School pupils moved to online learning two days before the summer holidays began to 'break the spread of Covid'. 

The Gilberd School in Colchester decided to ask students to work from home after seeing 13 positive cases of Covid. 

It had lead to a 'significant number' of pupils self-isolating as a precaution. 

As a result school leaders took the decision to move to online learning on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The school has now broken up for the summer holidays. 

In a post online the school said: "As you will no doubt be aware, nationally, there has been a significant spike in COVID-19 cases among the under 18s and we are seeing the effects of this here.

"We have a growing number of positive cases (currently 13) and a significant number of students who are self-isolating as a precaution under track and trace guidelines.

"Whilst the Essex Test and Trace service assures us that our number of cases is not significantly higher than other schools they are increasing, it is now no longer viable to deliver the curriculum with over half of the students absent from school.

"In addition, we are very conscious of the potential impact of increased cases on our community as a whole.

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"We have taken the decision to move to online lessons from Tuesday July 20 at 8.50am until 12.30pm on Wednesday July 21. Hopefully this will provide a break in the spread of Covid.

"Switching to online learning enables us to ensure that high quality lessons can be delivered and are available for all students, not just those in school.

"This will also help to mitigate the impact on families who might otherwise have to self-isolate due to virus contacts made in school.

"In addition to our remote learning provision, we will also remain open for children of keyworkers. Should you wish to make use of this offer, please email your child’s Head of Year.

"This is certainly not how we would have wished to end the year, it is of course unfortunate that we have had to make this decision but we feel it is in the best interests of our students and the community as a whole. We look forward with optimism to the new academic year."