A private school offers an online option only for unvaccinated teachers as the Covid-19 vaccination mandate deadline approaches for educators and school staff.

From Tuesday, all education personnel who come into contact with children must have received at least one dose in order to keep their jobs.

Mt Hobson Academy, an Auckland-based private school that caters to Grades 11-13, is looking for expressions of interest from teachers who “may be looking to work with us, vaccinated or not.”

Alwyn Poole of Villa Education Trust said the mandate would prevent some “very good teachers” from working in person in schools.

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“When children’s vaccines become available, some families will choose to have their child receive them, others not. Some may prefer their children not to be in class with children who are not vaccinated, ”said Poole.

The Mt Hobson Academy had received 30 to 40 expressions of interest since the announcement was made on Sunday, he said.

“I have three people I could put in a leadership role, in theory, all high quality teachers.

“If this is a two year intervention, to keep these teachers teaching and to provide more certainty and a good quality education for the children, we are happy to be involved. ”

The online course would be offered to students in Grades 5 through 13, across the country.

The school’s website said it reflected the eight core learning areas as set out in the New Zealand curriculum, with “a clear Christian philosophy and values.”

Parents would pay less than the $ 23,000 per year charged by Mt Hobson Academy, he said.

“Last details [are] not yet determined because it depends somewhat on the numbers, but it will be well under $ 10,000, ”he said.

Poole said his personal position was that the warrant was “very onerous” and that more investigation should have been done into the testing protocols.

The school would be able to make a “clear decision” on how it would proceed by Friday, then start accepting registrations and making appointments from Monday next week, he said. -he declares.

An amendment to the mandate on vaccines allows Education Minister Chris Hipkins to make exceptions when the absence of unvaccinated staff would cause a significant interruption in learning.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that four schools had filed requests for exemption from the immunization mandate, and 11 schools told the government they were struggling due to staffing issues.

“No school has been unable to open for learning due to the vaccination mandate,” Ardern said at the post-Cabinet press conference on Monday afternoon.

“There are currently only 11 schools out of the 2,500 that indicate they are at high risk of staffing problems. It affects about 0.2 percent of students right now. “

She said the Ministry of Education is working with these schools.

Ardern did not specify where the 11 schools are located.

Three days ago, the Education Department said the impact of the mandate on teacher supply was unknown, but at this point no significant disruption exemption requests had been received and it did not expect much.