THERE was strong reaction to news that a school took the decision to NOT self-isolate pupils and staff following a recent trip to northern Italy.

The Advertiser reported last week that a number of pupils and staff at Alvechurch CofE Middle School recently returned from a skiing trip in northern Italy.

However, those pupils and teachers were not required to self-isolate for two weeks, and so have been in school all last week.

A letter had been sent out to parents of youngsters at the school last week, reportedly reassuring them.

At the time a spokesperson for Alvechurch Middle School said: "We are following the Public Health guidance for returning travellers from that region and as a precaution have ensured that this guidance has been shared with parents.”

This paper has been told that the school is still not asking those staff and students to self-isolate.

Meanwhile, Woodrush High School in Wythall, which also had pupils come back from a trip to northern Italy did ask pupils and staff to self-isolate.

They have now said that all of the students from the ski trip are back at school.

A spokesperson for Woodrush High School said: “The wellbeing of our students, staff and local community remains a priority.

"We have followed advice and precautions as issued by Public Health England with regards to all our students and staff who attended the recent ski trip to northern Italy.

"Based on the advice from Public Health England all of our students who have returned from the ski trip are now back at school.

"We are continuing to monitor the situation and keeping parents regularly updated in line with the latest advice from Public Health England and the Department for Education.”

It comes as schools were told they could potentially close for more than two months if the coronavirus outbreak becomes a pandemic, the Chief Medical Officer warned.

Chris Whitty said that there could be a "social cost" if the virus intensifies resulting in a reduction of mass gatherings, which would see the closure of schools.

Whitty, who is also Chief Medical Adviser to the UK Government, said: "One of the things that’s really clear with this virus, much more so than flu, is that anything we do we’re going to have to do for quite a long period of time, probably more than two months.

“The implications of that are non-trivial, so we need to think that through carefully.

“This is something we face as really quite a serious problem for society potentially if this goes out of control. It may not but if it does globally then we may have to face that.”

He added that the UK would not be exempt in the event of a global pandemic.