Army of retired teachers to stop schools from closing during Covid omicron wave

An army of retired teachers will be recruited by the Government in an attempt to keep schools open in January, the Education Secretary has announced.

Nadhim Zahawi will launch a major campaign in the coming days aimed at encouraging former school staff to sign up as supply teachers.

It comes amid mounting concern in Whitehall that the number of teachers forced into isolation in January due to omicron could lead to entire year groups being sent home, or even school closures.

In a letter to headteachers, Mr Zahawi said he intended to “boost capacity” of supply teachers, so that schools can plug gaps in timetables with external staff to keep children in the classroom.

“We want to make sure that as many supply staff as possible are available to schools and colleges,” he said.

“We will work with sector leaders and supply agencies over the coming days to offer advice to ex-teachers who want to provide support to schools and colleges.”

Dozens of schools around the country have already started to send children home early for the Christmas holidays owing to staff sickness. Officials at the Department for Education fear this problem could spiral out of control in January, as omicron cases rise.

Boris Johnson accused of ‘veiled threat’ over children’s vaccines

It came as parents accused the Prime Minister of “emotional blackmail”, after he appeared to link children’s vaccines to schools reopening.

Earlier this week, Boris Johnson told parents to get their children vaccinated before they return to the classroom in January, to keep schools open.

He told a Downing Street press conference: “We know how crucial it is to keep children in school, so let’s all make sure our children and young people are vaccinated before they go back next term.”

Molly Kingsley, co-founder of parent campaign group UsForThem, said: “Many people have seen this as a veiled threat, it is coercive. We’ve had hundreds of messages about this from parents.

“To link the right of children to be educated to the willingness of the cohort to have a vaccine fundamentally changes the nature of what we have until this point thought was a right to education.”

The Department for Education said that extra funding will be available for schools next term to spend on paying supply teachers to cover lessons.

Robert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the education select committee, has urged ministers to launch an NHS-style “army" of retired teachers to keep schools open. He said he “strongly welcomes” the announcement.

Recruiting supply teachers may not be enough, warn education leaders

But headteachers cautioned that the intervention is “very unlikely to be enough to solve a problem at such a scale as this”.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the issue of staff sickness in schools is “already critical”. He warned: “Put simply, schools cannot operate without teachers.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "Education will look very different in January and this is sending a clear signal that we could be talking about a very different type of provision at the start of next year. That has huge implications for things like exams, assessment and inspection.”