WORRIED headteachers have expressed a 'sense of disbelief' that Plan B Covid measures are being scrapped – with schools in Swindon said to be on 'red alert'.

Swindon Borough Council recorded 260 staff members off from schools around the town this week.

The council’s director of inclusion and achievement Annette Perrington revealed some schools are on a 'red alert', which means they’ve had to make difficult decisions because of staffing levels.

While some schools have had to merge classes, others have had to move theirs to remote learning for all but vulnerable children – especially in the younger age groups.

Ms Perrington said: “There are very tight restrictions on staffing levels in nurseries.

“I think it’s fair to say the last three weeks have been really challenging for schools. 

“Headteachers have that difficult situation of trying to balance keeping children in education, especially the most vulnerable groups, with the absences and the school transmission.

“There was a small sense of disbelief that everything is going to be rolled back to Plan A because it’s at the opposite of what they’re experiencing at the moment.

“It’s a difficult time and [when we] roll back to Plan A, there will potentially be some impact on education in the next two weeks.

“But we continue to focus on keeping children in education wherever we can.

“The expectations from everybody are that everything’s going back to normal but the reality is headteachers have still got responsibilities for the children and staff in their schools.

“But I’m sure they will embrace it because their main priority all the time has been providing face-to-face education for their children.”

The lifting of Plan B measures means that face coverings are no longer required in indoor settings, including classrooms.

Around 70 schools, colleges and nurseries across Swindon have recorded Covid cases over the last seven days. There were 1,086 Covid cases in schools in total across the last week.

Swindon’s Covid cases have overall dropped by almost 30% this week so the case rate as of Friday was 1,128 per 100,000. The only age group where the case rate is increasing is among the five to nine-year-olds.

Headteachers and chief executives have gone back into the classroom to keep education open for children.

Ms Perrington added: “There’s not anything more they could’ve done so I’m proud of every one of them.

“We’ve seen senior leadership teams acting as teaching assistants this week in order to keep education going.

“They’ve really rolled up their sleeves because they know how important it is for parents and children.

“But this has taken its toll.

“The heads have remained resilient all the time and they’re as positive as they can be.

“They’re slightly weary and they’re just on autopilot so they’re always communicating with us.”

It’s not just teacher absences that are affecting the way schools, colleges and nurseries are run. They are missing transport workers to take children to and from school and cleaners.

Heads are also having to find ways of balancing the budget. They have no additional funding coming in from the government but they still have extra cleaning costs to account for because of Covid health and safety protocols.

The council is helping support those schools who are suffering from absences. Ms Perrington’s team of eight senior education managers deal with the operational problems.

They have even started covering the weekends in case educational establishments need to contact them.