Hi Melissa - I've added 'school setting' to the title of your thread - 1) to add context, and 2) as we've a few other related discussions (but in a non-school setting, I think).

In reply to Steve Bridger:

Thanks Steve, sadly I am no further forward.

In reply to Melissa:

I'll have a try at 'bumping' this thread early next week.

The only thing I've come across with this was in the Falkland Islands, where the situation is very different due to the sporadic nature of flights in and out of the country (commercial routes suspended leaving only the military plane which is often delayed by days due to bad weather) and the lack of any cover staff.

The Falkland Islands have extended the usual 3.5 week winter holiday (southern hemisphere means it is winter now) by an extra 3 days to give teachers enough time to go to the UK where they won't need to quarantine (no recent cases in the Falklands so they are on the safe list), spend around ten days there with family or friends and then fly back in time to complete their 14 day quarantine in the islands before going back to work. Most teachers work there on 2-4 year contracts from overseas and the short winter holiday is often their best chance to go home and see family, escape the Falklands winter weather and get a bit of summer sunshine.

I would imagine a case-by-case approach is your only option here - it is not unreasonable to expect your staff to be back in time, but if they genuinely can't for whatever reason e.g. perhaps they are seeing family overseas and this is their only available flight times, then I would allow some discretion and either encourage home working or require them to take unpaid leave.