A Brighton secondary school has sent home 200 year 10 pupils after a clutch of positive test results.
So far, all the positive tests at Dorothy Stringer school have been from lateral flow home tests and the school is now awaiting results from the more accurate and sensitive PCR tests.
But meanwhile, because of socialising and Duke of Edinburgh workshops held over the weekend, a large number of pupils had come into recent close contact and are being told to stay at home and self-isolate.
There’s no suggestion any pupils had been breaking any current covid regulations.
Stringer head Matt Hillier said: “We were contacted last night by a parent, whose child had undertaken a lateral flow test using their home testing kits, and this was positive.
“In line with guidance we have tracked and traced all those potentially who have had face to face contact with this student and we called the affected families late last night, so that there was no further transmission in school.
“The guidance is a PCR test must be completed to ratify the lateral flow test and this has been completed today and we await the outcome.
“We were subsequently informed of another lateral flow positive result and to keep the community safe we quickly mobilised our testing in school of all of Year 10.
“Some asymptomatic cases were found and therefore further students were sent home as a precaution whilst we await the results of the PCR tests.
“Many who were sent home had met socially on Saturday and some were our Duke of Edinburgh workshops which were held over the weekend. Whilst this group did not camp, there were team bonding activities, and so we felt it made sense to ask the students to go home until we have the confirmed PCR results.
“We are in contact with Public Health England and have taken their advice to continue to keep our community safe.”
how much is a “clutch”?