Students learn from home due to sickness and staffing challenges

Tauranga schools have experienced a surge in seasonal flu, colds and Covid cases among staff and students in recent weeks - with one principal worried the high level of absences will disrupt the consistency of learning for children.

This comes as another school rostered certain year groups to learn from home on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week due to staff sickness.

Tauranga Girls' College principal Tara Kanji said the school had up to 10 staff test positive for Covid in the past 10 days.

This combined with the winter flu and other teachers having to stay home to care for sick family members meant certain year groups were asked to learn from home on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We have a wonderful team of relievers but with that many staff out, we clearly cannot put a teacher in front of every class that needs cover," said Kanji.

All years levels would back learning onsite today and tomorrow.

She said parents had been "really supportive" and understood how schools were impacted by illness and staffing shortages.

Ōtūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon. Photo/ Supplied

Ōtūmoetai College's Year 12 and 13 students were asked to learn from home last Friday due to 35 staff being absent from school. This equated to about a quarter of the total staff.

Principal Russell Gordon said it was "one of those perfect storms" where teachers were off sick with Covid and the flu, along with multiple staff offsite for a school sports event.

He said while remote learning was not ideal, there were not enough relievers to cover all the specialist classes.

"That was how we chose in advance to mitigate the impact on our kids' learning."

Gordon said the school holidays were "coming for us at the right time" and hoped they would act as a circuit breaker.

"That hopefully will stop the transmission and we'll see the rest of the week out without sending any year levels home," he said on Tuesday.

Season flu, colds, stomach bugs and strep throat had been affecting the Oropi School community recently - with three days in a row late last month where 45 per cent of students - about 160 children - were absent.

School principal Andrew King said winter illness among staff peaked at the same time.

Meanwhile, Covid cases were "right down" with the number of staff and students affected in the single digits, he said.

Bringing in relief teachers and splitting classes and combining classes were just some of the measures taken during this time.

He said the illnesses had typically been impacting staff and students for a "long time" - with most taking more than one or two days off school.

"They are just not recovering and bouncing back quickly. They attempt to come back and realise they can't quite cope - so they go back and take another day," he said.

King said the school had already gone through weeks of disruption in Term 1 for when Covid cases peaked and it now felt like the year had "never really got under way properly".

While learning continued during times when there were lots of students away sick, he said the conditions were "less than ideal".

"A good 30 per cent of each term has been really disrupted. Kids need consistency, predictability and routine. And they are just not getting it.

"They are still getting learning programmes, but not to the consistency and normal standard we provide."

Tauriko School principal Suzanne Billington. Photo / George Novak

Tauriko School principal Suzanne Billington said there were "quite a few winter flus" circulating, however Covid-19 numbers remained low among staff and students.

Billington, who was also the Western Bay of Plenty Principals Association president, said the majority of staff were present at school - however, some were needing to take sick days to manage long Covid systems.

Tauranga Intermediate principal Cameron Mitchell said there had been a surge in staff illness over the past two weeks. Staff were off sick with a combination of Covid and the flu, he said.

At its highest point there were 15 staff members unwell, he said.

Student attendance was sitting between 80 and 85 per cent which was about 10 per cent lower than normal, he said.