Principals welcome Education’s Ministers proposal to vaccinate special school staff
Stormont Ministers are set to discuss calls for staff in special schools to be prioritised for the Coronavirus vaccine at today’s (Tuesday) Executive meeting.
Education Minister, Peter Weir, is expected to present a paper asking members to consider raising the issue with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.
James Curran, Principal of Harberton Special School in Belfast, said his school has been opened throughout the Coronavirus pandemic and that staff vaccinations are welcome.
He said: “I think it’s fantastic news and something all of us in special schools will greatly welcome that there has been a call for vaccination from the Minister.
“It’s good to see that support coming from the Minister at the minute.
“At the minute we have 200 children in school on a daily basis and 100 children learning from home.
“So, it’s a substantial number of children coming through the door every day and I think it would just offer that level of reassurance to their staff that they were keeping themselves and their families as safe as possible.
“They want to be here, they want to be in school, they want to be here to support the children and all of our families as well.
“But we want to make sure that our staff are kept safe as well.
“The sooner it could be rolled out to schools, for the children, but particularly for the staff working.
“I think the reassurance of extra mitigations from the Minister whether it’s a vaccine, whether it’s regular testing for our children and our staff, all of those things will be welcome to ensure we can stay open.
“Some of us who are able to maybe better manage our emotions are struggling, so it’s even more difficult for our children who find the management of their own emotions at the best of times challenging.
“They just don’t have the ability to understand why, they don’t understand the world around them many times in normal circumstances.
“So, it depends on all the things they rely on so heavily on a daily basis taken away just causes them huge anxiety and huge stress and that then manifest itself in other ways.”
Joanne Whyte, Chair of the Belfast Special Principals Group, said teachers and other school staff are frontline workers too and agrees that they should be given priority.
She said: “We are very aware as principals that we are one set of key workers and we would never think that we should be above any other particular set.
“We are part of a group of people who are keeping everything going at the moment.
“The other key worker services would be depleted staff wise if they did not have a place for their children to go.
“For school leaders we are hoping this is going to ease our management issues with staff being off.
“We know staff are going to be off for their ten days if they need to isolate, the same as usual, but we don’t have that same worry if a staff member has been vaccinated.
“School staff and school leaders are very aware of the fact that the vaccine is not the cure.
“They’re not expecting miracles but at the moment education staff are providing a service to key worker children and those vulnerable children as well and education staff are also key workers.”