Sunderland school sends home students until September following a rise in coronavirus cases

A secondary school in Sunderland has instructed some students to work from home and not to return to the classroom until September following a rise in COVID cases.
Hetton School.Hetton School.
Hetton School.

Hetton School on North Road has sent a number of students home and instructed them not to return to school until September after a rise in coronavirus cases.

Letters were sent home to parents of students affected after further cases of COVID were identified in school.

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School bosses informed parents in the letter that although some students were not being identified as a direct contact, they had been in a number of classrooms with affected cases.

Affected students may not need to self-isolate if they have not been identified as a direct close contact.

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The letter said: “We realise that this is very inconvenient, but our decision has been made in conjunction with Public Health and is taken with the very best of intentions in a difficult situation.

"Thank you for your understanding on this matter. We are keeping the number of students affected to a minimum and therefore it may not affect other students in the same year group that are in a different academic group/band.”

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The school has not confirmed how many pupils or which student groups have been asked not to return to school.

Mr Craig Knowles, Headteacher at the school said: “We continue to follow Public Health and Department for Education guidelines to identify close contacts of confirmed positive cases of Covid-19, and instruct those students only to self-isolate for the required period.

“We remain open to all students for whom this is not the case.”

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