Welcome to Penkford School
Penkford is a day maintained special school for children with social, emotional and mental health issues in the borough of St Helens, Merseyside. We cater for 55 young people from Year 4 to Year 11. We are a highly inclusive and innovative establishment. We believe Penkford is a centre of best practice for behaviour management, pastoral care and teaching and learning.
All school and St Helens Borough Council updates and letters can be found in our News Section at the bottom of the website - Coronavirus Update Headteacher and School Letters.
Should you require a paper copy of our website or any of the information, please email penkford@sthelens.org.uk and we will provide a copy free of charge.
COVID Testing - Important updated information for parents/carers 21st June 2021
Please find below some very important updated information for parents and carers in regards to COVID.
The Government has announced that the whole of the Liverpool City Region, including St Helens, has been designated as an Enhanced Response Area (ERA). This is because COVID-19 cases are increasing and doubling weekly, and we know that this is linked to the Delta variant, first identified in India, which is easier to spread with a 64% increased risk of household transmission and is 40% more transmissible outdoors compared to previous strains.
As a school, we continue to play our part by asking all our staff and students to carry out twice-weekly home testing (rapid lateral flow tests). If you need more testing kits for your child, please contact school and we will be happy to provide more supplies.
In addition to the home testing, from the 21st June we have reintroduced testing in school on Mondays and Thursdays. Parents and carers are required to give consent again for this new round of school testing - if parents/carers have not yet given consent, please follow the link below on our school website to complete the form.
http://www.penkford.st-helens.sch.uk/page/lateral-flow-testing-at-school/99149
Urgent Update Notice - COVID-19 Important Information for Parents/Carers 18th June 2021
The number of COVID cases in St Helens is rising, surge testing is being introduced in some areas of the town to control the spread of the disease. To protect everyone at school and reduce the risk of pupils and staff having to isolate please ensure that your child continues to take Lateral Flow tests twice a week, every week. If a test is positive, please advise us immediately. We are sending pupils home with more test kits today to help with this. When you require more, please let us know and we can provide them. Many thanks for you continued support.
Urgent Update Notice - COVID-19 St Helens Borough Council 9th April 2021
Young People are urged to follow guidance following a cluster of Covid-19 cases and a noticeable spread of COVID-19 cases in the borough.
St Helens had seen a decrease in cases of covid-19 overall, however a recent increase in the last 10 days (29 March to 7 April) of COVID-19 cases has been reported, predominantly in school aged children and their families, and as a result a number of schools have had to ask year groups to isolate for 10 days to reduce the risk of spread.
Parents should follow these rules:
If your child has been asked to isolate, they should not leave the house for any reason until the end of the isolation period unless it is to get a test if they develop symptoms of Covid-19 or receive urgent medical treatment. This includes a ban on all social activities such as sports activities or meeting with other children.
During the school holidays and beyond, continue to use the free lateral flow tests and parents should report the results, positive or negative, to their schools.
If they develop symptoms or test positive through a symptom free test they should book in to have a traditional PCR test to confirm if they have Covid-19.
Symptom-free Testing Stations:
If you do not have COVID-19 symptoms, you can walk in (no appointment required) to one of our symptom-free testing stations for a quick, free, supervised test https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/symptom-free-testing/
You can find out more about testing at https://www.sthelens.gov.uk/letsgettested including opening hours and how to register for traditional PCR tests too. You can also order home testing kits if you cannot access them from one of our sites via https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests
Urgent Update Notice - COVID-19 Testing Kits March 2021
With the wider reopening of all schools, we have been given COVID-19 testing kits that pupils can do weekly at home. However, to be given one of these they must have had 3 tests within school to prove they know how to do them properly. Consent forms went home on the 29th of January. Alternatively parents / carers can complete our online consent form which takes less than 4 minutes to complete - please go to our Parents & Carers page Lateral Flow Testing At School Thank you for your support.
Urgent Update Notice 28th January 2021
If anyone in your household has any illness symptoms, please keep your child at home until COVID-19 is ruled out. We are having children come in to school when there are symptoms in the family and then positive tests happening. This could close the school to everyone and make staff and pupils very ill. Thank you.
