INSET DAY - 18TH DECEMBER 2020

Dear Parents and Carers,

We have received advice  from the DfE suggesting that it would be advantageous for schools to make Friday 18^th December a non-teaching day, and using the day for staff training.

The reasons for this are to minimise the burden of track and trace falling on schools over the Christmas period. In addition, Public Health England has agreed that schools should not be expected to track and trace contacts after a period of six days has passed since children’s final day in school. Therefore, where schools’ last teaching day is on Thursday 17^th December, there should be no pupil contact tracing requests beyond Wednesday 23^rd  December.

I think that you would agree that should your child test positive on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, it would increase the burden for you to have to notify the School, and for the School to trace and call all of your child’s close contacts, on either of these days.

The Leadership Team and Trustees have agreed, therefore, that there will be an INSET day of Friday 18^th December 2020, and that School will finish at 1pm on Thursday 17^th December 2020, in line with the normal end of term finish time. There will be no extended day activity on the Thursday.

Reporting of a Child’s positive COVID-19 test after 17^th December.

As a reminder, should your child develop COVID-19 symptoms after 17^th December, you must obtain a test for them as soon as possible. The following outlines the reporting procedure following a positive test:

• If your child tests positive for COVID-19 within the period from 18^th to 23^rd December,  you should call me on the mobile number 07593 453909 to report this, and email head@haileyhall.herts.sch.uk
• If your child tests positive for COVID-19 from the 24^th December onwards, having developed symptoms more than 48 hours since being in school, the school should not be contacted about their absence until the first day of the new term. Parents and carers should, in this case, follow contact tracing instructions by NHS Test and Trace.

Please do not hesitate to contact the School on the following, should you have any queries: admin@haileyhall.herts.sch.uk.

Kind regards

Mr Paul Delamaine

Headteacher