HEADTEACHERS in Essex have expressed concern over “worrying” reports of a recent rise in Covid cases in schools.

Some school leaders say they have been forced to send whole year groups home amid the unfolding disruption.

School bosses have also warned the issue could worsen when free lateral flow testing stops at the end of March.

Caroline Derbyshire, chair of the Headteachers’ Roundtable group and trust leader for Saffron Academy Trust, in Essex, told the PA news agency she had had to send year groups home.

Read more: School pupils asked to work from home amid 'unprecedented' situation

She said she had “too many staff off with Covid, so in one school 24 in a day… and having exhausted all other options like supply teaching or collapsing groups, we just got to the point where we had to take a year out in order to have enough staff to continue to teach those who are in school”.

Ms Derbyshire said she had avoided sending home exam classes or Year 7 and that the school was using supply teachers, but there were “just not enough out there”.

“But also, if you’re talking about examination groups, you don’t want to have somebody who was once trained in PE trying to teach English – you really do need specific subject specialists.”

She added she was seeing three times as many pupil absences since restrictions were lifted in February.

Data from the FFT Education Datalab’s attendance tracker showed a rise in pupil absence in primary and secondary schools last week compared with the week before.

Absence increased from 5 per cent to 6.4 per cent for primary pupils and from 7.9 per cent to 8.8 per cent in secondary.