Covid in Scotland: The challenges facing schools this term
- Published
Schools return from the winter break in Scotland in the days ahead. It's one of the biggest divergences so far from where we were with the pandemic this time last year. January 2021 was a later start and online learning, January 2022 is classes starting back on time and in person.
A smooth start to the new term isn't guaranteed and there will be much debate over the next few days on the right course of action. There are three main issues schools will have to overcome:
Staff absences
Before Christmas, there were more than 3,000 school staff absent because they either had Covid or were isolating because they were a contact.
Case numbers have been rising in society since then, so the expectation would be that even more will be off for the first week of term.
Spread out across all of Scotland's schools, these numbers are manageable but we know that's often not how Covid works.
Frequently, if there is one positive staff member there will be more within that building, while other schools where community rates are lower, could, in theory, be totally untouched.
The winter break could have done schools a favour in this regard, with staff unlikely to have been spending lots of time together over the holiday.
However, that gain is lost within a couple of days of the new term.
Applications can now be made for teachers who are household contacts, but have themselves tested negative, to return to school.
The bar is high for this - schools need to prove they are under threat of having to shut their doors and the teacher needs to volunteer to do it.
Pupil responsibility
There are a number of things that pupils are being asked to do to help schools stay open.
The government has used the past few days to ask teenagers who are eligible to get their second dose of the vaccine, with drop-in clinics for those aged between 12 and 15.
Pupils are also being asked to take a lateral flow test the night before, or morning of, the first day back and then take them twice weekly after that. Pupil take-up of voluntary testing was low in previous terms.
With the normalisation of lateral flow tests among the public in the past few months, and the request to "flow before you go", it's hoped that more young people will take part this term.
Unlike schools in England, where masks have only just been reintroduced, senior pupils in Scotland have been wearing masks for more than a year.
In the autumn, it was thought the rules around mask-wearing in class might be changed, but the government held firm on the rules amid rising cases. This looks unlikely to change anytime soon.
Ventilation
We know, by now, how important ventilation is in helping to stop the spread of Covid.
Schools are using carbon dioxide monitors to look at the air quality in classrooms and other spaces.
However, not every classroom has one and only half of councils are planning to have a monitor in each space, with the other half moving them around at different times.
In England, some air filtration devices are being handed out and several teaching unions in Scotland are asking for the same here.
Instead, the Scottish government is urging teachers to "make judgements" about opening windows and doors in the winter months to balance ventilation and comfort.
Several teachers have told me they are uncomfortable having to make these decisions, particularly on winter days, when pupils are noticeably cold with windows open.
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