March 12th 2021

Dear Parents / Guardians

All has again run smoothly with Lateral Flow Testing today and Years 13 – 7 have now completed their first test. We would like to thank the 96% of parents of our student body for giving consent for Lateral Flow Testing.

At the same time we are urging the 4% of parents who have not yet consented to do so, so that the whole school community can learn and work on site as safely and with as much confidence as possible, and that we can avoid a repetition of yesterday’s events, which has resulted in 27 students having to self-isolate for 10 days and lose their opportunity to resume on site learning.

We will test students 3 more times on a once weekly schedule – the same days for each Year Group as this week - until at least the end of this term, and we have received sufficient supplies to do this. Please test your child at home 3 or 4 days apart from each in school test.

Year Group	In school test	At home test
Years 13 & 11	Monday AM	Wednesday Evening
Years 12 & 10	Tuesday AM	Thursday Evening
Year 9	Wednesday AM	Saturday Evening
Year 8	Thursday AM	Sunday Evening
Year 7	Friday AM	Tuesday Evening

 

Lateral Flow Testing twice weekly for all school aged students, their families and school staff is a key control measure designed to guard against asymptomatic transmission of COVID – 19 as schools reopen. If you have not already ordered your test kits for members of your family, please do so. Order Rapid Lateral Flow Tests

We are also regularly reminding students to only mix with a small social group in their own Year Group, outside lessons and on the way to and from school. We request you reinforce this with your daughter or son. This will help with identification of close contacts and to minimise the numbers of those close contacts, who are of course then required to self-isolate and miss out on On Site Learning when we have positive tests.

We understand a small number of students were refused transport to school on Wednesday, as they were not wearing face coverings. We fully support the bus companies in this decision.

Please see Letter from Kent Police.

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

Sonette Schwartz

Principal     

Charles Joseph

Senior Vice Principal