Tauranga principals are hoping the next two weeks will serve as a bit of a reset before schools head into term three.

Colds, flus, other various viruses, along with Covid, have been taken its toll on many in the community.

Both Aquinas College principal Matt Dalton and Otumoetai College principal Russell Gordon agree that the current school holidays have 'come at the right time”.

The principals say it's not just their schools facing challenges, it is right across the schooling community.

'I think like all schools we have been challenged with the vast array of various viruses and illnesses, as well as Covid, across the staff and student community,” says Matt.

'At the start of the term we had great attendance, it was at our normal levels. As the term has worn on, from about midway through, we've had attendance spikes in terms of non-attendance spikes for illnesses across the school.”

Matt says it's sort of gone in waves.

He says things got quite bad at the end of term two.

'Staffing has been consistently challenging throughout the term with a number of staff out on a daily basis. It has got worse as the term has gone on. The last two weeks have been the hardest point.

'The holidays have come at the right time.”

Matt says staff absences haven't really impacted the classes, except for Friday, July 8, – the last day of the term.

'We have been quite lucky, Friday was the first day we had to do any rostering home. We rostered our Year 12s and 13s home today.

'Our staffing levels were so down on Thursday and were predicted to be similar, or may be worse on the Friday, so we had to make that call.”

Matt says there are some absences you can prepare for, but it's the calls that come in first thing in the morning that are difficult to prepare for.

'You have the people you know are going to be away ahead of time because they are isolating or they have a trip or they have professional development.

'It's the calls that come in overnight or in the morning with illnesses developed in a 12 hour period that you can't account for.”

Every school has its own pool of relief teacher network and Aquinas College has its good pool, but Matt says even that has been testing throughout the term as some of that relief pool has become unwell.

'Our teachers are already facing a very challenging task of having to provision for and teach to our young people. They have a depleted class numbers on any given day. Different kids are unwell, and then coming back into school and trying to move on with their programs.

'On top of that, internally they are having to cover other classes within the school.”

When asked if things will improve after the holidays, Matt says he is past the point of trying to guess.

'With the pandemic, from 2020 through to now, you just seem to get thrown curve balls all the time.

'I hope so, I really do for the sake of our kids and educational outcomes. I really do hope that attendance for our staff and students really do improve.”

Otumoetai College principal Russell Gordon is also hoping things will improve for term three.

He says on Thursday, June 29, and Friday, June 30, about 25 per cent of their staff were either affected by Covid, the flu or other long standing extra-curricular activities that they planned with their classes.

'We found that we struggled, but coped on the Thursday. We had to close our school for Year 12 and 13 students, so they learnt online on the Friday.”

He says there was a shortfall of about 24 relievers.

'We reluctantly send out kids home because we believe that face-to-face is the best experience for everyone.

'But given that there were so many people going to be away, we would've had to have combined classes.”

Russell says their kids probably would've been taught by non-specialist teachers.

'We felt, given the shortfall, 35 people away on the Friday and 11 relievers in but still 24 teachers short, that the best thing to do was to have our kids learn online.”

The pressure the school is facing is nothing new though.

Russell says students have been battling challenges for a long time.

'When Covid re-emerged, the stand down was 10 days if you were in the same class as someone who had Covid. That's kind of where it all began. We forget that, that was in practice for about a month.

'Then it shortened to eight days, then seven, then it was only if it was a home contact, not on a school or bus. So over time, there has been a relaxing of the rule we have to abide by.

'Over that time, we have had teachers who have been affected and students who have been affected. If you combine all of that, probably for the year we have had, our average student attendance would be 80 per cent.

'That 20 per cent has been made up of different kids all the way through the year.”

Russell says teachers have kids in front of them who are in different place by virtue of the fact that they have had to be at home, either as close contacts or for having Covid or for having the flu.

'This holiday is coming at the right time. My hope is that this two weeks will be the circuit breaker to stop all of this transmission and will give us kind of a refreshed, renewed beginning, literally in term three, so we can hopefully manage face-to-face learning as far into term three as possible.

'For our big kids, exams are in week eight. The continuity of learning is critically for them to reclaim and maintain confidence.”