Hundreds of children in entire year groups have been sent home to learn remotely again as Covid continues to cause havoc in schools. For some there will be no online teaching available either, owing to teacher shortages.
Headteachers said high levels of staff absence and lack of supply cover means they have had no choice but to close some year groups entirely. Exam years are being prioritised for face to face learning with the first summer exams since 2019 only weeks away.
Attendance across Wales continues to slump with more than one in 10 pupils missing classes on average and more than 15,500 children off school for a known Covid related reason in the week to March 25. You can read more about that here.
Bridgend Council said the following classes in its schools are currently closed due to staff testing positive for coronavirus:
- Tremains Primary - Observation class and pre-nursery group are temporarily closed. Situation will be reviewed on the weekend. The earliest they can reopen is Monday 4 April.
- Mynydd Cynffig Primary School - Two reception classes are temporarily closed. Both are expected to reopen on Monday 4 April. Until then, online learning is in place.
In addition, Bridgend's only Welsh medium secondary, Ysgol Llangynwyd asked all year eights to learn from home on March 31 and all year sevens are working from home on Friday April 1. The school also asked all year nines to work from home on March 30.
A Bridgend Council spokesperson said schools are monitoring the situation closely with 9.2% of staff absent as of March 24.
All year nine pupils at Haverfordwest High VC School and all year nine pupils at Henry Tudor School in Pembroke were sent home to learn from home day (March 31) “due to staff shortages”, Pembrokeshire Council said on its website. A council spokesperson said approximately 600 learners have received one or more days online learning so far this week.
All year 10 pupils at Rhyl High School are also learning from home today (March 31) while all year sevens have been told to learn from home tomorrow (April 1).
In a message on Denbighshire Council website Rhyl High said it had had to sent pupils in those year groups home “due to high levels of staff sickness in the school”. The school remains open to all other year groups.
Pupils at Ysgol Brynhyfryd have also been sent home this week and more have been told to also work remotely in the last week of term next week.
In a message posted to Denbighshire Council's website the bi-lingual secondary in Ruthin said: "have recently experienced unprecedented levels of staff absence and the situation is further deteriorating.
"Until today we have been able to cover classes using existing and agency staff, however, we have now reached a point where there is insufficient staffing capacity to continue, and I regret to inform you that we must now move to home learning for the following year groups, on the following days:
• Year 9 – Friday 1st April
• Year 8 – Monday 4th April
• Year 7 – Tuesday 5th April
At Ysgol Dyffryn Taf in Carmarthenshire all year eight pupils worked from home today (March 31) and all year nine pupils have been told to work from home tomorrow (April 1).
In a letter to parents headteacher Julian Kennedy apologised: “This week, a considerable number of staff have contracted the virus. This puts a significant strain on our ability to cover the classes of absent colleagues and, in turn, our ability to keep children safe across the school day.
“For several weeks we have been booking as many supply staff as possible, using non-timetabled staff time and postponing things such as interventions in order to keep all children in school. Teacher supply agencies are themselves struggling to meet demand across Wales, compounded by the unavailability of many of their own staff.
“However, we have (today) reached the point where the level of Covid-19 related staff absence and the unavailability of supply staff means that we cannot keep all pupils safely on site for the rest of this week.”
The letter adds that year eight and nine timetables for the days they are away “will be formally suspended to allow staff to be deployed with other classes” and “online teaching will not therefore be put in place.” Pupils have been told to check Google Classroom for ongoing homework or other assignments.”
Apologising to parents Mr Kennedy said the school would work hard to keep further disruption to a minimum.
“An update will be issued on Friday outlining expectations for next week, although I would stress that the prevalence of the virus and its impact on each individual who contracts it are beyond the control of any school.”
One class at Ysgol Plas Brondyffryn special school in Denbigh is also closed “due to staffing issues caused by Covid 19”. In a message on Denbighshire Council’s website the school said the Dosbarth Glas class in the primary section would be closed for the rest of this week.
Conwy Council said one school, which it did not name, moved 351 pupils in two year groups to remote learning for a "short period" this week.
Elsewhere headteachers said they are struggling to keep classes open with so many staff off.
Hugo Hutchison, headteacher at Monmouth Comprehensive said one in five staff were off last week.
He warned: “We are on the verge of closing the school to certain year groups and have only managed to stay fully open so far through colleagues taking on extra classes and the collapsing of certain points of the timetable.
“Staff absence through Covid is at its worst since the pandemic began. We are scenario planning until Easter and may need to partially close if things do not improve.”
Wrexham Council said some children have been working remotely this week owing to staff shortages, but did not say how many or in which schools. A spokesperson said: “Some pupils have been learning from home due to the impact of Covid on staffing levels, but this tends to be no more than a day at a time, and schools work hard to ensure there’s as little disruption as possible for students."
WalesOnline asked all 22 local councils how many schools are affected by closures owing to staff absences but only a handful responded.
A spokesperson for Blaenau Gwent Council : "We have had one primary school need to move a Reception class to blended learning this week."
An Anglesey Council spokesperson said: “All our schools continue to ensure education provision for learners.
“We will not be reporting on instances where individual schools have moved to blended learning.”
Merthyr Council said all its schools are currently fully open but latest half-termly data showed a 12.9% rate of teacher absence and 15.2% support staff absence
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We know that some schools have been operating under staffing pressures, and we continue to work closely with local authorities and supply agencies to help alleviate some of these staffing pressures.
" We have also extended our scheme to place newly qualified teachers into paid posts in schools for another term. This scheme was introduced in the autumn and has not only helped to create extra capacity in schools but also enabled those at the very start of their teaching careers to gain valuable experience.”
“We have also provided a total of £128 million to the Recruit, Recover, Raise Standards programme in 2020-21 and 2021-22 to fund additional teachers and other school staff.”
