A SECONDARY school in Herefordshire will reopen tomorrow (Friday) after self-isolating teachers were told they no longer had to.

Lady Hawkins' School in Kington closed on Tuesday after students reported positive coronavirus test result from kits used at home.

But PCR tests, which have to be processed by a laboratory and are thought to be slightly more reliable, came back negative.

A spokesperson for the school said they followed the guidance from Herefordshire's outbreak control team in closing the school from Tuesday to Thursday, and thanked parents for their understanding and students for turning to home learning so quickly.

RELATED NEWS:

Almost half the school's workforce were deemed to be close contacts of the children who reported positive results, so were told to self-isolate on Tuesday.

It left the school without enough staff to open the school, so remained closed until the cases were confirmed.

But as it has been confirmed there are no cases at the school in Park View, all children can return on Friday after a few days learning from home.

"It has been confirmed there are no cases here at Lady Hawkins'," the spokesperson said.

"We are fully reopening tomorrow and very happy to be doing so."

They said the safety of the school community comes first and this must always be paramount.

ALSO READ:

Secondary school and college students across the country have been asked to do twice-weekly Covid-19 tests at home using lateral flow devices since schools fully reopened earlier this month.

When a lateral flow device shows a positive result, a PCR test is recommended to confirm the result.

But in this instance at Lady Hawkins', which has around 289 pupils, the confirmatory test came back negative.