Schools closed over staff Covid absence rates
- Published
At least six schools have been fully closed in Scotland due to high numbers of staff being off work due to Covid.
Many pupils in Dumfries and Galloway, the Highlands, Moray, Orkney and the Western Isles are moving to remote learning while the schools are closed.
Scotland is currently facing a fresh surge of Covid cases driven by a new more transmissible version of the Omicron variant.
Several other councils have said they are experiencing low staffing levels.
The latest weekly ONS sampling suggests one in 14 Scots had the virus in the week ending 12 March, while on Monday the number of hospital patients with Covid rose to record levels.
The Highlands is the worst affected area, with six schools closed for Covid-related reasons, along with nurseries.
The closures include Cannich Bridge Primary, Cannich Bridge Primary Nursery, Rosebank Primary, Rosebank Primary Nursery and Rosehall Primary, which have been fully closed to pupils.
Meanwhile, Kingussie High School has also been partially closed - but remains open for S4-S6 pupils.
'Significant staff absence'
In Orkney, North Walls Community School was closed on 22 March and will remain closed until 24 March.
The Western Isles is experiencing a number of closures with the Sir E Scott and Tong nurseries being closed completely while Stornoway Childcare is operating restricted numbers.
Logie Primary is expected to be closed for several days, with Moray council saying that "significant and ongoing Covid-related staff absence" meant it was unable to safely open the school building.
The school was also closed because of Covid last week.
Other councils have also warned of challenging absence rates, including Dumfries and Galloway where Douglas Ewart High is closed to S1 and S2 pupils and Kirkinner School is closed to all pupils.
Dumfries and Galloway director of education, Gillian Brydson, said there could be occasions over the next few weeks were some classes might have to go back to remote learning.
'Immense pressure'
In a letter to parents, she said: "Please be assured that we would only ask pupils to do this if the situation is unavoidable, because of health and safety concerns due to staff absences, and for as short as possible.
She also said that although rising case numbers were "temporarily impacting" some schools she hoped they could return to "normal teaching and learning" soon.
Shelagh McLean, head of service at Fife Council, said it too was facing a high number of staff absences, but these were being managed in order to keep schools open.
She warned that if staffing situations become "critical", the council would minimise the impact of blended learning on pupils.
The City of Edinburgh council said staff were under immense pressure to provide teaching.
A spokesperson added: "We have well established processes to ensure teaching can continue in person including various in school mitigations, deploying central staff and sharing staff between and across the learning community.
"Keeping children at school remains our priority but ultimately if these measures are all exhausted remote learning may be considered."
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