Covid variant compels top British private schools to send pupils home

Some of Britain’s top private schools have been forced to close after the virulent Delta coronavirus variant swept through them.

Pupils at Marlborough College and Uppingham School, both in England, have been sent home early after Covid outbreaks, The Times reported.

Children from overseas who board at the schools must self-isolate for 10 days before they can return to their home countries.

More than 600 pupils at the £39,000-a-year ($53,929) Uppingham School, where Stephen Fry and the cricketer Jonathan Agnew were educated, were initially forced to isolate for 10 days after 56 of them tested positive for Covid. But teaching was moved online last month and, for the second year in a row, sports day and speech day were cancelled, as was the leavers’ ball.

The gates at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, where Kate Middleton went to school, will now be shut until September term starts after a significant rise in cases. It also had to cancel prize day, moving it online instead.

Other independent schools reported to have closed include £36,000-a-year Monkton Combe School, near Bath, and Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital, a day school in Bristol. Parents at Channing School, in London, were told last week that lessons would be taught online until the end of term.

Last month, Oundle School, in Northamptonshire, was hit by an outbreak of Covid-19 after pupils returned from the half-term holidays, but managed to stay open.

In the government school sector, at least one in 20 children is absent in England owing to the spread of Covid.

Official figures show a 66 per cent increase in the number of infected pupils. More than 384,500 children were sent home to isolate in June.

While deaths and hospital admissions have fallen, largely down to half of all adults having two vaccine doses, the infection rate has surged from 2,000 a day in mid-May to its current rate of 23,000 a day.

More than 90 per cent of cases are of the Delta variant, which was first identified in India.

The government is now assessing whether to begin vaccinating all children aged 12 and above to avoid further disruption in the autumn term. Like those in many other countries, Britain’s children have suffered severe educational setbacks over the past 15 months, with many receiving very little tuition.

“This is having a real impact in schools and the level of disruption is now very high,” said Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers trade union.

“The government simply does not appear to have a grip on this situation and there is a real concern that we will continue to see these numbers continue to rise in the coming weeks.”