It’s important for parents and caregivers to remember to keep sick children at home to avoid further impact on the community one GP says. Photo / 123rf
It’s important for parents and caregivers to remember to keep sick children at home to avoid further impact on the community one GP says. Photo / 123rf
Winter ills have forced Northland schools and early childhood centres to roster students home, and in some cases close as staff absences take hold.
Schools are having to move staff across year levels, to fill gaps, while ECE centres scramble to find staff and ask parents to keep their children home to stay under ratio.
A Whangārei GP said it’s important for parents and caregivers to remember to keep sick children at home to avoid further impact on the community.
Tikipunga High School made the decision the week before last to roster senior students home on Thursday and Friday after staff absences left the kura with little choice.
Alec Solomon said in his 11 years as a principal the number of teachers and students off was “unprecedented.
“Outside of the pandemic we’ve never seen anything like this.”
The kura had difficulties filling gaps the week previously which had Solomon approaching the board and pre-warning them that changes may need to happen the following week.
He said making it work has been a “staffing game of Tetris” filling gaps as they can, with many staff outside of their level of expertise.
Solomon said the ability to operate meaningful education while certain staff are away has been difficult, especially if they work in specialist areas.
Students have also been struggling from the onslaught of sickness, but Solomon said attendance is always lower during the winter months and it was something to be expected.
Inspired Minds Early Learning Centre made the difficult decision to close for a day, three weeks ago, due to four out of five staff being unwell.
It created a funding loss of approximately $3000, centre owner and manager Daniel Williamson said.
He said during the Covid-19 pandemic, centres were funded if they had to close due to sickness.
To not have that funding now is a “massive hit,” he said.
Finding relievers to cover unwell staff is easy in advance but Williamson said staff sickness is often a last-minute thing.
Open Spaces Preschool manager and owner Katie Beecroft said her centre has also been struggling with sickness.
Already she’s seen an increase in both staff and children being unwell with a range of illnesses including Covid-19.
She said the centre doesn’t have “any leg to stand on” when it comes to enforcing rules around Covid-19 now that they have been relaxed so instead they refer back to their illness policy.
“If a child is unwell, they shouldn’t be here.”
Recently Open Spaces sent out a notice to parents that if they are at home, they may be asked to keep their child home to stay under the ratio.
She said having two or three staff off sick is “massive” for the centre, especially as they operate on a 100 per cent qualified basis.
If the centre is unable to find qualified relievers and operates unqualified regularly, they drop down into a lower funding band, resulting in a funding loss of around $21,000 per funding round.
Beecroft said it’s difficult to keep sickness at bay as teachers work in very close proximity with children all day.
“None of us want to send kids home, but we have to keep ourselves safe. If you are sending a child unwell, It leads to conflict between us and parents.
“We want them [parents] to understand we’re looking after the herd.”
She said the Ministry of Education has reportedly relaxed one of its frequent absence rules from June until September to manage the coming season.
“If a child is away for 21 days or more due to a respiratory illness we won’t lose funding,” Beecroft explained.
Bush Road Medical Centre’s Dr Geoff Cunningham said he has seen a “marked increase” in the number of viral infections as well as Covid-19.
His practice has brought back isolation rooms for unwell patients to reduce the spread.
