FOUR schools in Blaenau Gwent are teaching some of their classes online, and 6.5 per cent of school staff are absent due to Covid-19, it has been revealed.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Education and Learning scrutiny committee on Wednesday, January 26, councillors were given an update on how the pandemic is affecting schools.

The council’s director of education, Lynn Phillips pointed out that Blaenau Gwent still has one of the highest rates of infection in Wales, and very recently had been one of the highest in the whole of the UK.

Mr Phillips said: “We’re currently at 584 cases per 100,000 population and that places us in fifth across Wales. That level is high, but the context is that it is down significantly to where we were.

“Just after the New Year we had around 3,000 plus cases (per 100,000 population) and at that time we weren’t just the highest in Wales but the third highest in the UK.”

While public health measures in Wales have eased, Mr Phillips explained that Blaenau Gwent schools alert level would remain in the “very high category.”

Mr Phillips said:”Members need to understand that we are still are firmly in the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The number of cases among school children has increased over the last week, up to 186 positive cases.

“From a workforce perspective across the schools we’ve seen increases with 81 of our staff affected by covid.

“This is 6.5 per cent of our workforce.

“We need to keep a close eye in terms of the impact on our schools.”

He added that in terms of reporting the situation to the Welsh Government, Blaenau Gwent schools were ranked as “green.”

This means that most of the schools in the county borough have been able to offer face to face teaching.

Mr Phillips said that there had been “challenges” finding supply teachers to fill the gaps created by covid, but “in the most part” face to face teaching is taking place.

Mr Phillips said: “Four schools have introduced elements of blended learning over the last 10 days, and we’ve updated ward members where those issues have emerged.

As the country moves to alert level zero, a letter from the Welsh Government to headteachers said this change “would mean a phased plan for schools moving forward.”

Mr Phillips believed this provided “cautious optimism.”

Committee chairman, Cllr Hayden Trollope thanked him for the “very useful” update.