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?

We had an email before half term, outlining the one day a week each year group will home school if they run low on teachers. They're limping on with a 5 day week for now.They don't shut because of low pupil numbers but the school bus does drop down to a people carrier if pupil numbers get low enough. (Only a minibus to start with)

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.

Online learning can be organised to suit different ratios of teaching staff as a stop-gap measure- in our school last time the lessons were designed to be done in pupil's own time via Oak Academy or worksheets and submitted online, then the teachers only had a 30 minute daily check-in, and reviewed a few lessons of work. Obviously still a lot of work for an adult covering 1.5 classes, but because it was only 1 hour of direct interaction time, it worked out ok as a short term fix.

Half of a year out in my son's school .. they are not closing but have asked everyone does a pcr and not come back until they have results

No need to shut whole year group down

Our child's class has in recent weeks had quite a large number off. We have received an email telling all to get PCR - but they "may attend pending results".
Nobody seems to know how many cases actually means a class shuts but the whole situation seems so ridiculously negligent. I'd prefer bubbles /isolation to be restored for winter in order to avert the risks clearly playing out. All was not too worrying until last few weeks seems to have really increased quickly .

Lots of answers of varying info! Thank you. Yes, it’s really ramped up the past few weeks here too. Such a worry.

@Remmy123

Half of a year out in my son's school .. they are not closing but have asked everyone does a pcr and not come back until they have results

No need to shut whole year group down

So the year group is closed for at least 24 hours.

But luckily, the school found supply staff & it kept running.

Supply mostly means 'busy work'. Children are missing lots of learning at the moment, but because schools are open and no one is being inconvenienced, it's not in the news.

A school local to us has. Back to remote learning for one year group

@WinterFirTree private schools still follow PHE advice

@Silverswirl

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.

But very hard on the remaining staff don’t you think? The staff at my children’s school are on their knees.

@DevilsAdvocaat

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.

As I understand it they simply advise extra measures eg more ventilation (if only!), more hand washing, more surface wiping, less mixing at breaks, no after school clubs. They will never advise a closure for COVID outbreaks.

You are wrong @PeachesPumpkin. They can limit attendance for a period of time as a last resort if they think it is necessary.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-local-restrictions-in-education-and-childcare-settings/contingency-framework-education-and-childcare-settings

School staff are sitting ducks and for many of us it's when our vaccines are starting to wane.

My DDs school (independant) closes the class and insists that each child goes for a PCR after 1 case. If anyone refuses they are not allowed back in for 10 days. Its disruptive but the case numbers are very low as a result.

once the cases rise to a certain level, PHE or what ever it is now called get involved and advise the school of the measures they need to take.

Any Covid outbreak management plan will include closing if needed and specify who they will then cater for. Hence it is a possibility they will close if the situation dictates. If they have to close they will do so.

At my DD's school they have had to shut all three Reception classes due to lack of staff- they are 6 staff members down with confirmed Covid and another 5 are currently off awaiting pcr results. Following the advice from the county's PH team Covid restrictions/bubbles etc have been reinstated in the school. Events have been cancelled. It's such a shame for the kids but what can you do? Frustrating for kids, parents and teaching staff.

At my DC school there is the highest number of cases the school have ever had - all in my sons year (including him!) I think 20-25% of the year are off.
They have brought in some extra covid mitigations for that year group but the rest are still there

Over half the class are off with covid at my DDs school.

@Sherrystrull

School staff are sitting ducks and for many of us it's when our vaccines are starting to wane.

Everyone is in that situation now, not just school staff.

Everyone is in that situation now, not just school staff.

This is a thread about schools.

@echt

Everyone is in that situation now, not just school staff.

This is a thread about schools.

Yes, but I'm not sure what people expect at this point. School staff wanted to be vaccinated to feel safe at work, fair enough, but now that's not good enough and everyone is STILL complaining.

DH is headteacher at a free school and he has never closed a class since September. His overriding priority is keeping all DC in school, as he saw first hand the damage closures did to education and wellbeing.

Even when only a quarter of a class didn’t have covid, he has kept it open using supply teachers, TAs and even janitors at times.

@Waxonwaxoff0 are 100% of the people who are in the same room as you at work unvaccinated? That is the case for Primary teachers and for many Secondary teachers

@PeachesPumpkin how do you know they are on thier knees? So the school tell you or you assume?

We do not have our normal teachers as they are positive, we just have the TAs doing the bare minimum (not thier fault) but kids arnt doing much learning!