Yorkshire headteacher on how Omicron could affect education

Janice Mitchell, Principal and CEO of Boulevard Academy, in Hull, said her school had not yet been hit by Omicron.

She added local public health teams were holding weekly meetings with schools and were helping them to tailor their response to coronavirus depending on their circumstances.

Her comments come as fears of a surge in coronavirus cases due to the Omicron variant continue to mount.

England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty told a Downing Street press conference earlier this week people should only go to Christmas events they care about most to curb infections.

Ms Mitchell said her school was coping well so far but added things could change in the New Year.

She said: “The Omicron variant isn’t an issue for us at the moment, but I’m sure it will be. We haven’t seen the amount of cases that places like London have here in Hull at the moment, the national picture isn’t always the same as the local one.

“But if I had a crystal ball I might say that things could be different by January. I think things have been managed very well, the local authority works with us and advises us every week and we’re represented by a public health official at meetings.

“Public health have dealt with each school individually and appropriately, there’s been no under or overreactions. I take my hat off to them and to the council. The local authority has worked very hard to help us through this, schools would have struggled without them.

“I feel that the right things have been done to help us and the wider community. We never took requirements to wear face masks in corridors and around the school away. We didn’t do that because they don’t detract from education.

“Some pupils are exempt from wearing them for medical reasons. We’re taking all the precautions we can as long as they’re not harmful to children.

“And their parents have been very supportive. We haven’t had any phoning up to complain. Our staff have coped with everything so well, we haven’t had a staff member leave which is unprecedented in education, normally there’s a turnover of about five or 10 per cent.

“We had a lot of staff off after the October half term but we’re back to normal levels now.

“There is fatigue at the moment but there always is at the end of term, but staff have continued to come in as normal because they care so much about their students. That’s the case across education, it’s not just us.”