Year 7 students at Hartsdown Academy in Margate has been sent home today (November 5) following a confirmed positive covid case.
The five Year 7 classes and a number of staff now need to isolate until November 18.
A message was sent to parents and carers this morning, saying: “We have been made aware that we have a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) at Hartsdown.”
All Year 7 pupils who are eligible for free school meals have also been issued with a £30 shopping voucher to cover the two week isolation period.
Hartsdown is just the latest in a growing list of Thanet schools reporting positive Covid cases.
Yesterday Newington primary asked two Year 3 classes to self-isolate until November 19 after a staff member had a positive test.
Upton Junior School in Broadstairs is operating as usual following the positive testing of a female teaching assistant during the half term break.
A message sent to parents and carers this week says one staff member tested positive for the virus during half term and, as a result of contact during the school break, some other staff members are now isolating. No teaching bubbles or year groups and classes have been affected.
King Ethelbert School also had three students with positive tests over the half term. The affected students are in self-isolation and the school says Public Health England advice is that there is no need for classes or year bubbles to isolate.
Other schools to have been affected since the full return to class in September including Royal Harbour Academy, Minster primary, Bromstone, Dame Janet Primary in Ramsgate, Garlinge primary, St Anthony’s School, Ellington infants, Chatham and Clarendon, Dane Court, Cliftonville primary, St George’s CofE and St Ethelbert’s primary.
Government guidelines say a person who tests positive should isolate for 10 days while anyone who has been in close contact with them must self-isolate for 14 days.
Close contact is deemed to be:
Direct close contacts – face-to-face contact with an infected individual for any length of time, within one metre, including being coughed on, a face-to-face conversation or unprotected physical contact (skin-to-skin).
Proximity contacts – extended close contact (within one or two metres for more than 15 minutes) with an infected individual.
Travelling in a small vehicle, like a car, with an infected person.
