Dear GA community members

May we first of all wish everyone a very Happy New Year, and the best of health for 2022.  It is a GA priority, as supported by the government, to operate as normally as is possible.  With face to face education continuing to happen, with some small additional requirements in place to support this continuing.

Face coverings

There is an extension of the current requirement that students wear face coverings in all communal areas within the school building.  Students must now also wear face coverings in all inside lessons.  It is important that you support your child to have their own face mask each day, we will use the same procedures that we used for other missed equipment.

Testing

On site LFT have taken place today, many thanks for those parents who have supported this.  Please continue to test regularly at home, we will continue to supply home testing kits when they are provided to the school.  Please test a MINIMUM of twice a week - Sunday and Wednesday evenings.

Isolation and close contacts update

From 14 December 2021, adults who are fully vaccinated and all children and young people aged between 5 and 18 years and 6 months identified as a contact of someone with COVID-19 are strongly advised to take an LFT test every day for 7 days and continue to attend their setting as normal, unless they have a positive test result.

Individuals (since 22nd December 2021) may now take LFT tests on day 6 and day 7 of their self-isolation period.  Those who receive two negative test results are no longer required to complete 10 full days of self-isolation.  The first test must be taken no earlier than day 6 of the self-isolation period and tests must be taken 24 hours apart.  If both these test results are negative, and you do not have a high temperature, you may end your self-isolation after the second negative test result and return to your education setting from day 8.

Educational Provision

There may be some operational challenges as we move forward, where possible we will keep classes and groups exactly as they are.  However, we may need to combine classes, creating larger groups in larger spaces, if we suffer from staff shortages in the future due to C-19.  At this present time, we do not foresee the need for any online home provision.

May I also take this opportunity to thank all members of the GA staff body for their incredible resilience and can-do attitude through all of the current challenges.  It is a privilege to have such a dedicated group of people to work with your children every day.

Yours sincerely

Mr J Heap

Headteacher