St Joseph’s College on Beulah Hill is the latest school to have been forced into taking action after a pupil tested positive for coronavirus.
St Joseph’s College: pupil tested positive for the virus
It brings to 10 the number of schools – primary and secondary – across Croydon and Sutton which have had confirmed cases of covid-19 among their staff or pupils, requiring some or all of certain years groups or teachers to self-isolate for two weeks.
Staff and pupils only returned to schools at the start of September after a six-month lockdown caused by the virus, and most schools are only beginning their third full week of term today.
The websites of St Joseph’s College website and local education authority Croydon Council have no notification of the positive covid-19 test at the Upper Norwood boys’ Catholic school.
But Inside Croydon has had sight of a message sent to all parents and carers last Monday by headteacher David Garrido. It said that a Year 10 pupil – aged between 14 and 15 – had a confirmed positive test for the virus and that “all Year 10 students have been sent home to self-isolate for 14 days… The return date for all students without any symptoms is Tuesday 29th September.
Thelatest national coronavirus figures, provided by PHE and the BBC. The description of “mass testing available” may only be possible in the loosest sense of the phrase
“All remaining year groups are expected to return to school as normal unless they are experiencing symptoms of the virus and if so, testing must be completed and results must be confirmed before their return.”
Over the past 10 days, Inside Croydon has reported similar shutdowns at West Thornton Primary and Ridgeway Primary, in Sanderstead, followed by action being taken at Crescent Primary, Selhurst and the Virgo Fidelis girls’ convent school in Upper Norwood, while in Sutton the borough’s director of public health confirmed that John Fisher School, Devonshire Primary and St Elphege’s Primary had all been affected by covid-19 positives.
Now, it has also been reported that a pupil in the sixth form attending Glenthorne High School at Sutton Common had a confirmed case of covid-19 last week. Parents there were assured that a “small number” of pupils had come into contact with the infected person and that only those who had been in close proximity will be made to self-isolate.
And parents of children attending All Saints Benhilton in Sutton were notified on September 16 that a child, in Year 2, had tested positive for covid-19, with the school saying that they were to “proactively isolate any children and staff members that have come in close contact with the child”.
Read more: Inside Croydon’s archive of coronavirus pandemic coverage
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