Schools all over New Zealand had their worst week for sick students in three years, with almost 10 percent of class time lost last week alone. So many children and teachers caught winter bugs that some schools struggled to stay open properly.
In Hawke’s Bay, things got especially tough. At Napier Girls’ High School, about 200 students, nearly one in every five, stayed home sick on the same day. At Terrace School in Waipukurau, 76 pupils and six teachers were away, meaning around a third of the whole school was missing.
Jason Miles, from the New Zealand Principals’ Federation, said schools could usually cope when lots of students were away, but it became much harder when teachers got sick too. He said some schools had to squash classes together, ask office staff to help teach, or send whole year groups home for the day. Miles explained that winter illnesses often moved through a school in waves, with each bug taking around five to ten days to pass.
Miles said the message for children was simple: stay home while feeling poorly, then come back to school once feeling better. He said teachers were now working hard to help students catch up on anything they missed while they were away sick.
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