Fairfields Primary School

Dear parents and carers,

Happy Monday!  Apologies for the late round up of last week!

We are really impressed with how quickly our new Foundation stage pupils have settled in to the school.  They had their first few days in school last week, including lunchtime and we were amazed at how calm and organised they were.  Thank you to all of the parents who have prepared their children so well for starting school.

You may have noticed the scaffolding around the school.  We are having the external building redecorated as part of the cycle of schools in the local authority.  The funding for this comes from the central funding pot held by the local authority.  We expect the work to be completed by the end of October half term. 

 We are excited to announce that Guitar, Violin and keyboard lessons have recommenced.  Please speak to the school office if you would like your child to have lessons as we may have a few spaces.  These are normally made available for Year 3 – 6 pupils. 

 Please also remember that if your child is cycling or scooting to school, they must wear a cycle helmet.  We will ask you to provide this from Wednesday 23^rd September.  Please also ensure that your child does not use the playground equipment of scoot/cycle in the playground before and after school. 

 With regards to COVID 19, I have continued to seek advice from Public Health England.  As a school we continue to have no positive tests.  The Staff member in Year 6 was off school last week due to her son (who does not attend the school) being ill.  She tested him and it came back negative.  Another child took a test last week and also came back negative. 

 I am monitoring the sickness in the school and we should see a reduction over the next few weeks once we have got over the normal sickness bugs and colds.  I will inform you if we have a positive test and will seek advice from Public Health England if this is the case.   

 To summarise the advice from Public Health England:

1. We should have expected that children and adults would become unwell due to a long period of being isolated.  Things will settle down in a few weeks. The combination of us all coming together and also the beginning of the flu season has created a perfect storm.   
2. We will see children with colds and these are similar to COVID 19 symptoms.  However, we need to be clear that generally with a cold we do not have a persistent temperature as our body responds to them quite quickly.  We may have a sore throat, runny nose and also cough.  These are not necessarily COVID 19 symptoms.  
3. In the past we have encouraged children and adults to come into school with these symptoms as we know they are just cold symptoms.  The COVID 19 pandemic has created anxiety and this has led people to apply for tests when they do not need one.  For example, if someone is around a person who coughs in a supermarket – they may feel anxious and apply for a test.  This has made the testing situation even more challenging.   
4. Their advice to me was to stay off until my cold symptoms had disappeared and that is why I emailed you last Sunday.  This is more to do with easing anxiety in the community.  

 I care about the whole school community and want to keep everyone safe. 

 I look forward to seeing you in the playground this week!   

Best wishes

Miss Kelly Dillon

Headteacher