Reminder for parents: Children with Coronavirus symptoms

Dear Parents/ Carers,

I just want to remind parents about what we will do when children have symptoms of Coronavirus.

Firstly a reminder about the symptoms. According to the NHS website, the main symptoms of coronavirus are:

a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Most people with coronavirus have at least 1 of these symptoms.

If a child in school has at least one of these symptoms, we will contact parents and ask you to collect the child and any siblings as soon as possible.

Parents should arrange for the child with symptoms to be tested as soon as possible and for the child to self-isolate for 10 days.

The siblings and all other members of the household should also self-isolate for 14 days.

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to let any of the children return earlier even if the symptoms disappear quickly, unless the child with symptoms has a negative test.

The problem we have, of course, is that a cough and a high temperature can also be symptoms of flu or a cold.

Many parents ring in to school every day when children are not well and tell us that their child is not in school because they have a cough or a high temperature. When they do then we have to take every precaution to protect the other children and staff that are in school and, although this may be frustrating to parents, this will mean asking children and their siblings to self-isolate at home, either for 10 days for those with symptoms or 14 days for those who have had contact with someone with symptoms.

I would ask parents to be very clear when contacting school and telling us that your child is ill. You may be asked:

What symptoms does your child have?
When did they develop the symptoms?
Have you checked your child's temperature with a thermometer and, if so, what was their temperature?
Is the cough a dry, persistent cough? Does it leave the child breathless?
Are there any other symptoms, e.g. loss of taste and smell?

As we are staff working in a school however, the most important question is:

Have you rang the NHS 111 helpline or used the NHS 111 online Coronavirus service to check your symptoms?

If you feel your child has a cough and a temperature you should contact the NHS 111 service for more accurate help in diagnosing what your child's symptoms are and making a decision about what to do next.

Again, if you have told us that your child is displaying symptoms, we will ask that the child is tested and self-isolates for 10 days and that siblings also self-isolate for 14 days from when the child developed symptoms.

We would urge anyone who is showing symptoms of Coronavirus to get tested as soon as possible and to update us about the result, preferably by showing us the test result you receive by text or email.

To protect all the other children and staff in school, we will always use caution when we are told a child is ill with Coronavirus symptoms or when we feel a child is displaying symptoms in school. Hopefully all parents will understand this and work with school to make sure that everyone in school is kept safe.

Thank you.