The full reopening of John Hanson Community School
Dear parents/carers
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday, I am writing to confirm that John Hanson Community School will fully reopen to all students on Tuesday 9th March, and we are very much looking forwards to welcoming students back.
In the detailed ‘operational guidance’ for school reopening it is made clear that secondary school students must undertake a COVID-19 Lateral Flow Test (LFT), and test negative, before they attend any lessons. They will then undertake 2 further LTFs in school 3 to 5 days apart. In practice students will be tested, for their 2nd and 3rd tests, between 11th and 16th March.
As such we feel very strongly that students should be able to return to school as soon as physically possible. With this in mind we will be testing ALL students on Monday 8th March. Our onsite test centre housed in G2 (your children will know which room this is) will run from 8am until 8pm. We will be using our school parents evening booking system to allow you to book an appointment for your child to be tested at any point during these 12 hours. I have attached guidance to this parent mail on how to go about doing this. As we have used software that is normally used for parents evening it will show that you are booking a 3 minute slot against a member of staff’s name. Please ignore this fact, as this is the only way we could ‘trick’ the software to enable us to use it for this purpose. As you are only booking 1 appointment you will not need to follow all the steps within the guide.
If you have any issues booking a testing slot/appointment please contact the school via email (adminoffice@jhanson.hants.sch.uk) and put ‘problem booking a testing slot’ in the subject line of your email.
The ability to book testing slots will go live at 9am on Friday 26th February.
Thank you to all those parents (80% of you) who have already completed the consent form that allows us to provide COVID-19 tests for your children to take. However, if you are yet to complete the form please use the link below to do so.
After the 16th March, students will be provided with Home Test Kits in order that they can test twice a week at home. I will write further, nearer the time, with more detail of how this will work. In general, the idea is that because students have undertaken 3 tests in school, they will know what they are doing when it comes to home testing.
As you will be aware from previous communications, we are part of trial to develop an alternative/saliva testing process which is less invasive than the current swab tests. Unfortunately this has been delayed due to the building of the test facility at Southampton hospital. We remain committed to being part of the trial and I will write further when I know more.
In order that all students can be tested on the 8th March and we can be ready to welcome all your children back to school on the 9th March, there will be no live lessons on Monday 8th March. The school timetable will run as normal with all lessons being set via Show My Homework. There will also be no Key Worker School facility on this date.
Another significant change in the guidance for the full reopening of schools is the strong recommendation that all students (except those exempt) wear face coverings inside the school buildings, including during all lessons, except P.E. and in the dining hall when not eating. Please ensure that your child has a good supply of face coverings with them at all times - they will need more than 1 for each day of the week. They should change face coverings regularly and other for single use face coverings, they should be washed before being reused – this is for the safety of staff and students.
I will write with further details and any specific guidance at regular intervals between now and our return to school.
I would like to finish by once again congratulating our students, your children, on their commitment and engagement with their online learning; they have been a credit to you and the school.
Stay safe and well
Russell Stevens
Headteacher