Mixing Staff Between Bubbles at Secondary Level

[SansaSnark]

I'm a bit worried this thread will make me identifiable, so if you recognise the schools and think I need to name change please PM me and let me know!

We've just got our rotas for going back into school on 15th. Most of the plans seem pretty sensible- Y10 in in the mornings for some support, Y12 in in the afternoons for some support, 5 way rota with different kids in each day in bubbles of about 10-12

However, for Y10 in the mornings, they will each get support from an English, Maths, and Science teacher for an hour. On most days, there will be 3 bubbles, and the English/Maths/Science teacher will move between the bubbles.

To me, this seems like it breaks DfE guidance as each bubble will mix with 3 members of staff (minimum, possibly more as it's not clear about who's doing registration/supervising breaks) who are all mixing with 3 different bubbles. Different staff are with key workers children and different staff are doing Y12 lessons in the afternoon. There are quite a few staff who will now not be expected to come into school at all except, possibly as cover (obviously I don't know their circumstances).

I'm a bit concerned for 2 reasons:

1. I think the mixing of staff between bubbles breaks DfE guidance.
   
   
2. I think the work burden on core subject teachers is going to be a lot higher than on other teachers.
   
   This does affect me directly, as I'm one of the teachers expected to move between 3 bubbles in the morning. I'm pretty young and healthy, and live on my own, so I don't mind doing this from my own safety PoV, but that doesn't apply to everyone in this situation AND I'm concerned about the safety of the children I'll be teaching.
   
   Does anyone have any advice?

[MadameMinimes]

How big are the bubbles? Will the three bubbles that you mix with be the same every day that you are in school?

The guidelines allow for some rotation of teachers to account for subject specialism students secondary as long as the groups of children don’t mix with one another. I think the number of bubbles that any one teacher sees shouldn’t be too large either. Our staff will work with a maximum of three bubbles of students between now and the summer holidays, with no more than 10 students in a bubble.

I’m more surprised by having year 10 in the morning and year 12 in the afternoon. How many of each year group will be in each day? You aren’t allowed to have more than a quarter of the total number in on any given day and are meant to minimise any journeys on public transport so having separate morning and afternoon sessions seems less in line with the guidelines to me. Unless your students are really local and nobody is getting a bus or train, they should be doing their time in school with the fewest number of journeys possible, which should mean they do their hours across as few days as possible.

[SansaSnark]

There's only 1/5 of the students in each day- so the Y10s who come in each morning will be different each day of the week.

I'll be mixing with 3 bubbles of about 10-12 + plus possibly key worker children if any cover is needed for this in the afternoons. It'll be the same students I mix with each week.

Sounds like it is just about within the guidelines, so I will wait and see what happens.

[Hercwasonaroll]

That sounds like it's within the guidelines. I would be happy with that set up. It seems a fair balance of decent teaching, logistics and not too risky.

[SansaSnark]

Yeah, I have accepted that it is withing guidelines, so we will have to see how it works.

I suppose there is a bit of resentment creeping in that I'll be teaching 3 sessions each day, whilst there's lots of people who don't teach core subjects/Y12 who won't be coming into school except as cover- obviously I don't know all their circumstances, but I am pretty sure that teachers who are vulnerable/shielding have been left off the rota all together. I know they are still working from home, though!

[Hercwasonaroll]

Resentment is real however everyone has their own circumstances and its no one's fault.