A second member of staff at a Hove secondary school has tested positive for coronavirus.
In a letter sent home to parents of Cardinal Newman pupils this afternoon, head of school Claire Jarman told parents a handful of students have been advised to self isolate.
The news comes just days after a teaching assistant tested positive last Friday, leading to pupils from two year seven classes being told to stay at home for 14 days.
In today’s letter, Ms Jarman said: “Unfortunately we have had another member of staff who has tested positive for Covid-19.
“In conjunction with Public Health England we have spent the whole of today completing a risk assessment and have identified a small number of students who would have had sufficient contact to have been advised to self-isolate for 14 days.
“The contact was minimal and the risk is low but obviously we cannot be too cautious.
“All affected students have been contacted already and given advice.
“I would like to reassure parents and students that this incident occured before we updated and adjusted our guidelines.
“I cannot stress enough the absolute necessity of maintaining strict distancing at all times. If we all do this, we will reduce the risks.”
As well as 47 year seven pupils, four colleagues of the teaching assistant, mainly in the learning support team, were told to self isolate last Friday.
It’s not clear whether the second staff member to test positive was one of these colleagues.