Morning all,

I posted a short video message on Dojo earlier. It set out Burford's response to 'Freedom Day', as well as our plans for September. I hope you find time to log in and watch the video. 

I have repeated the key themes in writing below:

 

Morning all,

I realize a lot has been made in the press about today being ‘Freedom Day’ but ‘Freedom Day’ comes at a time when the COVID infection rate is increasing and many thousands of children, and staff, are isolating. Therefore, I thought it would be worth updating you all on what ‘Freedom Day’ means for us during our last full week in school and beyond.

As we only have one week left in school, and infection rates are increasing, our COVID safety routines will remain largely unchanged. Isolations caused by positive cases will necessarily continue. Mask wearing will continue. Social distancing in school between classes and year groups will continue. Staff testing will continue.

The term “bubble” will end. Instead “close contacts” will be required to isolate. Trust wide advice for all schools is that for the final week of the year, this means exactly the same thing (ie, “bubble” = “close contacts”). Based on recent outbreaks in 2 Trust schools, class transmission has been widespread, and far greater now than at any point in the pandemic. That means all “close contacts” of a positive case will have to isolate exactly as we did with bubbles. We have also been instructed to ensure all children currently isolating complete their 10 days isolation in full.

We will release a video message on Dojo on Wednesday 21st July, which will set out our provisional plans for September. As I am sure you can appreciate, these might be subject to last minute change in light of ever changing advice. I appreciate this is far from ideal but I hope you understand the difficult position we are all in at the moment.

Best wishes,

Mr Farrington