Easter Holiday: Friday 2 – Friday 16 April 2021

During the Holiday

We have now come to the end of a very busy term, and hope that education leaders will have the opportunity to rest over the Easter holiday.

However, we are aware that there are some requirements of education settings during the holiday period and we have outlined these and the support available from Education Services below.

COVID Requirements of Education Settings

Testing at home: The government wishes all staff and students who can, to test twice weekly over the Easter holidays. They also wish them to test before returning to their education setting for the summer term, either the night before, or morning of, the first day back, to identify and isolate any positive cases. Warwickshire’s Public Health team recommend that staff and students LFD test on Thursday 15 and Sunday 18 before returning to school.

NHS Test and Trace will be supplying sufficient test kits to schools and colleges to enable this to happen.  A letter template has been added onto the secondary schools and colleges document sharing platform to support communications to parents and carers. 
Contact tracing: Schools and further education providers should have contact tracing arrangements in place for the first 6 days of the Easter holidays (2 – 7 April). Staff responsible for contact tracing need not always be on-call but are asked to assist in identifying close contacts and advising self-isolation.

Staff, students, parents, and carers only need to inform the school or further education provider of a positive case where they developed symptoms within 48 hours of being in their education setting.
Data Reporting: There will be NO requirement to inform us of positive COVID-19 cases using the online form if the isolation period falls only in the period when the setting is closed. Please note that the Education COVID Response Helpline and Mailbox support will still be available as below.

COVID Support to Education Settings

The Education during Covid-19 web pages have the most recent advice, document downloads and useful links and will continue to be available for consultation.
Education COVID Response Team Helpline: 01926 412011 09:00 to 12:00 Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays.
Education COVID Response Team mailbox: education-corona@warwickshire.gov.uk
Early Years mailbox: earlyyearsadvisors@warwickshire.gov.uk Early years will continue their normal helpline hours, not including bank holidays.
Public Health mailbox: dphadmin@warwickshire.gov.uk 08:00 am to 8:00 pm 7 days a week.
Education Corona Briefings will not be sent during the holiday period.

Other COVID Support for Education Settings

Department for Education Helpline 0800 046 8687: Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 18:00, and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00. Over the bank holiday weekend (Friday 2 April to Monday 5 April), lines will be open from 10am to 4pm.
Family Information Service (FIS): Information and advice for families and carers will be available via the Helpline 01926 742274 and fis@warwickshire.gov.uk from 09:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday. FIS will be closed to business on Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Easter holiday activities for children in Warwickshire

Family Information Service (FIS) has coordinated a list of the holiday provision that is available across Warwickshire for the Easter holidays. More information can be found on the Easter holiday activities for children in Warwickshire page.