Information from School Governance9 October 2020 (by headmarton) |
Use of face coverings at school gates for parents dropping off/collecting children
Following Cheshire East’s recent letter around managing bubbles, we have received a number of queries from parents around the rationale for needing to wear face coverings whilst dropping off/collecting children from school.
This recommendation is in response to a request to our Director of Public Health from the Cheshire Resilience Forum (reps from Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton and Warrington) to ensure a consistent response across the area to the rise in infections locally.
- Cheshire East is now an Area of Concern on the national Local Authority Watchlist because of an increase in cases and a rise in infection rates.
- The number of positive cases of COVID-19 in schools and colleges has also risen since the start of the autumn term.
- Due to this rise, we are trying to encourage local people to wear face coverings where people are likely to congregate such as schools.
- This is partly as a reminder to people to take COVID safety measures and in part as parents can be waiting at school gates for some time.
- The wearing of masks at the school gates is not compulsory but has been suggested as one of a number of preventative measures.
Other local areas, e.g., Cheshire West and Chester, have had such measures in place since the start of term.