Schools across Shropshire braced for staffing crisis as Omicron surges

Scientists expect the full impact of the new variant to hit after the turn of the year, although there have been reports that parents have been keeping children home to avoid the virus before Christmas.

Some education leaders and unions urged the government to bring in tougher protective measures and stronger isolation rules to try to slow the spread of the virus before the holidays.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged parents to get their 12 to 15-year-olds vaccinated from Monday to try to reduce the spread of the virus.

Many Shropshire schools, including those in the Learning Community Trust, had to cancel in-person nativity plays to keep children, families and staff safe.

Dr Gill Eatough, CEO of the trust which includes HLC and several other Telford schools, as well as Severndale Academy in Shrewsbury, said if schools lose more staff than they have this term they may struggle to stay open.

“The main challenge is staffing. It’s a big concern,” she said. “We can’t lose more staff than we have done this term. If our staff numbers drop, there’s a knock-on effect, and it’ll be a question of whether we can stay fully open.

“We’ve had occasions where staff members have been unwell or they’ve had to self isolate because their children have Covid. We’ve managed to keep open all of our schools, but sometimes staffing levels have been right on the edge.”

She added: “I don’t think he (Prime Minister Boris Johnson) will close the schools. They said they would not close them again, but that was before the new variant. I don’t think they will close the schools unless there is a significant risk to public health.

“We’re on track for GCSEs and SATs. We’ve been told they’re going ahead. The teacher-assessed grades created an immense amount of work last year.”

Preparations are being made for next term. Secondary school pupils must be tested on site after the Christmas break.

After a term fraught with changing circumstances, Dr Eatough said the trust’s schools are prepared, and ready to adapt to changing guidance.

She added: “We’ve been on a bit of a rollercoaster this term. We’ve had times where we’ve high numbers of cases in a number of schools. Then we put stepped up measures in place and the cases drop. We’ve got quite skilled at understanding what we need to do.

“All of our secondary school pupils are vaccinated. We started with the vaccination programme just before half term. We’ve seen a drop in case numbers, and we’ve had the least numbers (of children absent) in a while. But you don’t know when cases are going to come.”

She added: “We were told last week to have testing at secondary schools. We’ve got that ready to go for the beginning of next term. For two days at the beginning of term we’ll be doing testing. Our staff are doing lateral flow tests twice a week.

“I think we’ve demonstrated over the last two years that we will keep going and keep doing our best for our young people.

“We’ve often found ourselves in the position where we’ve got late instructions which give us little time to plan.

“It’s been a busy old time and everybody is ready for a break. We just want our students and families to have a good Christmas and to avoid illness.”