4^th January 2021

Dear Parents and Carers,

Following the government’s instruction, like all schools nationally, we are being asked to operate an onsite test centres for the delivery and processing of rapid asymptomatic testing (Lateral Flow Testing) aimed to minimise the number of students and staff required to isolate at any one time. This is being introduced as it is estimated that up to one third of people who have coronavirus experience no symptoms. It is hoped that this new testing will help to stop the virus spread and help to keep schools open as safely as possible.

Before this system is fully operational, the government have asked secondary schools to only open to students of critical workers from January 5^th and then students in Y13 and Y11 from January 11^th with all other students being taught online in order to facilitate the testing of all members of the school community twice.

The present understanding is that all students, in all year groups, will return to school on the week commencing January 18^th.

Register for a Critical / Key Worker Place

If you require a key worker place, you will need to indicate this on the consent form below. Please note that students in school will receive exactly the same provision as those at home in these first weeks of term.

Keyworker/Vulnerable Child Registration Form

Google Classroom

From January 5^th – All students should log in to Google Classroom to access work for their lessons for every subject they study.

You can access support and guidance from the school website Remote Learning

From January 11^th - Students in Y7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 should log in to Google Classroom and access the link to Google Meet to access all of their regularly timetabled lessons, the only exception to this is if they are in school for their allocated testing time. Students in Y11 & 13 must be onsite.

From January 18^th all students are then expected on site unless they are self-isolating or ill.

Full details of how the school is proposing to carry out the testing of the whole school community will be sent out this week, and we ask that you carefully read through the guidance so that you are aware of when your son/ward should be in school. 

Testing is optional and we require parental or personal consent before any testing can take place but we urge you to take part in this process as it is crucial in ensuring that the virus is kept out of school.

Please complete the form below to indicate whether or not your son/ward will be taking part in the optional testing process:

COVID 19 Testing Consent Form

Full details of the process will be sent out later this week, tests can be self-administered with supervision from a qualified member of the team.

From January 18^th the school will then adopt the long-term system that has been proposed by the government whereby staff will be able to access a weekly test and students who are identified as a ‘close contact’ will be tested each day for 7 school days to avoid the need to isolate from 10 days.

If consent is not given, students identified as a ‘close contact’ by the school will have to isolate for 10 days. Visiting a walk-in centre and receiving a negative test does not replace this. 

Please note this system is designed to work alongside the currently published guidance on managing cases within schools and does not replace it. As such, students or staff displaying symptoms must continue to follow the previously published guidance on isolation and obtaining tests. Students in a household with a confirmed or suspected case must isolate as per the current guidance. 

We understand that this is very short notice and we appreciate your support in the matter. We are doing what we can to act as quickly as possible considering the late nature of the government’s announcement and are designing systems based on the information that is slowly being received by schools. 

If you have further questions, please email admin@mosslands.wirral.sch.uk

Kind regards

Mr A. Whiteley (Headteacher)