Year 7 students at Hartsdown Academy in Margate have been notified that they need to self isolate again following confirmation of a person from the bubble testing positive for Covid.
Pupils will be able to return to school on December 11. A notice was published on the school website yesterday (November 28).
Year 7 had only returned to school on November 19 following a previous confirmed case.
Students in Year 8, 9 and 11 have also been isolating. Years 9 and 11 are due to return to school on December 4.
A letter to parents today (November 29) says Sixth Form students must also isolate until December 11 following a confirmed case in the year bubble.
More than 25 Thanet schools have been hit with year group closures since September and Ursuline in Westgate closed the entire school until December 1.
Sandwich Tech also shut down but is due to reopen tomorrow (November 30).
During the week St George’s C/E school asked Year 8 students to remain at home until December 7 because, alongside a small number of Covid infections, the school is ‘simply running out of staff.’
In a letter from headteacher Adam Mirams to parents and carers it is revealed that on any one day during the last week between 25 and 30 staff were absent, mainly due to having to isolate.
Mr Mirams said: “This clearly places huge amounts of pressure on all areas of the school and we are ensuring we can keep open to as many year groups as possible.
“This has resulted in large numbers of staff doing new things and making changes to their daily routines with no major noticeable effect on the children.
“However the impact is that certain practices at present are simply not possible across the school.”
This month Kent’s director for public health Andrew Scott-Clark said school closures are decisions made by principals rather then Public Health England and are mostly based not just on positive cases but also on staffing ratios.
He added: “Schools have done an amazing job under very trying circumstances.
“Letters have gone out to schools asking that they ensure at least key worker children are kept in education. Schools closing has an impact on parents, particularly care and healthcare workers and also police, fire and rescue, prisons and essential infrastructure.”
He added that work has taken place to make sure school cases are effectively managed.
