A SCHOOL in Herefordshire is having to crack down on its Covid rules to combat a rise in cases, its headteacher has said.

John Kyrle High School in Ross-on-Wye said, like other local schools, it had seen a rise in coronavirus cases in recent days.

Headteacher Nigel Griffiths said the school retained "more stringent" measures when it reopened in September, but it wasn't enough to stop a rise in cases.

He said the school, in Ledbury Road, wants to "take stronger action now in order to limit the impact and prevent further cases".

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In a letter to parents, Mr Griffiths said everyone would need to wear face coverings, including in lessons and school and public transport, unless they were exempt.

Staff would also be teaching from the front of classrooms as much as possible, and open days at the school were cancelled, along with inter-school sports games.

He added that people were asked to not visit the school, which was forced to close early for the summer holidays in July after a spike in cases, unless it was "absolutely necessary".

"We are reviewing our provision for break-time and lunchtime eating arrangements as well," he said in the letter on Monday.

"After school clubs will continue, but again, will be kept under review.

"Our cleaning regime was already enhanced, with additional staff working through the day. We will keep this in place.

"Teachers are making sure classrooms are ventilated by keeping doors and windows open. Staff will also be encouraging hand hygiene, as well as 'catch it, kill it, bin it'."

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Mr Griffiths encourage students to continue with lateral flow Covid tests twice a week, and told parents not to send children to school if they have coronavirus symptoms.

"We will monitor the situation closely over the next few days," he added.

"We hope that increasing our control measures now will allow us to minimise the spread and keep the school operating as normally as possible."

On Friday, Herefordshire Council said more than 1,000 children were off school last week due to coronavirus.

Around half of maintained schools in the county have reported at least one positive coronavirus case, data for Wednesday, September 22 showed.

At those 48 schools there were 494 confirmed cases in pupils.

On top of that, there were a further 585 suspected cases.

It meant 1,079 pupils in Herefordshire were off school on Wednesday due to coronavirus, according to the council's public health team.

Almeley Primary School and Kingstone High School are both closed due to the number of Covid cases found, and Hereford Academy, The Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School, Marlbrook Primary School, Sutton Primary Academy, Weobley High School and Holmer CE Academy are among the schools to confirm cases.