Honiton Community College forced to keep year groups at home as Covid-19 levels rise

Honiton Community College has been forced to keep year groups at home this week due to the unprecedented levels of staff absence due to Covid-19.

In a letter to parents, the college announced that staff absences are so high that it would not be safe for staff or pupils to have all year groups on site at the same time.

The school have been forced to send different year groups home on different days. On Monday Year 9 had to stay at home, yesterday it was Year 8 and today Year 7 will not come into school.

Honiton Community College is prioritising pupils who are in exam years.

The letter to parents said: "Unfortunately, we are dealing with unprecedented levels of staff absence due to Covid-19.

"Despite our best efforts to ensure that all our students have a subject-specific specialist teacher in front of them (or indeed any cover or supply teacher), we have reached a point where sadly it is not possible, despite trying everything.

"As a result, we are going to need to introduce a rotation of sending a year group home each day so that we can ensure that we can cover the classes of the year groups remaining in college.

"This is not a decision that we have reached easily as it is the last thing we want to do after the interruptions of the last two years; however, it is sadly a necessity in order for us to be able to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the staff and students in our college community."

The school will provide materials for the children so they can access remote, with a focus on English, Maths and Science topics.

The situation is going to be reviewed regularly.

Cases of Covid-19 are currently very high in Devon and hospitalisations are at record levels.

Other Devon schools are facing staff shortages and supply agencies do not have enough available employees to cover the widespread teacher absences.

Jessie Hay, Director of Finance and Resources at Honiton Community College, told Nub News: "Exam year groups are being prioritised and will remain in College, whilst year groups 7 to 9 will stay home for one day this week and access remote learning.

"Our vulnerable students in these year groups will still be supported in College and those students in receipt of free school meals will be provided with a packed lunch.

"The whole staff team at Honiton Community College have worked tirelessly to continue to deliver the curriculum whether in person or remotely. It has been such a challenging couple of years but they have all pulled together to support the student body and each other."

You can find out more information about Honiton Community College [L] https://honitoncommunitycollege.co.uk/ [L+] here [L]