Castleford secondary school sends home three year groups after staff test positive for Covid-19

Airedale Academy has asked students in years 8, 12 and 13 to work from home next week, beginning Monday, October 12, after a series of cases left the school with a staffing shortage.

Three staff members have tested positive for Covid-19, it has been confirmed, and several more have been advised to self-isolate.

It is understood that a limited number of students have also tested positive for the virus, though these cases are not believed to be linked.

A spokesperson for Northern Ambition Academies Trust, which runs the school, said that maintaining a high standard of learning would remain the priority.

The situation will be reviewed each day to ensure that pupils can return to school as soon as possible.

In a letter to parents, principal Lyndsey Proctor said: "Due to current levels of staff absence resulting in insufficient staff to cover all classes, we will require all Year 8 students to work at home from Monday 12th October until Friday 16th October.

"We recognise that this is not ideal; however, we will review the situation regularly and give you a further update on Friday 16th October, when we hope the staffing situation will have improved. We will endeavour to return students to lessons in school as soon as it is possible to do so.

"Airedale Academy provides all online learning via the Google Classroom Remote Learning Platform. All students should be aware of their Google Classroom log-in and, therefore, should be able to access the work provided via this platform.

"The work set will appear in the class stream for each subject that your child would have if they were in school and will replicate the hours of learning that they would normally have for a given subject. This will form the basis of the work your child needs to complete next week."

Parents whose children are affected by any future closures will be contacted directly, the school said.