Baddow Hall Junior School

In line with the government’s move to ‘living with covid’, most of the specific guidance for education and childcare settings has now been withdrawn. This does not mean that we are returning to life exactly as it was prior to March 2020 as there is still a responsibility for schools to take measures to protect their pupils and staff from infectious diseases, including covid. Schools also need to be well-prepared for dealing with outbreaks and managing these effectively. Many of the measures put in place in the last two years continue to be good practice and common sense, such as improved personal hygiene, enhanced cleaning, good ventilation and practical measures like coming to school in PE kit on a PE day.

From 1st April, the following guidance is in place:

• Children with mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or mild cough, who are otherwise well, can continue to attend their education or childcare setting.
• Children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and where possible avoid contact with other people. They can go back to education or childcare setting when they no longer have a high temperature and they are well enough.
• If a child or young person has a positive COVID-19 test result they should try to stay at home and where possible avoid contact with other people for 3 days after the day they took the test. The risk of passing the infection on to others is much lower after 3 days, if they feel well and do not have a high temperature.
• Children and young people who usually attend an education or childcare setting and who live with someone who has a positive COVID-19 test result should continue to attend as normal.

This newly published advice (as of 1st April 2022) comes from the UK Health Security Agency and can be found here along with much more detail: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-protection-in-schools-and-other-childcare-facilities