Is school allowed to just close?

[MinecraftMother]

Morning gang,

My kid's primary has decided to close because there's "only a few kids in because the other bubbles are off".

There is a whole year of kids willing and able to go to school, but they've decided to close Friday and Monday to do a deep clean - of a tiny country primary school.

Do schools have this power, on an individual level to just decide to close?

As a bit of context, we've not been very happy with the school's handling of itself over the crisis.

There's also the worry involved in finding childcare etc - absolutely impossible at the moment.

I feel like lying down in a dark room for a while... 😆

You seem to be incredulous that teachers are involved in cleaning. With three decades of teaching behind me I can very much assure you that teachers Do clean, and even more so at the moment. I am no longer working but have many friends and relatives who are - and they are constantly cleaning their classrooms at the moment, wiping down desks after every lesson> I was certainly doing the same during the first lockdown when I was in teaching key worker children. There are no cleaners in during the school day - they work before and after the day starts - so this is the only way to keep the areas clean during the day.

My school also had a deep clean before I left. All teachers had to clear things from their rooms so that the deep clean could be effective. I had to stay late for 3 nights to shift all of the things from tops of cupboards and on windowsills so that the cleaners could get to all of the surfaces.

Also - how dare you suggest that this has been done because the teachers fancied a couple of days at home. They will still be working - setting and managing remote work. If the school does not close for this deep clean and the staff develop covid - and if it is a small school it would not take more that a couple of cases to make staffing lessons impossible - then you will have your children home for far longer.

Yes. DDs secondary did this the week after half term and then had a staged return. Potentially avoided a more serious outbreak. Most parents fully supported him

I think their communication is poor. The reality is they are having to set work and maintain communication with all the kids isolating, running a school in person and simultaneously running a virtual one is an enormous amount of work, it may well be that with current staffing they can't do it.

We've currently got half the English department and a few other teachers isolating, it's incredibly difficult to cover even with them setting work (which will take longer than normal but be not quite as effective). If we had a significant number of kids out too it would be even harder, and that's in a large school, smaller ones will find it harder.

I suspect op you've not got the full story. Its crap for all concerned, but schools are doing their best. Headteachers are on their knees.

Ha ha love OP’s the comment about staff wanting a couple of days off. Another example of someone looking from the outside in and not getting the full picture of what is happening.

MinecraftMother
No, the teachers aren't cleaning, nor helping. That we do know - it's a company - they won't deal with cleaning and get this company in.

Your point is?

she's a fucking shero

FFS.

If they're deep cleaning a week after everyone has been sent home (bar your class) it seems pretty pointless, but it's probably required by PHE and DfE.

I have always found the seemingly stupid decisions in schools tend to come from somewhere else. I would imagine it's either out of their hands, or they have so many staff off they can't open, but don't want to cause alarm by admtting this. It is incredibly unlikely that it's because the teachers and head fancy a long weekend. I've known quite a few teachers personally and can only think of two, ever, who had that little dedication to the job; seems very unlikely your school would have ended up with the bad luck of a full staffroom of that type...

Yabu...personally I think all schools should close 🤷

Certainly private schools are not immune to Covid, Sedburgh has had about 10% of it’s students test positive, and they were only the symptomatic omes.

They could deep clean over the weekend. And fogging dies not require 48 hours to clear! Our school was done this week on the evening and we are told to vacate rooms by 5pm -fogging was done and they would have usable again after 90 mins (tho obvious was overnight. Clearly the staff feel like a couple of days off. Who wouldn’t? But a lazy solution.

90mins is not true.

Source:
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.qcs.co.uk/coronavirus/how-effective-is-fogging-in-fighting-coronavirus/amp/

Although admittedly this suggests it’s ‘only 6 hours’.
The decision to close until Tuesday is more likely to be about safe staffing levels and the need to break the chain of human to human transmission. The deep clean in between is the bonus.

Schools that I have worked with that have had to close are those where staff are affected. Key safeguarding staff ill or in isolation means school can't open safely. Could it be this? It would only need to be two of them designated safeguarding lead (DSL) and deputy DSL).

You wouldn't be told it is staff that are ill and certainly not which staff as this is confidential medical information.

Many schools close with short notice...the virus doesn't plan ahead!

I think you're getting an undeserved beating here. They must know it has a knock on effect - some people will be okay not working or can work from home but some can't do that. It's really unhelpful for school and posters to say 'don't be selfish, that's how it is at the moment' even though that's all they can say. I think the issue is lots of employers don't care about your reasons for time off, and the government hasn't told them they HAVE to be lenient... the view is if you have children and decide to work (though if you don't want to you will also be criticised...) it's your responsibility to source childcare no matter what and it's not our problem, even if you've been left up shit creek without a paddle by the childcare you do have in place through no fault of your own. Some people just don't have back up options. I don't have supportive family and DS's Dad is also working (and lives 70 miles away unable to drive due to medical reasons) so not able to help. I'm not working currently but at uni so they are more lenient but they have changed things at short notice due to the students going home for Christmas and I'm unable to attend, because of my childcare providers rules about amount of kids allowed, bubbles and required notice, there just isn't a slot for DS. They've done a similar thing in telling us it's not feasible for them to open around Christmas - fine for me, but I wouldn't have been able to deal with that when I was at work as I couldn't take those days off, especially at short notice. For those in this situation who are working... if they don't go in, they don't get paid or worse lose their job, they can't pay their bills including rent or mortgage. The kids aren't going to care about whether the school was clean enough or not when they're homeless and hungry. It's easy to say 'you don't have a choice' when it's not you struggling. The school has to be as safe as it can too and if they don't get on it as quickly as possible there would be no point doing it. As others have mentioned there will be safety concerns around staffing too. I know I've rambled, my point is it's just utterly shit for everyone involved, but can cause really serious problems for some. There is no good solution, I think they've done the best they could in doing it over a weekend to minimise weekdays affected.

They could deep clean over the weekend. And fogging dies not require 48 hours to clear! Our school was done this week on the evening and we are told to vacate rooms by 5pm -fogging was done and they would have usable again after 90 mins (tho obvious was overnight. Clearly the staff feel like a couple of days off. Who wouldn’t? But a lazy solution.

You are incorrectly assuming all schools have a fogging machine(s). The majority don’t as they cannot afford them (and I highly doubt a tiny rural school is one of the few that does).