Are schools allowed to shut down classes / year groups if lots have Covid?

[Tuliprain]

My child’s year group are going down like flies at the moment. Just wondered if there is a point when the school is able to close for that class or year group? Or will they just have to keep going?

When I say close I don’t mean the whole school - just send a class or year group home.

I have 20% of my class with covid Atm. Both my TAs have it too. Public health have sent a letter out advising the rest to pcr test but that's it.

They have to contact whoever is now there instead of PHE at 25% of a school infected within a week I think, even then I don’t think they’d send a whole group home, might reinstate bubbles and masks etc.

In reality I think the critical point is when they can’t get enough staff in to keep all years open.

Yup - we currently have 2 year groups closed as we simply do not have staff to remain operational. Not good.

They may get to the point they do not have enough staff or the right staff to operate. Online provision should be ready to go if needed.

One of my grandsons was one of only 4 in his group/bubble last term who didn't have Covid. He still went to school.

Ignore that. It was about contact with a Positive case, they didn't all have it. Not relevant.

In reality I think the critical point is when they can’t get enough staff in to keep all years open.

Yes I feel like me the fate of the rest of my class depends on whether I test positive or not!

No, they won’t shut any classes or the school unless there are not enough staff for safety. They are not allowed to. Thank god.

There was 14 out of 30 off in my child’s class with covid and they remained open.
It seemed like madness at the time but as a pp has said, I think the decision is based on whether they have enough staff to safely open rather than the number of pupils off.

Yes the boroughs and/or Public Health England will shut classes if cases are out of control.

We have 4 classes shut in our primary school. Shut for 2 days and all children asked to get PCRs before returning.

Ours was not due to staffing but rather the amount of children confirmed positive.

It must vary from borough to borough.

At least one local school here did this for Y5 before half term when the kids were all going down with it.

@cabbageking

They may get to the point they do not have enough staff or the right staff to operate. Online provision should be ready to go if needed.

Not sure how online provision would work if it was a staffing issue. I work in a one-form entry primary school. If I'm too sick to go into work I'm not sure how I could manage online learning.

My school has shut 3 separate classes since September after seeking advice from PHE. I think our cut off point was 6 out of a class of 28-30.

Department of education says not to unless extreme circumstances and nothing else has worked. The government wants to keep children in school
staffing is a different issue

@cabbageking

They may get to the point they do not have enough staff or the right staff to operate. Online provision should be ready to go if needed.

Who is providing that? Ill staff?

But yes it'll be about child and staff safety if there just arent enough adults. Shame that the children who use lots of adult resource, are also the ones who find disruption hardest to deal with. Everything just gets more challenging.

Following - there is a rapidly evolving covid situation at our school.

I had 12 out of 28 in my class with it and it didn't shut down. The gov advice line they contacted told us to wash our hands (like we're not already) and wear a mask if we want...
Makes you feel like a bit of a sitting duck!

This is the case in many schools across the currently. We have one year group with about 30% of pupils with COVID and we're asking for PCRs initially and then daily LFTs to try and keep the pupils in school. The DfE and PHE want pupils in school and not remote learning so I suspect we're going to go around this merry-go-round for the next months until most of the pupils have had it. As long as we have sufficient staff to cover classes, we'll continue, but that is also starting to increase now, mainly because their own children are getting it. We've been in contingency measures for weeks now in order to try and reduce the numbers in any way we can, and honestly, the only reason I'd contact the DfE now is if we got to the 'no staff to cover point'. Otherwise, we do what we think is best and get on with it.

cabbageking
They may get to the point they do not have enough staff or the right staff to operate. Online provision should be ready to go if needed.
Who is providing that? Ill staff?*

Isolating staff, who may not be ill at all. Might be waiting for test results, or at home with an ill child. Last half term we had 27 staff off on one day.

DD’s class had 18/30 kids out with covid before half term. Class stayed open. The whole school had an enormous outbreak before half term. Half the teaching staff were out. But luckily, the school found supply staff & it kept running. Still got cases circulating but very low level now.. I imagine they’ve got a decent wall of immunity now 😂

*our school is one form entry so half the teaching staff is 5 people .. just for context or that sounds very dramatic 😄

My DS1's Yr 7 had 16 out of 58 with covid. Classes kept open.

We have just been told that years 2 have gone to remote learning again. So i have no idea how many cases there!

It's a private school though, so they largely do their own thing.