Teacher absence and staff shortages mean that pupils are at an increasing risk of being sent to home. Parents should make contingency plans for pupils to learn at home if we are forced to close a class, including at short-notice.

Increasing teacher absence through this week has resulted in every available adult being re-deployed to teach a class. Our teacher supply agencies tell us that they have no more teachers available. Class 6P (Miss Abed) is being split and combined with other year 6 classes today to keep all pupils in school. Floor space limits how many classes can be split and combined.

Closing a class and sending pupils to learn at home is a last resort, for as short a time as possible. If pupils are sent home, they will switch to remote learning using Microsoft Teams. Teachers in school will set assignments to complete at home and/or work in a hybrid way. Hybrid teaching involves teaching the class in school and pupils at home at the same time.

COVID-19 infection remains high in school. In the last 10 days, 73 pupils and 6 members of staff have tested positive.  5 classes are at or above DfE thresholds of 5 or more cases. Other teachers are recovering from COVID infection or have seasonal illness. We continue to talk to colleagues at the local authority and local public health teams.