Or, to paraphrase Keith Wolstenholme, *we* think it's all over. But it ain't.
On Friday, we had a local reminder of the issues we are currently facing. The whole of Ysgol Brynhyfryd's third year was absent from school, with work set for them to complete at home. This was without direct supervision of staff, because the situation was reportedly so parlous. To date, such acute staff absences at schools tended to be confined to Rhyl.
Covid 19 is now as rampant as it has ever been. In fact, it's more so. It's thought to impact one up to in 12 in Wales and one in 13 in the UK. In other words, it's 'all over' in a very different sense.
It started two days after the March 28th revisions which permitted us again to go about our business without the encumbrance of face coverings (except in health, social care and pharmacy settings). Then, on March 30th came an email to parents from the school's head commenting on the 'unprecedented levels of staff absence' at Brynhyfryd. In that email, Parry said,
'Until today we have been able to cover classes using existing and agency staff, however, we have now reached a point where there is insufficient staffing capacity to continue, and I regret to inform you that we must now move to home learning for [some] year groups'
(We might ignore the ignorant use of 'however' to hold together two standalone sentences into a single compound sentence.)
Parry's announcement means that in addition to yesterday's third year absence, on Monday there'll be no second year present and, on Tuesday, it's the turn of the first year to stay at home.