A school has decided to send home all of its pupils due to Covid-related staff absences.

All students at the Norton Knatchbull School in Ashford will study from home beginning tomorrow.

The absence will last until the end of term - Friday, December 18 - with only vulnerable students and the children of key workers coming in.

Head teacher Ben Greene said: "This has been a difficult decision to make, however, this is a necessary step as the staffing situation mitigates against the safe operation of the school.

"The impact of the pandemic beyond positive diagnoses has now started to have a significant impact upon our staff.

"We have a significant number of staff who have been directed to self-isolate due to potential exposure they may have had both in and out of school.

"As a result we have today nearly a third of our staff absent."

In the last week, "some cases" had been confirmed in Year 7 and the school's Year 8 group has just returned from its own two week remote-studying period.

It's been a bad week for Ashford's schools, with many sending bubbles home.

Three year groups from the John Wallis Academy - Years 7, 8 and 9 - were told to isolate on Tuesday.

Today head teacher Damian McBeath confirmed that Years 10 and 11 were also told to work from home from today.

He said: "Our community has been incredibly supportive of the difficult decisions we have had to make.

"Whilst we have fought hard to keep the whole school open, we had ensured a plan was in place for remote learning to take place.

"Students in Years 7 to 11 are now working at home receiving their full curricular offer through MSTeams.

"This morning we have been out in our local community starting to provide laptops for students who need support accessing the online learning.

"We still await the additional laptops promised by the Department for Education. We are continuing to provide teaching in school for our Nursery, our Primary and Sixth form.

"In every decision we have prioritised the safety of our pupils, students and their families."

This has been a challenging week for the entire John Wallis community but the sense of good will and support from the community has been appreciated and valued by the staff.

Year 8 students at Tenterden's Homewood School are also having to stay away from school.

Yesterday, Highworth Grammar School confirmed its Year 12 bubble has been asked to complete distanced-learning and Furley Park Primary sent home four classes due to four confirmed cases.

With a number of schools across the county experiencing similar staff and student absences, some head teachers are saying it's impossible to make schools Covid-secure and are fearing for the future of their schools.

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