Churchtown Primary School in Southport has closed with immediate effect after 10% of staff tested positive for Covid-19.
The school will have a 10-day circuit breaker, reopening on Tuesday 2 February.
The decision has been taken following advice from Infection Control, Public Health England and the Department for Education.
A Churchtown Primary School spokesperson said: “On Monday, we began the process of daily lateral flow tests (LFTs) in our school to test staff who may be asymptomatic, but Covid-19 positive.
“This process is running really smoothly in our school and we have been able to test staff on a daily basis to improve on our already enhanced safety measures in school.
“The Lateral Flow Testing for staff has been a successful step to identify asymptomatic cases and the commencement of immediate self-isolation.
“In the first week of lateral flow testing, 10% of the staff population have tested positive for Covid-19. This has then been confirmed by a further test at one of the government testing centres.
“As we are currently unable to test the children we can only assume that this percentage may be the case for them as well.
“Therefore, to stop the potential spread of the virus we have made the difficult decision to close the school to all children and staff.
“The school will close with immediate effect for 10 days. This will be classed as a circuit breaker and school will reopen on Tuesday 2nd February. We have taken advice from Infection Control, Public Health England and the Department for Education, as well as thorough scrutiny of our Risk Assessment, which has led to this important and informed decision.
“Remote learning will continue for all children.”
The nearest community Covid-19 testing centre is Splash World, Southport, PR8 1HX. If your child has covid- 19 symptoms please book a test through NHS track and trace, by phoning 119 or using the NHS Covid-19 app.
Any Churchtown Primary School parents and carers are being asked to help monitor the ongoing situation by informing school of any positive cases using the email – covid@churchtown.org.uk
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