Covid-19 Arrangements Over Christmas and New Year – 17/12/2020

Friday 18th December 2020

In order to ensure we are able to support families who may test positive over Christmas and New Year, Midlothian Council have put in place arrangements that will allow us to work with Health Protection Lothian to identify potential close contacts in schools. In order for this to be most effective, we are asking you to support us.  The information below details the processes to be followed should your child test positive for Coronavirus over the holidays.

 

ALL SCHOOL SETTINGS (Early Years, Primary, Special and Secondary)

• Please report any absence to your child’s school so we can keep our records up to date
• If your child is symptomatic with any of the following symptoms, please do not send them to school
  • a new continuous cough.
    • A new continuous cough is where you have a new cough that’s lasted for an hour have had three or more episodes of coughing in 24 hours and are coughing more than usual.
  • and/or a fever/high temperature
    • A high temperature is feeling hot to the touch on your chest or back (you don’t need to measure your temperature). You may feel warm, cold or shivery
  • a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste.
    • This means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

 

• During the school holidays, if your child has had a positive test result for Covid-19 please email edu-contact-tracing@midlothian.gov.uk with the following information:
  • Name and DOB
  • Symptom Onset
  • Date Last in school
  • School name & year group

SECONDARY SCHOOLS ONLY

• Over the Christmas period if your child is symptomatic, they will be asked to identify who their close contacts were within a set timescale by the Test and Protect Team.
• As this may mean looking at days your child was in school, we will be asking them to note the names of their close contacts in every class on Monday 21^st and Tuesday 22^nd of December only.
• On Monday 21^st and Tuesday 22^nd December your child will be asked to record the names of those pupils who are their immediate close contacts. They will bring this information home with them and this will be required for you to use with them should the Health Protection Team contact you.
• If your child does test positive, they will be asked to identify the close contacts on their lists. This depends on the day they first displayed Covid-19 symptoms. This will support the team to contact other pupils and staff who may need to self-isolate.
• PLEASE, can you support us and your child by checking with your child(ren) that they have brought the information home with them and it is kept in a safe place for easy access.

 Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Craig Biddick

Acting Head Teacher

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