Any other schools closing early for Christmas?

[julieca]

Apparently, our local school has decided to close as they have so many teachers off ill. I wondered if this was happening anywhere else?

No and I wish they would. Loads of teachers and children off with covid at DS high school. DS is actually off school with flu, and I’m loathe to send him back in just to catch covid before Christmas.

Yes. We're now closing on the 21st instead of the 24th. Oh so generous

No4 son's school and no3son's sixth form college are both closing on the 15th, a week early.

Our trust were closing on the 17th anyway, which is pretty early as Christmas holidays go. I don't think it will be any earlier, but I am glad it's the 17th.

@OhFGSWhenDoesItStop

Yes. We're now closing on the 21st instead of the 24th. Oh so generous

That is more than a full doubling time for Omicron so could make a big difference

God help anyone who has to WORK!

No. My school of 1300 students had 12 off with covid, most are ending isolation soon. No staff off with it.

No thank goodness, childcare for the two weeks its closed is hard enough without more on top.

I heard yesterday of a primary (two form entry) closing for Christmas today rather than next Friday.
I was in the next nearest school which was limping on with no SLT, few TAs (including 1-1s, so remaining TAs assigned to those children) and numerous supplies.
There really does come a point where there aren't enough adults to be safe, even with greatly reduced numbers of children.

As is closing on 17th anyway. DD goes to after school club on Fridays, school already told me it won't be running the last day of term (despite them charging me for it a couple of weeks ago ), luckily my parents are around to pick her up for me. We had a message yesterday though saying after school club isn't running at all next week. I don't get what they expect working parents to do with such late notice

youngest DC13's school isn't closing early but the 15th is their standard end date. It's a state (academy) that seems to have twice as many inset days than the other DCs state academy secondary. DH and I don't break up until 23rd, will be practice for potential Jan lockdown with even less to occupy the kids

@mummyh2016 nightmare! My lot go to breakfast and after school club so if mine did this it would be a disaster

Our school is adamant it’s pressing on till the 22nd

My dc school finishes on the 22nd. But from the 17th onwards they are just doing Christmas activities- seems daft to me to stay open and risk kids and staff getting covid when they aren't even doing any lessons. Am tempted to keep dc off anyway unless they really want to go and feel like they'd be missing out.

No rates are low and falling at our local high. It was advised to close for ten days inJuly though when it was ripping through the school.

We break up next week as usual, but we were ducked before half term and our rates seem ok at the moment… hope that wasn’t a major jinx

Bit selfish I know but me, DH and DD all had it at the start of November so we (hopefully) have lots of antibodies swirling around. We can't keep closing schools for what, for most people, is a bad flu. It's disruptive and is hindering their educations, relationships, social skills and friendships.

No - thank God.

One DC is doing his mock GCSEs and every day I hope we can get through another exam and avoid even more disruption.

These poor kids. They are told mocks count more than ever now as we just don't know if GCSEs will go ahead and they have missed so much time already.

We are open until the 23rd

We are due to break up on the 16th. Doubt that will change as we fortunately haven't had any big outbreaks lately.

@SpookyScarySkeletons

Bit selfish I know but me, DH and DD all had it at the start of November so we (hopefully) have lots of antibodies swirling around. We can't keep closing schools for what, for most people, is a bad flu. It's disruptive and is hindering their educations, relationships, social skills and friendships.

That's not been the reason for local closures, it's been a lack of staff due to illness and no supply staff being available. The poor teachers who aren't off for Covid are on their knees having to cover several colleagues, manage mocks, rearrange shows etc etc.

I think we're will beyond closures t prevent spread tbh , 4 weeks ago 1/3 of DDS classes were off with Covid, now it's only one or two

Ds primary is limping along - his interventions started again this week as the specialist ta is just back but still a supply class teacher . It must be difficult as even the head and deputy have been teaching. It’s three forms a year group so very big school but not enough ta’s and no spare teaching staff so illness is a big impact anyway. Ds has had 12 cases in his class but no new cases this week so fingers crossed that is it. We all had daily flows for the past near 2 weeks. As for the secondary the staff seemed to escape but lots of cases in ds’s form class - 8 confirmed.
No news of early closures.

DD was due to sit a prelim exam on the 20th but it has been postponed to January. No official talk of closing yet.

No ours finish next Friday and eldest has mocks right up until the time they finish so hope they don’t close before that.

@Scarby9 yes it is a primary school near us closing from today. And yes nothing to do with risks of covid, there are just too many staff off ill with covid. I only know because a friend with kids was trying to sort out childcare for next week. It is very tough on some parents. But of course they cant open if they don't have the staff to be safe.