However keen the Government is to quickly get healthy children vaccinated against Covid, more than half of schools in England will fail to host Covid vaccinations by its target date, according to a new survey of headteachers. The Guardian has the story.
A survey by the Association of School and College Leaders [ASCL] found that only two out of every five secondary schools will have had a visit from vaccination teams by the October half-term break.
The survey also revealed that 95% of headteachers said teaching has been affected by pupil and staff absences, with nearly a third rating the impact as severe. 93 school leaders reported pupil absences of 10% or higher, while 63 schools said 10% or more of their staff were absent for Covid-related seasons. [sic] …
[ASCL’s General Secretary Geoff] Barton… said an “additional difficulty” for schools was having to deal with anti-vaccination protesters. 13% of the 526 eligible schools reported seeing protesters outside their school.“This is at best incredibly unhelpful, and at worst very distressing, and we appeal to those concerned to see sense and stop this nonsense,” Barton added.
The Department for Education has said that in schools that have been visited, uptake rates were around 35% of pupils.
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