A private school has shut down because of the Covid-19 crisis after just one day back.

Saltus Grammar School said that although its secondary school returned only yesterday, senior pupils would move to remote learning for two weeks from today.

Primary school pupils will start remote learning from Thursday.

Deryn Lavell, the head of school, said in a letter to parents yesterday: “As you are all keenly aware, Bermuda is facing a crisis in terms of the rise in Covid positive cases.

“Many of you have already made the decision to keep your children home and we have a very high rate of absenteeism across primary and secondary today.

“In addition, we now have several teachers and a primary class who must quarantine due to possible exposure and we are concerned that this trend is going to continue for the next few weeks.”

Ms Lavell added that senior staff would be in touch with parents at all levels to outline how remote teaching would be organised.

She said: “We will monitor the situation in Bermuda and stay in close contact with the Health authorities to determine if we can safely re-open in two weeks. I will keep you informed.”

Ms Lavell added: “This is not a decision we undertook lightly, but the safety of our community and our ability to properly staff our on-campus learning are priorities.”

She said teachers, advisers and the school counsellor were available to speak to parents if needed.

Ms Lavell appealed to parents to sign their children up for the Covid-19 screening programme run by the Department of Health at the school.