School attendance of staff and pupils falls

There has been a “significant spike” in children and staff absent from schools in Monmouthshire following the coronavirus outbreak, a council boss has said.

The county council’s chief officer for young people Will McLean told the children and young people select committee that in feedback from schools, attendance among staff and pupils had already been hit.

Mr McLean gave the committee an update regarding contingency plans for schools during the coronavirus outbreak.

He told the committee that there would be a tele-conference tomorrow morning for all 22 directors across councils in Wales with Welsh Government and the position would be a lot clearer after that.

Mr McLean said: “As soon as it became apparent that the coronavirus was going to have a very significant impact we have been communicating continuously with all our schools.

“At that start that was significantly around children returning from foreign travel so we had numbers of the children over the half term period skiing.

“We have also continued to work with our schools in terms of preparations around business continuity, so I met with all head teachers last Tuesday and we talked through business continuity planning and the various aspects they should be giving consideration to.

“We shared our critical incident plan which has a clearly set out template and one of our schools offered to share their business continuity plan.”

Mr McLean said that he had significant concerns over student and staff ratios, vulnerable learners and examinations.

He said that the council was continuing to support schools and highlighted the announcement yesterday that pregnant women should potentially self-isolate as a big challenge.

He reiterated that schools would remain open and that the council would continue to follow Welsh Government advice.

Cllr Louise Brown asked about the impact on primary school students.

She said: “I can understand how it would be easier for secondary pupils to learn online if unfortunately that situation arose, but what about contingency planning for the primary schools in terms of making sure the education of pupils continues throughout the period in some shape or form?

Mr McLean said that conversations were taking place with all schools to make sure that work is accessible for everyone.

Cllr Jo Watkins asked about the impact on supply staff, teachers and teaching assistance who are not entitled to sick pay.

While this issue had also been raised by the unions, this is a decision for the Welsh Government.