Covid and Remote Education Provision

Information for students who are absent from school for medical reasons

Since March 2022 when the final Covid restrictions were lifted the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) has advised that COVID-19 should be managed like other respiratory infections, such as flu.

COVID-19 presents a low risk to children and young people. This, combined with high vaccination rates in the population, means there are no longer specific rules relating to COVID-19 in schools, colleges, childcare and other education settings.

For children and young people aged 18 and under who test positive for COVID-19, the advice is to try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for three days. This is because children and young people tend to be infectious to other people for less time than adults.

The UKHSA has also published public health guidance on living safely with respiratory infections, including COVID-19 here.

Vaccines remain our best weapon against this virus. By getting vaccinated, children, young people and staff can increase their protection against COVID-19.

Resources, including immunisation guidance are available for parents and young people, which can be found here.

Remote Education Provision

Schools should consider remote learning for pupils that do test positive for COVID-19 but who feel well enough to learn but are following advice to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for three days.

If a student is  absent from school due to Covid they will have work set for them using Teams.  To log into Teams, pupils can search for Office 365, put in their school email address (in the form 123456@melbournvc.org) and the same password they use in school to log on.

Locate the class team e.g. 8YA/computer science, open it up, and the ‘Posts’ section will tell them what their work is.

We believe that students who are too unwell to attend school are too unwell to complete work and the focus should be on getting better to return to school. However, if a student is unable to attend for reasons such as mental health, their need will be assessed in light of medical evidence etc and home learning can be provided.

Everybody is somebody