School partially closes after Covid spreads through staff

A school in Rutland ^[1] had to partially close due to Covid-19 ^[2] spreading through the teaching staff. Uppingham Community College ^[3] (UCC) had 17 of its teaching staff test positive with the virus, leaving to the college having to close to Years 8, 9, and 10 as they didn’t have enough staff to fully run the school safely.

Headteacher Ben Solly addressed the impact of Covid-19 on the teaching staff at the college, and admitted hearing about other schools in the area struggling, in a message to parents. Mr Solly wrote: “Last week, a headteacher of a school in Leicester asked me about levels of Covid at UCC, as his school was struggling, and I naively responded that we hadn’t really felt any impact.

“I should’ve kept my mouth closed because we have been overwhelmed this week, as it spread across our teaching staff.

“On Tuesday we had 13 teachers absent which was incredibly difficult, considering each teacher will typically deliver 4 or 5 lessons each, per day. Despite us drafting in four external supply teachers and just about managing to cover all of the lessons, it was very tight and we were at a tipping point where any further absences would be unmanageable.

“As the day progressed it became clear that we would be incurring further teacher absences and I had to make the very difficult decision to partially close the school for 3 year groups.

“As expected, more positive cases came in overnight, so despite it being an incredibly sad call to have to make, I know it was the right thing to do. I have been liaising with the local Public Health Protection Team and keeping other relevant bodies informed about our situation throughout the week.”

Mr Solly apologised to families due to the disruption this caused, but emphasised that all Covid-related absences were due to teachers being “very unwell with symptoms and physically unable to work” – with teachers expected to return to work when they are well enough and in line with NHS guidance. According to the newsletter, all students will be back in school from Monday as staffing levels return to normal.

Earlier this week, Mr Solly spoke with Rutland & Stamford Sound about the closure. He said: “It feels quite strange, it was extremely disappointing to have to make the decision to partially close UCC [on Tuesday]. I did think this was all behind us, to be honest.

“It kind of snuck up really, really quickly out of nowhere this week. The staff have been dropping like flies, we’re up to 17 positive confirmed cases now amongst teachers, which is the hardest one to deal with really because we have lots of people who work here in support roles as well, but it’s the student facing ones which are the hardest ones to deal with when it comes to absences.

“I felt more like a supply teacher this week than a headteacher. We’ve done everything we possibly could do to keep the wheels turning, but we got to a point where it was starting to feel unsafe with the level of absences we had and which was coming.”

LeicestershireLive has approached Uppingham Community College for a comment.

References

^{^} Rutland (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
^{^} Covid-19 (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
^{^} Uppingham Community College (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)
^{^} Man smashed wife’s nose, telling her not to smile at people (www.leicestermercury.co.uk)