Schools hit by rising Covid cases have reintroduced masks in corridors and one-way systems in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, a headteachers’ leader has warned.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that Covid and its impact on staff absence was one of three major concerns raised by its members in recent weeks.
He said that the ASCL would be raising this issue with Department for Education officials tomorrow and also planned to highlight the problem with the new education secretary, James Cleverly.
Mr Barton was speaking ahead of the latest set of attendance statistics, due to be published by the DfE today.
He said: “It is one of the major concerns our members are raising with us regularly… They are concerned about problems they are having recruiting, rising energy bills and Covid. They are asking us to make sure the government realises that [Covid] hasn’t gone away, and we are certainly doing that.
Schools bring back masks to fight Covid
“We are hearing from school leaders who are having issues with staff absence because of Covid, and some schools have brought back masks in corridors and one-way systems in response to this.”
Mr Barton added: ”[School leaders] are concerned that they will be lambasted by local or national media for doing so, but school leaders are doing what they can to try to ensure schools can continue to preserve the status quo to deliver education.”
He said the current situation raised the question of ”what will the situation be like by the time we get to October and heading towards winter?”
The DfE no longer records figures for Covid-related absence but still produces fortnightly attendance data.
The most recent figures from last month showed that attendance in all state-funded schools was 89.4 per cent on 23 June, down from 91.5 per cent on 9 June.
