.

As you will no doubt be aware, all schools are required to actively support Track and Trace activities in order to help limit the potential spread of the virus.  The Department for Education have requested that we continue to do this for six days after the last day that pupils are in attendance at the Academy – i.e. up to and including Wednesday 23^rd December.  In the event that your child develops symptoms and tests positive after the end of term, yet prior to the 23^rd December, you should of course initially engage with the Government Track and Trace system.  You will also need to notify the Academy of this.  However, unlike during term time, all of our communication channels WILL NOT be in operation.  Parents who need to contact us to report a confirmed positive case, are kindly requested to do so ONLY via our COVID mailbox which has been set up purely for this holiday period:

This is the only form of notification that will be checked on a daily basis.  PLEASE DO NOT contact us by phone, email, Facebook, Twitter or WEDUC, as these will not be routinely monitored during this period.  In the unfortunate event that we have to notify parents of potential exposure from a positive case, this will be done through a WEDUC message and via our Facebook page and we will not be calling each individual family to ensure they have received the notification as we do not have the resources to do so during the school holidays.  Please therefore ensure that you have WEDUC access prior to the end of term or regularly check Facebook.

From the 24^th December onwards, in the event of a positive test, the school does not need to be informed of this until the start of the new term, yet engagement with Track and Trace should continue.

I wanted to let you know as soon as possible of this change of term dates and procedures in order that you can make suitable childcare arrangements and would like to apologise in advance for any issues this may cause.

COVID winter grant

You may also be aware that Lincolnshire County Council has been allocated funding through the Government’s Covid Winter Grant scheme (WGS), including funding for vulnerable families with children, which may be used to provide support to families in receipt of benefits-related Free School Meals.  Families that were entitled to this at the point of the allocation of funding to the Academy will receive a single £35 ASDA voucher per eligible child, to cover both the two week Christmas period and the February half term period.   If you are entitled to this, you will be contacted by the school office to arrange collection.  We are unable to post out vouchers as for audit purposes, they must be signed for.

Kind Regards,

Miss Gray