From The Abernethy Office

Good Morning Abernethy,

I hope you all had an amazing weekend! A full newsletter will follow later today, however, I wanted to send a quick one out early with an important announcement on its own. I am sorry to have this be our first update for the week, but I promise more exciting news will follow!

As we are calculating our student absences this morning, as well as recording all phone calls, emails and teacher communication regarding absences, we are finding some very high number of students that have reported sick with the stomach bug. It appears to be the quick 24 hour bug that comes on fast and then goes away within 24 hours. I do want to remind everyone that regarding vomiting and diarrhea, students are not to come back to school until 48 hours after the last episode. If your student has a fever, they may not return to school until 24 hours since they last had a fever with no medication.

I understand that you may feel that your student is well, as they may not be vomiting anymore, however the 48 hours are to help stop the spread to other students. If it is reported that your student has vomited within the past 48 hours , reported by them or someone else, and is at school, you will most likely receive a phone call asking you to come and pick up your student.

Please don't look at this as a policy that doesn't apply to you, or think that your student's case is different. If your student vomited over the weekend, it is 48 hours since their last episode. If you have any questions, please call our health room and we can walk through it all with you. We really want to minimise the number of our students who become sick, and sending your student to school before the allotted time makes it difficult. I am sad to report that we already have a very busy health room this morning.

Please also help encourage your students to wash their hands throughout the day, keep their hands off of their faces and cover their mouth in their elbow if they sneeze. Our teachers are wiping down classroom tables and encouraging the same behavior while at school.