As Cirencester Deer Park School remains open to all pupils until Wednesday 21 July 2021, we will continue to follow the COVID safety procedures we currently have in place until the end of term. This means that when in school all pupils should continue to:

• Observe good hand hygiene and routinely wash and sanitise their hands;
• Wipe down their work space and any equipment they have used;
• Wear face coverings in all indoor areas, including classrooms and on public transport;
• Follow our one way system;
• Maintain an appropriate social distance between themselves and adults in the school.

We recognise that some of these measures run counter to the Government’s relaxation of the restrictions from Monday 19 July as we move from Stage 3 to Stage 4 of the Prime Minister’s roadmap out of lockdown. However, we are acting on the guidance for schools from Gloucestershire County Council which is more sensitive to the local transmission rates and, like many multi-national companies, we feel face coverings still provide a level of protection and give many pupils, parents and staff a degree of peace of mind.

As the country prepares to open up, it is important that we all recognise our shared responsibility for the greater good.

We recognise the efforts our pupils have made throughout the year and trust they will continue to cooperate with us fully over the last 3 days of the school year. These will be special days as we have invited them to take part in reward trips and in-school activities on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 July and we will close the year at 2:30pm on Wednesday 21 July after our Party in the Park!

From Monday 19 July, the school technically ceases to be responsible for track and trace. This will now be picked up by NHS Test and Trace, who we understand will make contact with the parents of a positive case and will trace household and community contacts.

Our responsibilities as a school for the last 3 days of term will be to:

• Isolate symptomatic children and send them home, with the advice to take a PCR test;
• Request parents to inform the school of positive cases (both LFT and PCR).

However, in the event of a further confirmed case of COVID-19 in school next week, we will continue to exercise our duty of care and take similar actions to those we have taken previously. Where appropriate, we will ask parents to collect pupils who are identified as close contacts and ask them to stay at home until the end of term to minimise the risk of transmission. Again, these steps are strongly recommended by Gloucestershire County Council.

We will be reviewing our provision and arrangements for the start of the new school year next week and will advise pupils, parents and staff of our plans accordingly. In line with the current government guidance, these will include providing two tests on the school site at the start of term for everyone we have consent for and pupils in our new Year 7 too.