Teachers, pupils and parents in Wolverhampton have been praised for their 'herculean' efforts over the past few months. 

Schools in the city continued to deliver a first class education to children and young people during the autumn term – despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

Attendance remained strong throughout, even though a number of schools needed to introduce remote learning for classes and year groups because pupils or teachers had to self-isolate. 

Councillor Dr Mike Hardacre, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, said: "We always knew it would be an incredible achievement for our schools to remain open over the last few months, but everyone has worked fantastically hard to make it happen – from school leaders, teachers, parents and pupils to the education team here at the council. 

"Our schools have been able to make themselves as Covid-secure as possible, while continuing to deliver excellent teaching and support day in, day out, to our children and young people. 

"I hope that everyone can get a well-deserved break over Christmas and New Year, because the spring term is unfortunately likely to be just as tough as the one that has just ended. And once again, I thank you all for your herculean efforts this autumn." 

Meanwhile, the council is working closely with local headteachers after the Government announced that secondary schools and colleges would be able to test staff and students using rapid Covid-19 testing from next term. 

Councillor Hardacre added: "Our schools are generally very safe environments, and testing will only make them safer. However, the logistics of delivering rapid testing at this scale will be incredibly challenging, and so we are taking a calm and measured approach. 

"We have developed a plan of support for secondary schools and we are in regular dialogue with headteachers about their intentions because, ultimately, it is up to individual schools as to whether they wish to – and, indeed, are able to – introduce rapid testing. 

"We will give them as much assistance as we can, based on our experiences of establishing a number of rapid testing sites around the city, and the pilot of rapid testing for teachers which we held in primary schools last week." 

The latest information and guidance around coronavirus is available at www.gov.uk/coronavirus and on the council’s own coronavirus pages at www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/coronavirus. Further details of the Tier 3 Very High Alert restrictions currently in place, and the answers to frequently asked questions, are available at www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/covidalert.