School closes after single confirmed case of virus

Academy tells pupils to stay at home as 100 of its 800 students face two weeks of self-isolation

AN ACADEMY in Staffordshire has become the first school to shut down this academic year after a single case of coronavirus.

The JCB Academy in Rocester, which welcomed pupils back at the end of last month, told pupils to stay at home on Friday following advice from public health officials.

It is believed to be the first time since schools reopened for the new term that an entire institution has closed its doors due to coronavirus.

JCB Academy’s principal said it closed to all students yesterday “as a precaution” after one pupil tested positive for Covid-19.

It comes as a major Public Health England report found that turning up to primary or pre-school presents no greater risk to children or staff than staying at home.

However, a poll found that one in five heads said a pupil did not attend school on the first day of term because their parents were too scared about coronavirus.

Another 20 per cent of school leaders said they had a pupil in their school who did not attend on the first day because they are self-isolating, according to the survey by the National Association of Headteachers.

The survey of over 800 heads found that four-fifths reported high attendance of between 91 and 100 per cent on the first day of the new term.

Jenny Mcguirk, principal at JCB Academy, which specialises in engineering and business education for pupils aged 13-18, said the school would reopen on Monday for all but 100 pupils who have been asked to self-isolate for two weeks.

“Through track and trace, academy staff have worked throughout the day to contact the families of students believed to have been in contact with the individual who has tested positive,” she said. “As a result, around 100 students have now been asked to self-isolate for the next 14 days. In the meantime, the JCB Academy will re-open on Monday for the remaining 700 students.”

She said that those who are self-isolating will be able to continue their studies by using Google Classroom.

Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, welcomed PHE’S study on primary schools, describing the results as “hugely encouraging” and evidence that the wider harm to children from missing school is greater than that from coronavirus. Scientists detected only three positive cases out of more than 12,000 pupils and staff tested in primary and pre-schools across England in June and July, the report said. All three cases were mild or asymptomatic.

The government scientists also found that children and staff who attended school more frequently were not more likely to test positive for antibodies than those who did not attend school at all or went less often.

Surveillance revealed similar levels of antibodies in both staff and pupils, suggesting that children are as likely to get infected as adults.

PHE said the low numbers of con- firmed infections in children could be due to them experiencing asymptomatic coronavirus or mild symptoms going undetected, rather than them being less susceptible than adults.

However, PHE said the findings cannot be extrapolated to secondary school pupils, and follow warnings from some experts that adolescents have a higher risk of catching and spreading the virus.

‘Staff have worked through the day to contact families of students who have been in contact with the individual’