Planning a rota

[Coconut0il]

Could someone please explain what the last line about not planning to a rota means as I'm sure it's what my SLT are doing. I don't feel they care if we come into contact with 15, 30, 45 or 60 children in a day.

[starrynight19]

That it shouldn’t be 15 of reception one week then the other 15 the next.
Basically not part time.
So if you can’t do it for groups of 15 for each year group you prioritise the youngest full time first.
You shouldn’t be with that amount of children it’s a bubble of 15 and no more.

[starrynight19]

Or likewise 15 in the morning and 15 in the afternoon.
It’s supposed to keep you with the least amount of children as possible.

[Grasspigeons]

The rota means children doing part weeks or mornings and afternoons or week a and b.
Is your school looking to move you around different bubbles of children on a rota? I dont think that is the idea either as it joins all the bubbles together.

[Coconut0il]

That's what I thought.
Not 15 doing M, T, W then the other 15 doing T, F and then swapping. And staff on a rotation between groups

[Alb1]

Does this mean all children have to be in full time?

[CaryStoppins]

It's going to be impossible not to do a rota though, either week 1/week 2 or one group Mon-Tues, another Thurs-Fri - as no school has enough spare classrooms to have all children in at the same time in half size groups.

[Coconut0il]

Both of those things Grass. Part time groups and staff moving between them all.

[CaryStoppins]

Staff should stay with 1 group of children though, a TA can take a class if there aren't enough teachers.

[starrynight19]

Alb1 yes we shouldn’t have children in part time from the nursery / reception / y1 /y6
If we can’t accommodate all of them in groups of 15 we prioritise the youngest full time.

[starrynight19]

Carystoppins and that’s without us having the rest of the school in for a month.

It guess it’s if one of us in our bubble catches it it means only 1/2 staff isolating along with our kids.

[Grasspigeons]

We have been told to prioritise the younger year groups first. So if we can only manage eyfs on a full time basis then y1 and y6 dont come.

There isnt any info about when and how to increase to all children on site. Once you are full the only way to increase capacity is to remove the bubbles of 15 and make them bubbles of 30 (who cant spread out) or do a rota.

[Coconut0il]

starrynight I wish they had worded it how you have. Much less confusion. If my school go ahead with their plans it would only need 1 child or adult to have any symptoms and the whole school would be shut.

[ineedaholidaynow]

The planning guidance does say that it is only a guidance and you don't have to follow it all and it was just meant to be helpful for Heads!

I am sure many schools will be offering a rota or part-time. Our school has a nursery so we would prioritising 3-4 year olds for full time, which seems ridiculous.

[Coconut0il]

I think I'm more worried about the staff rota than the part time for the children. As it stands I would see 45 children throughout the week. That doesn't seem right to me. I read it as we should all have our group of 15 and stay with them. Not be with 1 year group 1 day, another the next and the key worker children the next?

[ineedaholidaynow]

You should really be with just one group of children. If one child gets ill then if you were working with 3 groups all 3 groups would have to self isolate

[Coconut0il]

Exactly what I've said to my Head ineed. I think he just didn't want to hear it.

[Popfan]

Yes what your head is planning is totally against the guidance.

[Coconut0il]

I'm so worried about it, just don't know what to do next?

[CaryStoppins]

Speak to your union.

[skylarkdescending]

Yes speak to your union. Although it is just guidance and schools can do their own thing I think lots of questions would be asked of your HT and his approach if the whole school had to close from one potential case!

[Coconut0il]

Yes, I will do that. Thank you for the advice. I knew it was wrong.