School to close early to avoid pupils having to self-isolate over Christmas

A comprehensive school is closing early for the school holidays so families don’t have to isolate over the Christmas period.

St Martin’s School in Caerphilly will end term a week early on Thursday, December 10.

It comes after a number of parents asked to pull their children out of school in the run-up to Christmas to avoid the risk of them having to self-isolate over the festive period.

Following requests from parents, the school carried out a survey to gather parents’ views.

Of those who responded, 68% said they were planning to keep their children off school for the last week of term (December 14 to December 18).

Current guidelines require pupils to self-isolate for 14 days if they come into contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.

Headteacher Lee Jarvis wrote to parents to explain the school’s decision to finish a week earlier than planned.

In the letter, he said: “By self-isolating now, the hope is that there will be less need to self-isolate over the Christmas period and that there will be fewer cases of children identified as close contact with a positive case from school.”

Mr Jarvis said he had been “hopeful that the Welsh Government would have taken a proactive approach to deliver distancing learning in the final week of school”.

However, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said schools should continue to stay open until the end of term.

St Martin’s currently has two year groups self-isolating following positive cases and “a large number awaiting test results”.

Mr Jarvis, school governors and Caerphilly County Borough Council had discussed a number of options, including closing the school on health and safety grounds or running lessons online.

However, it was decided that inset days planned for the summer holidays would be moved forward to the end of the current term.