Updated 23 November 2020
This page contains information for current families at St Chris about the School’s ongoing response to COVID-19 following the return to physical schooling in September 2020.
We will update it as information changes and as our response to external developments evolves. Any major updates will also be emailed to parents, but this page will enable you to see everything in one place, so please bookmark it to refer to.
We’d like to thank our pupils and families for their continued adherence to the guidelines and to adapting so well to the changes that we have made in order to keep the School running physically, and to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.
If you have any questions after reading the information below please email head@stchris.co.uk and we will aim to get back to you within two working days.
Emma-Kate Henry
Head
Please click below to download a document containing guidance for parents and carers about Blended Learning in the Senior School.
Here is a short video for Senior School pupils about how to download and use Satchel One (Show My Homework) on a phone to support blended learning.
Please see below the following useful graphic from North Herts Council, which gives further information about the coronavirus incubation period:
Updated 5 November 2020
This week schools received updated guidance from the Department for Education ahead of the start of new national restrictions on Thursday 5 November. You can read those guidelines in full by clicking here.
In addition to the guidance on face masks (please see the St Chris guidance on this below), there are some other points to mention.
Before and After School Clubs
As long as they were planned to take place and are already running with Covid protocols these can continue. Parents will have planned working patterns and routines to take into account this provision. Schools can continue running pre and after school clubs if they are part of the school day and therefore help parents continue to work. Any clubs where pupils go home and return to school or on a Saturday morning are unlikely to be able to continue.
Parental Visits to Schools
The guidance for parents is that they shouldn’t leave home except for specific reasons and parental visits to schools are not one of them. Tours and visits to St Chris from prospective families will not occur during the period of national lockdown. Families can, instead, watch the School’s Virtual Open Day and meet the Head, or the Head of the Junior School via Zoom meeting. Please click here for further information.
Entrance Examinations
According to the guidance these should not take place in school. St Chris has put in to place alternative provision to run its entrance assessments remotely. Please contact the Admissions team for further information: admissions@stchris.co.uk
Updated 2 November 2020
Following the Government announcement on Saturday 31 October about increasing incidences of COVID-19 within the population as a whole and new national restrictions, St Chris has decided to implement the wearing of face masks for all Senior School and Sixth Form pupils – Year 7 (I Group) to Year 13 – and for staff teaching and working in communal areas and classrooms in the Senior School.
As you will know, we have been regularly reviewing our practice and procedures have decided that it is sensible to adopt this extra precaution from Thursday 5 November, in order to enable everyone to ensure that they have a suitable face mask to wear.
We are not asking pupils in the Junior School to wear face masks in line with the national guidance that children under the age of 11 do not need to wear one, but our current guidance still stands in that should pupils, teachers and staff in the Junior School choose to wear a face mask or visor, then they are fully supported to do so.
In the Senior School, face masks will not need to be worn outside or when exercising in PE lessons. Pupils do not need to wear masks when eating but they should be worn in queues for lunch.
Boarders will not be expected to wear face masks in the boarding house. A further communication to parents of boarders will follow.
It is, of course, a time that many of us will be feeling increased anxiety but we are implementing this measure as a sensible additional layer which will be in place certainly for the next few weeks. We will, as ever, continue to review and update our risk assessment and practices.
Please could you discuss this change with your child and ensure that they understand that they will need to wear a face mask in all indoor setting at school from this Thursday, in order to give them time to adapt to this change. Please let them know that teachers and staff will be on hand to support them, to remind them of the new rules and to ensure that everyone is following the guidance.
We will, as ever, implement this new rule in a supportive and understanding way. Staff will have access to some spare masks for those emergency occasions where pupils have forgotten them, but please could we encourage pupils to bring a spare in case they lose one.
Please can I also take this opportunity to remind parents to:
Also as a reminder and for clarity, children should avoid mixing with children from other bubbles. Play dates, parties and sleep-overs are not permitted at this time.
We understand that the additional requirement to wear face masks will provide challenges to some of our pupils and families, but we are committed to keeping the St Chris community as safe as possible, and are working hard to balance the needs of keeping school life as ‘normal’ as possible with keeping as many children as we can in physical schooling at this challenging time.
Updated 24 Sept 2020
NHS Test and Trace has launched the NHS COVID-19 app. The app has been launched to help control the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). It will do this by alerting people who may have been exposed to infection so that they can take action.
The app is available to download on smartphones for anyone aged 16 or over. This means that some pupils in Year 11 (v Group) and pupils in Years 12 and 13 (Sixth Form) will be eligible to use the app and benefit from its features.
NHS Test and Trace has published guidance and resources to support the use of the app which are available to download.
There is also a fact sheet for parents to download:
Updated 23 Sept 2020
Public Health England have produced a letter for parents which explains when a person requires a coronavirus test and what the symptoms of coronavirus are.
The intention of the letter is to help prevent children being taken out of school unnecessarily and to answer some of the questions parents may have around testing.
Updated 21 Sept 2020
The following flowchart has been issued by Hertfordshire to help clarify what to do if you suspect COVID-19 in your child.
Please click below to download:
The Department for Education coronavirus (COVID-19) helpline is available to answer questions about coronavirus relating to education and children’s social care.
Parents and young people can contact this helpline by calling:
The St Chris handbook: A Guide to the School Year 2020-21 – gives you information about the School’s main activities, how we are running, and will answer some of the main questions that parents and pupils will have.
Please click below to download:
Updated 8 Sept 2020
Advice provided by the Government for parents and carers on looking after the mental health and wellbeing of children or young people during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Picture of Senior School drop off areas for first day of term (all pupils):
