Schools reopening before May half term?

[Manchestertimes]

What's everyone's opinion on when the schools will reopen? I think they will reopen a few weeks after Easter.

Not before new school year in September

From what I've seen from teacher friends/ family none of them are working straight through from last week to September. The rotas mean some of them are in once or twice a month. How does that equate to months of unpaid work?
You're trying to propose that instead of working the 195 days staff are contracted to work plus a reasonable amount of extra to account for the fact we are in a national emergency, teachers have their contracts ripped up and they open the schools again in the holidays.

Staff are already working from home on top of the rota, my school is allocating directed time tasks (the sort of tasks that get set in term time and staff end up completing in their holidays every year but we suck it up because most teachers are more than happy to be reasonable in terms of work).

Just because some teachers are martyrs and claim they'll happily say "how high" and doesn't mean everyone else should roll over and have their contracts pissed on.

Again, are you seriously going to tell me you'd be happy to work unpaid for over a month and have your employer remove your annual leave this year out of gratitude that you have a job?

It doesn't seem to matter what the situation is on MN people seem to think that teacher contracts mean nothing and anyone wanting to be reasonably flexible whilst not pissing on their contact is somehow workshy, but I don't see queues of people wanting to join the profession.

You wouldn’t need extra capacity

Why would you not need extra capacity? If you don't move kids up there has to be a log jam in the nurseries.

New children will be born that need the spaces in the nurseries / preschool that would be occupied by children who should be in school.

The nurseries are struggling to deliver the hours to the current children without having an extra year worth of children there.

And how do unis and colleges survive without their intake of school leavers?

I was in last week. I was coughed on, and even though the 11 children were meant to be observing social distance, they didn’t. 2 had a fight.

If l had full PPE, l wouldn’t be concerned. But l don’t. There’s hardly enough soap. So I’m concerned about my own health and that of my family.

Yes, education is suffering, yes, kids are bored. But teachers are human too, and we could catch the infection as easily as anyone else. Schools are stuffed to bursting, massive class sizes, rugby scrum corridors. No space for social distancing. And in my school 1800 kids change lesson every hour. Spreading germs everywhere.

I think there needs to be some awareness of what the environment is like in a school. They aren’t going to open schools until it is safe.

Schools are stuffed to bursting, massive class sizes, rugby scrum corridors. No space for social distancing. And in my school 1800 kids change lesson every hour. Spreading germs everywhere.

Exactly and schools were closed in the first place because it was impossible to enforce social distancing. You can’t open them to hundreds/thousands of pupils and staff until the need to socially distance has gone.

Not a chance. If that was likely they wouldn't have cancelled all GCSE exams. Some lecturers at dd1 university are talking about potentially not restarting until Jan 2021! We're all expecting to work from home for 12 weeks minimum.

For them at least I think it could be more time consuming & stressful than their normal working lives. Much harder to download and comment on 25 essays than read through exercise books marking where needed.

It is! I would rather be at work. We have been given loads of planning and admin to do too. Have our own family distractions. It's not as easy as it sounds.

The union even say-

Staff on holiday should not be expected to be in touch they need time to switch off and physically and mentally recuperate.

Our (private) school has extended Easter break until the end of April when, if the schools are not open physically, they will resume a full schedule of remote learning. Then the summer term will be extended by a few weeks.
I think if people did as told and we do manage to flatten the curve schools may reopen physically after May half term.

Pipamum. Some schools may be able to reopen with small class sizes and lots of space.

State secondaries do not fall into this. Everyone I’ve worked in is just packed to bursting

Janemarpling
I think there's quite a lot of selective listening going on when some people talk about teachers and schools at the moment.

I know some of my friends are saying it's nice to have time with their kids, but what that actually translates to is they're still working, planning and monitoring work for students, still contactable from around 8am-8pm for students because they want to be flexible as they understand families are finding it hard, and they are still completing directed tasks, just with the removal of a fixed timetable and meetings they're able to have a bit more autonomy over how and when the work is completed and are enjoying seeing their kids more.

I'm fed up of seeing on MN that teachers aren't working / are only working once a week or once a fortnight / they should lose the summer holidays / should open evenings and weekends / should shut up saying schools should be attended by those with no option because they're just trying to get out of teaching. Then add in the complaints of too much work, too little work, work I don't like or don't agree with, please don't make the primary school work too difficult because not all parents will be able to understand it and so on.

Not all children have access to wifi or tablets/laptops away from school. They will be disadvantaged by poverty, parental attitudes or incompetence, or just circumstances, if schools go over to Google Classroom or Zoom for their educational out-of-school provision. Some governments have actually forbidden it as too divisive: Cataluña is one. Even in affluent households, there may not be a tablet or a laptop each.

Lola I absolutely agree.

Teachers always seem to be in the wrong.

Bello have you seen that Facebook skitty of the teacher trying to complete an online class? It would be exactly how it would go at my school.

We do.

Apparently, being expected to work way above and beyond our paid 195 days, which we already are by 2 weeks due to cancellation of easter break, is 'bleating about losing the 6 week holiday'.

Some people can't get past their jealousy of this and it colours their opinion of what we do.

Plus working from home is uncomfortable if you haven't got a proper desk chair etc

I think September but January could be possible too. Sorry to upset people. May half term would be way too soon.

Anyone here thinking of having children should read this thread carefully.

If you have them, it’s your responsibility to look after them if we have a global pandemic.

Teachers are not going to work for free or through the summer holidays regardless of how “unfair” you think it is.

Some of the bitter and jealous comments from lazy entitled parents are truly something.

All this money that the goverment has pulled out of thin air to fund the nations salaries/businesses for the next three months and beyond, why wasn't this money being slowly filtered into the NHS over the last few years given the strain we all know the system has been under for some time as the money can obviously be found when needed. If it had then maybe we wouldn't be in the situation we are now of not having enough hospital beds/equipment/staff which has resulted in the entire country grinding to a halt.

@Bulb1976 what a ridiculous statement. Looking after your children includes being aware of their psychological well-being too. A single child home alone with me and no friends or play with peers for months is not healthy for him. I quite like having my dc home but am concerned for his wellbeing.

This site is mental just now

And we don’t get paid for holidays. So if l work over Easter which l will be doing, I’ll be doing it for free. And l don’t mind in the slightest.

But l just need to remind people that we are not paid for our seemingly endless holidays

Bulb - wow what a nasty post. Mn is so over the top this week. Covid has brought the worst out in some people/ professions. Children seem to be acceptable collateral damage in this awful situation.

If my 12 year old has to go back to school in June/July and lose her summer holidays-I think she will have a complete breakdown.

They have been given so much work to do, it is a much heavier timetable than normal school is. She will have to have proper downtime.

Redlocks30
You're right. When this is over the kids will need a break too.

We are setting proper work linked to curriculum time and then also providing optional extension materials because we have had parents saying there's not enough (personally I'd have said once they've done the core work then let them further their interests but then I'm not a fan of hot housing).

Why should the students have the stress of upheaval, some of them have their Easter break removed as it is, time without friends and learning remotely only to get their summer holidays removed and thrown back into school because it's convenient for some parents?

Absolutely dc need their holidays too. And teachers.

^this- convenience for parents.

This is what this thread is about. Not concern for education.

Schools will not reopen until September at the earliest. Anything else is wishful thinking. Cases of CV need to be nose dive before they open.