Schools ‘under pressure’ as teachers fall victim to Covid

The Association of School and College Leaders said the past few months of the pandemic had put schools under ‘enormous pressure’.

The Association called for education staff to be ‘prioritised’ for the Covid vaccine programme.’

Department for Education figures show 60 teachers and school leaders in Lincolnshire state schools were absent with either a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19 on December 17.

There were also 149 forced to isolate.

This means 209 were off for Covid-19 related reasons on just one day – 4.2% of all teachers in schools that remained open.

This was up from 3.8% on the same day the week before, and 2.6% on October 15, the first date the survey was conducted.

On December 17, 97.5% of schools that responded to the survey in Lincolnshire were open, after Education Secretary Gavin Williamson threatened one council with legal action to prevent it closing schools.

Across England, 4.4% of teachers and school leaders were absent because of coronavirus on what was the last day of term for many schools.

Absence rates due to Covid-19 varied widely throughout the country, from 17.9% in the London borough of Havering, to just 0.5% in Torbay, in Devon.