Nursery News 22.3.2021

NURSERY NEWS

22nd March 2021 – Edition 220

Find out About:

A. Covid 19 update

B. Our video room tours.

C: What the children are learning about this week

A: Covid 19 update.

There are some documents produced by the Department for Education, at Central Government, which we, as a Nursery School MUST follow in response to Covid 19. The main document is called

‘Actions for early years and childcare providers during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’

What childcare services early years settings, childminders and local authorities need to provide during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

This is the document we refer to when we are informed that a pupil or staff member has tested positive for Covid 19. It lists the steps we must take, and who we must inform. The government has also produced a document that guides us through what we should do in all the stages of someone showing symptoms of, or testing positive for Covid 19.

‘What to do if a child or adult is displaying symptoms, or is a confirmed case, of coronavirus (COVID-19) in an early years setting’

February 2021

The following information (in blue type) has been copied directly from the above document. My aim is to share with parents the decision processes we have to take in school with regard to deciding who should self isolate, and for how long.

Child or staff members who test positive for coronavirus (COVID-19)

1. Contact the child or staff member who has tested positive

You need to find out if they attended your setting during the infectious period. The infectious period is 2 days before their symptoms started (or their test date if they did not show any symptoms) to at least 10 days after.

Confirm that they must not attend your setting for at least 10 full days from the day after the start of their symptoms or test date if they did not have any symptoms (whether this was a Lateral Flow Device (LFD) or Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test).

If they did not attend your setting during the infectious period, you do not need to take any further action.

2. Identify close contacts of the child or staff member who has tested positive

If they attended your setting during the infectious period, you need to identify potential contacts during this period following the guidance for contacts of people with confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) infection who do not live with the person

‘A contact’ is a person who has been close to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 whether this was a LFD or PCR test. You can be a contact anytime from 2 days before the person who tested positive developed their symptoms, and up to 10 days after, as this is when they can pass the infection on to others.

In nursery settings, a close contact is defined as : a child or staff member who has shared a room with a child or staff member who has shown symptoms or received a positive test result.

We share information about all positive cases with The Local Authority- Central Bedfordshire Council.

We have been informed that taking a Lateral Flow Test in a government test centre, by a trained individual, provides a reliable positive test result, and should be treated the same as taking a PCR test, which is sent away to a test lab.

The Local Authority also advised us that pupils and staff who have been sent home to isolate will have differing lengths of isolation periods, dependent upon when they last had contact with the confirmed positive case.

IMPORTANT…

So if you received an email informing you that your child should isolate for 10 days, the end time for this isolation will depend upon when your child last had contact with the confirmed positive case. We were advised by the Local Authority that:

All those children and staff who last attended the Catkins/Blue Group Bubble on: Tuesday 16th March should self isolate until 23:59pm on Friday 26th March, and for those staff/children that last attended the Catkins/Blue Group Bubble on Thursday 18th March they should isolate until 23:59pm on Sunday 28th March.

Unfortunately, this means that all the staff in this bubble will be isolating, so this is why the bubble had to close.

Moving Forward:

If anyone telephones the school office for advice, we would always advise that a child with covid symptoms:

A continuous cough, or high temperature,

Should stay at home and get a test.

If a child is attending Nursery and the staff feel that a child is exhibiting these symptoms, then the child will be safely isolated from other staff and children until a parent can collect them. This is something that we have done in the past.

The main thing is that children who are not well are not sent in to school.

We do get a number of phone calls from parents who aren’t sure what to do. I would suggest that if you are questioning your child’s health in this way then they should really stay at home.

Isolating a bubble has a big impact in the Catkins/ Blue Group bubble as so many children attend for a small number of sessions. In this particular circumstance, 27 children 5 staff and a trainee have been required to isolate.

B. Our video room tours.

An update:

There are now three video tours on our website. To find them, go to www.willownursery.co.uk.

Click on the ‘School Information Tab’

Then click on ‘About’

Video Tour Room 1

Video Tour Room 3

Video Tour Catkins (2 year olds) Room

My most recent slideshow, showing the space that is solely used by the two year olds. They share the link area, and the garden with the slightly older 15 hour funded children. The Catkins area is specifically set up to be safe for our youngest pupils, with toys and equipment aimed at two year olds.

C: What the children are learning about this week

This week we are exploring the theme of Easter. We explore the religious side of the Christian Easter celebration. We retell the Easter story, explaining to children that this is a story that some families believe to be true. We also look at the ideas of ‘New Life’ that Easter brings, considering that this is the time of year when lambs are born on farms.