Covid-19 Centre

Essential Information

The health and well-being of our students and staff is of paramount importance during the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the regulations and guidelines set down by the National Department of Education, combined with consultation and research, we have established protocols to be strictly enforced on our campus.

These protocols will be subject to ongoing risk assessment, with updates effected in line with the changing landscape and guidance from the relative authorities governing our school and country.

Please use the FAQs below; the list is by no means comprehensive, and will continue to evolve – for further information please email secretaries@wbhs.org.za

Close Contact with a Person Tested Positive for Covid-19
Physical contact e.g. hugging, shaking hands, or sharing equipment. Face-to-face contact within 1 metre without a mask. Within a closed room for more than 15 minutes without a mask. 

Casual Contact with a Person Tested Positive for Covid-19
No physical contact at all. Maintaining appropriate social distancing at all times. Being in the same room while wearing a face mask. 

You must determine whether he has been in close contact or casual contact.

If close contact, please advise the school immediately and place him in isolation. He will be required to have a Covid-19 test and be cleared by a medical professional before returning to school.

School policy requires anyone who has had close contact or is living in the same household as a person who has tested positive, isolates and undergoes a Covid-19 test. Your son may only return to school once cleared to do so by a medical professional.

The individual should already be isolating at home and must continue to do so until receiving medical clearance to return to school.

The WBHS Covid-19 team will initiate Contact Tracing Protocols to determine with whom the individual had been in close contact.

Those identified at School as being in close contact with the individual will be escorted to our isolation centre to complete a set of questions determining their risk and with whom else they might have been in close contact. Parents/guardians will be asked to collect and isolate their boys who will be required to have a Covid-19 test and be cleared by a medical practitioner before returning to school.

Contact tracing will include family, friends, staff or anyone else they with whom they may have been in close contact.

Immediate treatment of spaces, surfaces, and equipment where the individual may have had close contact, over and above the daily cleaning, disinfecting, and sanitising of classrooms and communal areas.

Please inform your son’s House Head as soon as possible. You will be emailed essential WCED documentation to complete and return to the School, accompanied by a supporting letter motivating your son’s absence.

Unfortunately it will be very difficult for us to run a dual system with teachers delivering lessons in the classroom according to daily timetables, as well as teaching a few boys at home.

We will not be able to offer remote teaching to the levels or quality delivered over the last three months. With the full return of all Grades, our focus must understandably be on teaching in the classrooms. That being said, your son’s teachers will help by sending him work/notes, but the onus will be on your son to make contact and request the tasks and deadlines.

The more your son stays in contact with his teachers and the better his communication, the more he will benefit from the help provided.

The boys need to wear uniform one day of the week only to allow washing and drying of garments. Research shows that the virus remains on clothing for a maximum of 48 hours, meaning blazers and school shoes do not have to be cleaned after use. When the boys wear civvies, they must not wear the same garments two days in a row.

Monday (Gr 10-12) UNIFORM
Tuesday (Gr 10-12) CIVVIES
Wednesday (Gr 10-12) CIVVIES
Thursday (Gr 8-9) UNIFORM
Friday (Gr 8-9) CIVVIES

Matrics may wear civvies when writing exams over the next two weeks.

Unfortunately this is not possible. 

Please inform your son’s House Head immediately, who will notify the necessary people in the school. A school representative will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

Please keep your son at home to monitor and isolate for a minimum of 14 days and be sure to advise his House Head immediately, who will notify the necessary people in the school. A school representative will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

As directed by the WCED, parents are legally required to pay school fees. If you need to discuss any financial issues regarding this debt, please contact Lyn Makinson in Finance, on email: lmakinson@wbhs.org.za. We appeal to parents to please honour this agreement as it enables us to continue providing your sons with the best teaching available. We appreciate your understanding during this time.