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PVA glue eating and finger painting had to be suspended at one school in south London this week after an entire reception class was sent home over a monkeypox scare.
The Evening Standard reported that the kids’ classes have been suspended until the end of term (two weeks away) after one of the children came into contact with someone who had the bug.
The pox are spread by close contact, so under the advice of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), Grand Avenue Primary and Nursery School in Surbiton thought it’d be best to send the kiddies home to prevent any new infections. Although this might be a spanner in the work for a lot of the parents, we’re sure the wee'uns will be happy to have an extended summer holiday.
In a letter to parents, the school said that although the virus was an 'extremely low risk to their community’, they had to follow the correct government guidance and close as a precaution.
The letter said: ‘The whole of the Reception team and the School leadership are devastated that the end of this academic year is having to finish this way for the children.’
Grand Avenue school also apologised for ‘the short notice’ and said that the pupils would be offered the monkeypox vaccine. Parents were advised to avoid hugging their kids and to monitor them for any symptoms, which could include a fever, headaches, chills and swollen lymph nodes.
According to UKHSA, this week there were 1,735 cases of the virus in the country, with three quarters of them being in London. Whoopee.
Cases are thought to be doubling every 15 days. But before we all run to self-isolate in a remote hut on the Isle of Man, we don’t need to panic, because most instances are mild with people recovering after a couple of weeks.
Epidemic got you stuck with the kids? These are the 100 best things to do with wee’uns in the city.