This is your daily email to keep you updated on the government’s response to COVID-19 (coronavirus).

The importance of hygiene

Personal hygiene is the most important way we can tackle COVID-19, especially washing hands more; and the catch it, bin it, kill it strategy for those with coughs and sneezes.

Wash your hands more often for 20 seconds with soap and hot water.

In addition to handwashing before eating and after sneezing, both children and staff should also wash hands after using toilets and after travelling on public transport.

Please help us in sharing simple and effective hand hygiene messages:

Public Health England has a dedicated webpage with a range of posters and digital materials at:

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Educational resources

The e-Bug project is led by Public Health England and has a dedicated webpage for learning resources on hand washing and respiratory hygiene.

Resources are currently available for KS1, KS2 and KS3 and can be used in various settings including schools:

Updated travel advice for travellers returning from Italy

The advice remains the same for travellers returning from the lockdown areas of Italy, that you should self-isolate even if you are not showing symptoms. The advice for other parts of Italy has been expanded to cover the whole country: if you have returned from anywhere else in Italy outside of the lockdown areas, you should self-isolate if you develop symptoms and call NHS 111.

The latest travel guidance can be found here:

Further information on what you should do if you are asked to self-isolate can be found here:

Department for Education coronavirus helpline

The Department for Education coronavirus helpline is now available to answer questions about COVID-19 relating to education and children’s social care. Staff, parents and young people can contact this helpline as follows:

Phone: 0800 046 8687
Email: DfE.coronavirushelpline@education.gov.uk
Opening hours: 8am to 6pm (Monday to Friday)

Where to find the latest information

Updates on COVID-19:

Guidance for educational settings:

Travel advice for those travelling and living overseas:

Latest Department for Education information:

Dear Parents

I write regarding the updated advice from the Department for Education received this afternoon and a summary of the school’s response.

Dear Parents

Following the news regarding schools and the coronavirus featured nationally yesterday and today, Public Health England and DfE have updated their advice, which can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19/guidance-to-educational-settings-about-covid-19 

There will be an opportunity to receive your GCE certificates at an informal get-together at the school, on Monday 16^th December 2019 from 2-4pm in the sixth form common room; please sign in and out at Reception on the day.

Friday 29th November 2019

Miss Hardy and I took 22 Year 10 & 11 pupils on a terrific trip to China during the half term holidays. After 25 hours of travelling we arrived in Chengdu to be greeted by a delegation of Chinese teachers, followed by an even bigger welcome at Luzhou High School. This was very much a theme of the 11 days we were over there, with everyone being so open; both Chinese children with Piggott pupils and Luzhou staff with Piggott teachers. We had a variety of ceremonies, speeches and other events, and were very well looked after all the way through. The pupils from Luzhou High School treated the Piggott children like celebrities and they all got on like a house on fire. We even had a camera crew and a security guard following us around, such was the occasion! The aims were for the English pupils to take in the culture of China, understand the differences and development and improve their Chinese; all of these were resoundingly met and then some.

Over half term, the geography department ran its biennial trip to Iceland, taking 80 pupils and nine staff. We arrived to a beautiful, cloudless evening and had just enough time to stop off at the Bridge Between Continents on our way to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s largest natural geothermal spa, was delightfully warm as air temperature dropped below freezing and the sun began to set, revealing an incredible display of the Northern Lights – the best we had ever seen!

The weather was extremely kind to us over the first 3 days – even the tour guides were commenting on how lucky we were to see Iceland in such beautiful conditions. This made the coach journeys to the different sites almost as spectacular as the sites themselves, with fantastic views of interesting geographical landforms around every corner.

One landform which we were able to see a lot of over the trip was Iceland’s impressive and iconic waterfalls. Each one presented a different challenge: at Seljalandsfoss it was the journey into the caves to find the ‘hidden’ waterfall; at Gullfoss it was peering through the mist and fog to see the impressive views behind; and at Skógafoss it was the substantial walk up 370 steps to view the waterfall from the top. All these challenges were rewarded with amazing views, making the visits to the waterfalls amongst the most memorable landscapes of the trip.

One of the most enjoyable elements of visiting Iceland is just how different the landscape is to the landscape we see every day. The students were able to experience black volcanic beaches, hot springs, erupting geysers, glaciers, and monumental coastal landforms carved out of the landscape. Not to mention our luck with the Northern Lights, presenting their incredible displays on 3 of the 5 nights we were there.

The students were simply fantastic. They threw themselves into every activity, even those activities which were initially challenging – walking on top of an icy glacier with crampons and an ice pick did not come naturally to everyone, but every student persevered to the end! A huge thank you must go to every single one of the 80 students and 9 staff members for an extremely memorable trip.

It is non uniform day this Friday 11^th October. Donations of £1 will be for the charity Launchpad

Thursday 26th September 2019

6.00pm-8.00pm