High School: It's Book Week!

For the first time in some years, we are celebrating Book Week as a whole school community event - to coincide with Book Day in the UK and Ireland. We have a range of exciting activities planned, as well as activities that will bring our Primary and High School students together in their celebration of books and reading.

For the first time in some years, we are celebrating Book Week as a whole school community event this year- to coincide with Book Day in the UK and Ireland. We have a range of exciting activities planned, as well as activities that will bring our Primary and High School students together in their celebration of books and reading. This is an important part of our transition process for Year 6 students, but also something that we value for the relationships that it can build between students on both campuses.

To begin with, there will be a quiz taking place for each Year Group in Years 7-10 in the Library each day this week (Year 7 had their quiz this morning; Year 8 will have the opportunity to participate tomorrow; Year 9 on Wednesday, and Year 10 on Thursday). Also tomorrow, we have 15 Year 9 students travelling to the Primary School to work with Year 6 students on their Poetry Slam compositions ready for Friday. We will announce the winners of the Key Stage Book Cover Art competition this week as well. On Thursday, Year 8 students will work virtually with Year 3 during periods 5 and 6.

The big day on Friday is Book Character Costume Day. For many of us, this is the most exciting part of Book Week as we celebrate our favourite books and book characters by dressing up. During break, there will be a costume parade on the field for Years 6 (who are visiting the HS Campus) and 7. Then, the finalists of the Poetry Slam competition will compete in the field/Atrium area during Wellbeing. Year 6 will watch the competition live in person and Years 7 and 8 will have the competition live-streamed to their Tutor Groups.

Happy Book Week- we hope that you will join in celebrating our love for reading at home throughout the week as well.

Mr Eoin: Head of English

As well as Book Week, this is a very exciting week with a full list of Sports fixtures taking place after school each day, both at St Andrews and in Away matches at Bangkok Prep, Reel Drama - this year’s Drama Showcase - rehearsals taking place tomorrow and filming taking place on Wednesday and a Year 11 Art/Photography Trip to Wat Arun taking place on Friday. I cannot remember such a busy week for a long time…

Please remember that all the school's live Google Calendars can be seen via Moodle.

COVID Update

We would like to thank you all for your understanding and support in keeping our community safe and healthy this term.

As Mr Paul wrote to all parents two weeks ago, we would like all parents to complete our twice-weekly ATK tests between 4 and 7pm each Sunday and Tuesday evening, to enable us to make timely decisions and to communicate these with the relevant groups within the school community. Thank you very much to those of you who are doing this each week.

Over the last few weeks, we have made the switch to automating our response when we are notified of a positive ATK. The aim is to simplify things and to notify parents of affected Classes/Tutor Groups as quickly as possible.

The automation is all based on the ATK results that are recorded in our Health App. Below is an overview of the steps for moving Classes/Tutor Groups to the VSE and the communication to parents.

What happens when a child gets a Positive (+ve) ATK?

1) A positive ATK result is recorded in the Health App. This could be either a parent recording this directly or a teacher recording it after being notified by a parent of a  positive ATK result.

The most important thing is that positive ATK results need to be recorded on the Health App as quickly as possible. When positive is clicked a warning box appears and asks if you are sure you want to click positive. When you click OK to confirm it, an alarm will sound on your device and your screen will flash red.

2) Once the positive result is recorded, an email is sent to key people - your son/daughter’s Tutor, Head of Year, and me. This lets us all know that a positive result has been recorded and by who and starts a 20-minute countdown.

3) After 20 mins, if the positive result has not been changed, the parents of the child’s Tutor Group (in Key Stage 3) will be sent a personalised email and an SMS telling them to check their email. This includes their Tutor Group and their child's name and lets them know that the Tutor Group will be moving to the VSE until further notice. Please note that we never disclose the name of the child who has tested positive.

4) ID cards or bag tags are automatically blocked for the children in that class and their siblings.

5) Siblings, however, are still allowed to come into school, under the following conditions:

1. At 6am each morning, our Health App will remove the ATK results for your child in the Blocked Tutor Group.
2. Parents should ATK test the child in the Blocked Tutor Group after 6 am and update this result in the Health App.
3. A negative result will then reactivate the ID cards for your other children and they will be able to come into school.
4. A positive result would mean that all children in the family would move to the VSE.

6) Once we get confirmation of the PCR result from the family, we will contact the Tutor Group again to outline the timeline for returning to school.

While our physical distancing guidelines should ensure that the risk of any transmission in school is low, this is especially true for older students, who have smaller, so more physically distanced, classes and spend each lesson with a different group of students. We therefore do not move Key Stage 4/5 Tutor Groups onto the VSE in the same way.

What happens when my child gets a Positive (+ve) ATK?

As it says on our Back to School slides:

• Students who have a positive RT-PCR test will only be able to return to school with a medical certificate and permission from the School.
• ATK Positive cases without PCR confirmation should self-isolate for 14 days, testing regularly with ATK tests, and then will be able to return to school after 14 days if they have had consistently negative ATK results.

If a student is ATK/PCR positive, then their siblings are therefore considered High-Risk.

What happens when my child is High-Risk?

• High Risk students who have a negative RT-PCR test more than 72 hours after their High Risk contact will be able to return to school.
• Alternatively, High Risk students could self-isolate for 10 days, testing with ATK tests, and then return to school after 10 days with only negative ATK Test results.

Please contact your son/daughter's Year Leader/Head of Year and me if you have any questions about any of the above.

Mr Roo
Head of High School