Principal’s Update - 31 December, 2022

Dear Parents,

We now have confirmation that the school can re-open on Tuesday 3rd January, with all precautions in place to avoid spreading the virus on campus.

As previously indicated, an antigen test (or a nucleic acid test, if you prefer) must be completed before returning to school. Please do the antigen test Monday 2nd January morning (or a nucleic acid test on Sunday 1st January) and upload the results to the survey (which will be sent on Sunday) by 12 noon on Monday 2nd January. An antigen test can be collected from the school security gate today or tomorrow, should you require.

Please do not send students to school without completing this upload - we cannot allow access to the site before this has been carried out.

Returning to school still holds risk for those who have not yet contracted the virus and we must emphasise that the school cannot be held responsible. Our recent survey suggests that two thirds of our students have already contracted the virus and are fully recovered. That said, we will obviously be doing all that we can to reduce risks including continuing to wear masks and very close monitoring of health.  It is particularly important that students do not come to school when ill and that parents take particular care in this regard: an outbreak in school may lead to a return to VSE for some or all students.

VSE can continue for families that specifically request it through our survey. It will take some time to arrange the logistics around such choices and so VSE provision will not start until Wednesday 4th January. We expect that families commit to VSE until Chinese New Year initially if choosing this provision to avoid continuous changes in platform set up.

Visitors to the site still require a 48-hour acid test. CCAs (after school activities) and instrumental music lessons may resume from the week commencing Monday 9th January, allowing time for assessing the situation next week. This will be confirmed next week.

Whole-school acid testing is no longer required nor practical. We will send an antigen test home with each student to be taken over next weekend and monitor the situation closely to ascertain any further need for such testing.

We are aware that this is a lot of information and navigating a return to campus will require the school and families to work together for the benefit of the students. If there is anything we can do to support, please let us know.

On the last day of 2022, it just remains to wish every member of our BSB family a Happy New Year. We wish you every happiness and prosperity in 2023 and look forward to working with you in the new year.

Best regards

Jayne Needham 

Principal 

( P.S. If you have any questions about the test, please contact studentsurvey@bsbshunyi.com. Thanks!）