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Teachers in school up 66% despite 'empty classrooms'

New stats show 39% of teachers are in school this term compared with 13% during the first coronavirus lockdown
19th January 2021, 3:50pm

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Teachers in school up 66% despite ‘empty classrooms’

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Coronavirus: Some 39 Per Cent Of Teachers Are Working On-site In Schools This Term, Compared With Just 13 Per Cent In The First Lockdown, New Figures Show

Teachers are being told to teach remotely in empty classrooms or attend meetings that could happen online, a union has warned -asfigures estimatethe proportion of teachers in school this term is three times what it was in the first lockdown.

thathalf of primary school teachers are still going into their schools, andoverall, across all school settings, a total of 39 per cent of teachers and school leadersare still going into work.

This compares with figures released last April, which show that only around 59,000 teachers were in school three weeks into the first lockdown, which is around 13 per cent of the workforce, according to the latest


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Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said:‘We still regularly hear of schools expecting staff to teach remotely in empty classrooms or attend meetings which could happen online.

Coronavirus: Staff ‘teaching in empty classrooms’

“Government guidance says that people should work from home unless absolutely necessary to be in work. This message needs to be adhered to in schools and colleges as much as in other workplaces.”

The DfE figures also show that around24 per centofteachers and school leaders in secondary schools were working on-site last week, whilein special schools the figure was62 per cent.

Around 51 per centof “teaching assistants and other staff” were working on-site in open settings last week, including 57 per centin primary schools, 36 per centin secondary schools and 58 percentin special schools.

The DfE has been contacted for comment.

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Teachers in school up 66% despite ‘empty classrooms’

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