Dear Parent/carer,
Face coverings
My thanks for your continuing support in ensuring that your child brings their own face covering to school. Note that face covering are only required to be worn for the short time pupils are moving between classrooms or in indoor communal areas during adverse weather. Wearing a face covering is not obligatory in classrooms.
I’d recommend that all pupils carry a spare face covering in their schoolbag and a small bottle of hand sanitiser to avoid queuing at our wall mounted dispensers.
If you consider that your child cannot wear a face covering, please:
- Email the school office Admin@jamesgillespies.edin.sch.uk or your child's Pupil Support Leader
- Include your child's name and reason for exemption.
We will update the school medical records accordingly and further consider what we can do to protect your child in areas of the school where social distancing is most difficult to achieve. (E.g. busy corridors and communal areas during adverse weather). To help protect pupils who are unable to wear face coverings it may be that a transparent visor can be used.
We have some spare visors and face coverings at school reception for those who forget or lose theirs.
Please remind your child that they should not use public transport or enter local shops if they are not wearing a face covering.
Updated NHS guidance on when your child should stay away from school
1. Do not come to school if you have any of the following Covid-19 symptoms. We will telephone you and ask you to collect your child if they have any of these symptoms whilst in school.
- A new, continuous cough (3 or more episodes of coughing within 24 hours) (This is how ‘continuous’ is defined on the NHS Website)
- A fever/ high temperature
- A change or loss in taste and/or smell.
2. It is essential that pupils do not attend school if they have any one or more of these symptoms. In such cases, the entire household should self-isolate and book a Covid test.
3. Parents/carers should let school know if their children are not attending and why. Use our absence line 0131 447 1900 or email Admin@jamesgillespies.edin.sch.uk to report an absence and give the reason.
4. Confidentiality is essential: no names of anyone who is ill, or being Covid tested, will be shared with anyone who does not need to know.
5. Until the test results are obtained, anyone experiencing any of those three symptoms should self-isolate for at least 10 days (and 14 days for their household). They can only come out of isolation once the 10 days have passed, and then only if their symptoms have improved and they have been without a fever for at least 48 hours. Acting early and getting tested means that, should they test negative, they can come out of isolation once their symptoms improve, they have not had a fever for 48 hours, and they feel well enough to do so.
6. If a child or young person tests negative and is well enough to return to school and has not had a fever for 48 hours, their parent/carer should contact the school to let us know the child is returning and (preferably) show evidence of the test result to the school. This helps us monitor cases and keeps the school community safe and reassured.
7. Cold-like symptoms If your child does not have symptoms of COVID-19 but has other cold-like symptoms, such as a runny nose, they do not need to be tested and they and you do not need to self-isolate. Your child can go to school if fit to do so.
The most up to date guidance can be found at the relevant section of the NHS Scotland Website.
To finish on a more positive note, I am delighted to share that the school is gradually getting back to being fully operational in all areas. In the coming days we will, for example, be able to offer more activities in PE and resume some extra-curricular activities.
Donald j Macdonald
Headteacher
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