Please find below an extract of a recent government announcement regarding the wearing of face masks in classrooms. As a school we would like to thank parents and students for your on-going support with this, we had a very high level of compliance which was fantastic and I am sure this will continue.  Please do pass this information on to our students.

Government Announcement – Tuesday 6 April,

The government confirmed that face coverings should continue to be worn in secondary school and college classrooms as a precautionary measure when students return after the Easter break.

This cautious approach will help limit the risk of transmission and enable continued monitoring of the effect of school and college returns, as twice weekly testing is established and embedded in pupil’s routines.

It is expected that face coverings will no longer be required to be worn in classrooms, or by students in other communal areas, at Step 3 of the roadmap, which will be no earlier than Monday 17 May. At that point the next stage of easements, including increased social contact indoors, will be confirmed following a review of the latest data on infection and vaccination rates. It will also allow time for the vaccination programme to reach everyone in priority groups one to nine with their first dose before any change is committed.

Rapid testing will continue to play a crucial role in keeping schools and colleges safe, as millions of tests are now taken each week by students and staff. With as many as one in three people who have the virus not displaying symptoms, testing is helping find and isolate cases, stopping outbreaks before they develop. Since Thursday 4 March this year, around 17 million coronavirus tests were taken across all nurseries, schools and colleges. Please continue to self-test and report your results as before