Unaccompanied minors arriving from a red list country to attend boarding school
How unaccompanied students under 18 years old can quarantine in boarding school accommodation.
Added content about changes to restrictions as a result of the
SARS-COV-2 OMCIRON variant. Four more countries have been added to the red
list.
Applies to England
Red list update, Sunday 28 November 2021
South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe moved onto the red list at 12.00 midday Friday 26 November.
Angola, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia moved onto the red list at 4am Sunday 28 November.
Check which countries and territories are on the red list and read the red list rules.
You should follow different guidance if you have not been in a country on the red list in the 10 days before you arrive in England.
Everyone who has been in or travelled through a country on the red list in the 10 days before arriving in England must quarantine for 10 days on arrival. For the majority of travellers, this means staying in a managed quarantine hotel.
Unaccompanied minors travelling from a red list country to attend a boarding school approved by the Secretary of State for Education may be able to quarantine in accommodation provided by their boarding school. A minor is someone who is under the age of 18.
This guidance is for students who are minors (under 18), and their families.
You can read more about minors travelling alone from red list countries in the ‘Unaccompanied minors’ section of the detailed guidance for red list arrivals.
Only students who are a British or Irish national or have residence rights in the UK are allowed to travel to England from a red list country.
Before travelling
If the boarding school is able to provide accommodation for the student to quarantine, they will provide the student’s parent, guardian or appropriate adult with information on quarantine arrangements and outline steps they must take to arrange their travel to the UK.
The boarding school student must take a coronavirus (COVID-19 test and get a negative result during the 3 days before they travel.
In addition, the student or an adult responsible for the student must:
- book and pay for a travel test package through Corporate Travel Management (CTM) – the package will include COVID-19 tests to be taken on day 2 and day 8 of their quarantine
- complete a passenger locator form with details of where they will quarantine, when they will arrive and the travel test package booking reference number
On arrival in England
The boarding school will provide the under-18 student with 2 letters to present to UK Border Force officials on arrival.
One will be a copy of a letter from the Department for Education to the school confirming that boarding school students are covered by an exemption. This means they do not need to stay in a managed quarantine hotel.
The second will be a letter from the school to the student.
A representative of the boarding school will meet the student at their port of entry and transport them directly to the boarding school accommodation where they will quarantine.
Quarantining at a boarding school
The terms of the boarding school quarantine are legal requirements, and under-18 students quarantining there must follow the rules set out by their school.
There is separate guidance for owners and managers of boarding schools, setting out the requirements that boarding school quarantine accommodation must meet.
Some of this information may be useful for parents and students, including details on:
- how long students must quarantine for
- arrangements for meals, room cleaning, disposing of rubbish and laundry
- what provisions will be made for students to exercise
- what COVID-19 tests the students must take
- what happens if students test positive for COVID-19 while they are quarantining
- what conditions must be met for quarantine to end
Last updated 28 November 2021
