Northland secondary principals' association president and Tikipunga High School principal Alec Soloman is worried about the small pool of relief teachers in the region. Photo / Tania Whyte
Northland secondary principals' association president and Tikipunga High School principal Alec Soloman is worried about the small pool of relief teachers in the region. Photo / Tania Whyte
The first days of returning to school for term 3 has been wet and stormy for the students of Tai Tokerau.
Combined with the twindemic of Covid-19 and winter illnesses and an ever-so-small pool of relief teachers, Northland principals describe the situation as the new normal now.
Northland secondary principals'association president Alec Soloman says staff shortage is a real concern for many schools in the region.
The pool of teachers is reduced as many relief teachers accept positions within the school as a dire need for staffing emerges, says Soloman.
"We need to ensure that we have the quantity of staff required but we also need to ensure they provide the quality that our students in Northland and New Zealand deserve.
The first day of term three for Northland schools is met with extreme wet and stormy weather, combined with Covid-19, flu, and staff shortages. Photo / Michael Cunningham
"If you are short-staffed, which many of our schools are, you can pick up a reliever and offer them a contract; that takes them out of the pool."
Soloman said the attendance was down, similar to the same time last year and the "disastrous" weather did not help.
"It is a mixture of Covid-19, the nasty flu, and weather.
"We saw significant disruptions to learning in the first two terms, and some would argue the disruption was far more than the last two years.
"When we are in lockdown, we can plan for that and it was predictable. The Ministry freed up some resources in terms of chrome books and stuff like that.
"At the moment, we are juggling with student absenteeism, and staff shortages, and it has been a challenge not just to our region but across the country."
Student attendance at Opononi Area School was down to 50 per cent on Monday and principal Pateriki Toi said flooding and weather could have been the primary reason.
"I know everybody is being really careful, trying to keep safe and not spreading the infection.
"From the last term, our attendance was down because of that. And we can only assume it will stay the same in term 3 due to the recent spike in Covid-19 cases.
"But it is hard to tell whether it is the weather or the concerns around covid and flu causing absenteeism."
Toi said the school was operating as normal and would get a better understanding in the coming weeks.
"If I reflect on the last term, our numbers got better as the term went on in terms of parents getting more confident in sending their children back to school.
"We saw students coming back that we haven't seen quite some time and we hope it stays that way."
The school distributed face masks to all the students and staff .
Toi said the staff were doing the best they could to deal with the shortage but accepted it as a part of the "new normal".
"We have had staff with illness or infected by Covid, so we had to rely on our relief resources or double up our classrooms sometimes."
Whangārei Boys' High School was also in the same boat with regard to finding relief staff.
Acting principal Keir Morrison said like everyone else, their school was competing with other schools to get relievers on a day-to-day basis.
"Our priority is to staff our classes and if we cannot put teachers in front of students, it is a real problem. It is not like any other job where you can just say work does not get done.
"Sometimes we double up classes, senior leaders are taking some classes, there's more pressure on staff in terms of internal covers.
"Our staff has been amazing and have recognised it as a nationwide problem."
Morrison said mask use had been a challenge since it was not made compulsory, but the boys were compliant and understood the severity of the health issue.
However, Morrison said on Monday more students were away than normal because of the wet weather and extended rain over a 24-hour period.
"It is actually more the weather that has thrown us a little bit today.
"With flood waters rising in Tutukaka, people get nervous whether they'd get home safe, child care and the usual emergency situation."
