Wokingham school records Covid 'outbreak' in three of its year groups

Holt School in Wokingham has said it is currently facing an "outbreak" of Covid-19, which is affecting years 9-11.

An outbreak is where 10% or more pupils in a year group test positive for Covid-19.

To try and stop the spread of coronavirus, the school said it had to make "additional arrangements" to try and "burn out" the outbreak.

All pupils in the affected year groups have now been asked to take a PCR test over the next couple of days, with those testing negative expected to return to school as normal on Monday.

Watch: Milly Allen, a pupil at Holt School, talks about the impact this is having on her education.

Currently, all pupils in years 9-11 have been sent home and will be learning via TEAMS, as was seen during the height of the pandemic.

Today (Thursday 7th October) all pupils will be sent home at 12:25pm as the school is closing early for an event, which has now been cancelled.

All pupils are now being asked to wear face coverings in communal areas to reduce transmission, though it remains optional.

Watch: Geoff Barton, from the Association of School and College Leaders, explains what challenges educational settings are facing.

In a statement sent to parents Holt School said:

"We realise that this arrangement may cause some inconvenience, but we need you to work with us to ‘burn out’ the outbreak. If we reduce transmission, we hope that the situation will have improved by half term so that families do not have their plans disrupted. By allowing two days of remote learning for Years 9, 10 and 11 to allow for a PCR test, we hope will mean fewer students will contract the virus and therefore have to self-isolate for 10 days.

"As always please encourage your daughter/son to diligently take a lateral flow test, twice a week, ideally on Mondays and Thursdays.

"Finally, we wish our Covid positive students a good recovery and hope that their symptoms are mild. If self-isolating students have any queries about schoolwork, please can they email their Heads of Year.

"We will be in touch with further updates next week."