Ysgol Friars in Bangor will remain closed to pupils following the half-term holiday following a ‘cluster’ of positive coronavirus cases at the school.

The school confirmed that 8 pupils and a staff member recently tested positive for the virus, which resulted in a large number of other pupils having to self-isolate for 14 days. The school also believe some of older pupils became infected after attending a party.

A letter to parents from head teacher Mr Neil Foden said: “As you may be aware, we had a cluster of Covid cases at the school in the latter part of last week. Anecdotally, we believe some of the older pupils may have become exposed at a party the previous weekend. One of the younger pupils travels on privately arranged home to school transport with pupils from a range of year groups. This caused us to consider how we should respond following the half term holiday.

“Following the Welsh Government’s imposition of the “fire break”, only Y7 and 8 pupils were supposed to be in school for the week after half term (beginning 2nd November). Many of the Y8 pupils who are isolating will not be in school before the end of that week. This meant that the only year group where significant numbers were expected to be in school was Y7. While we have no cases in this year group at present, we had to consider the balance between pupils’ losing a week of face to face teaching (and the resulting inconvenience to their parents) with the need to keep all our pupils and staff safe.

“Having discussed this with the Local Authority, health and safety and public protection officers, the decision has been taken not to reopen the school on 2nd November to any pupils. The school will reopen to all pupils (except those whose period of self-isolation will not have ended by then) on Monday 9th. Staff will provide work for pupils during the week via Microsoft Teams and Show My Homework.

“In order to maximise the effectiveness of this break we urge you to ensure your children observe the government firebreak lock down rules rigorously. The government’s frequently asked questions about the firebreak can be found here: https://gov.wales/coronavirus-firebreak-frequently-asked-questions Thank you for your co-operation and support.”