What’s the likely hood of Primary Schools returning to full time in September?

[Ladywinesalot]

Just that really.

I’m full of fear that they schools will only open part time and split classes in half.

I’m in aghast at what the Government has done to the schools and our children.

The impact of this over exaggerated lockdown on the children’s education and mental health is just horrific.

Agree driving you're right there's nothing blended about it.

All schools will be back full time. It is the only solution, unless the government is planning to double the number of school buildings or provide technology and adult supervision for all those children who do not have access to it currently at home.

If some teachers don't want to go to work, they will find others to replace them.

Can I ask what the Government has done to schools and to children in your original post?

Not being goady but this is a global pandemic.

What is blended learning?

Can I ask what the Government has done to schools and to children in your original post?

They've closed schools with no guidelines on what constitutes home learning. Many kids will have done no learning whatsoever.

The guidelines they've now released are a bit woolly at best and some schools are now refusing to re open. Nobody is challenging them on that.

Similarly council's are encouraging schools not to open even where they actually can and wanted to. Government aren't challenging that either and they should be.

Equally things like golf courses and garden centres are open but children still cannot legally visit a park and sit on the swings. The one person from a household rule means they can't see a friend unless they're old enough to do that alone.

The whole "blended learning" which I will now refer to as part time learning is a shit show and it's not going to be a good substitute for a proper education.

There will also be many children being abused and that apparently doesn't concern anyone!

Blended learning is what Scotland has suggested will happen when they go back in august. In school part time and online learning the rest.

They have not elaborated on how they expect this to work. I wonder why.

+Handful of flowers* Where will all these shiny, new, compliant teachers come from? There is a huge recruitment crisis at the moment.

If some teachers don't want to go to work, they will find others to replace them.
Hahaha! Written by someone who clearly has NO CLUE about the massive problem of retention and recruitment in the teaching profession, even before Covid. And it also seems to have passed you by that ONE of the reasons so many schools had to close even before March 20th was due to staffing issues.
Oh, and ONCE AGAIN, it's not a case of teachers "wanting," or not, to go to work, AS THEY HAVE BEEN AT WORK ALL THROUGH.
Jesus Christ, what IS it with people's basic comprehension skills?!

Gene that must be very frustrating about your council not permitting nurseries and schools to open.

Although do bear in mind, that even if settings are permitted to open from 1 June, it doesn't mean that all children will be attending.

Most of our local primaries are planning to open for two days a week to Y6 ONLY from 8 June, with a view to phasing in other years when possible.

No firm promise when and how nursery and YR and Y1 will be returning though.

Although do bear in mind, that even if settings are permitted to open from 1 June, it doesn't mean that all children will be attending

My child would have been attending. Our nursery had already confirmed that with me and then the council released their statement. So my child is definitely missing out because of the council.

It's a sure start. So I pay for it. But it's council funded so they were bullied into agreeing to remain closed or their funding taken away.

Most infections now are transmitted by care home and hospitals

Community transmission is very low

Because of lockdown.

And it wasn’t just to protect the NHS. Lots of critical services would have failed if large numbers of workers were off sick at the same time - power generation, food production and distribution, sanitation, fuel. The lockdown protected critical functions by keeping non-essential workers at home and limiting community spread.

Yes, I can see that that is incredibly frustrating. I would be at the end of my tether too.

Do bear in mind though, that the government could still forbid settings that are hoping to open on 1 June not to later on this week. Infection rates are continuing to rise, particularly in the NE and NW of England.

The plan to open nurseries and schools had the proviso of the alert level not rising. Additionally, they will need sufficient staff to fulfil ratios. This was what caused many nurseries and schools to close before 20 March.

It still seems all very uncertain to me.

Do bear in mind though, that the government could still forbid settings that are hoping to open on 1 June not to later on this week. Infection rates are continuing to rise, particularly in the NE and NW of England

Yes I know that. Doesn't matter now because the council have thrown their might around. We've had less than 300 confirmed cases in a population of 210,000 so I'd hardly say were in a hotspot.

It does matter. If some schools and nurseries go back and the infection rates stays the same or reduces, it's much more likely that others will follow.

The govt have handled this pandemic extraordinarily badly, and it's terrible the price that individuals are paying.

I hope that your nursery opens soon.

Yep, I’m concerned about abused children, about the attainment gap between those who have the technology and hands on parents and those that have neither.

