Current advice and guidance suggests parents/carers should not worry unduly about a child catching coronavirus. The Laurus Trust is, however, working alongside each Trust school to monitor the situation carefully and we will continue to follow the advice given by organisations such as Public Health England.
With any development, we are using the normal communication channels available to keep staff, students and families fully updated. We will use the same channels to advise the schools’ communities of any contingency plans that may need to be implemented should government advice change.
At this time, however, we stress that there is no reason why children should not continue to attend school as normal unless they are experiencing the symptoms detailed in the latest guidance here or they are living in the same household as someone showing symptoms (the onset of a new persistent cough and/or temperature over 38C).
Contingencies are in place, in the event of a short or long-term closure of schools, to provide students with work or to allow them access to online resources. Full information will be forwarded by the usual channels if this situation arises.
Trips and visits
The Department for Education is currently advising against all overseas educational trips for children under 18. Please understand that the time period that this encompasses is hard to predict. All overseas and domestic educational trips and visits scheduled to take place in March and during the Easter holidays have been cancelled or postponed.
What action can you take?
Doubtless you will be aware of the UK-wide campaign to provide clear advice on how to slow the spread of coronavirus through simple measures such as regularly washing hands and always sneezing into a tissue, to stem the spread of viruses.
We are encouraging students to maintain good hand, respiratory and personal hygiene. The latest NHS guidance can be found here.
We are advising that if a student or a close family member has recently returned from another country they follow the government advice here.
The Department for Education has provided the following helpline (open from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday) for anyone with questions about COVID-19 related to education:
- Phone: 0800 046 8687
- Email: [email protected]
We will continue to update our school communities with further information through the normal communication channels. There is also a specific coronavirus question and answer section here.