A head teacher is asking parents to keep their children at home if they can due to 'critical' staffing levels.

In a letter to parents, Adam Mirams, who leads St George's Church of England Foundation School in Broadstairs, says the resilience of his dedicated staff is being stretched to breaking point.

He asks that, if possible and safe to do so, children at both the secondary and primary are kept home to access lessons through online learning.

"We have now reached a point where staffing at the school is at a critical point," he wrote.

"This has been the most difficult of eight months and the last few weeks are now beginning to take its toll on staff.

"We will continue to attempt to provide teaching to all groups remotely on Teams and ensure that we can cover all lessons within the school.

"However, each day is proving to be a monumental effort to simply get the needs of all pupils met.

"Therefore, I would ask that if your child is able to remain safely at home and access lessons via Teams (or Purple Mash at Primary) then we would ask them to do so across both schools.

"We are aware that this is not always possible and we will remain open to all children that can't remain safely at home or where childcare is simply not possible.

"We will remain open as a school until Thursday, December 17, and will attempt to keep breakfast club and extended day open for as long as we can this term."

Mr Mirams' letter comes after a member of staff from the secondary canteen tested positive for Covid, meaning the food service being suspended.

"This has left us massively depleted in this area," he said.

'I am indebted to the continued efforts of all staff and in awe of their dedication' - Adam Mirams

"We now find ourselves in a position whereby we cannot provide food through our secondary canteen.

"We are suspending the canteen service at secondary for the rest of term and would ask that all pupils now bring a packed lunch to school."

Mr Mirams says he is indebted to the continued efforts of all staff and in awe of their dedication.

"We will just keep going," he added.

At King Ethelbert School in Birchington, more year group bubbles have been sent home to isolate after two staff and three students tested positive affecting years 7, 10 and 11.

Head teacher Vicky Willis says it comes after a period of time with no cases at the school.

"These five cases appear to be isolated and unrelated," she wrote in a letter to parents.

"We investigate every case individually and we have asked the Year 7 student’s tutor group to isolate with immediate effect.

"We have carried out a thorough risk assessment and no other students in Year 7 need to isolate.

"Regarding the Year 10 and Year 11 case, our track and trace investigations and the subsequent risk assessment means we felt it safest to ask the whole Year 10 and Year 11 bubbles to isolate on this occasion.

"For the two staff, there were no close contacts identified on either occasion."

In Margate, Matthew Tate, head teacher of Hartsdown Academy, which has had year groups at home at points throughout the term, praised children and parents in "probably the most challenging year in living memory".

"Our children have been amazing during the March lockdown," he wrote to parents.

"The vast majority followed the rules, putting normal education on hold to protect the most vulnerable, accepting and working with last minute government changes and uncertainty around exams all whilst continuing to access learning in entirely new ways.

"Since September they have been incredible. Doomsayers said they would struggle to get back into education and that schools would have to wait for weeks or months before starting to educate them.

"This has not been the reality.

"Your children have come back to school wanting to learn, wanting to catch up and striving for the excellence we commit to as a school.

"During the term we have unfortunately had to send year groups home in order to limit the spread of the virus.

"This has obviously been difficult and I know that this has put significant strain on families.

"Again, however, our children have been incredible.

"The vast majority (95%+ of Year 11) have logged on at 9am, accessing their live lessons as if they were at school.

"They have quickly got used to this new way of working and have engaged and learned in a way that has made me incredibly proud."

In the last week of term, some schools in Thanet are relaxing rules and allowing parents to take their children out to learn from home.

Read more: All the latest news from Thanet