A school has installed thermal cameras as part of a £21,000 spend on measures to combat the spread of Covid-19.
The King David High School in Crumpsall has invested £5,900 on the technology, which allows them to scan 30 children a second for signs of a temperature.
Installed this week and positioned at the top of the main stairs, a machine will flash red if it recognises a higher temperature and pupils will be asked to stand aside to have the temperature taken with a forehead thermometer.
If a fever is confirmed, children will be sent home immediately.
Pupils with a runny nose, cough, or any other symptoms are asked not to come to school at all.
As well as the sensors, school leaders have implemented a number of other measures to handle the pandemic. They include:
- £6,000 on creating 'cashless kitchens' so money doesn't have to change hands
- 47 hand sanitising pumps for £1,200
- Web cameras and microphones in every room so isolating pupils can follow classes from home for £7,600
- Floor markers and signs for £800
The school has also made mask-wearing compulsory - a decision made long before Boris Johnson's u-turn which means schools outside of lockdown restrictions can now choose to make it obligatory - and has divided children into year group bubbles.
Lunch time sessions will divide children into sets of 100. They will sit spaced out facing in one direction and have 15-minute allotted time slots to eat pre-prepared food.
Joshua Roe, school chairman, told the Manchester Evening News they were 'weeks ahead' of the Government in their measures, having made masks compulsory throughout.
He added: "We are thrilled to have the kids back but we've got to understand that going back to school is a high risk venture.
"The Government has not been honest about this. What they should be saying is that going back is a high risk venture but not going back is an even higher risk venture.
"The Government shouldn't pretend it's easy, safe, don't bother with masks, don't wash uniforms regularly. That's nonsense.
"They should be saying it's high risk but the other risks of not going back to school - to the economy and to education - are much greater risks."
He said the decision to return meant schools had to take 'extraordinary measures' to mitigate the risks, adding: "Kids can be carriers therefore we have to mitigate and make sure risks are minimal to staff, other kids, to families they go back to.
"That's why we're taking drastic steps because wearing a mask isn't pleasant."
He said only those with a GP certificate would be exempt from wearing a mask, and that self-certifying letters would not be accepted as a valid excuse.
The school has remained open during the crisis to pupils who are children of keywokers or who were unable to self-motivate at home.
But he says the expenditure has made it necessary to ask for hand-outs from donors, adding: "The school already had a huge deficit because the Government cut the budget by £1.5m a year.
"We have to raise money from donors. It's scary. We go around raising money, we have to collect money.
"It's a nightmare, the Government doesn't fund our school adequately and never has.
"The Government funds schools with lots of problems but not those with less problems. I understand the reasoning, but schools like ours end up short of money."
