Schools face having to close periodically or send whole year groups home due to disruption caused by Omicron, headteachers are warning.
The fears come after prime minister Boris Johnson told the nation to expect a Covid-19 “tidal wave” due to the new variant of the coronavirus.
Responding today, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “What we may see is schools periodically having to close or send home year groups for short periods of time because of unsustainable levels of staff and pupil absence, or on public health advice.
“This has already been happening during the course of this term and there could be more of this if the Omicron variant means that there is more disruption.”
Meanwhile, the NASUWT teaching union is calling for the government to stagger the return of pupils to schools and colleges in January.
The union is calling on education secretary Nadhim Zahawi to urgently announce additional measures for schools and colleges before the Christmas break to avoid a repeat of the “chaos” experienced last year.
The NASUWT teaching union says a staggered return of pupils at the start of January should be considered and additional on-site testing facilities should be provided up until the February half term.
It adds that the government should publish further guidance advising schools and colleges to cancel or postpone non-essential activities or events, as well as move to online staff and parental meetings.
The plea comes after health secretary Sajid Javid said he could not guarantee schools would not close again due to the pandemic.
In a letter to Mr Zahawi about the Omicron variant, Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said: “We ask you to avoid a repeat of the confusion and chaos which last year impacted negatively on public and parental confidence and hampered the hard work of teachers and school and college leaders in their preparations at the start of 2021.”
‘Serious’ staffing shortages
The teaching union is also calling on the Department for Education to publish the levels of teacher and support staff absences - both Covid and non-Covid related - and the steps being taken to ensure schools can continue to maintain quality education provision amid “serious” staffing shortages.
Dr Roach said: “We understand that schools are reporting significant proportions of teaching staff absent at any one time, with figures reported to the union ranging between one-third to one-half of teachers at individual schools unavailable to work.”
After the Christmas holidays last year, prime minister Boris Johnson told parents on Sunday 3 January to send their primary-age children back to school.
But on the evening of the next day, he announced a national lockdown for England - with all schools closed to the majority of pupils.
Asked on LBC whether further school closures remained a possibility, Mr Javid said: “I don’t want to see that or any of these kinds of measures. I’m just going to focus on everything else we need to be doing, especially the booster programme.”
He added: “I’d say this, if you are asking me for guarantees, I will just say - as the health secretary, of course, I’m not the education secretary - that there are, when it comes to our fight against this pandemic, no guarantees.”
It comes after Mr Zahawi also said he could not guarantee that in January all schools would be open everywhere.
