Dear parents and carers,

We are very much looking forward to welcoming all students back into school on the w/c 8^th March. For this to happen, and in line with the Government’s recent announcement, we will be carrying out Covid-19 mass testing of all year groups using the Lateral Flow Devices.

Students will undertake three tests over the first two weeks with three and five days between the tests. In order to achieve this we will need to stagger the return to school for different year groups.

Year groups will be invited to attend school on the days below and once they have received a negative result they will be able to commence lessons.

If a student tests positive, they will need to go home and isolate in accordance with national guidance.

Students will be given a specific time slot to attend school on the day in question, so that we can stagger the testing process prior to them entering the building and resuming lessons.

A detailed timetable indicating what time your child will need to arrive at school will be sent out next week. 

Once students have carried out the three tests they will be in the position to commence testing at home and students will be given a test kit for this purpose. More details will follow in due course regarding this. The benefits of initially carrying out the test on site is that there is supervision and guidance for students so that they are able to carry out the test accurately.

	AM	PM
Monday 8th	Year 11	Year 13
Tuesday 9th	Year 10	Year 12
Wednesday 10th	Year 7
Thursday 11th	Year 8
Friday 12th	Year 9

Junior school students will have already been contacted by Mr Burns and will starting back on Monday 8th March as they are not involved in the testing process.

Each child needs to have consent to have a test. Can I encourage you to consent to these tests as it is one of the control measures in place to minimise the risks of students and their close contacts catching the virus. Students should not be tested if they have previously had a positive test for Covid-19 within the last 90 days.

If for any reason a student is not being tested they will still need to come in to school on the appropriate day and at the given time slot in order to commence with their learning.

 

In order to finalise the timings we will need you (or your child if they are over 16) to have completed the online permission form indicating whether you do or not wish for them to be tested. Thank you to everyone who has completed it so far. https://www.minster.notts.sch.uk/covid19testing

We would also like you to indicate whether your child will be arriving at school on a school bus or not for the first morning when they return by completing this form once per child – this will help us put together the schedule for testing. 

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=UV2y8YljBkW5U3eUuqe8iJbU2oFgaOZLkrVvPJY1q5NUQ0pMQU5WRVE2T09POVpNMVdTRUk2Tk81OS4u

Thanks for all your continued support with this.

Andy Wall

Deputy head