At present (Wednesday) no schools on the Isle of Wight have said they are closing in response to the Coronavirus (Covid-19/C19) outbreak.
Last Friday Springhill Preschool, East Cowes pre-school closed for the day for a deep clean and the Isle of Wight council told OnTheWight earlier in the week that Niton Pre-School had assessed the situation in their setting and made a decision to close for a week.
An update on whether schools in England must close is expected from the Government in the new few days (Wales and Scotland will close from Friday), but in the meantime, this Government guidance was sent nationwide to all schools on Tuesday in relation to how they should record absence.
How to record absences
They confirm that no school will be penalised for the impact on school attendance of Coronavirus (COVID-19) and ask staff to record absences as follows:
- Where a pupil cannot attend school due to illness, as would normally happen, the pupil should be recorded as absent in the attendance register and the school will authorise the absence. Code I (Illness) should be used in this instance.
- Where a pupil is in self-isolation, in accordance with latest information and advice from Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England, the pupil should be recorded as unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances in the attendance register. Code Y (Unable to attend due to exceptional circumstances) should be used in this instance.
- Where a pupil does not attend school and is not self-isolating, the pupil will be marked as absent. We back headteachers’ judgement and to be pragmatic – having spoken to parents – on whether to authorise such absence, taking into account individual circumstances.
- We expect, in particular, headteachers will authorise absence where a pupil is not able to attend because of an underlying health condition that means they, or a family member in their household, are particularly vulnerable to Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Image: dwonderwall under CC BY 2.0
