Gosport school cancels Chinese students visit due to coronavirus epidemic

Bay House School has had a long-standing exchange programme with Chinese schools which led to the school receiving the International School Award. Last summer Gosport pupils spent a week in China as part of the Mandarin Excellence Programme and as part of the arrangement Bay House was looking forward to welcoming Chinese students next week.

However, organisers have had to cancel the trip due to travel restrictions which have been imposed to stop the spread of the virus.

School leaders said: ‘Due to the travel restrictions currently imposed in China, the planned visit to the Gosport and Fareham Multi Academy Trust (of which Bay House is part) has been cancelled by the organisers. Families due to host our visitors have been informed by the organisation.

‘We are grateful to our parents, staff and youngsters for all the hard work that has taken place for this now-cancelled visit.’

The potentially fatal virus is believed to have originated in the city of Wuhan which has been effectively placed in lock-down with no trains or planes allowed in or out of the city and the bus stations closed.

While the exact location of where the Chinese children were travelling from has not been revealed, China’s government has now widened travel restrictions to include 10 cities across the province of Hubei affecting an estimated 20m people.

The virus has so far killed 26 people with 830 confirmed cases across the country.