If you are eligible and you have not yet received your full course of a COVID-19 vaccine, you should get vaccinated. A full course of a COVID-19 vaccine provides protection against severe disease, including against the Omicron variant, but this protection wears off over time. Booster doses significantly improve the protection offered by vaccines. You should get a booster vaccine for COVID-19 if you are offered one. 

Bringing fresh air into a room by opening a door or a window, even for a few minutes at a time, helps remove older stale air that could contain virus particles and reduces the chance of spreading infections. Keep classrooms and workspaces well ventilated but make sure that fire doors are closed when rooms are not occupied. 

Following these basic rules of good hygiene will help to protect you and others from COVID-19 as well as many other common infections: 

• cover your nose and mouth when you cough and sneeze – catch it, bin it, kill it; 
• wash or sanitise your hands frequently and thoroughly: and, 
• clean your work areas before use 

The symptoms of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections are very similar.

It is not possible to tell if you have COVID-19, flu or another respiratory infection based on symptoms alone. Symptoms of COVID-19, flu and common respiratory infections include: 

• continuous cough 
• high temperature, fever or chills 
• loss of, or change in, your normal sense of taste or smell 
• shortness of breath 
• unexplained tiredness, lack of energy 
• muscle aches or pains that are not due to exercise 
• not wanting to eat or not feeling hungry 
• headache that is unusual or longer lasting than usual 
• sore throat, stuffy or runny nose 
• diarrhoea, feeling sick or being sick 

In some cases, you might continue to have a cough or feel tired after your other symptoms have improved, but this does not mean that you are still infectious. 

Free PCR and LFD tests are no longer available for most people, so you are unlikely to know whether you have COVID-19.  If you have symptoms of a respiratory infection and you do not feel well enough to work or you have a high temperature then stay at home and avoid contact with other people, until you no longer have a high temperature (if you had one) or until you no longer feel unwell. 

If you come to work with mild symptoms the following actions will reduce the chance of passing on your infection to others: 

• wearing a well-fitting face covering made with multiple layers or a surgical face mask;
• avoiding crowded places such as public transport, large gatherings, or anywhere that is poorly ventilated; remembering the basics of good hygiene.  

If you have a positive COVID-19 test result, because you have been tested for a specific reason, you must stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days after the day you took your test.  

Children and young people who are unwell and have a high temperature should stay at home and avoid contact with other people, where they can. They can come back to school when they no longer have a high temperature, and they are well enough to attend. 

Children and young people with mild symptoms such as a runny nose, sore throat, or slight cough, who are otherwise well, can continue to attend school. 

Children and young people aged 18 years and under who have a positive test result must stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 3 days after the day they took the test.  

You may previously have received a letter or email identifying you as someone who is CEV, and you may have been advised to shield during earlier stages of the pandemic.  For most people who were CEV, you are no longer at substantially greater risk than the general population, and you are advised to follow the same guidance as everyone else on staying safe, as well as any further advice you may have received from your doctor. 

There remains a smaller number of people who, in spite of vaccination, are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19.  Most people with immunosuppression will be under the care of a hospital specialist and will usually have been identified either through being eligible for a third primary dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or spring booster or as eligible for new treatments for COVID-19. 

If you have been identified as being at higher risk, students please contact relevant pastoral team.  

Staff that test positive for Covid-19 need to inform the Cover Manager of their absence/positive result. Staff and Contractors also need to email regarding their positive covid test result to covid-case@ndhs.org.uk

Parents/Guardians need to email to covid-case@ndhs.org.uk to report positive student Covid-19 test result immediately.

For further information on Covid-19, please visit NHS website:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) - NHS (www.nhs.uk)