Class teacher is currently COVID positive.

[Moelwynbach]

My son is due to start his new class year next week. We have notification from school to say that his class teacher is COVID positive so he will be starting later, this is yet another pain in the arse that I can do nothing about. I have no alternative childcare other than wrap around school club and holiday club.
Under the new rules on an ongoing basis do schools have to replace teachers with supply teachers or is the onus still on parents to use their infinite leave.
Please be aware that I know that this cannot be helped but my workplace wont be over chuffed if I keep having to take time off work!

Just be reminded that, although this is inconvenient now, with the new rules it should only happen once now. Class teacher shouldn't test positive again this year and there's no needless 'close contact' isolation anymore

"As an absolute minimum they should be doing remote teaching."

Ridiculous. Why is the I'll teacher having to do remote learning? Other colleagues will be teaching in person so can't do remote learning at the same time

If they can afford and find supply that might be an option but school obviously like to see supply teachers in front of kids which is tricky if the rest of the school is not back yet.

Lots of supply teachers will not have been eligible for furlough. Use of umbrella companies are rife, as are third party PAYE companies who stopped furlough once they had to make a contribution.

Supply teachers also aren't usually paid if Ill or isolating, so would have hard time in the pandemic.

We have covered it internally thus far. Using the head teacher, TAs, HLTAs etc.

Bizarre. I’d definitely expect a cover.

“Ridiculous. Why is the I'll teacher having to do remote learning? Other colleagues will be teaching in person so can't do remote learning at the same time”

I don’t think anyone is suggesting the teacher should be working if too ill to do so. Schools had contingency plans for this scenario last term - use those. At our school links to a unit of maths worksheets and videos, a reading comprehension exercise and a writing task were to be put up on the website, if necessary by the HT or the last adult still standing! Possibly harder for children as young as year one to do much meaningful work, but it’s hardly an outrageous idea that school should provide remote learning while closed.

OP given what you’ve said about your child I’m not sure the alternatives to closure (a succession of babysitters or distributing children around school) are going to help you, especially at the very start of the year. I have a child with ASD who’d find that scenario very hard to deal with and I’d keep him home rather than have him with a stream of unfamiliar adults. It’s easy for me to say that as a SAHM but given teacher will presumably only get covid once this year I’d probably suck it up at this point if I could. But I’d want reassurance that all options had at least been considered first (I can’t imagine they haven’t been but…)

We are in the same situation where I work, we have booked supply for the next week as the class teacher has covid. We are hoping she will be back for the second week. We have to open for children- there is no other option. If necessary the head and deputy would cover with support from the TA.
It’s a bit late now as it’s Friday night but I would be sending an email asking why they cannot meet the statutory requirement for 190 days of education in the school year.

Funny place Mumsnet.

A thread A day or so was started about a Pharmacy closing because there were no staff. The MN verdict- if they can't get the staff they have to close.

If a school can't get staff they have to magic them out of this air.

Just for the sake of completeness, I'll say it to get it over with:

"I'd be fuming"

There it's been said, the standard MN response to a school issue. No body needs to say it now.

@234Pepperplant

What would they have done if the teacher had chickenpox in Sept 2019? They should do that. It might not be a supply teacher (probably no budget/can’t get one) but they should be getting the class covered somehow - they can’t send home classes every time a teacher is off sick, at least not without demonstrating they’ve exhausted every other conceivable possibility. At my child’s school if necessary they’ve had supply teachers, TAs cover, SLT has covered, the PE teacher was employed to do extra sessions to release other class teachers to do some sessions and in extremis the class with no teacher was split up and distributed around the other classes. None of which is ideal, but pre covid sending a class home because the teacher was sick was almost unheard of so I don’t see why it’s acceptable now - bubbles etc have been abolished, for good or ill.

It seems to escaped your notice, bur we're not living in the same world as we were in 2019.

“Funny place Mumsnet.

A thread A day or so was started about a Pharmacy closing because there were no staff. The MN verdict- if they can't get the staff they have to close.

If a school can't get staff they have to magic them out of this air.”

I didn’t see the thread so perhaps it was a very remote or specialist pharmacy, but in general if my local pharmacy closes, I have alternative ways to get my medication. Possibly slightly inconvenient but there are other pharmacies. Unfortunately I cannot just send my child to the school slightly further away if his closes. Plus one of those organisations probably has one qualified person, the other has several other people, including possibly some who could potentially be drafted in - what’s the HT/ SLT doing for example?

So therefore yes, I have different standards for those two scenarios.

As an absolute minimum they should be doing remote teaching

The teacher is off sick and don't have to do anything.

I’m a supply teacher with an agency.
We didn’t get furloughed.
We don’t get sick pay or isolation pay.
A lot of supply teachers had to find something else to pay bills very quickly, and until this pandemic is less chaotic, many will continue with those jobs because of the uncertainty.

In the summer term, I regularly had my choice of two or three schools wanting my services on the same day. I’m expecting the situation to be similar this term.

