Scarborough primary school forced to close due to coronavirus case

East Ayton Primary School closed on Wednesday to all children and will not re-open until after the Easter Holidays.

Headteacher Derek Johnson told parents there had been a confirmed case of Covid-19 within school and because of the number of staff needing to self-isolate, there would not be enough of the school's team left to be able to open.

Parents have been told that their children do not need to self-isolate.

Many children only returned to school two weeks ago after more than two months of homeschooling.

In a letter to parents that is on the school's website, Mr Johnson said: "We have been advised by Public Health England that there has been a confirmed case of Covid-19 within the school.

"School and Nursery need to close with immediate effect because of the large number of staff members who now need to self-isolate as a result of close contact, and there are not sufficient staff members remaining to operate school safely.

"Children do not need to self- isolate as no close contact took place with them but advice from Public Health England is included with this letter.

"School and Nursery will need to stay closed until after the Easter holiday and will re-open on Tuesday, April 13."

Another letter on the school's website dated Thursday, also from Mr Johnson, said: "After keeping the Covid -19 virus out of school for a year it was with extreme reluctance that I had to take the decision to close school yesterday, a decision that was only taken after a long morning of consultation with the Department for Education, Public Health England and North Yorkshire County Council.

"Until yesterday, East Ayton was one a very few schools in North Yorkshire not to have to close some part of school over the past year, which Public Health England gave us considerable credit for, whilst also recognising that it was very unlikely that we would not be effected at some point regardless of how rigorously we followed the risk assessment.

"You will appreciate that I am not able to go into detail about the specific case but just to reiterate that the closure of school was due to the limited availability of staff making opening unsafe."