Can't believe how many people off sick

[wallaWallaBingBoo]

I'm in a normal sized secondary, in a town. We weren't badly hit in the last bouts of covid and lockdown etc. We aren't in a particularly high area.

We've got about 8 teachers off with covid but also with other illnesses too. SLT actually had to cover lessons today (I'm quietly joyful about that). This is pretty unheard of for September. We've racked up that amount for December before but not this soon and not such long absences.

How is everyone coping? I can't believe we are only 4 weeks in. How will we last the winter?

I've had at any one time about 8 of my year 10 class off. By now I think about 1/2 of my class have missed at least 2 weeks of their first unit of GCSE work.

How is everyone else coping?

Very similar. Disaster for GCSE classes as it’s like a carousel of students hopping on and off randomly. Hardly any of them have attended the full four week sequence of lessons. The idea of public exams is vaguely ludicrous.

And yes, cover is a shit show!

We have all our online classrooms set up for those who aren't in school but no students seem to be remotely arsed about accessing it. I honestly fear a bit for our year 10s and 11s. They are so apathetic after the shit show if the last two years.

Couldn’t agree more. It would be different if this academic year was the proper restorative miracle we’d hoped for …..but with swathes of students missing from each lesson (and staff absence) it feels like the same desperate imitation of education they’ve endured for three school years running now. This is not how it’s meant to be.