There is no doubt as a school we are in a lot better position in terms of educational provision when compared to the last 18 months but there still remains important considerations as we continue to deal with COVID.
Consequently, we wanted to update you with the latest COVID-related news.
Vaccinations
The School Vaccination Team arrived in school on Monday 11 October to deliver flu and COVID vaccinations. Parents had already given their consent / non-consent to the NHS online (for flu) and via paper (for COVID) for these treatments.
Unfortunately, the NHS team informed us on the day that they would not be administering the flu vaccines. It has been indicated that they will be given out on a later date but at present we have no details.
Elsewhere, many children received their COVID vaccinations, although due to an issue with processing the consent forms, the NHS team were unable to give every child who was due a vaccination the treatment. Again, we have been informed that this will be addressed at a later date. Again, we have no details as yet. Nonetheless, we have been told the existing consent forms remain valid and do not need re-doing.
Rest assured that as soon as the School Vaccination Team notify us of when the intend to return then we will let parents know. We only act as the venue for the vaccinations and we are wholly reliant on our NHS partners to operate the programme.
COVID Protest
We did see a small COVID protest made up of 8 individuals outside of the school on Friday 8 October. The same group had already campaigned outside other local school that week.
Clearly, this was of great interest to our students – was subject of some discussion during the school day – and it attracted the attention of the local press.
Unsurprisingly, we were not impressed by the location of the protest (right by a busy school crossing on Eastern Avenue), or some of the inappropriate comments made to our students, but we recognise the right for protest and we very much saw it as a learning opportunity for our students.
Even so, we had already liaised with the local police who were in attendance alongside school staff who guided the students into school.
This may possibly happen again but rest assured we will deal with it and it is our view that it does not merit the level of fuss that it attracted.
COVID Testing
Staffordshire County Council have asked us to remind parents of the importance of keeping a close eye out for symptoms in the family and of regular testing in light of high local rates of infection.
The highest rates locally are being seen in 11-18 year olds, and then in 35-55 year olds (who are likely to be parents). Last week’s case levels saw 512.1 cases per 100,000 of the population in in Staffordshire, higher than the 414 across the West Midlands and the 355.3 across England, though case levels do seem to be slowly reducing.
We are aware of families who have been affected, but there are plenty of cases where rapid home testing – followed by a PCR test to validate the LFT result – and careful isolations at home have stopped transmissions across families when one individual is affected.
Matt Allman, Headteacher, said: “We need to remain as vigilant as ever and take responsibility for doing all we can to avoid transmission. Certainly, from a school perspective, we are delighted to see much of normal school life running smoothly but there is still a great deal to be done in terms of managing the pandemic through.”
