The “Further education COVID-19 operational guidance” has now been withdrawn. The relevant guidance is as follows:

• Living safely with respiratory infections, including COVID-19
• People with symptoms of a respiratory infection including COVID-19
• Health protection in education and childcare settings
• Emergency planning and response for education, childcare, and children’s social care settings

All Runshaw students will receive regular updates via their college email account. Please therefore check emails on a daily basis and follow all instructions from your teachers and progress mentor. If you have forgotten the password to your college account, you can reset it using the password management tool.

The parents/guardians/carers of Runshaw students will receive regular updates via the Communications Portal. If you do not already have an account, please sign up here.

We are committed to providing outstanding teaching, learning and assessment for all students, within an environment that protects the health, safety and wellbeing of our whole college community.

The 5 key controls that the college is following are: 

1. Good hand and respiratory hygiene
2. Enhanced cleaning regimes
3. Ventilation of occupied spaces
4. Testing and self-isolation
5. Vaccinations and boosters

You can also check out the full college risk assessment here: Covid 19 Risk Assessment

The Prime Minister has now set out the next phase of the government’s COVID-19 response ‘Living with COVID-19’. COVID-19 continues to be a virus that we learn to live with and the imperative to reduce the disruption to young people’s education remains.

As such, the following measures are no longer in place: 

• Face coverings are no longer required in any part of the college (though staff and students are welcome to wear them if they wish).
• Regular (asymptomatic) Lateral Flow Testing is no longer required, and the college no longer routinely provides LFD test kits.
• The legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test has now been removed.
• Routine contact tracing has now ended. Contacts are no longer required to self-isolate or advised to take daily tests. Staff and students should attend college as usual.

The NHS currently lists the possible coronavirus symptoms on their website. The symptoms are very similar to symptoms of other illnesses, such as colds and flu.

What to do if you have symptoms

Try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if you have symptoms of COVID-19 and either:

• you have a high temperature
• you do not feel well enough to go to college or do your normal activities

Take extra care to avoid close contact with anyone who is at higher risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19. You can go back to your normal activities when you feel better or do not have a high temperature. Find out more about what to do if you have COVID-19 or symptoms of COVID-19.

Changes to testing for COVID-19

Free testing for COVID-19 from the NHS has ended for most people in England. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, you are no longer required to do a rapid lateral flow or PCR test. If you still want to get tested and you’re not eligible for a free NHS test, you must pay for a COVID-19 test yourself.  You can buy a COVID-19 test from some pharmacies and retailers, in person or online. Find out more about changes to testing for COVID-19 in England.

Please see the latest NHS guidance by clicking here.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines are safe and effective. They give you the best protection against COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccines are available for everyone aged 5 or over. We strongly encourage everyone aged 5 or over to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

People aged 5 and over can get a 1^st and 2^nd dose of a vaccine. First doses for students were provided at college but the second dose must be booked online. Please see the latest information about getting a vaccination here.

All Runshaw students have a dedicated Progress Mentor who is available via a direct phone number and email address, for support at any time. If you have any concerns, about anything at all, please let them know and they will be happy to help.

In addition, our student support services, including counselling, are fully accessible online as well as on campus.

Remote learning may possibly be required due to self-isolation or local outbreaks. We therefore recommend that all students have access to their own technology to access their study programme, including the right hardware (for example, a laptop), software and connectivity (for example, broadband). If you find that obtaining the right technology is difficult because of financial reasons, the college might be able to support you. Please ask your progress mentor about our bursaries and laptop loans. Our friendly and award-winning IT Services team are always happy to help with any technical support needs. Please access their support via the Student Portal.

Ofsted completed a series of visits to colleges, to explore how well we were adapting to the pandemic. They visited Runshaw in October 2020.

In this visit, the two Her Majesty’s Inspectors explored the following 3 themes:

• What actions are leaders taking to ensure that they provide an appropriate curriculum that responds to the reasonable needs of learners and stakeholders and adapts to changed circumstances?
• What steps are leaders, managers and staff taking to ensure that the approaches used for building knowledge and skills are appropriate to meet the reasonable needs of learners?
• How are leaders ensuring that learners are safe and well informed about potential risks, including from online sources?

They were extremely positive about everything they saw. Their full report has been published – click here.