Whole yeargroup rolling closures (secondary)

[Hamjamwich]

Staff sickness means school are keeping one yeargroup a day at home (except y11) is this happening in other schools?

3 friends who currently have COVID and who work in schools are all ill with symptoms so wouldn’t be in school regardless of isolation rules. One is at risk of having to go into hospital due to symptoms and underlying condition. Possible might not be back in school before half term.

Yep we’ve got y9 out for two days - south London. I would imagine another year group will be out on Thursday/Friday because we’ve got 18 teachers/cover support officers out.
Not what anyone wants and worried some students may struggle to come back in after a couple of forced days off, but just not enough adults in the building.

Yes, rolling closures at ours this week and next

Y9 closed for 2 days this week. Not sure about other years. I know they have set stuff up In the larger spaces so they can merge classes together as well.

@Bunnylove83 Does that begin with a G? Just wondering if it's the same south London one my DD is at with 2 days out for Y9?

We’ve had different classes staying home regularly over this half term, at least 15% of staff off constantly on a rolling wave. Primary unit sent home last week in total.

Staff that have had it have been pretty ill, I guess due to the viral load they’re picking up from so much exposure.

[quote Newnormal99]@Bunnylove83 Does that begin with a G? Just wondering if it's the same south London one my DD is at with 2 days out for Y9?[/quote]
No a H! We are Bromley way.
Reckon y9 is the big hit though because they are not the youngest but not exam years, so most will opt with y9.

@HavfrueDenizKisi

Goodness no! School in London. We must be very lucky so far. There was a rush of Covid in September/October that burnt through the school. But otherwise this term seems ok🤞🏻

Same here, London

Many cases then, some now, but not enough for any classes closed

Yes, the order of priority for closing in our school is 9, 10, 8, 7, 11 (no sixth form).

I am one of 11 teaching staff off right now with COVID, my 3rd time. We are having rolling closures to ensure Year 11 and Year 13 are not impacted too much (although both A Level chemistry teachers are off again, so year 13 are being hit once more). We are also missing numbers of site staff and supprt staff, and have since the start of December. Last week I was serving dinner for the 5th time. Again some staff are ill (not as bad as 1st or 2nd time, but still ill enough to be struggling to do much), even if we did not have isolation we would have staff off sick.

I'm one of 25 staff off right now out of about 60. Several staff are still suffering from long covid and are only in part days too. There's only 1 person out of 8 in from my department and they had it two weeks ago.

Year 7 will remain at school as the year group most likely to need childcare, as will year 11 as exam yr. Yrs 8,9 and 10s are off one day a week.

is this happening in other schools?

The school I work at is very close to it. We are only still open through classes of 60 kids at a time.

We have half the number of staff (for more kids) than when I started 15 years ago because of budget cuts so every winter it's a struggle but the last two years have just been a nightmare.

In many ways rolling closures are not the big problem- it's the fact that education quality is long term awful because we just don't have the staff.

Yes my dc (year 12) is home learning this week, think school are planning on rotating year groups if staff sickness levels remain high.

Ds1 in y9 had it for a few days last term, then y8. Now DS2 y7 if off today until Friday.

The school aren’t doing it for y11 but rotating across other years.

“ Or drops isolation of positive cases”

How exactly would that work ? The positive cases I’ve known with omicron have not been fit enough to work . I get some are but all they would do is potentially spread it around more .

Not rolling closures, just closed to 7,8,9,10 and 12.

Been happening at my daughter's school since end of September. I think they gave yr11s priority, so they missed less days, which is understandable. Things seem to have been better there so far this term, despite omicron running amok all around them. Maybe they've just been lucky so far this term.

The school have are managing it very well. They had already got contingency plans in place

#are managing ! Gah my fat fingers

No closures here but my best friend had 60 year 6s by herself for 2 days last week so I suspect it's only a matter of time.

Year 10 were out at my local school the other week due to staff sickness. Its a 14-18 school.

My dc school sent email today saying it may close. Has had some year closures this week. Its primary school.

I know the TA who works in DDs class, Year 2. They have 3 classes per year apparently one day last week in Year 2 they had 18 kids and 1 teacher in, all the others where off.

They're slowly returning but it's hit them hard and they almost closed Year 2.

They closed 1 year 4 class and one Reception class for a few days in the second week of term.

Local high school (TA aboves husband works as caretaker there - its one of those communities where everyone knows everyone) only has Year 11 in at the moment. They did have rolling closures, so all the other year groups in 1 day a week each but they just can't do it anymore as there's no staff. They're hoping not to have to close to Year 11, as they've already shut to Years 12 and 13 which they didn't want to do.