With just under five weeks left to the end of term, many of you will be thinking about the winter break and making plans to spend time with family and friends.

We have done a lot of work to make our campuses COVID-secure and our low numbers of active cases offer significant reassurance that this is working.

We now need to ensure we do everything possible to help prevent onward transmission for those who wish to return to their home address at the end of term. The last thing anyone wants is to infect loved ones, especially those who might be more vulnerable.

The full guidance, which is summarised below, can be found on the Government's coronavirus website:

Follow current restrictions

The current national restrictions will be in place until Wednesday 2 December. These offer some protection in terms of minimising the interaction we all have with others, other than for educational purposes. Education is classified as an essential activity which should continue when COVID-secure measures are in place.

For research students, activity will continue as now until the end of term.

‘Travel window’ and online teaching

Once the national restrictions have ended, you are advised by Government to return to your home time address during a ‘student travel window’ between Thursday 3 and Wednesday 9 December. This is because the risk of infection should be much lower during that time. The University will arrange staggered departure dates from accommodation, and work with other institutions in the region to manage pressure on transport infrastructure.

We will be in touch again with more details on planning your journey home to ensure we help you manage this in a safe and controlled way.

All teaching that can move online should do so by Wednesday 9 December so that you can continue your education from home. There is no evidence that in-person teaching presents a greater risk but we are being required to move to an online approach for most students. As part of this we will adopt the best approach to ensure you can meet your learning outcomes.

Your Head of School will confirm how your teaching will change and will let you know if you have practical sessions that will be rescheduled for the new year.

Test to Protect

To limit the spread of the virus further all students will be offered an asymptomatic test - either through the national scheme or through our own Asymptomatic Testing Service.

These tests will be available from the end of November – giving you the opportunity to isolate, should you receive a positive result, and still be able to return home in good time for the holidays. More details about the process for booking tests will be shared in the coming days.

For those staying

For those wishing to remain in Nottingham, the University will be opening student hubs with study spaces, food offering and a place to relax that will operate over Christmas when other facilities including those in the city are closed.

If you are in halls please ensure you have completed the survey sent via your accommodation team, if you are living off campus we will be writing to you on Monday. Please let us know your plans so we can ensure the appropriate support is available.

Until then

Teaching up until Wednesday 9 December will remain as now: a blend of online and in-person activity. After this date it will move to online only where it can to help with a phased departure of students.

The University intends to revert to the blended approach to teaching and learning for next term. As we approach the start of the new academic term in January 2021 we will adopt a similar process to welcoming students back to campus, using a combination of staggered start times and asymptomatic testing to provide safe travel and reassurance to our staff and student community. We will share more details of the logistics in coming weeks.

We will continue to support you as best we can with offers and activities to help keep you entertained, advice for those in isolation, and a range of ways of accessing help if you need it.