What schools will look like

[whatthefuckishappening]

Has anyone had a confirmed outline of a plan from their school of what school will be like for reception if they go back in June? We expect to hear next week sometime. I'm undecided whether to send mine back or not (erring towards not, but then I'm on mat leave so currently don't have to factor work in).

(Probably not literally)

You'd leave 15 5yos alone in a room together?
In true MN style- ARE YOU ON GLUE?

Not even for two minutes would you (and our staff loos are a good 90seconds walk away from most classrooms).

Ok, so don't leave the youngest alone. But surely the eldest kids in the school could be trusted to get on with something for 10 mins. So that teacher can stand outside the younger kids room to glare them into colouring a picture or whatever.
It's not ideal but talk of abandoning your class or never being able to go to the loo is being a little OTT and not even trying to find solutions.

I think parents who do send their dc back need to do so eyes wide open and not be impractical about their expectations of the school and staff wrt distancing. This should be a clear agreement between each school and parents (and government).

Likewise for those who choose not to, to accept the home learning provisions. There are pros and cons to going back to school or not and it is totally up to the parent to weigh up the risks for their household (and to others e.g. if child is mildly ill to do the right thing)

Ok, so don't leave the youngest alone

Great but not every school has enough staff to currently staff these new bubbles let alone an extra one to spare to watch them whilst you pee.

Plus what do you do if you work in an infant school where the eldest children are year 2.

It's not ideal but talk of abandoning your class or never being able to go to the loo is being a little OTT and not even trying to find solutions.

It's no OTT, the reality is that you may have to abandoned them even if they are only 4 of the staff member needs to go to the loo. I'm asking for practical solutions and as yet other than leaving them alone whilst the staff members go to the toilet or get all these so called extra staff to watch them no one has been able to answer the question in a way that works.

Our eldest children are on a different site to the youngest, so not sure how that would work. But I am sure teachers are trying to come up with solutions, in fact I know they are trying to come up with the solutions whilst trying to follow the farcical guidance being provided by the Government. Bearing in mind this guidance is coming in drib and drabs and schools need to get something sorted so they can let parents know what school will look like and then actually get staff, the classrooms and the rest of the school building sorted.

But surely the eldest kids in the school could be trusted to get on with something for 10 mins. So that teacher can stand outside the younger kids room to glare them into colouring a picture or whatever.

😂😂😂

Y6 are at the other end of the school. So I have to message the Y6 teacher, she has to warn her lot (btw, I’d leave my R class longer than I’d leave the 6s), walk to me, I’d need to tell her not to let Joey go to toilet, Susie will cry but just ignore her, I go to the loo, come back, say thanks, Y6 teacher has to go back.

Y6 have now been alone for 20 minutes. Best case scenario is they’re all on TikTok, worst is a physical fight, a verbal fight, tears, hugs (can’t have those), general pandemonium.

Now the sensible solution is SLT having a walkie talkie and covering teacher breaks. However, we were having to rely on SLT being in class. So the next step is a timetabled teacher break, but it still doesn’t really solve the problem.

Needs must when you get a tummy bug (or morning sickness) and have to leave the class in a hurry. But not day to day, regular leaving - there has to be a break time for staff (pretty sure there is legislation about this) and they can, as best as possible, hold it in till then. No breaktime would be entirely unacceptable.

TAs are expected to take a group. Not just for a lesson, not just for a day but actively teaching all day every day for the foreseeable future.

I don't have a TA. We have one TA who floats around ks2 but doesn't ever seem to make it to UKS2.

Neither do we have the room. Our school has expanded from one form entry to two form entry over the past few years and we have built a new building to accommodate this. But there are no spare rooms at all. 121 support and intervention often happens in the small PPA room or corridors. So no capacity to split whole classes full time..

It's not ideal but talk of abandoning your class or never being able to go to the loo is being a little OTT and not even trying to find solutions.

The problem is that 99% of the time, it might be ok. Like it would probably be ok if you left your 6 year old home alone while you popped out to get a bottle of milk but you still wouldn't do it. But if the worst happened and there was a fight; someone fell and banged their head; stabbed themselves in the eye with a pencil; threw up; scratched someone... I wouldn't be able to justify having left them alone.

On days where I have playground duty and so can't go to the loo at break time, I deal with it by not drinking during the day so the need doesn't arise. I've leaked through to my clothes when I've been on my period and had to wear my coat for the rest of the day, claiming I feel a bit chilly, because there was no chance to go to the loo and it wasn't safe to leave the children.

Grabbing another teacher to keep an eye on them in an emergency is one thing but doesn't work if they're out doing PE or in the library in the other side of school and it's just you. Neither would it work as a long term strategy.

It's not being OTT, it's just reality.

Why are people making a huge deal of the toilet breaks.

I think its safe to assume they will be at break time and lunch time the same as always.

There will be other members of staff in yo supervise (from a 2 m distance/outdoors).

