More schools ask parents to keep children home as winter illnesses bite

More schools have been asking parents to keep their children home because too many teachers are sick.In a letter to parents on Thursday, Auckland's Remuera Intermediate School said due to an "exceptionally high number of absences", they could "no longer ensure adequate cover for all classes" on Friday."We know this is very short notice, but if you are able to keep your child home tomorrow, please do so."This will greatly help our remaining team and give our sick staff time to recover."The school reassured parents that keeping their child home would not affect their attendance record, and encouraged them to use learning tools like Google Classroom or the EP Maths site."This is not a decision we have made lightly, and we truly appreciate your incredible understanding, flexibility, and support."The school's cross-country, however, would go ahead as planned.An "unusually high" number of teachers away due to illness forced Avondale College to ask Year 10 students to study at home on Friday."In recent days we have worked to manage the impacts of absences, with a focus on prioritising the learning, safety and wellbeing of our community," Principal Lyndy Watkinson wrote in a letter to parents."Many teachers have taught additional lessons this week and we have maximised our use of relief teachers."Unfortunately, we are not able to sustain this."Year 10 students would be provided with work to complete independently during the day and could also use the time to complete assessments or independent study, Watkinson said."They should prioritise classes that they would usually be timetabled for on Friday."All other students would attend school as usual, with co-curricular activites continuing as planned.How has winter illness affected your school or workplace? Email us iwitness@rnz.co.nzEarlier this week, Whangārei Boys High School said due to staff and relief teacher sickness, it was unable to safely staff all classes"Year 10 students will be rostered home for the day - all other year levels attend as normal. Our library will be open and supervised for any Year 10 student who can't stay home; they should report there on arrival."Year 10s were expected to be able to return to school on Friday.Meanwhile, a group representing 112 Auckland kindergartens told RNZ on Thursday at some centres, more than half of the children are at home sick this week.Flu-related hospitalisations are at a 10-year high in Auckland, with reports of under-fives in intensive care.Starship Children's Hospital is deferring less urgent cases as it struggles to cope with a "flood" of very young children in hospital with flu symptoms.In a statement on Friday, the Ministry of Education said there had been 84 emergency closures of early learning services due to flu-related illness among staff or children between August 1 and 26.There are approximately 4400 early learning services nationwide.Leanne Mato, who oversees the Auckland Kindergarten Association's north-west centres, said one of their kindys normally has a roll of 40 children, but yesterday they only had 17.She says anecdotally, students and staff are dealing with flu-like symptoms for longer this year."The recovery time seems to be a lot longer than normal; two to three weeks. Some students and teachers are being away for that length of time, which is a lot longer than we would normally see."Mato said they're asking parents to keep sick children home to prevent the flu from spreading.Doctors say the free under-fives flu vaccine announced for next year cannot come soon enough and will save lives.