Primary School: Book Week Begins

Book Week has finally arrived here at STA. The students excitedly came through the gates or met us online, to see all the wonderful things planned for this week.

The board of events in front of the Primary Office was buzzing with students looking to see which events they could take part in over the course of the week. Events to get involved in include a book hunt, reviewing a movie trailer, 'drop everything and read' (Students drop what they are doing and read when a bell is rung) and a writing competition. Whether the students are in school physically or at home learning I’m sure they will all have a fantastic and exciting week.

Ms Pepa Works with Different Classes

As mentioned last week, Ms Pepa has started working with different year groups this week to share her books and work with students on illustrations and recording information.

The subject has been elephants. The Foundation Stage 3 students were given a wonderful illustration of an elephant which they all coloured in, in different ways. There were some fantastic designs by them all. Ms Pepa also shared her wonderful book, “The Greedy Mosquito” with the students.

For the older students in Year 4 and Year 5, Ms Pepa, helped them look at gathering and presenting information about elephants. The information they gathered was presented together in slides after they had extracted information from research online. The results were very good.

Ms Pepa will be working with other Year Groups later in the week.

Reading Buddies Across the School

Classes across the school this week will be getting together to share books together. The Foundation Stage 2 students wore their Pyjamas so they could participate in a ‘snuggle up and read’ session in their class. Unfortunately, the Year 3 students they were going to work with were online today so it had to be a virtual session but it was still a fun and interactive session.

We look forward to the rest of the week and all the other fantastic activities that are planned across Primary and Foundation.

Mr Steve
Deputy Head of Primary

COVID-19 Update

Over time the COVID-19 response on what to do when your child is +positive has changed. Please see below for an updated COVID -19 response for our community.

We would like to thank you all for your understanding and support in keeping our community safe and healthy this term.

ATK Tests

As Mr Paul wrote to all parents two weeks ago, we would like all parents to complete our twice-weekly ATK tests between 4 and 7pm each Sunday and Tuesday evening, to enable us to make timely decisions and to communicate these with the relevant groups within the school community. Thank you very much to those of you who are doing this each week.

Positive ATK Test Results

Over the last few weeks, we have made the switch to automating our response when we are notified of a positive ATK. The aim is to simplify things and to notify parents of affected Classes/Tutor Groups as quickly as possible.

The automation is all based on the ATK results that are recorded in our Health App. Below is an overview of the steps for moving Classes/Tutor Groups to the VSE and the communication to parents.

What happens when a child gets a Positive (+ve) ATK?

1) A positive ATK result is recorded in the Health App. This could be either a parent recording this directly or a teacher recording it after being notified by a parent of a positive ATK result.

The most important thing is that positive ATK results need to be recorded on the Health App as quickly as possible.

• When positive is clicked a warning box appears and asks if you are sure you want to click positive
• When you click OK to confirm it, an alarm will sound on your device and your screen will flash red.

2) Once the positive result is recorded, an email is sent to key people - your son/daughter’s Class Teacher/Tutor, Year Leader/Head of Year, Head of Phase, etc. This lets these people know that a positive result has been recorded, and by who and starts a 20-minute countdown.

3) After 20 mins, if the positive result has not been changed, the parents of the child’s Class/Tutor Group are sent a personalised email and an SMS telling them to check their email. This includes their Class/Tutor Group and their child's name and lets them know that the Class/Tutor Group are moving to the VSE until further notice. Please note that we never disclose the name of the child who has tested positive.

4) ID cards or bag tags are automatically blocked for the children in that class and their siblings.

5) Siblings, however, are still allowed to come into school, under the following conditions:

1. At 6am each morning, our Health App will remove the ATK results for your child in the Blocked Class/Tutor Group.
2. Parents should ATK test the child in the Blocked Class/Tutor Group after 6 am and update this result in the Health App.
3. A negative result will then reactivate the ID cards/bag tags for your other children and they will be able to come into school.
4.  A positive result would mean that all children in the family would move to the VSE.

6) Once we get confirmation of the PCR result from the family, we will contact the Class/Tutor Group again to outline the timeline for returning to school.

What happens when my child gets a Positive (+ve) ATK?

• Students who have a positive RT-PCR test will only be able to return to school with a medical certificate and permission from the School.
• ATK Positive cases without PCR confirmation should self-isolate for 14 days, testing regularly with ATK tests, and then will be able to return to school after 14 days if they have had consistently negative ATK results.
• If a student is ATK/PCR positive, then their siblings are therefore considered High-Risk.

What happens when my child is High-Risk?

• High Risk students who have a negative RT-PCR test more than 72 hours after their High Risk contact will be able to return to school.
• Alternatively, High Risk students could self-isolate for 10 days, testing with ATK tests, and then return to school after 10 days with only negative ATK Test results.

Please contact your son/daughter's Year Leader/Head of Year and Head of Phase if you have any questions about any of the above.