More Isle of Man students sent home over staff sickness

More students have been told to stay at home this week due to staff being off sick at two high schools.

All 176 Year 9 pupils at St Ninian's High School have been asked to learn from home on Tuesday and Friday.

The Douglas school's 220 Year 10 students will also miss out on face-to-face learning on Wednesday and Thursday.

It comes as Ramsey Grammar School has asked all 139 of its Year 10 pupils to study from home on the same two days.

Year 9 pupils St Ninian's, who are taught at a site in Onchan, were also asked to stay at home on Monday.

Head teacher Chris Coole said he had taken the decision as 25% of teaching and support staff were currently absent and the situation was "unlikely to improve much" for the rest of the week.

The absences at both schools are due to mixture of Covid isolation and other winter illnesses.

Ramsey Grammar head teacher Sarah Findlater said it had a "significant and rising" number of teachers off ill, which meant the school was "unable to maintain adequate staffing" for all year groups.

Online learning resources are being made available to all the pupils affected.

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