Dear Parents and Carers,
I hope this email finds you all well. I am just getting in touch to talk about the Covid situation at Newhaven and discuss things moving forward. Over the last week and a bit, the number of positive cases amongst staff and pupils has risen to the point where I had to take the regrettable decision of closing KS3 at King’s Park. Apologies to all students and parents this has affected.
We had another two staff going off on Friday with Covid and so it is very difficult to predict when we will be able to reopen. This will be as soon as possible and I am hopeful towards the end of next week. You will be updated as soon as possible. In the mean time please get in touch if you want to discuss any of this further. The rest of the school remains open at this time.
In order to reduce the spread in the school we are continuing to encourage people to wear masks, staff are testing regularly and we are maintaining good ventilation. Please encourage your children to test regularly as well if they can. This should be twice a week at least and if they are a King’s Park student, every day as they are likely to have come into contact with someone who was infectious at the time.
If they test positive on a lateral flow test they now need to isolate for a minimum of 5 days. If they test negative on day five and the morning of day 6 they can return to school on day 6. If not, they can return to school after two negative lateral flow tests 24 hours apart or after day 10 if they do not have a temperature any more (this is even if they still test positive).
If your child has symptoms (temperature, cough, loss of taste or smell) they should get a PCR test and if negative return to school and if positive follow the isolation guidelines above.
Thanks very much for bearing with us. It has been a challenging couple of weeks for the staff at Newhaven and I am hopeful things will get back to normal soon.
Yours faithfully
Jon Kelly (Headteacher)
