Year 9 pupils sent home from North Derbyshire school to self isolate after Covid-19 outbreak

A North Derbyshire school has sent a year group of students home to self-isolate, after 13 pupils tested positive for Covid-19.
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All Year 9 students at Eckington School on Dronfield Road have been told to stay at home today (Wednesday, July 14) and for the remainder of the academic year following an outbreak of positive coronavirus cases.

In a letter sent to parents on Tuesday, July 13, the school said they had been made aware of “a number of students who have recently tested positive for Covid-19 on the weekly Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests, including 13 students in Year 9” over the past two days.

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Senior management staff closed the year-group bubble, after working with the Department for Education and receiving advice from Public Health England about how to manage the outbreak to limit the spread of the virus.

Year 9 students at Eckington School have been sent home to self-isolate after 13 pupils tested positive for Covid-19.Year 9 students at Eckington School have been sent home to self-isolate after 13 pupils tested positive for Covid-19.
Year 9 students at Eckington School have been sent home to self-isolate after 13 pupils tested positive for Covid-19.

Year 9 pupils will now self-isolate at home and learn remotely until the school term officially ends and breaks up for summer on Friday, July 23.

Students will access their work via an online portal or email and live lessons will be held virtually from tomorrow (Thursday, July 15).

The school said they aim to ensure the majority of lessons for self-isolating Year 9 pupils will be held through live teaching sessions online but staffing issues or in school events may prevent this.

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Pupils will be informed of their lessons on their class Teams page or via email.

The letter to parents also praised the students, it read: “As you probably appreciate, this has been an incredibly hard decision to make, as it is the last thing any of us want, especially when it should be a time of celebration for the hard work and resilience shown by the year group.

"Since their return to full-time schooling, even with a backdrop of increasing national infection rates, I have been incredibly proud of how Year 9 students have conducted themselves – they have been positive, resilient and have approached all hurdles with good humour.

"Thanks for your ongoing support – we are incredibly proud of how our whole community have dealt with the threat and disruption of Covid-19 and we will continue to do everything in our power to keep our students safe and well and to help them make good progress in their learning.”

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