To think this school's plan won't work

[Poppi89]

I work in a secondary school ( not as a teacher) and we have been kept up to date by email and zoom staff meetings.

There has been a lot of talk of when we will re-open and what will happen as like most schools it was very stressful closing the school and not being prepared so they are trying to put plans in place and keep one step ahead.

Due to a lot of parents in the area wanting the school to re-open and for life to go back to 'normal' they think the government might re-open schools sooner rather than later maybe before May half term, so the school has put in place an outline of what will happen:

• School will re-open but will continue sticking to the guidelines of social distancing - as this is not possible in a school with full capacity students will be split into halves or thirds to ensure they are spaced far enough away from each other. This means that the kids will only be in 1/2 days a week.

• Due to adults spreading the virus more than children (it seems) they don't think all staff should be in each day. So will be depending on parents to do a rota system - so one qualified member of staff to 2 parents to supervise.

Does anybody else think the school would be better to remain closed if this is the case?
It seems they won't be learning much and the risk of getting the virus will still be high.

I do get that this is the best plan they have come up with to keep everyone happy. My DD is missing her friends and wouldn't mind going back to school a couple of days a week and I guess it will be easier for parents to get back to work but I would rather wait until June/July at the earliest as surely the NHS is still overwhelmed.

What do you guys think?
AIBU - thinking this isn't a good plan

I think it’s naive to say nobody knows. Conversations are being had with school leaders and la’s to make a firm plan. At least 2 years in primary and secondary are likely to return on 1st June. The government cocked up hiving no notice on schools closing-they won’t make the same mistake on reopening.

The whole thing sounds barmy

If it’s the best plan SMT can come up with, I can only assume the actual plan is to provide something that is so utterly useless the school can then say to parents well we did try and you didn’t like it so it’s not our fault.

Yes of COURSE all us parents who are currently juggling full time work and home education while school staff are at home will jump at the chance to come and volunteer at your school so that your paid staff can stay at home even longer. Hang on a sec, I’ll just put my application for unpaid leave in.

Yet again schools show how ridiculously out of touch with the rest of the world they are

Also parents will never be used-I think that is completely made up.

@Clavinova I suspect in young children getting them to wear a mask and keep it on and avoid choking on it would be almost impossible. Although of course young children do not tend to cough in their elbow either.

@Piggywaspushed - they are secondary aged so less likely to tug at them. And if those who cannot wear them are asthmatic they will still be more protected if the majority of people around them are wearing them.

But again, OP - you don't need MORE than one adult in a classroom.

I was answering clav OP!

Yet again schools show how ridiculously out of touch with the rest of the world they are

Um. Can you remove the plural from that please?

To all those who are saying it's batshit/barmy etc.
What would your plan be?

As I have said I am not an expert but I think there must be a better way than what is being proposed.

What I am quite shocked about is that a lot of people on here seem more concerned that they might have to volunteer than the fact the pupils are going back!
As I've said I am a lone parent - I don't want my DD having to go into a different school where someone will have to supervise her so I can supervise someone else kids! It is counter productive surely!

Imho I cant see the kids being back at school until september possibly longer but no one knows for sure yet

Yes you do in many cases.

There's physically not enough teachers in schools to split classes into socially distanced groups.

I'd need 4 classrooms (with adults) for each of my groups. Possibly 5 with my Yr7 and 8 groups.

These adults have to come from somewhere. All bar me would be non specialist teachers, basically reading a PowerPoint and getting kids to work through activities.....which is exactly what they're doing online.

@Piggywaspushed - sorry I was just trying to answer everyones questions so thought it was to me.

You do need more than 1 adult I meant!

I think every teacher would like to be back.

I hate online teaching. It's so sterile.

But how do we get the 85% of a big rural school who travel by bus to social distance?

We have vastly insufficient handwashing facilities. Our canteen is hugely overcrowded.

It is a logistical nightmare

@Helen1990 - I was hoping that would be the case but PPs have said their schools are planning to go back early June and in Germany they're going back before that. I think if other countries start going back early then we may follow. - Obviously things may change and we not got back for months yet but they seem to be in a rush to get things back to normal for the economy I think.

Yet again schools show how ridiculously out of touch with the rest of the world they are

I don’t believe for a minute this ‘plan’ is going to happen if it’s even real.

Your comment is very offensive to all the teachers and schools that are waiting to hear what the government tells them to do before releasing a plan.

Although several German states have said that children under the age of 7 do not need to wear face masks.

When was this Clav? The study only came out yesterday, so I can imagine governments giving different advice prior.

It isn’t up to individual schools when they re-open. Also, how could they have random parents in who won’t have DBS in place?

It's not an epidemiological reason.

I agree, but the mandatory requirement to wear a face mask in Germany only extends to public transport and shopping - no mention of schools. In a recent TV news report, the demonstration from Germany on how schools would re-open with social distancing, only showed one (teenage) pupil wearing a face mask - none of the teachers were wearing masks.

The headteachers’ leader has told the government June 1st is the very earliest schools could realistically go back and that would require planning now.

I think there should be central advice on how it would work, not all schools doing their own thing and coming up with ridiculous suggestions like using parents.

I know teachers currently who are working on a rota and some not working at all and not expecting to until September. Some are teaching and marking online, some are not required to.

My dc are in special schools, one school open, the other closed.

It is such a minefield I don’t think it should be ideas led by individual schools.

I work full time, it’s currently full time plus about 50%

I am not in a position to “volunteer” to prop up a state funded school to provide what sounds like some sort of peculiar socially distanced socialising for high school aged children.

You need one adult in a class for secondary children. That would be the teacher. So what exactly are the conscripted volunteer parents for? It’s not teaching. It must be because you are bringing in more children than you can teach and spreading them out to meet social distancing.

What’s the point of it?

When was this Clav?

Last Friday.

I genuinely think this is because everyone accept teaching is almost impossible with your lips covered.

So that makes keeping 2 m apart, small class sizes and cleaning and handwashing even more important, I guess.