Greenbank High School in Southport has told parents that pupils can remain home until the start of next term due to a recent rise of Covid-19 cases in our area.
The school said as of this morning (Friday), that there were just 284 pupils in school out of the 828 who attend.
This is due to Government rules that insist on class ‘bubbles’ having to isolate if any one of those inside the bubble tests positive for Coronavirus.
The school emailed families to say that the increase in cases has led to “increased anxiety amongst children and parents” especially when children are having to “isolate several times often soon after returning from a previous spell”.
The email adds: “Every time we whole-school test we are finding a trend of about three or four positive cases which then results in pupils isolating which often outweighs the number of pupils returning.
“We do not expect this to change when looking at our trend and current Sefton data.
“To ensure a high quality of education we have decided to move to remote learning for all pupils, except Year 7 pupils who are in class bubbles, from Monday, July 12, whether they are attending school or isolating at home.”
The most recent Covid case rates for Sefton in the seven days to 4th July 2021 on the Government’s website show a high rate of 474.3 cases per 100,000 in Sefton.
That week saw 1,311 people in Sefton test positive for Covid-19, a rise of 414 cases from the previous week and an increase of 46.2%.
The email includes a link to an online form, which gives parents the following options:
- My child is not isolating and will be in school as normal
- My child is isolating (close contact or positive for covid) for the whole week and will be accessing online learning
- My child is isolating for part of the week and will access online learning, once her isolation is completed she will return to school
- My child is isolating for part of the week and although I am aware that forms are mainly kept as bubbles, I intend to keep my child at home.
- My child is not isolating and although I am aware that forms are mainly kept as bubbles, I intend to keep my child at home.
The online form for parents of those in Year 7 also gives an option for “My child is not isolating and although I am aware that forms are mainly kept as bubbles, I intend to keep my child at home.”
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