Dear parent/carer

I am writing to you because a person in your household has had a cough and/or high temperature which means EVERYONE who lives in your house MUST self-isolate for 14 days. This was explained by our staff on the telephone, followed up by a text message and, is in fact, all over the news. Despite this, children who had been sent home have been out in the community, attending mosques etc which is very concerning. This is guidance from Public Health England (their website has more detailed information www.gov.uk)

Why staying at home is very important

It is very important that individuals with symptoms that may be due to coronavirus and their household members stay at home. Staying at home will help control the spread of the virus to friends, the wider community, and particularly the most vulnerable.

Those with symptoms and living alone should remain at home for 7 days after the onset of their symptoms. This will reduce the risk of you infecting others.

If you live with others and you or one of them have symptoms that may be caused by coronavirus, then household members must stay at home and not leave your house for 14 days. If possible, you should not go out even to buy food or other essentials, other than exercise, and in that case at a safe distance from others. The 14-day period starts from the day when the first person in your house became ill.

If not possible, then you should do what you can to limit your social contact when you leave the house to get supplies.

It is likely that people living within a household will infect each other or may already be infected. Staying at home for 14 days will greatly reduce the overall amount of infection the household could pass on to others in the community.

Schools are following the advice from the Department for Education. At Stoneyholme, we are doing everything we possibly can to ensure the safety of children, families, staff and visitors and we are making sure our information and practice is up to date. We will text families and update our website should anything change.

In the meantime, we have prepared work for your children to help minimise the impact of not being in school on their education and to help keep them occupied while they are indoors. Completed work will be used as part of our assessments, so please encourage your children to produce their very best work and look after their pack ready for when they return to school.

I appreciate this might be a worrying time, however, if we all follow the advice given, it will help everyone to remain as well as possible (most people who go on to contract the virus will recover very quickly.) As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at school and we will do our best to help.

Wishing you and your families all the very best and hope you all remain in the very best of health.

Mrs L Davison