Covid: Remote studies for 1,000 Littleover pupils after outbreak

The school has closed its doors to pupils in years 7-10

About 1,000 students have been told to study from home after a Covid outbreak at a secondary school.

Littleover Community School in Derby told students in years 7-10 not to come in on Tuesday after reports of Covid cases across year groups.

Derby City Council has set up a drive-through testing site at the school, which will run from Friday until Monday.

The year groups are expected to return to the classroom on 12 July.

Year 7 pupils had already been moved to home learning on 24 June after an increase in cases in their bubble.

But in a letter to pupils and parents, headteacher John Wilding wrote: "Unfortunately, it appears our attempts to bring case numbers under control in school have not worked, as cases have continued to increase.

"The purpose of [the closure] is to allow time for current levels of Covid-19 cases to stabilise and, hopefully, start to drop in school and in the local community."

• Pressure from MPs on rise in pupils sent home

• More than 100 Covid-19 cases in school outbreak

Neither the school, which has more than 1,800 pupils and 200 staff, nor the city council has yet been able to confirm the number of positive Covid cases.

Year 12 pupils are allowed to attend exams at the school and may be able to come to classes next week "if cases remain low" in the year group.

Derby City Council has asked residents in Littleover and Heatherton to perform asymptomatic PCR tests after a rise in cases in the area.

Students, parents, guardians and teachers at the school have also been asked to take PCR tests.

The drive-through and walk-through mobile testing site at the school is open from Friday to Monday between 09:00 and 17:00 BST.

The closure comes after 48 Conservative MPs raised concerns over classroom 'bubbles', which they said had forced 375,000 pupils out of school, even though only 15,000 were Covid positive.

Covid cases are rising nationwide, according to the Office of National Statistics,. Up to 27 June, the seven-day infection rate for Derby was 143 per 100,000 people.

The city's director of public health, Dr Robyn Dewis said: "The rise in cases is not unique to Derby and the Delta variant is causing a rise in cases nationally.

"With restrictions lifting, it's more important than ever that we all do the right thing for Derby.

"This includes making sure we're doing our rapid lateral flow tests twice a week, keeping our distance and washing our hands and wearing face coverings when recommended."