Staying Safe Over Christmas
This week the British government announced that it would soon start rolling out a vaccine against Covid-19. The end is in sight. However, the current crisis is not actually over. In the UK alone, there were around 15,000 new cases of the disease yesterday alone. It will be months before vaccines can get to everyone.
Now more than ever - with the light at the end of the tunnel approaching - we need to stay vigilant, to make sure that we remain unscathed after months of sacrifice, while recognising that can be challenging as we go into the festive season, a time to relax and socialise.
The Scottish government is discouraging travel over Christmas, asking us to “consider carefully the risk that is associated with coming together for Christmas.” They are relaxing the rules between the 23rd and 27th because it “recognises that isolation and loneliness can hit people particularly hard over the Christmas period.” But remember the pandemic isn’t taking that week off, so remain careful.
It remains the case that if you are travelling abroad any time you will have to self-quarantine for 14 days. If you are mingling with your family during quarantine, they may also have to quarantine. There are some exemptions for particular countries and sectors, but these are constantly changing, so make sure you get up to date information. If in any doubt please contact us directly before you travel, so we can confirm when it is ok for your children to come into school.
At the moment you must not travel between Scotland and the rest of the UK without good reason, and there are also restrictions on movement within Scotland depending on an area’s tier. These are regularly updated, so if you are travelling, check on the day. Please inform us if you do travel to another home nation or to a higher tier area; we can provide school work for your child if it is necessary to self-isolate.
Travel aside, there are other reasons people have to self-isolate - for example, if they show symptoms of Covid-19 and the NHS advise them to. No one should come into school while they are waiting for a test result or somebody in their household is.
Nevertheless, pandemic precautions do not stop life continuing. The ISA community has adapted - this week, the IB Art Exhibition and ‘Around the Fireplace’, our traditional Christmans concert took place online. Next week we will welcome back the Cairngorm reindeer (please also follow the link to make donations), although with a new risk assessment that addresses Covid concerns. Also keep an eye on the Community Hub for several Elementary performances culminating in ‘ISA’s lost panto’ on December the 15th.
Less entainingly, High School exam week starts on Tuesday morning and continues to Monday afternoon Students only need to come in for the exams (or in the case of Grade 12s, for teacher contact), although parents of Grade 9s need to give permission via the e-collect form on Powerschool.
There are less than two weeks to go before the winter holidays - it is not just the end of the pandemic that is in sight. If you are leaving ISA, there are one or two things we would like you to do before you go. If you have donated a tree for our wonderful tree festival, please don’t forget to pick it up again at the end of term.
We will send out our final Thistle Talk of 2020. It is great that we will end it in hope, and with the expectation that 2021 will bring far better things. But come what may, please stay safe.
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