Not the point of this thread I know but I'm a bit surprised parents are being told the reason why the teacher is off sick. Is it normal to share details? Why do parents need to anything more than the the teacher is ill?

Not every school can find or afford a cover teacher.

There are very limited options ATM and the uneven nature of covid disruption mean there will be many (partial and full) school closures this winter. This school is just quicker than others.

This is the outcome of the policies put in place by our elected government. That education is like this is the democratic will of the British people.

I think it's understandable that you're not exactly happy, both due to your job and due to worrying about your son struggling. And I absolutely get why you wouldn't want to rock the boat if they've been good to him previously as well.

Conversely, the school can only do so much to get someone to cover the class. My son's school were really worried they'd have to close before the summer holidays as they had so much staff sick, both teachers and more general school staff.

It's crap for everyone.

I'm a teacher and can't imagine any scenario where kids would be sent home. There must be a way to cover this - even if it's the caretaker and a national geographic box set! Most schools would look for cover first, then perhaps redeploy TAs and if that was impossible they may even put out a plea to local schools for support (I've done this when staff were sick at a school not in our MAT but in the local area). I would be contacting the headteacher and asking her to explain the delayed start and reminding her that my child is entitled to 190 days of schooling. I get she may well be very stressed but I doubt she's done everything in her power.

Though it's absolutely ridiculous the schools can't access a government emergency fund to pay for supply teachers in this situation.

There may or may not be actual people available to hire, but that doesn't matter if you can't afford their services in the first place.

put out a plea to local schools for support (I've done this when staff were sick at a school not in our MAT but in the local area

DBS checks can’t be passed from one school to another and don’t all staff members need to be on the single central register? This isn’t something I would like for a child of mine as they are an unvetted adult, surely?

I don’t know the school circumstances but in our school, every single thing that can be cut has been cut to fund supply over last year and several staff are off long term sick with long covid or mental health difficulties.

Maybe they literally cannot afford it.

@NovemberWitch

I’m a supply teacher with an agency. We didn’t get furloughed. We don’t get sick pay or isolation pay. A lot of supply teachers had to find something else to pay bills very quickly, and until this pandemic is less chaotic, many will continue with those jobs because of the uncertainty.

In the summer term, I regularly had my choice of two or three schools wanting my services on the same day. I’m expecting the situation to be similar this term.

I am hearing this a lot. I know one ST who is now working at Waitrose and one for track and trace. 2 more who have interviews for a position at the DWP. I think the lack of furlough and fear of Covid forced people into other jobs for sure.

@Cuddlemonsters

I don’t know the school circumstances but in our school, every single thing that can be cut has been cut to fund supply over last year and several staff are off long term sick with long covid or mental health difficulties.

Maybe they literally cannot afford it.

And this is also a huge factor. Many schools can’t even find the budget for enough TA’s.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot....
I thought so too. Generally people should be told the teacher is not in.....however the teachers sister is in Administration at the school and has let it slip to some of mums who are y4 like her daughter, a couple of them have younger siblings in my sons class.

[quote Moelwynbach]@RockingMyFiftiesNot....
I thought so too. Generally people should be told the teacher is not in.....however the teachers sister is in Administration at the school and has let it slip to some of mums who are y4 like her daughter, a couple of them have younger siblings in my sons class.[/quote]
Ah ok, and I'm sure it would have 'got out' anyway if the teacher lives locally but it would have been very wrong if the school had informed parents in a formal communication IMO

Not primary but experienced secondary in a core subject, recently retired and registered with a supply agency. Huge demand. However I have no intention of going into schools with the current high rates of infection and no vaccinations for12+. It’s a pity because I love teaching. Private tuition is fine but nothing like the buzz of being in school.

With regard to the transferability of DBS checks, it is possible for the same certificate to be used in different contexts. There's the DBS update scheme for starters. I teach secondary and had a light timetable one year and ended up being sent to a school 10 miles away for 6 weeks to cover year 11 classes after a teacher left suddenly. Whether it worked from a paperwork point of view because we were all in same LEA at the time? Certainly in those days, if not still now, teachers were expected to report to their nearest school if they couldn't get to their own school in snowy weather.

These days MATs can be huge. Ours has over 800 staff and it is commonly accepted that in an emergency we'd be expected to cover colleagues in any of the schools.

I'm sorry to hear your son can't start as planned

Ideally, the school would cover the class using a supply teacher. It's not really fair to put that on a TA and some TAs would, quite rightly, not feel comfortable taking the whole class for possibly a week or more.

I am assistant head of a core subject in secondary and we had an absolute nightmare in the Summer term trying to get supply.

At one point, I had 3 members of my team isolating and had to try to use other team members to cover as much as I could. It was like robbing Peter to pay Paul

There were days when the supply co-ordinator literally couldn't get any supply staff. I think a lot have found other things to do since the pandemic started. Some, understandably, don't want to come into schools when cases are high.

I hope that your son's teacher is soon back