Quick Poll - 'Bubbles' Ratio: teacher/pupils

[palacegirl77]

My daughters are in Y6 and Y1. Our school is refusing to taken any children other than keyworkers due to staffing. They are having bubbles of 11 with 2 staff per group. My best friend is a teacher. Her school has got back all Y6 and Y1 that want to go back. They also have classes of 11-12 but only 1 staff member per bubble. The children are supervised on staggered lunches by the SLT/extra staff so she has a break. She is more than happy with this. Is this right under the guidance (anyone know?) Id like to ask the question of my school as to why they have 2 per bubbles if others have 1 - just wondered what peoples experiences are on here?

[cabbageking]

It depends on their risk assessment, size of class, how easy or difficult it is to move around the school, access to toilets and time frames across school. Supervision of the children across the day, lunch time supervision, risk assessment of supervision on playground across lunch.
First aiders DSL, Send Co, fire evacuation assessment, how many staff can work, the individual risk assessment for EHCP and obese children. The back up plan if someone phones in sick. Succession plan of SLT. It is viewed as a whole school issue and whilst you may be able to do Xyz independently once you put A&B into the mix something can't be done.

[Lumene]

2 is far better - what happens when the teacher needs the loo for eg?

[MoltoAgitato]

We were told that SLT can’t cover lunches or breaks without being a member of that bubble, hence the need for 2 members of staff per bubble. Our school can only take back childcare, yR and y1 before we ran out of staff. Also, you generally need 2 adults for the little kids for safety - if you need to pop out of the room for whatever reason, you can’t leave 10 five year olds by themselves.

[MoltoAgitato]

To be more clear - if a SLT member covers a break, they belong to that bubble and can no longer interact with another bubble.

[Quartz2208]

We have 12 in a bubble in year 6 to 1 staff
6 in reception and Year 1 to 1 staff

Our schools issue is classrooms - 80% uptake of those years means 250 children with 20 classrooms.

Year 6 are back until end of term. YR and Y1 and doing 3 weeks each

[Floatyboat]

Its just ludicrous. Get children back to school now!

[Kitcat122]

We have 2 adults per bubble. As we cannot leave children unattended plus if there was first aid or a child has a toilet issue etc you need more than one adult. We have upto 15 in our bubbles although the younger bubbles are much less as only half the places were taken up. We are using library as a classroom too so couldn't take any more year groups.

[palacegirl77]

SO my friend has a radio - if she needs to go to the loo she lets someone know. Then a spare person will supervise whilst keeping 2m away (like I said this is for juniors - totally get the rationale of infants needing more help). I thought the point of the bubble was that the teacher in the bubble interacted with the kids? If a different tachers supervised whilst e.g. theyre eating lunch theyd keep 2 m apart so wouldnt need to be classed as in the bubble? Like for example the test and trace thing only says they contact those in 2m or less for more than 15 mints. Its a but of a grey area isnt it?

[ohthegoats]

Depends on the school, number of staff, number of rooms, size of rooms.

No point in a poll, everywhere is different. All comparing does is piss people off.

[BakewellGin1]

2 staff to 10 children in my DS Y6 class...

[palacegirl77]

@ohthegoats sorry didn't see the harm in asking. Admins feel free to delete this.

[cabbageking]

Some staff will interact with children in different bubbles.

It depends on your risk assessment and systems to mitigate risk.

[Barbie222]

Our risk assessment does not allow staff to mix bubbles. We cover each other for lunch and break, plus when children go to loo they need to be supervised and the toilet cleaned after (ch Y1). We've been able to start teaching effectively because of this. I'm glad it's in place and there are finally more children coming back now so we will not be amalgamating bubbles to free up staff.

[Cary2012]

I teach 3 different bubbles. 10 students in each. Same great TA with me. Year 10, started today. Great to see the students again. Am in with same 3 groups next Monday. Rest of week will consist of other bubbles with their teachers. Teach English btw.

[Di11y]

6 kids to 1 teacher in y1, only in 1 day a week

[BertNErnie]

We have 2 adults per bubble incase of emergencies etc. There have been first aid incidents, wetting or soiling incidents and also some tricky pupils further up the school who tried to escape the building and leap over a fence. We also have radios due to the size of the school and haven't factored SLT into bubbles incase of emergencies.

The school my children go to also have 2 members of staff per bubble. I'd say it's potentially a safeguarding consideration too. We have had a pupil accusing a staff member of doing something they didn't do and the only way we had proof was that the adult was never on their own with that child as there were always 2 in a classroom.

I'm aware not all schools are like this but I'd most definitely have 2 per bubble and not 1 and if I was the member of staff in that bubble, I'd feel more comfortable with an additional adult there just incase.

[Lumene]

SO my friend has a radio - if she needs to go to the loo she lets someone know. Then a spare person will supervise whilst keeping 2m away

That would be too much of an infection risk to pass a risk assessment for me. One person who goes to different classrooms every time a teacher needs the loo? Is it logged for contact tracing? School would need to close down all bubbles that person had been in if there was a poss COVID case.

Also echo the points above regarding safeguarding etc.