Dear Parents,

Over the last few days, we have heard from parents who have been affected by the updated travel advisory that followed Prime Minister Lee’s message to the nation on Thursday evening. Many families have children whose university has been closed; some want to bring their children home from the Boarding House but no longer can; others are simply feeling the psychological strain of being far away from extended family with no clarity on how the situation will evolve in the coming months. We understand how difficult your situations are and the challenge of the uncertainty. We write now with the College response to the latest developments.

• The latest Singapore travel advisory means that the Stay-Home Notice (SHN) now applies to the following:
• From 16 March: France, Spain, Germany and all of Italy. 
• From 16 March: Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom and all ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam). Please note that this does not apply to land-sea crossings with Malaysia. 
• This adds to the previous list of mainland China, South Korea, northern Italy and Iran and we have updated our online system to take this into account. Please log in here to update the student travel declaration. You should update all recent travel history as well as future plans and complete by Friday, 20 March. This is critical to fulfill our responsibilities to the Committee for Private Education (CPE).
• We had previously communicated our intention to review small scale parent activities that we can support on campus. However, the recent guidelines on social distancing mean we are once again asking parents to come on campus only when necessary, for example, to an agreed parent-teacher conference or meeting. We remind you that if you are coming on campus you must wear your ID and have your temperature taken at one of the security points. Any parent without an ID will not be allowed to enter the campus, even if it is for a pre-arranged meeting or event. 
• We acknowledge that there may be many alumni (staff and students) travelling to Singapore as schools and universities around the world close. Unfortunately, they will not be able to come to visit the College. 
• As you know, we have cancelled most large gatherings and are controlling any that are going ahead by reducing the number of attendees and doing additional screening, among other measures. We ask our parent community to help us by applying a similar approach to events and activities they attend off campus. If you are not sure that the event or activity is well-controlled, please consider not attending. This will help to keep our community safe and well. 
• We are continuing with our scenario planning, looking ahead to Term 3 events and activities with the primary goal, after health and wellbeing, of ensuring our Grade 10 and 12 students can take their external exams. We are considering measures to further enhance social distancing on campus, and planning Term 1 of next year and beyond. It’s a constantly changing environment but we will keep you informed of relevant developments as they emerge.  

Finally, we’d like to reiterate that there has been no case of COVID-19 in our community. We know that rumours have been circulating among a small number of parents, and the occasional presence of Singapore medical staff on our campuses (because of our Boarding House, our onsite clinic and the high-alert response of the Singapore medical community) may add to confusion. Please be assured that we will inform you promptly if there is a case in our community. 

As always, thank you for your understanding and support.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Bray, Head of UWCSEA Dover
Graham Silverthorne, Head of UWCSEA East