Pupils are asked to take rapid antigen tests before the start of the school year on February 1.
Forbes Public Schools will receive RATS to distribute to school communities, says a post shared on local school Facebook pages.
“We have kindly asked our school communities to use these RAT kits to ensure negative results before starting school,” the post reads.
The kits will be delivered to the Forbes Schools community on January 28; and available to families via contactless distribution from Forbes North Public School, Forbes Public School and Forbes High School beginning at 10 a.m. on Monday, January 31.
Each student will have access to two RATs per week at the start of the first term, as will teachers.
These twice-weekly tests will be carried out during the first four weeks of the term, with a two-week supply of RAT to be distributed before the start of the term.
Masks will be mandatory in secondary school classrooms for teachers and students, while they will be strongly recommended for students in grades 3 and above in primary schools.
For parents who have a child starting school for the first year, they will be able to come to the school grounds for this first day of kindergarten.
Otherwise, visitors to schools will be limited to those providing “essential program and welfare support”.
Local schools have posted on social media that Forbes Bus Lines will begin school bus service on Tuesday February 1st and therefore we are unable to distribute tests to rural families through the bus service until this time.
Parents and guardians should record positive RAT results for students on the Service NSW app and notify the school as soon as possible.
Additionally, they are asking families to continue to report positive PCR test results of students to the school as soon as possible as well.
Education and Early Learning Minister Sarah Mitchell said more than four million RATs had already been distributed to schools and more than six million were to be distributed by Tuesday evening in preparation for the return to school. ‘school.
“So for the parents, your school will be in contact with you to find out how you can pick up these kits before the start of the school year,” Ms Mitchell said.
“We ask all of our students and staff to take tests before returning to school for that first day, and then of course to do these monitoring tests twice a week for the first four weeks of term.
If children were to test positive, parents should notify the school principal and NSW Health via the Service NSW app or website.
“We will no longer be closing schools when there is a positive COVID case in this community and we will no longer be conducting contact tracing. We are really moving schools based on what we see in community settings,” said Ms. Mitchell.
“But parents, caregivers and family members will be notified if there is COVID in your school community, so again you can monitor symptoms and your children and make sure you use these antigen tests. rapids that we provided twice a week.
“It’s really about minimizing disruption to our school communities.”
