COVID 19 Guidance
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday 4th January, school will remain open to vulnerable children and those of critical key workers. As outlined by the government, children with at least one parent or carer who is a critical key worker can attend school or college if required, but parents and carers should keep their children at home if they can. Due to a demand for places, we may only be able to offer places in school on the days parents and carers are working. Further guidance regarding critical key workers can be found here.
As you will be aware Nursery provision is open to all pupils under Government guidance. If any parents would like children to attend who are not already in attendance then please contact the school office. This will be reviewed weekly as part of our regular risk assessment reviews. We thank parents for their co-operation in keeping our school safe.
Thorntree Academy has a comprehensive remote learning strategy in place and staff are on hand to support you if you experience any issues with technology. Please contact the school office on 01642 242309 or email thorntree@thorntreeacademy.org.uk
I would also like to draw your attention to the change in the definition of a close contact within two metres. This contact definition will now be managed as a one-off contact or a cumulative contact (added up over one day) of more than 15 minutes during the infectious period. Up until now, this has been managed as a one-off contact. Whilst it is understandable that it will be challenging to minimise the impact of this change from a pupil perspective, it does further strengthen the importance of staff maintaining social distance from each other to minimise the number of contacts which may result from a positive case in school. The full guidance can be found here and the updated list of close contacts is below.
A contact can be:
- anyone who lives in the same household as someone with COVID-19 symptoms or who has tested positive for COVID-19
- anyone who has had any of the following types of contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 with a PCR test:
- face-to-face contact including being coughed on or having a face-to-face conversation within one metre
- been within one metre for one minute or longer without face-to-face contact
- sexual contacts
- been within 2 metres of someone for more than 15 minutes (either as a one-off contact, or added up together over one day)
- travelled in the same vehicle or a plane
