By Daniel Wood
Royds Hall School, in Huddersfield, has confirmed that fifty per cent of its Year Nine students are self-isolating following a “very small” outbreak of Covid-19 cases.
Remote learning is currently being offered to nearly 90 students in the year group who must now stay at home to isolate in coherence with the Government’s guidelines.
Headteacher of the school, Jenny Carr, said the school had decided to send home the pupils after talking with Public Health England.
She commented: “We have a small number of pupils that have tested positive.
“Any students who are identified to have been in contact with them, for more than 15 minutes, are asked to follow the legal rules in terms of contact tracing.
“The year groups are in bubbles, and we have sent home half of Year Nine – it was agreed with Public Health England this it was in the best interests of the children.”
She insisted that the actions were taken in order to control the virus, which has been successful so far, as no more positive cases have been found in the year group since.
A small number of students in other year groups have also been made to self-isolate at their homes. This means that one in ten students are currently being asked to self-isolate.
Mrs Carr added by stressing: “I don’t think we’re in a different position to any other secondary school. We’re all following Public Health England Advice, and we’re all working really hard to keep children safe and in school.”
The school has sent laptops to the homes of students who do not have IT access, as the school want everybody to be able to continue their studies at home.
Mrs Carr assured that their teachers are working very hard to ensure that all students have the necessary resources to continue to learn.
She said: “We welcome families to come forward if they have any IT access issues – the school is happy to support them.
“We’re here, and we want to support all our families and all our children.”
Schools continue to be one of the heaviest ways of spreading the virus, and it will be interesting to see whether those figures continue to rise, or whether they eventually begin to stagnate.