A YORK secondary school will only open to certain age groups from today.

Joseph Rowntree School in New Earswick has asked pupils in Years 8 and 9 to stay at home due to staff shortages from today(March 18).

Huntington School has now also said it will be shutting to certain year groups from today.

The school's head teacher, Dave Hewitt, said: “Following the Government’s guidance for groups who are at particular risk from Coronavirus to self-isolate, we are supporting a significant number of our teaching and support staff to remain at home.
 

"This means that we have had to take the difficult decision to close the school to students in Years 8 and 9 as we are unable to staff the whole school timetable.

"The school will remain closed to these students until the Easter holiday in the first instance.

"We recognise the significant impact this will have, not only on students and their learning, but also on families at this difficult time. This is not a decision we have taken lightly and was reached after consultation with City of York Council and the Governing Body."

The school will be providing on-line resources for students to access from home during the next few days and will keep parents and carers informed of next steps.  

Students in Years 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13 should still attend school as normal. This decision has been taken to allow exam classes to continue as long as possible and to keep our youngest year group in school. The majority of lessons in these year groups will be staffed by the normal teachers but there will be some cover arrangements put in place. 
 
The school is uploading resources to Google Classroom that will be accessible from home for all students and we will contact you shortly to share further information on how to access these resources so that students can continue learning from home.