Y5 children not all isolating as directed
Dear parents and carers,
I am writing to express my extreme concern and also to update you on the Year 5 PCR COVID test results.
Y5 children and families choosing to ignore the direction to isolate
We are aware as a school and have also been contacted and informed that not all Year 5 children are isolating. This is essential for the safety and well being of our own children, our staff, all of our families and also the wider community!
This is absolutely against all of the national COVID guidance and is both selfish and risky behaviour. It can also result in parents being fined.
If your child is in Year 5 they MUST isolate at home up to and including Sunday 20th of June.
As a school we absolutely understand how difficult it is for your Y5 child and also as a family. But the decisions of a few individuals could have a devastating impact on so many more people.
As a school we have worked with utter determination to do all that we can to protect all members of our school community and their wider families from risk of COVID infection. Therefore we are shocked and upset to learn that any of you would make a decision to allow your child to be out and about outside of your home and not isolating, as directed by PHE.
There is no way of knowing if your child may be an asymptomatic carrier of COVID, even lateral flow tests cannot tell you if your child will go on to test positive later this week, before the isolation period is over. If that were to be the case, a decision to knowingly let any Year 5 child ignore the direction to isolate, could cause many families in our school and the wider community to have to suffer the inconvenience of isolation and also be at risk of catching COVID.
As a staff team who have done all that we can to work tirelessly in so many ways since COVID began, we feel immensely let down to know than not all children are isolating as directed to by PHE. We are all exhausted, not enforcing every child in Year 5 to isolate continues to risk further isolations for every child in school, for all of our staff and more exhaustion for everyone.
I very much appreciate that there are pressures on families caused by the requirement to isolate. Emotional, educational and financial. But the decision any parent makes to not enforce this necessary isolation creates a very real risk of passing on those exact pressures to even more families.
Failure to follow the direction to isolate also puts you as parents at risk of being fined.
Please can all parents and carers take their responsibility seriously to protect us all.
PCR test results
I have been informed this evening that the PCR test results will be sent to you directly. This is different to when Y2 were tested recently. Please provide us with the negative test result as soon as possible.
If anyone else tests positive as a result of these PCR tests, we will let you know when all of the results have been sent to us.
Whilst I very much appreciate the strain this is causing for you and your family by the requirement to isolate, I cannot emphasise enough how let down we feel by the decision of a small number of individuals to put so many people at risk, by not enforcing this essential PHE isolation.
Please can I ask you all to follow the direction of PHE for the benefit of each and every one of us. We are all weary and want COVID spread and these isolations to come to an end.
But the actions of a few are putting any end in jeopardy for everyone else.
Miss Byrne
Head teacher
