SENT FROM GARETH DRAWMER, HEAD OF ACHIEVEMENT AND LEARNING, AND DAN FLECKNOE, CONSULTANT IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Dear Headteachers and Chairs of Governors,

We have become aware of a small number of schools who have stated that they will be closed for all or part of this Friday, 5^th of March, for deep cleaning and to support the preparation of the return to onsite teaching for all pupils from Monday 8^th of March.

As a Local Authority, Buckinghamshire Council expects that all schools will be operating a full daily timetable for all pupils, via remote education for the majority of pupils and in-school provision for vulnerable pupils and children of Key Workers, for the whole of this week.

The Public Health team are not aware of any public health reasons that would require a day closure.  We attach again for reference the link to the government guidance issued on 22^nd February Schools coronavirus (COVID-19) operational guidance which outlines the system of controls that school should operate to prevent infection, and also states that schools should continue to operate as normally as possible.

We wish all pupils and staff well with the return to full onsite teaching from the 8^th March.  Please do get in contact to either the School Improvement Team (sis@buckinghamshire.gov.uk) or Public Health team (publichealth@buckinghamshire.gov.uk) if we can support you with any aspect of your school’s return.

Kind regards,

Gareth Drawmer                                                     Dan Flecknoe

Head of Achievement and Learning                  Consultant in Public Health

Dear Colleagues,

1. Half term Helping Hand voucher reminder

For all schools – Vouchers provided by Buckinghamshire Council Helping Hand Project, funded by the Winter Grant Scheme for every benefits-related free school meal pupil, to provide £15 support for vulnerable families with food during the half term holiday.

Please remember to download the letters from Any Comms Plus that contain the £15 voucher codes for pupils eligible for free school meals for the half term break.  We really do appreciate your help in getting these letters out to parents and remind you that these need sending before the end term.

If you have any enquiries about the half term voucher provision, please email helpinghands@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

1. Term Time Free School Meal Vouchers reminder

For those schools who are ordering term-time FSM vouchers from Blackhawk Incentives through Buckinghamshire Council Traded Services.

Vouchers ordered for the week after half term will be delivered electronically  by Friday 12^th February, for you to send out to parents when the school returns on Monday 22^nd February.

Please contact tradedservices@buckinghamshire.gov.uk with any queries.

Kind regards,

The School Improvement and Helping Hand Teams

Dear Colleagues,

Please find below three guidance updates on testing in schools:

1. Confirmatory PCR tests.  Colleagues will be aware that the requirement for a confirmatory PCR test, in the event of a member of staff getting a positive lateral flow device (LFD) result, has been removed for all such tests not being conducted at home.  Primary school staff who get a positive LFD test are therefore still required to get a PCR in order to confirm the result, whereas Secondary school staff are not.  The DfE have just released a helpful FAQ clarifying how Primary schools should treat a positive LFD from a contact tracing point of view: [Primary schools should still] send home those people who have been in close contact with the person who has tested positive, as defined in the actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak guidance. Those who have come into close contact with staff who have a positive LFD result should isolate straight away rather than waiting for the staff member’s confirmatory positive PCR test. The staff member’s household should also isolate immediately after the positive LFD result, as per the stay-at-home guidance.
2. Asymptomatic LFD testing for staff who are post-COVID.  Staff who have had COVID-19 within the last 90 days can be assumed to have sufficient acquired immunity to make re-infection extremely unlikely, and are also more likely to get false positive PCR results, during that time period.  On this basis, anyone who is within 90-days of confirmed COVID-19 (with their onset of symptoms or initial positive test counting as day zero, whichever came first) do not need to be included in routine asymptomatic LFD testing.
3. Twice weekly staff testing.  National guidance now recommends that staff are tested twice weekly.  Obviously, some schools – particularly Secondaries who have to conduct testing within the school day – will vary in their capacity to test this frequently, but if it is possible then twice-weekly is now the recommended option.

We are awaiting a national decision on full school re-opening, as well as on how this will change the above testing guidance.

Kind regards,

 Daniel Flecknoe

Consultant in Public Health

Adults and Health Directorate

Buckinghamshire Council

SENT FROM GARETH DRAWMER – HEAD OF ACHIEVEMENT AND LEARNING

Dear Colleagues,

Action needed in readiness for February Half Term FSM Vouchers

Buckinghamshire Council continues to provide its Helping Hand service and is preparing to provide all pupils eligible for Free School Meals with a £15 food voucher for February half-term break. As per the Christmas holiday, we will be providing voucher codes to eligible pupils and will again provide these codes on individual letters for you to send to parents/carers.

For us to order and send the correct number of vouchers to you, we need you to confirm the details of the pupils who are eligible for Free School Meals. To do this we will be sending a file to each school today, Monday 25^th January, via AnyComms Plus.  We have listed those pupils we believe are eligible for free school meals, based on the October 2020 School Census and the vouchers provided for the Christmas holidays. Please check this list, noting the below –

• please ensure that the “February half term voucher required” column is set to “No” for any pupils who no longer attend your school
• please add any newly eligible pupils or eligible pupils who have joined your school this term to the bottom of the list.  Please only add pupils eligible for Free School Meals – do no include pupils eligible for 2 year old funded places or Early Years Pupil Premium (vouchers for these children will be provided separately).
• for all other pupils please review the “February half term voucher required”  column and amend as necessary.  Where a voucher was issued for the Christmas holidays but hasn’t been activated by the family we have set the voucher required status to “No” by default.  You can request a February half term voucher for these pupils by changing the status to “Yes”, but please check with the family first to find out why the Christmas voucher has not been activated – if they are struggling to redeem the Christmas vouchers then please let us know using the Notes column as we may be able to look at alternative ways of supporting these families.

Once complete please save your file with the original name (825LLLL_825xxxx_HHFebWinterGrantSchemeFeb21.xlsx – where xxxx is your school number), then upload the file to AnyComms Plus selecting “Winter Grant” as the file type. Files need to be returned by midday on Thursday 28th January.

Many thanks for your support with this task,

Gareth Drawmer

Head of Achievement and Learning