Schools being partially closed due to Covid will be 'way of life' until vaccine, academy chief says

Schools being partially or fully closed due to Covid cases will be a “way of life” until there is a vaccine, a senior Department for Education official has said.

The national schools commissioner warned that the need to send “bubbles” of pupils home – which could be a class or even an entire year group - if one of their peers test positive would become “more prevalent” as time goes on.

Dominic Herrington, a senior civil servant who is responsible for all the academies in England, said the hundreds of pupils being sent home for two week periods at a time to self-isolate is a "challenge" but one that schools will have to cope with.

His remarks come after the proportion of schools that are partly closed because of Covid-19 quadrupled in a week, according to official figures.

Headteachers have said that it is “not surprising” that more schools are closing given the “severe problems” with the testing system as well as rising infections in the community.

Speaking at an online conference for academy trust leaders, Mr Herrington said: “Opening, reopening, closing, partially closing will continue until we have a vaccine, and become a way of life.

“And let’s hope – we’re pretty clear – we don’t want schools to close in the way that they had to before for the vast majority of pupils.

“Schools and colleges will stay open as long as possible. But the capacity of bubbles, of year groups to need to go home will become more prevalent. So that’s just a challenge that we all have to cope with.”

Schools are considered to be not fully open if they are unable to provide face-to-face teaching for all pupils for the whole school day and have asked a group of students to self-isolate.

The latest official data shows that the proportion of schools that were not fully open rose from one per cent to four per cent in the space of seven days.

Schools are generally advised by public health officials to send either the class or year group home to self-isolate after one pupil in their “bubble” tests positive for Covid-19.

But teachers have reported delays in accessing both tests and test results, meaning children are left to self-isolate potentially unnecessarily while the wait.