Commenting as the government publishes its school attendance data
from the first week of December, Paul Whiteman, general secretary
of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
“This latest increase in Covid-related absences comes as no real
surprise given the current situation nationally. However, our
concern is that this data is already out of date and actually
underestimates the scale of the issue schools are currently
dealing with.
“Over the last few days we have heard from our members that there
has been a significant jump in Covid cases in schools, amongst
both staff and pupils, as the new variant has started to spread.
Some have told us that this has been the hardest term of the
whole pandemic.
“The situation is not being helped by schools sometimes receiving
contradictory advice from central government and local public
health teams. Now more than ever schools need clear and
consistent advice from central and local government so that they
can respond appropriately where there are cases in their
communities.
“Everyone is concerned about how this will play out over the next
few weeks and the implications for January. No-one wants to see
the sort of disruption to education that we experienced last
winter. However, we are already seeing signs that schools are
coming under increasing pressure.
“The government needs to think very carefully about the
mitigations it needs to take to keep schools open next term.
Doing nothing is not a plausible or realistic option.
“It is essential that the government does everything in its power
now to reduce the spread of Covid in schools. That should include
reviewing mitigation measures that could be reintroduced whilst
transmission rates are high.
“The government also needs to remove unnecessary burdens like
inspection, pointless assessment exercises and other bureaucratic
procedures that feed the Westminster machine but do little to
support schools at this difficult time.”
