Can schools really function if staff begin to self-isolate due to Coronavirus? The government seems to think so, but the practicalities of such a move are far from simple. 

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Schools could suddenly see large numbers of their workforce disappearing, leaving those remaining unexpectedly in charge of large numbers of children without the usual staff levels to help with this.

This could well cause all manner of issues for staff and students that schools need to consider.

The tipping point

At some point, it could be the case that there are not enough staff members available to effectively run a school.

It is hard to put a specific number on this as each setting will vary, as noted by Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

“There is clearly a tipping point where, if a certain number of staff are away from school, it would not be possible to open. That will depend upon the precise circumstances so it is difficult to apply a general rule of thumb,” he says.

“However, the main priority of schools will be to endeavouring to remain open. They will obviously be conscious of any health and safety implications in making that decision.”

Amy Forrester, Tes behaviour columnist, English teacher and director of pastoral care (key stage 4) at Cockermouth School in Cumbria, says schools should look to identify this ‘tipping point’ where they feel it would be unsafe to run a school sooner rather than later.

Another experienced school leader told Tes they think it is clear senior leaders will have to be ready to make a call if staff are going off sick or in isolation and this leaves an unbalanced ratio of staff to pupils.

For now, there is no official guidance on this from the Department for Education, with a spokesperson reiterating ongoing advice to expect to remain open. 

“Advice from Public Health England continues to be for educational settings to remain open unless advised otherwise,” they said.

“We are continually reviewing how best to support all educational settings and the impact of any measures will be considered carefully before being implemented.”

Despite this, one primary school headteacher told Tes the issue of staff being absent and the management issues this would cause is already causing concern, especially with the new seven-day isolation guidance.

“I’m prepping a spreadsheet of all the staff so I can track it if and when they are off (with one already off) and see when they would be due back. At present, I’ve been able to get supply, so if that continues there will be no interruption. However, l think two teachers off means I will have to possibly shut one class temporarily.”

The other issue they note is that if teaching assistants are affected, the impact would be immediate given the close nature of their relationships with pupils.

“Our TAs are also our 1:1 for pupils with EHCPs (not many children have full ones), run daily interventions for pupils, lunchtime supervisors, first aiders and provide the medical care for pupils with long-term needs,” they note.

One potential way around the issue of not having enough staff to teach an entire school, noted by several teachers Tes spoke, is for schools to prioritise teaching the years facing Sats, GCSEs and A levels to give those pupils the best chance possible of being prepared for their exams.

Other staff

It is not just teaching staff being absent through illness that could cause issues for schools - from cleaners and caters to administrative teams and TAs, any loss of staff could impact schools, as the primary head explains.

“We have external caterers who do the serving - they assure us that if they are unable to provide hot meals we would move to something like sandwiches that we can hand out so that would be fine,” they say. 

A senior school leader said that the reality was that schools could have to enforce a packed lunches only policy if catering services were affected - noting it is not realistic to expect other staff to suddenly become adept at providing food or other key services to pupils.

Another concern is around cleaning staff.

“While we can do some of it as teachers, it really is not realistic to keep up the same standards and also be teachers,” said the primary head.

Premises teams and other key support staff being off or operating at limited capacity could also have a huge impact.

“We also have premises team who run the school. Opening up and closing and sorting things out like the other week when we had no heating and hot water due to a broken system,” they note.

“Other support staff who answer phones, check attendance…Like all other public institutions, we have made our efficiencies so when they are off there are limited others who can step in. What happens if they are off too?”

Pooling resources

One idea being touted to overcome this is that schools pool resources and work together to teacher large numbers of pupils. This could potentially mean as many as 40, 50 or more pupils in a ‘class’ with one or two teachers overseeing the content and behaviour management.

Barton says that, while this could work, there are a number of considerations schools need to think about

“Schools would need a space that is large enough to accommodate an expanded class, and they would carefully plan how any such class was managed, which may involve a mix of teachers and classroom support staff,” he says. 

From a legal point of view, though, he notes that it is only infant class sizes which are capped at no more than 30.

“Whether or not there would be an argument for temporarily lifting that limit in the case of widespread disruption would require careful consideration,” he says.

For ages above this, there is no legal limit around classes sizes, but health and safety concerns and safeguarding may make it impossible for classes to go beyond a certain size anyway.

Forrester has already outlined the potential issues this could cause.

“One of the biggest areas to consider will be managing behaviour. In large groups, in potentially crammed spaces, the challenges are going to be varied and, in all probability, complex,” she writes.

“Where you might usually have had more challenging students in smaller groups, keeping particular young people apart, this may no longer be possible. It may be appropriate for school leaders to identify where they can bring in support staff to ensure that there are enough adults in the room to manage behaviour.

“In addition, they may need to consider how to manage the removal of disruptive students - when the class size is doubled, the impact of poor behaviour on the rest of the class is greater, as is the potential for the behaviour to spread.”

She notes too that this will also require schools to have the space to host such large classes.

“School leaders will need to identify all the large spaces that they can, such as gyms, school halls or assembly venues. It may also be pertinent to explore what spaces the local community may be able to provide if they are close by, such as church halls or community centres.”

This may be more feasible at secondary schools but a primary teacher told Tes this could be much harder in their setting and that when working with younger children it may become more of child care situation than education.

“Our classrooms are not big enough to fit more than 30 in  We would need to completely change our expectations about curriculum - 50 children together in the school hall perhaps. That’s a lot but manageable short term [but] we really are moving into childcare territory though.”

Keeping it clean

One way to avoid all of the above is for schools to do their best to limit the risk of infection among staff and pupils. No doubt many are already doing with this regularly cleaning but another interesting point raised is to try and create as few entry and exit points to school as possible and reduce the chance for surfaces to be touched.

“Minimising the number of points of entry and the volume of spaces in active use will allow you to best control the flow of movement,” says a headteacher of a school in Hong Kong already affected heavily by coronavirus.

“Selected doors can also be pinned back to limit handrail contact. Cleaning teams will thank you for this.”