Anyone else's school closing due to covid?

[Invasionofthegutsnatchers]

Not sure yet if home learning will be for all children or if key worker and vulnerable children will be in school, and we certainly won't be closed to teaching staff as we teachers will be teaching from home- those of us who are well enough. But over half the staff have covid now. Head will make a decision by 12pm today and then inform parents

Whereabouts are you OP?

No, we're limping on - probably not very safely.

@SaveloyDip

Whereabouts are you OP?

Location is a bit irrelevant. Once it's taken hold in a school's staff, it's unsafe to stay open. Particularly in EY where there are ratios required.

We staying open but with skeleton staff.

I had four lessons on Thursday, a break and lunch duty. Then I got put on cover, meaning I was ‘on’ from 830 until 3 with no break.

I was not thrilled.

Midlands here. Our primary had to close two reception classes due to rising cases and staff off with covid. They were taught online last week.

Other local schools have had classes with half the children in over the past week. Staff and supply shortages and some schools still intending to do live performances to parents, while others have had almost all Christmas activities cancelled.

But, this is being completely ignored by the media 🙄.
Nothing to see here.

No. I think the head would only consider closing if there physically were not enough staff. She's always been very keen to keep the school open and it was open right up to the start of the Christmas holidays last year when many other schools closed.

Surely it would only need to close until staff finish their isolation periods?

@Waxonwaxoff0

No. I think the head would only consider closing if there physically were not enough staff. She's always been very keen to keep the school open and it was open right up to the start of the Christmas holidays last year when many other schools closed.

Surely it would only need to close until staff finish their isolation periods?

Or until the staff are well enough enough to return to work.

I also have a teacher friend who had been testing positive on LFTs daily, multiple times, but has a negative PCR, so was expected into school! 😮

@Fallagain yes, the majority should be after 10 days though. About 40 people at my workplace have had Covid now and only 2 have needed longer than the 10 days off.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot not saying location was relevant, asking out of curiosity.

Southern England

If you’re teaching from home it will be closed to teaching staff or is it just the ones on isolation teaching from home?
In normal times PHE get involved with disease outbreaks and advise what to do but I guess that might not be the case? Usually it’s a decision about whether there is a safe supervision ratio.
There wasn’t anywhere near that amount of transmission to teachers at ours so there was no need to close. It did leave a number of gaps without a teacher covering at all as there’s no facility for online lessons on classrooms

Any outbreak we have they bubble off that year group abd get everyone to have a pcr. Two weeks later and all back in and it's been fine.

We have nearly a third of staff off, and 25% of pupils, we’ve been told in no uncertain terms that closure is an absolute last resort and will only be if enough staff are affected that we cannot safely open (we are expected to exhaust all supply options first)

Weve had this twice - once before Xmas last year and again in July. The positives were that for those who didnt have COVID the education actually improved as it had been so chaotic in the proceeding weeks with so many staff and students going off sick.

And yes both times it was because there werent enough staff left to open safely.

Half the teaching staff off with covid means we won't be safe to open.

Can see all schools closing early for Christmas and going back late jan

Makes sense if other restrictions are slowly kicking in

@xxxGirlCrushxxx

Can see all schools closing early for Christmas and going back late jan

Makes sense if other restrictions are slowly kicking in

Doubt it. Other restrictions would be put in place first, schools have always been last on the list.

I'm between wanting them to close and obviously really really not- getting near daily emails over the past two weeks of new cases and constant emails asking us to please please stay home with symptoms but no contact tracing required apparently. Am wrecked keeping kids out every time they get anything and am trying to hold onto my job (retail) where nobody else has kids so they aren't having to factor in trying to get any form of childcare. Dh taking all the slack and on the edge with work as he runs about telling me he's fine, it's fine, we're all fine as he's terrified I'll leave my job which I love and is saving us financially. God I'm wrecked.

So many schools struggling in with skeleton staff is good enough reason to close early.... but now we have a new variant in the mix and early restrictions are now in place

We will drip feed now with new announcements as we head through December.... next could be masks in all settings, closures, school closures, god knows what else.... by spring we may well be back to one walk a day!

Further restrictions will only happen if serious illness increases or there is an exponential increase in cases.

The problem is that it does tend to be localised - within a local authority/town/school so that any wider ranging decisions are not helpful.

For example both of my childrens school are fairly ok at the moment having been hit incredibly hard at the beginning of term. Any early break up wouldnt help unless we get hit this side of Christmas and puts on the backfoot after christmas.

No.

@xxxGirlCrushxxx

So many schools struggling in with skeleton staff is good enough reason to close early.... but now we have a new variant in the mix and early restrictions are now in place

We will drip feed now with new announcements as we head through December.... next could be masks in all settings, closures, school closures, god knows what else.... by spring we may well be back to one walk a day!

That's entirely dependent on individual schools though. Why does a school have to close if it's not struggling?