We need to stop taking about when schools will be ‘safe’. There is always risk in life. We know the risk to children and most teachers is low. Those vulnerable need to shield.

This generation of children will feel the impact of this for years and years.

It was such a half hearted, late lockdown we should have just not bothered. Or we should have gone harder a week earlier and then yes we’d have been out a lot earlier.

Remember the government kept saying they were delaying locking down as the public didn’t have an appetite for a long lockdown. Oh the irony that we end up in lockdown for longer!! And more died due to the delay. Great call.

Delatron I think most of us are concerned about child abuse, domestic violence, attainment gaps, children getting drawn into county lines and other drug related behaviours, an increase in crime, damage to mental health, the impending recession, increased levels of poverty, increased levels of homelessness and goodness knows what else.

Yep, the lockdown was too late, not strong enough and is a mess caused by the incompetent, self-interested govt in power.

But here we are and we can't revisit the past. We need to learn as much as possible and avoid making the same mistakes again. If the 23 March lock down was 'too late and half-hearted' why is it, just two months later when the UK has the highest number of deaths, the highest level of newly identified cases of CV19 in Europe, such a great idea to consider permitting hundreds of thousands of children, parents and school staff to congregate for hours of the day inside and then go and mix with others on public transport, in shops and workplaces?

If we need to stop talking about when schools are 'safe', are you suggesting that we just stop bothering with any risk assessments? We don't particularly factor safety into schooling, workplaces going forward? Or is it just the risk of contracting or spreading CV19 that we shouldn't bother about anymore.

There are thousands of children in the UK who need to shield - what do you suggest they do? Ditto the tens of thousands of teachers? Should schools still open if there aren't enough staff to cover classes, or enough classrooms to comply with the guidance about separated 'bubbles'?

So easy to say that 'schools must open'. So hard to even suggest in the abstract how this can happen at the moment.

Realistically the bubbles become pointless come September.

If your bubble is only in school Monday Tuesday and both parents work where is that child going weds Thurs Fri?

Childminder? Mixing with more kids.
Grandparent? A different family member weds Thurs and Fri?
Swapping with a friend who's got kids?

The bubbles end up even bigger than they would be then if you had a 30 kid bubble with a consistent teacher and ta.

Health and social Care services haven't just been able to shut down like the school system has. There is staff throughout this sector continuing to work who have underlying health conditions and whilst I know it's anxiety provoking we haven't just said we won't return to work. I think the government is a shambles right now there is no other way of looking at it.

The school system hasn't shut down.

Schools have been open to the children of keyworkers and other vulnerable chidren.

It is schools not social services that have been rolling out the free schools meals vouchers.

Teachers not in school are working from home.

It may as well have shut down for most kids.

Well forgive me for thinking it might as well have shut down for mine Bflatmajorsharp, having only received some links to white rose maths and Twinkl worksheets in the past 10 weeks!

Bflatmajorsharp
School has pretty much shut down as far as 2 way communication with my kids.
Since the week before lockdown, when we had to isolate due to a cough in the house, we have had a weekly list of work, of which precisely zero has been marked or fed back on by a member of staff. My 11 yr old has had one phone call from someone he doesnt know (we have been in the UK less than a year), and an email on his birthday. Everything else is radio silence. That is not sustainable the longer this goes on. My 9 yr old has also had zero feedback on work, 2 phone calls, and generic, bcc'd to the whole class, email once a week.
I fully grasp teachers are busy with the key worker children, setting work, dealing with the shitstorm of guidance from the DoE and their own families health and wellbeing, but it does pretty much feel like school has shut. If this is to continue into the next accademic year, there absolutely has to be some regular feedback on work and/or regular communication.

This is my worry at the moment, Scotland going back in August but part time, so many in so many days or different ages groups different weeks etc. I’ve got 3 DC all differing ages and years, I work in community nursing on a flexible working policy already and DH works away a lot which is unlikely to change. Not sure how we will manage in this case as my off duty’s are being doing months in advance due to the virus etc really don’t know how this is going to work for most families with 2 working parents s

I've been very luck I guess that as a nurse my children have been able to attend to some degree. But they are still limited hours, no wrap around care and the children are not actually being taught. On the 1st June others return the hours will be reduced further. I do feel for the teaching staff I really do, but I also feel for the children and for the parents who are being significantly effected also. The bubble system is going to be unworkable for most schools.