
Schools in England are “bleeding out” with thousands of teachers having to isolate under a bubble system that is harming the most vulnerable children, ministers have been warned.
Headteachers are growing increasingly exasperated about a lack of clarity from the government about how to deal with Covid outbreaks among pupils, with only two weeks until most schools in England break up for summer.
Gerard Jones, the director of children and young people at Oldham council, said the town was struggling to keep schools open with 400 staff isolating along with more than 6,400 children – about 15% of the whole school population.
“What we’re getting from the government is ‘be patient’ and the Department for Education have just refused to say very much about it at all. Meanwhile we’re bleeding out here,” he said.
Jones said the much-criticised policy of sending home dozens of pupils if one tested positive was increasing the risk of harm to vulnerable children at home. “What we saw during the last lockdown was a lot of children come to harm because they were not being seen at school, so we always worry about that.”
vs last week
vs last week
>