Secondary Teachers, what do you think about going back to school for the last term with social distancing?

[sunshineanddaffodils]

My year 8 and year 10 dc are in the best possible situation at this point. Both have their own computer, space to work, pretty good home learning from school and both are cooperating. However, I am so worried about the impact being off school until September will have on them socially, on their mental well-being let alone the academic side of things. When I think about dc who are less fortunate than mine I feel so anxious and concerned. I’d be so happy to see some sort of phased return to school as soon as possible really. Looking at the stats I’m not concerned about the health any of the dc or staff at the school although obviously wouldn’t expect anyone in the vulnerable categories or dc of the vulnerable to be expected to return (there’s only one teacher at at their school who is shielding because he’s diabetic). I think school should reopen and the vulnerable remain isolated so the virus cannot be passed on to them if dc fo pick it up at school.

It is totally impossible for children to socially distance in a school.

I’m not concerned about the health any of the dc or staff at the school

I hope you don’t tell the school that

Schools should only reopen when it’s absolutely safe for the staff and pupils. That includes travelling in, many will use school buses for secondary and you can’t get many people on a bus is 2m apart.

What Alpaca said

Impossible with class sizes, lunch fingerprint payments, narrow corridors, lack of sinks for handwashing etc.
But if the government want to get more of us catching it "open the tap" as it was described early on, then it's a perfect way to do it

Two things:

• if you let some children return to classroom teaching and not others, then assuming a normal curriculum you are disadvantaging those unable to return for shielding or vulnerability reasons.

• how do you propose social distancing for up to 30 children in a classroom which is at capacity under normal circumstances?

I have 32/ 34 in some of my classes in a room designed for 30.

If the kids have to social distance then it won’t be school anywhere near as normal. Other countries seem to be capping class sizes at 10, I could probably fit 8 in my room.

The kids would have to come in on a rota. Probably alphabetically, therefore there’s no guarantee that they would see the friends they want to. Teachers would be hyper stressed calling out ‘2m!’ all the time. I guess we’d be teaching the same lesson three times to different kids from the same class over three days. As we would be in teaching, the work provided online at home would be less of a priority.

I get stressed going to the supermarket with social distancing, I can’t imagine it will be very pleasant for the kids.

I’m not sure what they’d get out of it educationally either as it would all be very bitty and disrupted.

Social distancing can't work in schools. I'm not opposed to them returning when it's appropriate but it's laughable to think social distancing can be maintained.

I work in a school which manages to keep smaller class sizes, so maybe 18-24 in a class built for 30 and we still couldn't do proper social distancing. And what's the point of keeping children and staff 2m apart (even if the pupils will comply, and we do say, half the cohort in at a time) if we're all in the same room, breathing the same air for an hour at a time? The pupils can't be relied on to observe strict handwashing rules - quite a few of them noticeably skimp on the essentials of hygiene at the best of times.

I'm not saying it won't have to be done eventually. I think we're going to have to come to accept that we have to find a way to live with this virus, which does scare me, but I don't see an alternative.

But social distancing is definitely not going to happen in any useful way in schools.

Social distancing in schools will be impossible. It's all or nothing with reopening schools imo.

There are massive timetabling issues with having alternate days, half days, half numbers etc which is being mooted in some circles. How can I be in school teaching half the kids and online supporting the other half? If my 6th form aren't in on the days their timetable gives them their lessons with me, I won't see them. A whole school timetable is a massive, 3D jigsaw that takes months. You really can't re-write them in a couple of weeks. Best case would be to have y10 and y12 in, maybe y11 who are going to do A level and set remote learning for 7-9 that doesn't involve live lessons but preset work, projects etc to be linked to the BBC resources perhaps. Those classes that are in could then maybe have a redesigned timetable with classes split up to increase SD but nothung is going to be 'safe' until there is a vaccine so it's about balancing and managing risk.

