Private schools back in september come what may

Our private school so far suggested blended onsite and home learning from September. However I think the parents might not support it.
With only a few year-groups returning this week the social distancing required so much manpower, that home learning suffered. Half the teachers could not do their live classes, because they had to help out with Y10 or whichever year.
I am not sure what the solution is, this is just our experience.

I think thats the plan re: boarding. I have no idea about who pays, a decision to be taken way above my pay grade!

@newdadd are you saying that all kids will have to board at your school? Presumably at the parents expense?

Am just interested as my daughter is at a private boarding school as a day pupil. She's back one day a week (year 12). The boarding houses are currently closed.

Well, according to the latest news, there is now the intention for all schools to go back fully in September.

Re the indie intending to set up its own Track and Trace system, I am intrigued as to exactly this would work? People are antagonistic enough to the idea of being contacted and told to go lock themselves away for a fortnight by a random stranger working under the auspices of the NHS (not to mention that scammers have already muscled in, demanding £500 'for a test kit to be sent' www.rochford.gov.uk/node/12135/

• scroll down to Scams) . How is the school going to obtain and use the contact details of 'contacts' legitimately?

I work at a majority boarding school, and I think the plan is to bring the day pupils in as boarders to create a kind of bubble during term time. The school also plans to hire our own testing team, testing pupils and staff numerous times at least in the first few weeks. No chapel/assemblies/contact sports. Will be interesting to see how it all works out

The local school has two tiny boarding houses that are open. They have international students who could not return home, and also pupils whose parents are MOD posted, so they have become households in their own right.

I suspect that the government will go with a similar cop out in secondary as to the one they made in primary i.e. you don't have to get more year groups back, but you can have as many back as you can accommodate. Our prep school accordingly has all year groups back from Monday. I gather there was some pressure from parents to do so - it wasn't the original plan. If secondary schools get the same guidance, I think independent schools will do everything they can to get everyone back in full time. I can't see the 2m rule lasting til September anyway.

All years have been invited back at our prep school from Monday. My Y8 will be in every other day until term ends in a fortnight.

I think a number of the other prep schools are taking a similar approach in our area. Some have all year groups in every day.

Independent schools have to provide as near a 100% provision as possible, otherwise parents will be asking for fees back. This would lead to school closures.

The big obstacle to a large number of students in school at any one time comes down to insurance, and in turn, this depends on government policy.

Our school is following the guidelines. The head sent an email out saying on june 1 saying the guidelines said if the schools have the capacity and are able to do the recommended adjustments then other years can go back. The change is that the government is not insisting they go back. As junior school kids in each year tend to all take the same classes it is easier to transition from online learning back to live in school. Our school has the space and therefore is welcoming other year groups starting from next week.
The senior school has Y10 and 12s in so those children can have a day a week in school. As many children take different subjects it is harder to schedule and accommodate all the kids, but they are hoping to get all senior years back at least part time, while still maintaining online learning for those at home.
I dont know of it is a legal requirement for private schools, but our school has definitely taken its lead from the government. I imagine that social distancing will be reduced in order for other schools to get kids back in September.

September is a long way off and and I am convinced that schools will return as normal. Pubs etc opening in a couple of weeks, new treatment unveiled yesterday, vaccine ready to roll, ditto foolproof antibody test -by September there will be so many bases covered that only the holdouts still determined to hide under a rock forever will be resisting. There may be a few teachers who decide not to return /they can resign but will not be enough to cause disruption. If you look on the Staffroom threads people we saying that teaching jobs are scare and they can't get an interview-so hardly appears to be a shortage.

I work within the private day education sector and the phones are ringing all the time from prospective parents fed up with the state sector and wanting to move to their dc to private as soon as possible. If the parents are in a secure job market such as medicine it's an easier decision to make.

On 15 June, a slight amendment was made to gov advice to secondaries. It said they could bring back children from other years for a meeting before the end of term. This was as long as they didn't breach safety and no.s allowed in school.

Some independents are VERY keen to do everything they can to impress parents. Given lots break up in 2 weeks anyway, some will be working on getting those other year groups in, probably not for normal lessons, but maybe something pastoral and just so they feel they've been in and seen people and the barrier of not having been in school for months is broken a little bit.

Interesting about whether independnets are gaining or losing support at the moment. Clearly lots of people will struggle to pay fees or won't consider it in the next couple of years if job markets are uncertain. The smaller ones and those reliant on boarding and international students are very vulnerable. However, with the bad press a lot of state schools are getting which emphaisises the difference between private and date provision at the moment, the difference and value is perhaps being emphasised and the bigger schools might weather the storm better as a result. Already threads have run with people considering a move to private just to get the better remote provision.

