Schools may not be able to fully open by start of new term
SOME schools may not be fully open in Wales at the start of term, council leaders and the head of the Association of School and College Leaders have warned.
In a rapidly changing situation with the Omicron variant it is too early to say whether all schools will re-open to all pupils even by Monday, January 10 - the latest term start date in Wales, they said.
Most pupils are due back at the end of next week, with the first two days given as staff Covid planning days, but it is feared that whole year groups may return to remote learning if high staff absence continues.
Pupils in North Wales are due back on Monday, January 10 but some schools have inset days making the return as late as Tuesday, January 11.
“It is too early to tell at the moment whether schools will be open for face to face at the start of next term. A lot will depend on what has happened over Christmas,” said Cllr Roberts, leader of Flintshire County
Council and Welsh
Local Government Association education spokesman
The Welsh Government has given all schools two planning days to prepare for any remote or online learning, if needed.
The time will also be used by schools to assess their staffing and any absences.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders and Eithne Hughes, Director of the Association of School and College Leaders Cymru, agreed some schools may not be able to re-open fully at the start of term but said they did not expect blanket school closures like last January.
Cllr Roberts said local situations had to be taken into consideration as more evidence about the effect of the Omicron variant over the Christmas break emerges.
He said staff off isolating or sick as well as local infection rates had to be considered.
Education leaders, headteachers and trade unions are meeting with Welsh Government officials later this week to discuss the latest situation amid ongoing concern about large numbers of staff self isolating as well as the risk of infection.
As many as one in four staff were off in some schools at the end of last term.
Cllr Roberts revealed that in the last week of term all cleaners at one secondary school in Flintshire were off and the school only stayed open because all the teaching and other staff joined in to clean it.
The council leader, a former primary teacher, said school was important, some pupils cannot learn remotely and it was vital that classrooms stay open as hubs for vulnerable children and children of key workers.
But he warned that they also had to be safe and have enough staff.
He said: “Arrangements will be in place for key workers and vulnerable children if online learning is recommended. Blended learning is not a solution for some children.”
He said exam years and the youngest age groups may need to be prioritised if some schools cannot stay open because of lack of staff or high infection rates locally.
“Schools are very important for the future when we manage to get out of this dreadful virus. I was a teacher for 36 years and I know the value of education.
“But our schools need to be a safe environment and there have to be enough adults in school whether that is teachers, teaching assistants, catering or cleaning staff.
“We have one large secondary school before the Christmas break that had no cleaners. All the other staff did the cleaning and it stayed open. I do not want to say which school it was but education staff have gone way beyond the normal bounds of duty.
“Pupils in North Wales are not due back until January 10 and staff have two planning days announced by the Welsh Government to look at availability of staff and plan for any remote learning if needed.”
Cllr Richard John, Leader of Monmouthshire County Council and Conservative group leader at the WLGA, said his council, which has had some of the lowest Covid rates in Wales recently, was monitoring the situation.
Eithne Hughes added: “People are speculating that it will be a very, very difficult start to the term.
“We want schools to be open but don’t know what things will be like. Some tough decisions will have to be made. It would not take a huge stretch of the imagination to see the difficulties of last term, with so many staff absent, continuing.”
The Welsh Government has given all schools two planning days at the start of term to prepare for any remote or online learning, if needed.
The time will also be used by schools to assess their staffing and any absences.