England’s schools braced for more Covid disruption as term begins

School leaders have warned of further disruption to teaching due to the latest wave of Covid-19 and said they are preparing “innovative” adaptations in the face of widespread staff absence.

After a Christmas holiday season overshadowed by the Omicron variant, children in England began to return to the classroom for a new school term on Tuesday. But as Covid-positive staff isolate and supply teachers run short, school leaders said lessons could be thinly resourced and plans for GCSE and A-level exams could be threatened.

While most said it was too early to assess the scale of disruption, some reported teacher absences in double figures and are already planning to make adjustments, such as online learning, while others have warned of unfairness should GCSEs and A-levels go ahead.

“We are in a bit of a perfect storm about availability of supply staff — there’s been a big increase in demand and a significant reduction in supply,” said Mike Walters, a school leader and chair of the Kent Association of Head Teachers.

“It’s going to be questionable how good the quality of education is going to be in those circumstances,” he added. “I am really worried about the implications on exam groups.” 

Many secondary school pupils will not begin lessons until the end of the week to allow them to be tested for Covid-19, according to government guidelines. They will also wear masks in classrooms to help control the spread of the virus.

And while the extent of staff shortages is so far unclear, educators acknowledge they may need to take unusual steps to ensure education goes ahead.

On Sunday, education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said schools should prioritise face-to-face learning but he encouraged “a flexible approach”, including combining classes or moving some online, if this was impossible.

The Department for Education said it had put in a “range of measures to keep young people in the classroom”. Ian Bauckham, the chair of exams regulator Ofqual, said schools could suspend “specialist” classes like PSHE to maximise resources.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, warned that a “small increase” in staff absences would cause “real problems” and the government should be “realistic” about expectations.

“If the priority is to keep children in school, we will need innovative approaches to delivery when staffing is critically low,” he said.

Dan Moynihan, CEO of Harris, which runs 50 primary and secondary academies in London, said early indications suggested a significant number of staff, including headteachers, would be absent in the coming days. He said he was “definitely anxious” about exams going ahead this summer.

“We have a terrible feeling that within two weeks we will see large numbers of absences,” he said. “If large numbers of kids are off for January and February, it will make things very difficult.”

Tarun Kapur, chief executive of the Dean academy trust in Manchester, said up to 10 per cent of teaching and support staff were now isolating due to Covid. “There is still a concern surrounding absences,” he said.

Additional teacher stress and disruption for pupils meant exams this year would not “be remotely comparable to 2019”, said David Weston, a former teacher and head of the Teacher Development Trust.

“Without a doubt the day-to-day teaching and learning is going to be that much harder with this much absence,” he added. “There will always be compromises made.”