Partial school closure extended at Papdale

The four Papdale Primary School classes which have been closed due to COVID-19 have been asked to stay at home for the remainder of this week.

According to Orkney Islands Council, the affected classes — P3M, P6E, P7E and P7M — will remain closed mainly due to COVID-19-related staffing issues and a continuous small rise in pupil cases.

The situation at Papdale Nursery, which has been fully closed since Monday, remains under review.

The decision to extend the partial closure was made today following an inter-disciplinary meeting of NHS Orkney Public Health, representatives of the council’s education service, environmental health, safety and resilience and the school and nursery.

The situation is being kept under constant review by those involved based on the information available each day and communications are being shared with parents as quickly as is possible.

Online learning to those pupils having to remain at home is being provided by the school.

As of Tuesday, there are 47 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among pupils and seven among staff at Papdale Primary School. A further four staff are awaiting PCR tests or results. In total, 13 Papdale staff are off work today due to illness or other reasons.

A total of 197 pupils remain within class today, and a further 116 are receiving online learning, out of a school roll of 441. The remainder — 128 pupils — are absent from school for a variety of reasons, including COVID, other illness, or due to parental concerns.

James Wylie, OIC’s executive director of education, leisure and housing said: “It is unfortunate that we remain in the position today that we cannot safely reopen the four classes mentioned for the remainder of the school week due to COVID-related staffing shortages and the continuous slight rise in pupil cases across these classes.

“It is important that this messaging is conveyed to parents as soon as possible in respect of the remainder of the school week to allow them the time to make appropriate childcare arrangements.

“Head Teacher Wendy Bowen will be contacting parents now to make them aware of the decision and Nursery Manager Caroline Easton will also be updating those who use the nursery facility. We are continuing to hold daily meetings and if the position changes we will update accordingly.

“As always, I thank staff for their hard work in trying to manage this situation and parents for their understanding.”