16-03-20 The latest advice from the government… As of Monday 16th March, the Government has provided us with the following advice: If anyone in your household has either a continuous cough OR a high temperature, the whole household should self-isolate for 14 days, limiting your social contact. To stop non-essential travel and contact with others, avoiding all unnecessary social contact, all those people that can work at home should do so. By this weekend, anyone with a serious health condition should be protected from social contact for about 12 weeks. An update on the situation at Colmers … We wanted to provide you with an update from school, for week commencing 16th March: We have had a number of staff and students self-isolate, either after calling 111 or due to a vulnerable family member self-isolating and the student not wanting to put that person at risk. It is not possible to know at this time if staff or students displaying symptoms of a continuous cough and/or a high fever are suffering with COVID-19. We have no confirmed cases in school. From today, we have a number of staff working from home in line with government advice on social distancing for vulnerable people. This has left us in a position where we do not have enough staff to cover all classes so we have closed to Year 9. If you have symptoms, please contact 111 for advice before coming to school. If you live with a vulnerable person who is self-isolating, please think carefully before coming to school as you may bring germs back into that area of self-isolation, putting that person at undue risk. If any family is in doubt about a student coming to school, they should visit the NHS website or call 111. The general advice is they should self isolate for 14 days if they have a new continuous cough OR a high temperature (37.8 degrees of above). We have found this graphic useful: Planning for any future school closure… We have been carefully observing events in other countries and listening to messages from the Government and Department for Education. It seems increasingly likely that at some point there will be an enforced closure of schools. We have therefore been planning for this eventuality. We are committed to providing work to our students if this happens so they do not fall behind and those taking exams get every opportunity to prepare effectively. We already have our School Portal, GCSEPod and online programmes (e.g. MathsWatch, Tassomai) that we can utilise. We have been gathering information on students’ access to the internet and/or IT equipment. We will keep workpacks available in reception for students who are unable to access work via the internet.