Looking forward to 2025, January is often one of the worst months for school attendance - with spikes in illnesses including colds, flu, COVID-19, and norovirus. 

In our survey of over 1,000 teachers, teachers told us they: 

• have more responsibility for pupil health and hygiene following the pandemic, and  

• want more training in how to prevent and control infections 

e-Bug's teaching materials can help teachers and students learn how to prevent infections spreading. We also offer Preventing and Managing Infections in Childcare and Pre-school on FutureLearn (available for free as two one-hour lessons per week). 

Longer term, e-Bug is working with stakeholders to develop training for teachers on how to prevent and control infection. E-mail e-Bug@ukhsa.gov.uk to register your interest to input into these training opportunities. 

Thank you to those who have registered interest in becoming part of our new teacher advisory panel. There is still time to be part of the panel - simply complete this form and we will be in touch. 

To those who have signed up, we look forward to meeting with you all again in January. 

As part of our future projects at e-Bug, we are looking to develop new lesson plans to educate children and young people about diseases caused by ticks and mosquitoes (Vector-borne diseases).  

To inform the development of these resources, we are looking for primary and secondary school teachers to participate in online focus group discussions. If you are interested, please fill in this form and we will be in touch. Alternatively, please contact us at: e-bug@ukhsa.gov.uk 

(All data will be stored and handled under the GDPR regulations). 

We wish you a happy and healthy holiday period.