More than a third of schools have at least one in 10 teachers absent due to Covid reasons, as some students refuse to wear masks in class or take tests, according to teaching unions. MailOnline has more.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, said schools so far are largely managing staff absences well, but that education chiefs have warned of trickier times ahead.
A survey by the union found one in three school leaders are experiencing staff absence levels of over 10% as a result of soaring Omicron cases.
A majority (95%) have at least some pupils off for Covid-related reasons at the start of term – and 29% said they had more than 10% of their students absent.
Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has admitted that staff absences are likely to rise in schools in the weeks ahead, amid warnings that heads should prepare for as many as one in four absences.
Mr Whiteman told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “Our members are doing everything they possibly can to keep the show on the road and to make sure face-to-face education continues.
“Our survey of 2,000 school leaders this week tells us more than a third have 10% or more of their staff away for Covid reasons at the moment, but they’re managing that reasonably well, with only 7% of those having to collapse classes into larger classes, and just 4% sending children home.
“That’s on absence rates of about 10%, and the government is warning everybody to expect absence rates of about 25%, so it’s going to be incredibly difficult.
“But yet again what we can see is school leaders and their teams stepping up and rising to the challenge.”
Worth reading in full.
Meanwhile, “huge numbers” of pupils at six secondary schools in the North West are refusing to do LFTs and wear masks according to the NASUWT teaching union. It says one Lancashire school has only 67 children out of 1,300 willing to follow guidance.
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This is a bad sign when you see alignment across the political spectrum for very basic welfare provisions. I’m sure I don’t need to say that they don’t give a crap. Government largesse counts for nothing in times of genuine shortages and they are very much in the pipeline if you track staple food production and its reduction in terms of crop yields and concommitant rise in price. This is the stage that we are at and have you heard a peep about it?
It will be interesting to see how Farage will ensure that child benefit help “British families” rather than people who “come in and have a lot of kids”. A good thing if he can make it happen.
Stop wasting taxpayers money and you do not need to keep robbing them of their money. The DOGE is finding huge amounts of waste which the DemoTwats are fighting against as they and their friends are prospering from the corruption. With the money saved Donald can reduce taxes although the Far Left media keep ignoring this fact and claim Donald will ruin the US economy. The downgrade of the US credit rating from Moody’s is because they are run by a Far Left Trump hater and nothing more.
Dear Nigel,
bribing voters with their own money is part of the problem, not the solution. What about a Great Repeal Act, a proper Brexit and every quango scrapped?
Don’t forget no immigration and remigration.
Do you want to save the country or is Reform just vehicle for making you Prime Minister?
Re your last question, probably somewhere in between but maybe the best we can hope for. I guess I am what people call a minarchist but we are so far from arriving at that as a political philosophy that I have to accept the slim pickings that might arrive.
All these promises sound good, but don’t all politicians promise lots of things, and then abandon them after winning elections?
Look at the two people in the background of that photo above. On the right is the female magistrate keen on Third World Immigrants, looking downcast, and on the left is the Third World Immigrant looking… where is he looking, by the way? Try as I might, every time I see a photo of him, he reminds me of some kind of Deep Sea Fish that David Attenborough might discover lurking in the ocean depths…
Of course, and something Labour cannot understand, is that when Nut Zero is scrapped, the general cost-of-business significantly reduces, stimulating the economy across the board, especially heavy industry, steel, chemicals, etc. This has a big positive effect on not just tax revenue, but also reducing the social security bill, as real jobs are created.
But they can’t do it, because Greta and David Attenborough will be upset with them…
“Giveaway for Families”
How can not taking people’s money from them be a giveaway to them?
Exactly, that’s the position we’ve got to with this craziness!