Symptoms of COVID-19 are:

• High temperature – this means hot to the touch on your chest or back
• A new continuous cough – this means coughing for a lot more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours.
• A loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you have noticed you cannot smell or taste anything.

COVID-19 – What to do If…

• your child has symptoms of COVID-19:  They must stay at home.  Contact the absence line or email pupilabsence@alamedamiddleschool.org.uk
• your child tests positive for COVID-19: They must stay at home. Contact the absence line or email pupilabsence@alamedamiddleschool.org.uk. Alternatively, call the school office to ask to speak to someone to discuss a return date. This will be a minimum of 10 days.
• someone in your household has symptoms of COVID-19: Your child must stay at home. Contact the school absence line, email pupilabsence@alamedamiddleschool.org.uk. Self isolate the whole household. Household members should get a test and then inform school of the result.
• someone in your household tests positive for COVID-19: Your child must stay at home. Contact the school absence line, email pupilabsence@alamedamiddleschool.org.uk. Self isolate the whole household. Household members should get a test and then inform school of the result.
• You think you may be eligible to claim financial support under the Test and Trace Support Payment Scheme. Contact Central Beds Council. You can claim up to 42 days after the first day of your self-isolation period.

In all cases, please contact school to confirm dates for returning to school.

Timescales for returning to school usually involve 14 days of isolation.  On occasion, however, it will also depend on advice from track and trace or test results of everyone in your support bubble. We are also mindful that guidelines may change over the coming weeks.

Further information for households with suspected and confirmed cases can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-stay-at-home-guidance

We know that it is cold and flu season at the moment and obviously, while we want to prioritise COVID-19 safety, we also don’t want pupils to miss school unnecessarily. The following comparison chart may be useful to recognise the difference in symptoms. We have also shared this with our staff in school.