It's a hard one for the government to position. If they give schools total flexibility over their opening arrangements, but still have quite limiting social distancing restrictions in place, then they will be criticised for unfairness, because a lot of private schools will be better able to take back more children full time (because of more space, more resources and smaller class sizes). But if they impose strict rules on school arrangements in the interests of fairness (eg all schools can only have 25% of children in at once), then they will be criticised for unnecessarily denying some children an education and also for crippling the private school business sector. It's not an easy one to spin.

Just heard that a local large prep school is opening to all years (nursery to year 6 ) next week.

They have extensive grounds and buildings, so no issues with social distancing.

Thanks for sharing the article Rainydaysss.

It’s all very interesting and looks like the government has taken a slightly muddled approach to exercising its powers.

Some private schools never closed. One near to me is pretty much next door to a hospital and a lot of families are medical so they remained open for key workers children.

Some had International boarders who were unable to return home.

It will be much easier for private schools to get their pupils back because they tend to have much smaller class sizes.

WotnoPasta - some schools are. Many are not mainly because they are delivering remote education and still collecting fees.

But some private schools have more space generally with performing arts spaces, sports halls, gyms, studios, labs etc and already have small class sizes so would generally be able to at least cater for a 2m distancing (whether teens keep to it is another argument). I suspect if schools can show they can distance better than open non-essential shops then insurers will be happy to take a possibly enhanced premium from them.

I know a few people who teach in private schools. They all seem to be already in financial trouble anyway, this lockdown is a disaster for them. One of them more than half the students are foreign nationals who won’t be returning. I’m sure they are desperate to make some cash

This is what is says- I signed up last week for a free trial because my DDs head wrote something...

Private schools are preparing to disregard Government guidance and open at the start of the new academic year "come what may", The Telegraph can reveal.

Some of the most prestigious fee-paying institutions are setting up their own track and trace systems, which they aim to have up and running for September.

It comes as the Government formally admitted in a High Court document, in response to a legal challenge to its lockdown policies, that it was a "request, not a direction" for schools to close.

A governor at one of the country's leading private schools said headteachers were "furious" with ministers over their dithering, adding that schools "could have legally and safely opened this term".

He said: "We have had enough. We will definitely open in September using our own hygiene measures, our own risk-based assessment of social distancing and our own test and trace system.

"There is no confidence left in the Government, given their failed promises. All schools should do the same."

Downing Street has come under fire for its policy on schools reopening, having rowed back on plans to get all primary school pupils back to the classroom before the summer, then later said it would encourage this after all.

Earlier this week, new official guidance said every secondary school pupil in England will be allowed to return to school before the summer, but only for one day. Previously, officials had said only Year 10 and Year 12 pupils would be allowed back before the summer.

Barnaby Lenon, the chairman of the Independent Schools Council, urged ministers to give headteachers the freedom to open as they see fit from September.

"I quite understand that trying to impose Government rules on an entire nation is inevitable in the early days of the withdrawal from lockdown," Mr Lenon said. "But from September, they should be relying on the good judgment of heads, all of whom will have carried out risk assessments."

Mr Lenon, a former headmaster of Harrow School, said there was now a "significant demand" among private schools to be given a greater degree of flexibility on how they go about reopening.

The Government's legal defence of its lockdown policies, submitted to the High Court in response to a judicial review launched by businessman Simon Dolan, states that schools were never required to close.

"This constituted a request, not a direction," the document says. "The Secretary of State has not exercised his powers to make a closure direction in respect of any school."

Private schools intend to use the document to convince their insurers that it is safe for them to reopen from September.

A major barrier to headteachers welcoming more pupils back to the classroom than the year groups stipulated by the Government has been insurance companies refusing to cover schools' legal liability if they go against the official recommendation.

"This gives us the legal basis to confirm that we definitely will be reopening in September, come what may," the private school governor said. "The moment that lots of parents realise that independent schools will be taking this stance, they will look to their own schools to adopt a similar stance – and this will ramp up pressure on the Government."

He added that the independent sector faces an "existential threat" and it is "business critical" for it to reopen in September, adding: "Clearly a number of schools have pupils from overseas and, if they don't know in the next few weeks that the school will open, they will make other arrangements."

On Tuesday night, the Prime Minister insisted it was safe for pupils to return to school.

Boris Johnson told the Downing Street press conference: "I want to say to all parents whose children are eligible to return to primary school – and there's loads of them – I want to show you it is safe, and there is no need for your kids to miss out on their education. I hope they will go to school