The Covid threshold set by the Government is either 10 per cent, or five children or staff, whichever is reached first, who are likely to have mixed closely, to have tested positive for Covid-19 within a 10-day period.
Government guidance to schools states that if they reach this threshold, they should ‘think about taking extra action’ by contacting their local health team as ‘it could indicate transmission is happening in the setting’.
The 1,106 respondents to the survey also reported that, on average, they have already had three members of staff absent this term due to Covid.
The findings come as new Government figures on school attendance show a substantial increase in the number of children off school last week due to Covid or suspected Covid.
Other findings from the NAHT survey include:
- 80 per cent want to see changes to the current rules relating to self-isolation for close family contacts.
- 59 per cent want to the Government to do more to help improve ventilation in classrooms, while 40 per cent are calling for air filters to be provided where necessary.
At the moment, if a child tests positive for Covid, their siblings can continue to attend school, even if they share a bedroom, for example.
A Government spokesperson said, 'The phenomenal success of the vaccination programme, protecting tens of millions of people from the threat of the virus, means that those aged under 18 are not required to self-isolate if they are identified as close contacts. This is helping to keep young people in classrooms and crucially reducing disruption to their face-to-face education.
'We strongly encourage all close contacts to take a PCR test as soon as possible, and to test regularly using lateral flow tests, while schools are encouraged to maintain good hygiene and ventilation aided by our rollout of over 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors to classrooms.'
Attendance figures
The new data published by the Department for Education today shows there has been a 67 per cent increase in the number of children out of school due to Covid in the last two weeks up to 30 September.
It reveals that 204,000 children were out of school due to Coronavirus last week, compared to 122,000 two weeks ago.
The proportion of students attending schools was 89.5 per cent on 30 September, down from 91.9 per cent on 16 September.
The latest statistics show that Covid-related pupil absence in all state-funded schools was 2.5 per cent, compared to 1.5 per cent on 16 September.
A Department for Education spokesperson said, 'We are committed to protecting education, which is why the safety measures in place strike a balance between managing transmission risk with regular testing and enhanced ventilation and hygiene, and reducing disruption to face-to-face education.
'We are working with parents and school and college staff to maximise students’ time in the classroom.'
'There is a real risk that the current policy is leading to more children missing school'
Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said, ‘Clearly Covid and Covid-related absence is still interrupting education for staff and students.
‘School leaders want the Government to revisit its guidance, particularly when it comes to contact tracing and self-isolation. No one wants to see a child miss any time off school, but there is a real risk that the current policy is inadvertently leading to more children missing school in the long run.
‘The results of this survey, coupled with the latest data on case numbers among school-aged children, should be ringing alarm bells for Government.’
Labour has called on the education secretary to ‘finally deliver’ the ventilation and support schools need to help prevent transmission of the virus within classrooms.
Shadow education secretary Kate Green said, ‘The Government must not allow another year of children’s learning to descend into chaos with pupils constantly in and out of school.
‘Ministers should have acted months ago to put ventilation systems in place in our schools and should be doing everything possible to vaccinate teenagers. Yet once again the Government has been too slow to act and children are left feeling the consequences.’
DfE response
- The DfE attendance figures are available here