Schools in Essex reopen this week as Omicron surge continues
Most schools in the county opened yesterday, although some are staggering returns to help put Covid-19 measures in place
Schools in Essex are reopening this week, some already on Tuesday, amid a recent surge in Covid-19 cases caused by the highly infectious Omicron strain.
Pupils who are returning to school will have to test negative for the virus and those in Year 7 and above, along with staff and visitor will have wear masks in classrooms, teaching spaces and indoor communal areas.
Despite these measures, there are still concerns that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 could spread in schools, possibly causing large numbers of student and staff absences.
Caroline Derbyshire, executive head at Saffron Walden County High School in Essex, and leader of Saffron Academy Trust, told the PA news agency: "We know that (staff shortages) will be a factor and there will be schools in particular parts of the country where rates have been extremely high where staffing will be difficult."
That's a sentiment echoed by teachers union NASUWT. Keith Anderson is their Regional Organiser for the East of England. He says the measures and support offered by the Government aren't adequate: "If we're going to have large numbers of staff absent from school and large numbers of students absent from school, then we need to make sure that we've got the the provisions in place to support those students and support those staff.
"It does ultimately boil down to money, and making sure that we've got laptops for students if they have to study remotely and funding the cost of supply teachers as well because you're still paying for the teacher who is currently not in school and then additionally for the person teaching instead of them."
The Government have also promised to provide 7000 air filter units to schools across the country. "Let's take a single secondary school. Think about how many classrooms there are, in that one school. Now try and replicate that across to the East of England, let alone the rest of the country.
"They're making quite stringent criteria about who qualifies and you've got to make very strong arguments. Even if you do make those arguments and are successful, the likelihood getting one of these units when there are so few of them is going to be highly unlikely", he says.
Some schools in Essex have implemented staggered returns, while others welcome students after a non-pupil day to start the year. Mr Anderson is worried about the capacity they have for testing, given the shortage of test kits.
"Are there any tests available because all the indications we've seen so far is that actually there is a huge lack of PCR and LFT tests for for people to be able to use, so how is that being addressed?"
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “All schools were invited to place orders for additional test kits before Christmas, with around 31 million tests delivered to education settings in the final weeks of term, so schools should have sufficient supplies of lateral flow tests.
“A further 17.6 million test kits will be delivered by the end of next week, and schools can request an emergency replenishment of tests if required.”
The email also suggests that secondary pupils should be “strongly encouraged to continue testing twice weekly at home” following their one on-site test at the start of term, and to report results to NHS Test and Trace and to their school.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his press conference last evening, reiterated his desire to keep schools open. But Mr Anderson believes a return to some sort of remote learning is needed if cases breakout in large numbers among students and teachers.
"Certainly the indications are that we're going to have to be flexible about this. The government are saying that students must continue to remain in school, but there will come a point where that's not going to be feasible.
Ms Derbyshire agrees and told PA staff shortages would “absolutely” make remote learning more likely. “If you hit a certain point with staff absences in a big school you’re talking about maybe 10 members of staff being off.
“You’ve suddenly got the inability to run a year group – that’s when you start having either year groups or whole parts of schools having to go online, so that’s when you’re going to have that mixed economy of some students being in school and some at home.”
She said this would be “a feature of this half term that we will have to manage, I don’t think anyone’s looking forward to it at all”.