TWO pupils at Middlewich High School have tested positive for Covid.

The families of a year 8 and year 11 student have notified the school of positive results after routine tests were taken at home.

All year 11 students have been asked to stay at home today and follow lessons online.

Staff are now contact tracing and will notify families of year 8 students as soon as they find out if their children have been in close contact. They will need to go home.

Headteacher Heidi Thurland said: "We have a lateral flow test (LFT) positive result for a year 8 and year 11 student. This is an inevitable consequence of asymptotic testing and allows us to keep our community safe.

"We have acted swiftly to identify close contacts and provide support and advice to families.

"All positive LFT tests are followed up with a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test which will allow us to check if this is a false positive result or not.

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"We are working closely with the local authority and Public Health England to provide accurate advice to all families and to ensure that our decision making is effective.

"We are once again thankful for the excellent support from families and for their continued commitment to home testing and their support when we need to act swiftly when cases are reported.

"Student learning will continue on google classrooms today with teachers setting work and delivering live lessons thus reducing the impact of time out of school."

A year 7 pupil tested positive two weeks ago in a LFT test but this later proved to be a false positive.

The school has not yet had any confirmed cases of Covid.