Students miss out on more than 500,000 school days

PUPILS in Staffordshire lost more than half a million days of school due to coronavirus during the autumn, new figures show.

Youngsters across the county took 543,966 days off due to Covid, or 5.1 per pupil.

The county had higher levels of Covid-related absence than England as a whole, which saw 4.7 days lost per pupil.

The figures come as a number of schools across the area are once again having to revert to remote learning following positive Covid tests among pupils.

Last year’s autumn term coincided with a huge surge in Covid cases, both locally and nationwide, after cases had fallen to low levels over the summer.

The current wave of coronavirus – driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant – has not reached those heights yet, and the number of hospitalisations and deaths are both much lower.

But schools have been disproportionately affected this time, with teenagers being among those most likely to test positive for Covid.

This has resulted in several schools sending pupils home and reverting to remote learning, in order to prevent a handful of cases turning into a fullblown outbreak.

Pupils in years 5, 6 and 7 at Churnet Valley Middle School in Leek were told to self-isolate at home last week after three children caught Covid.

Pupils and staff at all secondary schools in England should be taking twice-weekly rapid lateral flow tests as part of their infection control measures.

Staffordshire County Council has also recently deployed non-rapid PCR testing in schools in Leek, following outbreaks of the Delta variant.