With increasing reports of schools with confirmed cases of Coronavirus, whole year groups being sent home to isolate and even whole school closures, it is becoming clear that schools are being let down by the system and that this is unsustainable.
Last week, Schools North East wrote to the Education Secretary to highlight the issues that schools were facing around staff absences as a result of lack of availability and huge delays in testing. A huge number of school leaders responded to our survey on the issue with a large majority experiencing issues with staffing. Since then more reports of confirmed cases and groups of pupils, sometimes whole year groups, self isolating have come from across the region. Additionally there are now schools that have been forced to close entirely as a result of the impact on staffing.
Schools have put in place measures to socially distance, implement bubbles, increase hygiene measures and implement social isolation for students and staff with symptoms in line with Government guidance. However, whilst schools have worked incredibly hard to keep sites safe for their whole school communities, the failures in the system are causing disruption and prolonged absences and jeopardizing the hard work schools have done to stay open. These disruptions are causing further issues for school leaders who are seeing a fall in parental confidence, and for some even backlash from parents over students being required to self isolate. In addition to this, regular reports of confirmed cases and school disruption in the press is contributing to a negative narrative that is growing around schools despite the hard work of staff in our region to continue educating our children.
The problems are also causing huge amounts of undue stress for school leaders – something which is of great concern given Teacher Tapp’s warning that as many as 1 in 5 Head Teachers are considering early retirement or leaving the profession due to the ongoing situation. School staff who are left to deal with cover and provide online learning are also further strained by the absences of their colleagues.
Financially schools are also struggling with the increased costs associated with the safety measures they have implemented – without any additional funding to support this. According to a survey of North East School leaders 44% have already incurred costs of over £10,000 this term. Today ASCL has warned that school catch-up funding will be wiped out by Covid safety measures. While the catch up funding is ringfenced for specific use, the high costs of extra cleaning, supplies and implementation of other safety measures means that money will have to be taken from elsewhere in schools’ budgets – inevitably impacting teaching and learning and opportunities for students who have already been significantly affected by lockdown last academic year.
Urgent action needs to be taken to prevent widespread school closures from affecting the region in coming months, especially as the winter months will bring more symptoms that may be confused with Covid. Last week our letter to the Education Secretary gained excellent coverage across local radio, in print and on TV with interviews on Look North and ITV Tyne Tees. We need to ensure that the Department for Education are aware of the extent of the issue and that it does not become part of the ‘new normal’ for our schools this year.
We are trying to collate feedback on this issue on a regular basis. Please complete this very short survey to let us know how things are in your school. If you completed the survey last week please update us on your current situation.
