CORONAVIRUS outbreaks have been confirmed at two more Bury primary schools.

Two thirds of pupils at St Bernadette's RC Primary School in Whitefield have been sent home after a number of confirmed Covid-19 cases.

Another class of pupils have also been self-isolating following a case at Holly Mount RC Primary School in Greenmount.

St Bernadette's has told some 200 of the around 300 pupils on the school rolls to quarantine.

Four cases of the virus have been confirmed among one staff member and three children at the school.

These cases have occurred across several year groups, and pupils from Nursery, Year 1, Year 2, Year 5 and Year 6 classes are not currently in school.

David Proctor, head teacher at St Bernadette’s, said the safety of pupils and staff has been made paramount upon the return to class last week.

He added: "We drew up comprehensive plans to deal with any Covid outbreak on return to school, in line with guidance from Public Health England and the local infection team.

“Unfortunately we have had four cases of coronavirus in school – three children and one member of staff.

"These were spread across a number of our year groups, which is why – after taking advice from PHE – we had to ask a large number of pupils to self-isolate.

“We have written to all parents, those whose children are now at home and those in our year groups that are still attending school, to keep them informed.

"Parents have been very supportive, realising why we have taken this ‘safety first’ approach to caring for their children.

“We trust that these measures will contain the virus and we look forward to welcoming back all our pupils shortly.

“As per our contingency plan, the pupils will be receiving a high quality education remotely and staff are in constant communication with our families.”

Around 30 pupils from Year1/2 at Holly Mount have also been self-isolating for the last seven days.

This comes after a staff member tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

It is expected that the children will be able to return to the classroom from next Thursday.

Headteacher Eleanor England said: "We have followed Public Health England Guidelines and we have very robust measures so we were able to pin it down and just isolate one class of children for 14 days.

"These are pupils in Year 1/2 ­— as we have split classes."

Mrs England also highlighted that despite the best efforts of schools cases of coronavirus were coming into classrooms around the borough due people's actions outside of school.

She said: "You can be as safe as safe as you want to be but it's outside behaviour that's determining them all in our schools.

"And that's what we are all battling against."