Dear parent / carer
I would like to begin by offering my gratitude in relation to your continued support; the traffic before and after school has been significantly reduced on Greens Lane, making it a much safer environment for our students. Secondly, please can I thank you for your support in ensuring your child returned to school on Thursday with a face covering, where applicable. Students have also responded in a fantastic fashion and seem to be enjoying a more typical school experience at the start of the academic year.
We are continuing to monitor covid transmission carefully, with daily discussions taking place to ensure we are doing all we can to allow students to attend regularly and as safely as possible. This afternoon I attended a meeting with the Director of Public Health Lancashire along with approximately 40 other Lancashire headteachers. This meeting was designed to discuss additional measures schools may want to consider when looking at transmission rates within a school setting. It was reassuring to hear that our approach in school was highlighted as best practice, with other schools now adopting our tracking process.
It was made clear during the meeting that one of the main measures for reducing transmission is to encourage as many students as possible to test regularly using LFD tests. We ask that students continue to test twice weekly and submit their result via www.testregister.co.uk. This is to ensure that we are aware of as many asymptomatic cases as possible, helping to prevent the spread of covid.
Questions were raised as to whether we needed to encourage PCR tests for particular year groups where transmission may be more prevalent. This was strongly advised by Public Health Lancashire, and following a conversation about our setting, we are asking that as many of our Year 10 students as possible take a PCR test this weekend. You can find out how to arrange a PCR test here. Ideally, students would do this tonight or on Saturday to prevent any positive cases arriving in school on Monday. It is also helpful that these are conducted outside of school hours as it reduces the disruption caused to students’ learning.
Your support continues to be extremely valuable and gratefully received. Whilst we understand that additional measures can be unsettling, we want to assure you that we are doing all we can to look after the safety and wellbeing of your child. Their access to a face-to-face education remains a priority and by working together in a proactive nature, we will hopefully prevent further disruption in the future.
We recognise that LFD and PCR tests remain voluntary and whilst we hope as many parents support this step, we also recognise that there are many differing views on this subject. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at school@haslingdenhigh.com.
Best wishes
Russell Clarke, Headteacher