A PRIMARY school on the Wales/England border will close its nursery bubble from Monday (October 19) after a member of the bubble tested positive for coronavirus.

Headteacher at Ysgol y Waun in Chirk, John Roberts, announced the decision on social media and via the school’s website on Friday, revealing that parents would be informed of the changes and advising children who usually attend the nursery to self-isolate for 14 days.

Term time at the school, which is covered by Wrexham County Borough Council, runs until next Friday, October 23, and Mr Roberts confirmed the rest of the school – bar the nursery – will finish on Friday. He said classes will finish at the earlier time of 1pm in order to allow staff time to deep clean furniture and resources.

In a letter posted on the website, Mr Roberts said: “We have taken the decision to close our nursery classes due to a member of the nursery bubble having tested Covid positive.

“A letter with further information has been placed in the news section of the site and can also be found on twitter. Parents will also be informed of this change via the Seesaw platform.

“All other classes will finish at 12:45-1pm on Friday, October 23, to allow staff to deep clean resources. A letter regarding this has been uploaded to the news section of the website, to our twitter site and to Seesaw accounts.

“Every effort is being made to keep the school clean, safe and open.”

Mr Roberts confirmed the Rainbows Nursery Plus will also be closed and that all staff associated with it will be self-isolating for two weeks. He said all children who have attended the nursey must now self-isolate, even if they don’t have any symptoms.

“We appreciate that this may be a difficult time for families but we have to try and keep everybody safe, at a time when infection rates are, once again, rising,” added the head.

The school is set to reopen on Monday, November 2, although lots could change between now and then, and Mr Roberts is expecting more changes to be made by the Welsh Government next week.

“Further announcements are very likely to be made by Welsh Government in the coming days regarding an extended holiday lockdown period,” he added.

“We will keep you updated on this next week. All correspondence will be electronic this term using the usual platforms (website/Twitter/Seesaw).”

First Minister Mark Drakeford announced in his press conference on Friday that the Welsh Government is looking “very carefully” at a national lockdown that would last weeks, not months.

A decision on the circuit-breaker is expected on Monday. Professor Drakeford said the country faces a “very serious situation” as the number of confirmed cases continue to rise rapidly, adding that such measures would be a "short, sharp shock to all our lives" to slow the spread of the virus in Wales.

“Unless we are able to get coronavirus back under control, there is a real risk our NHS will be overwhelmed,” he said.

“We all need to act together to keep the levels down over the winter ahead.”