I think they could only do this once social isolating had been lifted, or at least reduced as I presume it will need to come back as and when the numbers increase again. Alternatively,they will need to do some sort of rotation which I'm not sure would be effective really. It would still mean alot of time out of school ,not necessarily seeing the friends they want to and a massive workload for teachers. I am seriously thinking of removing DD from her school and signing up to online schooling so her GCSEs will be as uninterrupted as possible. She is due to go into year 10 in September and whilst the online schooling provided by school has been good ,there had been no direct contact with teachers which I think will be an issue for year 10.

www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=theconversation.com/amp/5-reasons-its-safe-for-kids-to-go-back-to-school-137064&ved=2ahUKEwiwhqD554XpAhXARBUIHR3JAYAQFjAOegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw2hM3mIt3SyYp90NKNoeWZx&ampcf=1

What's happened in schools in Australia is interesting. They have concluded schools are 'low risk environments'

You might possibly be able to social distance in a classroom if you had say 8 in a class. No one needed to get paper etc, no one needed a wee, but what about in corridors and at lunch etc? Schools opening in any form is the end of social distancing. So lovely that you don't care about the health of the staff by the way. I'm an asthmatic with a history of pneumonia. When I'm struggling to breath that will be a great comfort.

Or if the government abandons social distancing for all in favour oftargeted self isolation of high risk groups and contact tracing.

Well with the very low numbers in Australia it may well be low risk!

Other countries seem to be capping class sizes at 10, I could probably fit 8 in my room.

In some I think that includes the teacher as well and the number of different year groups at any one time is capped. As well as masks for teachers and children over 12 being compulsory, and IIRC at least one is closing a school for 14days if there is a case among students or teachers.

Fortunately, I don’t think even our government are daft enough to reopen schools fully at this stage.

Thing is we can’t shut schools until there’s a vaccine it would be absolutely devastating. I can see how difficult social distancing would be so maybe sending them all back would be the best approach considering how those under 20 seem to be very low risk. Maybe concerned staff could use some sort of PPE?

I honestly don’t see how they are going to do it. I work in a senior school and there is no way possible of social distancing. There physically isn’t the staff or the space to spread students out. The corridors and dining hall are a nightmare. The classrooms are cramped already.

I know online learning isn’t the perfect option but it’s a lot safer than being in a school. I am no way looking forward to my children and myself going back to work. In regards to the contact tracing how is that going to work in a school? If someone gets poorly is that the school closed for 2 weeks every time?

Schools probably are low risk for most people as logically the majority there are low risk as they are young. I think the social distancing thing has many issues, not least the fact it's not sustainable. So I think the government will revert to targeted self isolation once the testing capacity has been rolled out and social isolating for most people will be lifted. Only then will schools open.

I would like to see something for the year 6s about to move up, maybe a day for each tutor group based in the hall to meet teachers and do a socially-distanced danceathon on the field or something. I can also picture a small cohort of year 10s who have not engaged with home learning for whatever reason to come in on a rota to have some input for core subjects.

My DD goes to a Victorian era school building which is massively crowded. There's no way you could distance safely without drastically reducing the numbers of kids attending.
She's Yr8 and is doing fine at home. It strikes me that supporting kids with exams coming up and vulnerable children seems to be the groups to consider first.

Maybe concerned staff could use some sort of PPE?

Considering that NHS workers caring and treating those with the virus can't get enough PPE, where do you expect teachers to get protective equipment from?

Where would we get the PPE from though? ICU staff can’t get enough at the moment so School staff are going to be very much bottom of the list and rightly so.

but what about in corridors and at lunch etc

I think the suggestion I saw was that children remain in the same classroom all the time, eat their lunches there, and only staff move around in the corridors. Which would be workable, though a huge hassle.

The main problem I can see is that with the huge class sizes in many secondary schools, combined with the small classroom sizes, they will have to spilt classes into 3 or 4 groups in order to social distance. Since we don't have any surplus teacher capacity this means, as stated above, that the same day's worth of teaching will have to be repeated 3 or 4 times, . Since the teachers will be in class teaching, they won't be available for online teaching, which means overall most children will receive less education rather than more.

I think you're forgetting that although children generally aren't particularly at risk from COVID they are great carriers of the virus, the children will be sharing it around at school and then taking it home to their parents.

Also, what about the children that have to use public transport to get to school?