COVID-19 Coronavirus FAQs

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We Are Brentwood
Covid-19 FAQs

The information below and the position the School is taking is likely to change, and we will endeavour to update it as quickly as possible.

How quickly will I receive an individual response to my query?

As you will appreciate, we are (understandably) receiving a lot of queries about COVID-19 Coronavirus. We will endeavour to reply to those that cannot be answered by reference to this FAQ sheet, but we hope you will understand our intention to direct most queries to this information. We will also do our very best to keep this information up to date but we cannot guarantee to do so as quickly as the situation is developing - all readers should, therefore, take responsibility for checking the veracity of this information. The following external websites are helpful:

How is the School responding?

he School is using the guidance provided by Public Health England to inform its response. The below information is taken directly from their website. We will take all reasonable steps to keep this list up to date but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Symptoms
The most common symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) are recent onset of:

new continuous cough and/or
high temperature
For most people, coronavirus (COVID-19) will be a mild infection

Key messages from PHE website:

if you live alone and you have symptoms of coronavirus illness (COVID-19), however mild, stay at home for 7 days from when your symptoms started. See ending isolation section for more information
if you live with others and you or one of them have symptoms of coronavirus, then all household members must stay at home and not leave the house for 14 days. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in the house became ill
it is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or be infected already. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community
for anyone in the household who starts displaying symptoms, they need to stay at home for 7 days from when the symptoms appeared, regardless of what day they are on in the original 14-day isolation period. See ending isolation section for more information
if you can, move any vulnerable individuals (such as the elderly and those with underlying health conditions) out of your home, to stay with friends or family for the duration of the home isolation period
if you cannot move vulnerable people out of your home, stay away from them as much as possible
if you have coronavirus symptoms:
do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital
you do not need to contact 111 to tell them you’re staying at home
testing for coronavirus is not needed if you’re staying at home
plan ahead and ask others for help to ensure that you can successfully stay at home and consider what can be done for vulnerable people in the household
ask your employer, friends and family to help you to get the things you need to stay at home
wash your hands regularly for 20 seconds, each time using soap and water, or use hand sanitiser
if you feel you cannot cope with your symptoms at home, or your condition gets worse, or your symptoms do not get better after 7 days, then use the NHS 111 online coronavirus service. If you do not have internet access, call NHS 111. For a medical emergency dial 999

To be clear, Pupils are expected to be in school unless they have a fever or persistent cough (in which case they, and the whole household, should self isolate for 14 days.)

What is the school’s approach to trips over the Easter break?

You will have seen the announcement on Tuesday 17th March that the UK Foreign Office is advising against all non-essential foreign travel for 30 days, and therefore we will not be running any such trips abroad over the Easter holiday. We are liaising closely with travel companies and insurers and will keep you updated.

What is the School's approach to large-scale events?

We are looking at large-scale events hosted by the School over the next few weeks on a case-by-case basis. We are making decisions and assessing risk by considering the type of activity, the profile and number of people, and the geographical range. This is understandably difficult and changing daily. We acknowledge the planning and organisation that goes into many of these events and please be assured we will let you know as soon as we are able if it's deemed that they can't go ahead.

We will update parents with regard to forthcoming talks and Parents' Evenings as required, again balancing the need to monitor and review whilst providing parents with sufficient notice of any cancellations.

How is the school advising visitors?

There are signs at both entrances to the School and staff have been instructed to ask known visitors before they travel to the School to confirm that they don't have a new or persistent cough and/or high temperature, and to self isolate if they do.

What will happen if the school site has to close?

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure this does not happen, though we cannot guarantee it. We are, however, planning how we would provide continuity of education using remote learning tools, if we had to close the school site. More details have been provided to parents via email.

Communications Hub: Emails to parents

Email is central in our communication home to parents. For ease, we have added all emails home to parents below:

Key Links

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