Staff shortages force closures at Peterborough schools

Today (December 11) Queen Katharine Academy, in Walton, confirmed that the school would be closed to Year 8 and 10 pupils from Monday to Wednesday (December 14-16) and to Year 7 and 11s on Thursday and Friday (December 17-18).

A statement from Principal Lynn Mayes said: “Like many schools across the country we are currently facing low staffing levels. We are now aware that this will continue next week and we have had to make further decisions today in the interest of students’ safety and wellbeing.

“I want to be clear that this is not as a result of positive cases of Covid-19 in the academy and under normal circumstances, staff absences rarely cause problems and can be quickly solved. However, under the current circumstances, schools are facing significant challenges with staff absences much higher than normal.

“The blended approach is very important, as it will allow all year groups to receive a mixture of face-to-face and remote learning, ensuring that the measures we need to put in place are fair for all students.

“During their time at home, work for students in Year 7, Year 8, Year 10 and Year 11 will be set on Microsoft Teams.

“All Post 16 and Year 9 students should return to school on Monday as usual.

“I would like to thank all our families for your support so far and apologise again for the disruption these decisions cause. I want to reassure you that the safety and wellbeing of our students is always our highest priority.”

Castor CE Primary school also confirmed that staff shortages have forced the school to close. Given that a number of staff have been forced to self-isolate over the course of the week, the decision was taken to move all teaching online for the day.

A decision will be made over the weekend as to whether the school will reopen again on Monday. The school is due to break up for the Christmas holidays next Friday (December 18).

The spokesperson said: “As a precautionary measure, we moved all teaching for today onto remote learning due to challenges around the number of staff available in school. We are currently considering the arrangement for next week.”