Schools will only not be mixing groups and teachers indoors.

I know it sometimes seems that teachers can find a problem to every solution but a) some of the solutions offered have already been offered, considered and rejected with good reason and b) a lot of the suggestions are made by people who have no experience of being in school or the statory requirements or the logistics or the children or the building or the law which renders them immediately disposable without consideration.

I think its safe to assume they will be at break time and lunch time the same as always.

Um surely most schools will be staying in their bubbles for playtimes outside and eating lunch in their bubbles? Many schools dont have enough space outside to have multiple groups outside at once.

But then the lunchtime supervisors will watch the children outside.

They will just be on duty longer as breaks are staggered

Teachers dressed like this?

The plan at our school is for the children to eat their lunch in their classrooms, they will be provided with pack lunch if entitled to free school meals, bring their own if not. I assume the teacher will eat with them.

I assume it may be possible to use MTAs but again they will need to be assigned to a particular group and I am not sure we have that many MTAs.

Um surely most schools will be staying in their bubbles for playtimes outside and eating lunch in their bubbles?

What are you calling a bubble? A class?
As I said, DD went back on Monday. We had no choice ( I'd have preferred her not to tbh) as homeschooling is not allowed unless you're a qualified teacher.

They are not allowed to mix classes so the 24 kids in her class can play with each other but not with anyone else. Breaks are staggered so at any one time one is on the sports "field", one on the playground and one inside. Class teacher teaches her class. No extra teachers or space required.
DS will get a temporary teacher as his is going on mat leave next week and they have someone covering for the other vulnerable member of staff.

What are you calling a bubble? A class?

A bubble is a group of up to 15 pupils, half of a usual class size.

Haypyrexic Which country are you in? As I wasn't aware of any that were allowing 24 children in a group

What are you calling a bubble? A class?

A bubble would be the small group so in most cases this would ber half the class so 15 children but in some schools it would naturally be less. A bubble wouldn't be the whole class.

Im also not sure mid day lunch staff wpuld be in. Many of these staff would be older or more vulnerable in my experience.

The bubble is a specified group of children. The Government have said this group should not be bigger than 15 so that means most classes will need to be split in 2, hence the reason for trying to find more staff to cover these extra classes. As the teachers for the other year groups not yet going into school will still be providing remote learning for them.

The bubble will stay with their associated adult all day, hence the reason why people are asking when the teacher will get their break.

What country are you in @Haypyrexic?

OK - with the proviso that it depends on the school layout, facilities, admission number.

My kids' school has each class with their own entrance to the playground area, toilet area and sinks in each classroom - this obviously affects how they can run things.

Two forms reception - one class is going in Monday and Tuesday, others go in Thursday-Friday with cleaning on Weds. Splitting the class in two halves according to friendships and combinations you'd like to avoid. One class in each of the YR classrooms with one of the YR teachers - same teacher throughout, but although one half won't have their specific class teacher, the year group work as a team very closely and split groups off for various things so no one is getting a staff member unknown to them.

Staggered start/end times of the day, playground split into areas for each class. Staggered lunch time so the kids mix in the same group of 15 throughout their time in the school.

From what we've been told that's the general plan - there are more specific things like hand washing routines etc they'll put in place once numbers are confirmed. Toy and activity choice based on what can be easily cleaned between sessions - so play dough out... wooden building blocks in type balance to be made. Focus on mental health, wellbeing, getting the kids to process what's been going on.

I was fairly pleased with that - it's a good balance between adapting and maintaining some normality.

Unless we want our children out of school for the next year then we need to be finding solutions not just going 'this won't work'' 'that's impossible'. It isn't going to be perfect - just like the supermarkets aren't perfect, they are just trying to remove the risk as much as possible and protect staff as much is possible.

I'd like to see where the bin lids will come from B&M, Home Bargains, ASDA etc? For every problem there is a solution.

And probably paid for out of the teacher's pocket like many resources are!

then we need to be finding solutions not just going 'this won't work'' 'that's impossible'

Great what's your solution to the going to the loo problem. I have loads of friends in the sector who have yet to find a solution so I genuinely would like an answer.

And probably paid for out of the teacher's pocket like many resources are!

Yep anything brought will probably come out of the teachers pockets such as cleaning supplies, bin lids, soap etc. There wasn't enough money in budgets before this all kicked off for essentials let alone all the extra stuff now required.

I asked the question about teacher loo breaks hoping to find someone had come up with a solution so I could go back to my schools and tell them. I don't think they would be too keen on the 'just leave the children for 5 minutes I am sure they will be fine' solution.

I am writing our plan at the moment. Very small groups to begin with (eg if you have a year six child they will only be in two days in the first week) and things like that.

New guidance that came out last night says that full time places should be the default and no rotas should be in place. They have obviously realised that parents can't go back to work if their kids are only in a couple of days per week or one week on/one week off.