Teacher absences have increased by 50 per cent this year compared to the previous year. Photo / Bevan Conley
Teacher absences have increased by 50 per cent this year compared to the previous year. Photo / Bevan Conley
A principal has described limping to the end of the school term while struggling to cover staff away sick with winter illnesses and Covid, and he fears the same challenges will face his school next term.
New data shows the number of teacher sick days have increased by more than 50 per cent compared with a year ago as staff isolate at home due to their own or loved ones' infections.
Principal of Whangārei's Hora Hora Primary School Pat Newman said he has noticed a "huge" difference in staff absences this year compared with last year.
"We've been very lucky to be able to fill most of the classrooms with relievers most days, but that's not happening everywhere. It's been, to be quite honest, a couple of years of hell."
Newman said he can remember one day when about 11-12 relievers were required out of a workforce of about 20 teachers.
"To have six or seven [relievers] in a day is not unusual," he said.
"We limped with a lot luck and intervention from somewhere through to the end of the term. We now start on Monday and I don't want to be limping anywhere but I suspect we might be."
Hora Hora School principal Pat Newman. Photo / John Stone
Hamilton Boys' High School headmaster Susan Hassall said staff absences had been more noticeable this year due to a mix of winter illness and Covid-19.
"On some days, it has been difficult to staff the school fully.
"At our worst, we would have 20-25 staff away [last term] out of 150. We're very fortunate with the quality of our relievers and the impact would be greater on rural schools where they don't have the same relief pool that we are fortunate enough to have."
Newman said he hoped parents would support the Whangārei school in its efforts to encourage mask-use among students as much as possible.
"We would ask parents to please let us encourage the children as much as possible [to wear masks] and that they encourage them to wear masks.
"It's not so important out in the playground, but in classrooms it's looking very, very much like masks might be one of the biggest things to stop [Covid]."
Yesterday, health authorities reported 8728 new community cases of Covid-19 and 26 deaths.
There were 759 people hospitalised with Covid-19 and 13 cases in intensive care.
Of the people's whose death was reported yesterday, five were from Auckland, two from Waikato, one from Bay of Plenty, one from Lakes, one from Tairāwhiti, one from Hawke's Bay, two from MidCentral, two from Nelson Marlborough, eight from Canterbury and three from the Southern region.
Two were in their 60s, three in their 70s, 10 in their 80s and 11 were aged over 90.
