West Leigh Infant School

We have been asked by the DfE to write an Outbreak Management Plan to prepare us for operational measures which may need to be implemented in the event of a local Covid outbreak, specifically a new variant. During the first phases of Covid-19 we asked our parents and carers to keep children at home if they showed any signs of illness. As the new variants arise, we expect further symptom changes and therefore expect this policy to be our front line of defence: Children are to remain at home from the first sign of illness, whatever the symptoms and school should be contacted to agree an action plan.

Ventilation at school, regular testing, hand washing and additional cleaning also help reduce the spread of illness.

Local authorities, Directors of Public Health (DsPH) and PHE Health Protection Teams (HPTs) are responsible for managing localised outbreaks. They will play an important role in providing support and advice to us as a school. We will act in accordance with the advice given at the time of the outbreak. Our advice will be issued to us as a school, or it could be applied to several local settings.

This guidance from DsPH; “may happen to help manage outbreaks in schools, or if there is an “extremely high prevalence” of Covid-19 in the community and other measures have failed to reduce transmission, or as part of a package of measures “responding to a variant of concern”.