Leeds Jewish Free School is set to welcome back pupils and staff on Monday after a Covid outbreak forced a switch to online learning. 

The school building closed on Thursday of last week after cases spread within several form groups soon after pupils returned from a school holiday, governor, Councillor Dan Cohen told the JC.

“I’m amazingly proud of how our staff and students have coped with the challenge of 10 days of virtual learning and we are excited to see everybody back in school,” he said. 

He declined to reveal the number of cases. 

“The suspicion is actually that it came in from the holidays, not from the school itself,” he said.

“They were all together and I know there were barbecues and things, for example, where lots of kids were at.”

LJFS would “go back to masks in the corridors” and encourage social distancing in the period before it breaks up for the summer holidays early next month. 

According to new figures from the Office for National Statistics, Covid cases rose in England last week among those from school year 12 to age 34. But there were signs of a decrease among those in school years seven to 11.