Covid-related absences in North East schools highest nationally highlights insufficient “catch-up” plan
FFT education datalab has released figures which show that North East schools have been hit the hardest in terms of Covid-related absences. This challenges the Government’s belief that their one size fits all £1bn “catch-up” plan will be sufficient to enable schools to move forward post-pandemic.
As we enter into the last couple of weeks of this academic year, the main issue for North East schools is the impact of rising numbers of positive coronavirus cases – staff and students. Despite the relaxing of restrictions giving the impression for many parents that the pandemic is over, the recent increase in cases is causing extremely serious disruption, forcing both staff and students to isolate. And for many schools in the North East, the numbers are much higher than during previous outbreaks.
FFT education datalab’s regional figures show that, in the North East, pupils missed out on 27% of sessions last week due to positive cases of Covid or isolation, the highest rate of absence in England. Even more concerning, this figure has risen by 7% from the previous week. However, this comes as no surprise when looking at the Covid rates per 100,000 people in the region as the rates are on the rise and they are also at their highest since the beginning of the school year in September 2020.
A couple of weeks ago a Schools North East survey found that over 40% schools in the region had pupil attendance below 90% with only two thirds of schools with staff levels between 90-100%.
All the evidence points to the fact that the North East has been hit the hardest by this pandemic and it is the same for schools. As we have come to the end of term, North East schools have been decimated by positive cases and forced isolations with bubbles bursting causing absences which are completely out of the control of school staff despite outlandish suggestions from the Department for Education that schools had taken the Government guidance too literally.
This is of course impacting children and young people’s education, although schools do now have in place effective processes for the delivery of remote learning. The disruption is also having a negative effect on staff workload and wellbeing. Staff are having to manage bubble closures, and organise cover where members of staff are isolating. This is not just an issue for teaching staff, with kitchen staff also being sent home meaning alternative arrangements have had to be made for delivering lunches. Staff are desperate for the summer holidays, and it is important that they are able to get a decent break this year, ahead of what will undoubtedly be another challenging Autumn 21 term.
This situation highlights why the £1bn plan which the Government has proposed for “recovery” is not sufficiently aware of vastly differing regional contexts. This sum will be split evenly between all regions and will mainly focus on the National Tutoring Programme which has not had a large uptake in the North East as it has been deemed to be not particularly suitable for the region’s schools, for a variety of reasons from schools preferring to use their own staff to huge shortages of tutors across the North East. The majority of English regions do not come anywhere near to the absence figures which are being reported in this region. The Government’s current catch up plan risks setting the North East at a major disadvantage, almost systematising future regional school ‘underperformance’.
In managing bubble closures, the impression that lockdown is over has made it more difficult in communicating information about isolations with parents. However, the trust that schools have built within communities, as one of the few major services open during lockdown, has helped this.