Several pupils have been asked to self isolate after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 at Colmers School in Rednal, within the first week of the start of the new term.
Headteacher Emma Leaman wrote to parents and carers on Sunday (13th September) to inform them: “I have been advised that a member of our staff team has contracted the virus. We are confident that the virus was not contracted within the school. This is a pertinent reminder that the level of risk across Birmingham has increased recently.”
Mrs Leaman sent best wishes to the staff member and her family and assured parents that all precautions to reduce the risk of the virus spreading within the school community were being taken.
She said: “I have taken advice from Public Health England and I am contacting a small number of students and families who need to self-isolate as a precautionary measure based on the advice we have been given. Please be reassured that there is absolutely no need to keep your child at home to self-isolate unless you receive direct contact from me. Those asked to self-isolate as a precautionary measure are the very small number of students who have been in close proximity to the confirmed case. National guidance is clear that we do not need to extend the self-isolation advice beyond these students.”
She added: “There is no doubt that this early set-back is upsetting for all of us as a community but we can take reassurance from the measures that are in place and the hard work that has gone into reducing the risk of virus transmission within the school.”
With children now legally required to attend school, Colmers pupils returned from last Monday (7th September) with COVID-secure measures – including year group bubbles, face coverings in communal areas and a revised timetable to limit pupil and staff movement – in practice throughout the school site.
As COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations rise in the city, Birmingham faces further social restrictions from Tuesday (15th September) with households banned from mixing in each others’ homes and gardens. No further restrictions have been put in place for schools, workplaces and other COVID-secure settings at present.