To ask you to share your ideas for how schools go back?

[FurForksSake]

I've seen lots of good ideas and creative thoughts for how to safely get the kids back.

Am I being unreasonable by asking you to share some?

Maybe schools / teachers might see something that would be helpful to how to get through this.

I think where there's not enough space to distance there should be part time school on weekly cycles for kids. Eg kids A-F go one week then G-M the next and so on.

Mainly because if you kept all of the siblings together in one contact group that would massively reduce the amount of cross contamination likely, reduce the number of parents at the gate, reduce the amount of time needed cleaning, increase likelihood all kids can be taught by a qualified teacher etc.

I agree lots of forest school for the little ones have them outside as much as possible.

Ask kids to bring a pencil case to reduce how many shared resources they're using.

I think PPE should be optional for staff.

In many countries the children are responsible for cleaning their own school. So you could train the older ones as cleaners, solving the staff shortage and giving them a useful life skill. DD was a school cleaner at 15.

Oh and staffroom closed with staff to eat lunch separately in their own classrooms.

If doing part time, doing full days would be much more sensible. 2 days in, day for full deep clean, then second half in for 2 days. That would allow parents to go back to work part time at least and would be less disruptive for the children. You could then stagger the timings for the classes entering and leaving the school.

Lots of comments about using PPE as part of the strategy of getting kids but to school but given we are eight weeks in and I am doubtful Hospitals and care homes have sufficient protection and there have been a large number of deaths of transport workers like bus drivers through absence of PPE I think we are miles away from this being part of any solution. I doubt very many children will be in school before September which at least gives time to resolve some of the issues.

Start with the upper primary groups first rather than the youngest because...

• they are more able to understand the need for social distancing and should be able to do it better than recep /y1 (it won't be perfect... adults slip up so of course 10 year olds will)
• their hygiene generally isn't as bad as younger children, I taught a reception pupil who liked to eat the playdoh, another child had to have a phone call home because they told us they put a sticker up their nose! they sometimes have toiletting accidents
• some reception children are very tactile, they hold your hand, cuddle you, play with your clothes, your lanyard.... even your shoes if they are sitting in the carpet. Most older children don't do this.
• the upper KS2 curriculum is more suited to sitting in one space. Shared resources will be an issue as budgets are so tight... so any activity that required glue sticks or whiteboard pens is out!! But reception is all about active learning.
• give schools additional funding to pay for more cleaning and necessary PPE / soap / sanitiser. My school was going through redundancy consultations which are now postponed until next year - there is no spare cash in schools!

So your idea,is to let primary school children be spaced out by using the secondary school, what happens to the secondary school children? Or do they not matter? Same as someone suggesting moving the Y6 to secondary school, where do the secondary school children go?
Personally I don't think it can be done safely and it's ridiculous sending the children back yet. Back to over 600 deaths again yesterday.

@Rosebel in fairness, that's the post weekend spike we see each week due to the differences In reporting over the weekend. The over all picture is the death rate is coming down. And this won't be for another 3 weeks at the earliest.

How will building more classrooms help. There are only enough teachers in school to cover 1 class of 35 each. If one class is split who is watching them all. Or is the plan to either expect class support staff to become teachers without paying them or let some groups just supervise themselves.

I think that rather than trying to implement social distancing on schools, it would be better to treat children like family units. So as much contact as normal, but with small classes. Given the massive class sizes in the uk in general. The only way I can see that is to do half days. So say, 15 children in the morning who can be as close as they like but who can only mix with those 15 kids. It's still a risk, but a lower risk than 30. We know the virus can spread a long long way, and realistically children can't where a mask properly for a whole day. Better to accept the children will be transmitting it between themselves, but on smaller numbers. My plan would stop all this need for mobile classrooms and frantic cleaning. Government won't go for it though as it only solves the education problem when what they really want is childcare.

Wear not where. Can tell my English is slipping while living abroad. By the way, what o propose is not my idea, it is what we are doing in Italy in September.

Standupthisisnotateaparty the suggestion in the guidance is to use TAs to supervise half the class.

A lot of ideas about using secondary schools is for this school year when it has been confirmed they will not be going back.

I think the idea for keeping family units together is sensible if half days / alternate weeks are needed.

Whilst some of these ideas sound great - do remember that schools have guidelines they have to work within (posted above).
Also remember schools financial standards (and amount of money) mean that there might not be any mechanism to hire and pay for lots of facilities. The PTA might be able to though.
The thing that would help us most would be a tiny bit more time for any purchases to arrive and the opportunity to do a dummy run with half the expected cohort for say 2-3 days, and then have the rest of the week to re-jig after any issues that come up. Our key worker provision had to evolve.

Has,it been confirmed secondary schools aren't going back? Our head sent a text yesterday saying they might be back this term or they might not be back even in September.
But even so, at some point they'll be back and will need the space.

As an aside, 'Forest School' is a term for a particular type of outdoor education, focusing on six principles and can be delivered only by a qualified Forest School Leader. Anything else is just "outdoor learning".

Anyway, half days won't work. First because there wouldn't be time to clean properly between shifts (either three cleaners have to clean all the classrooms and toilets in 45-60 mins or the teachers have to do their own and lose out on a lunch break). Second, because there's a reason we teach the core subjects of Maths and Literacy in the morning and foundation subjects like art in the afternoon - children are much more focused in the mornings. So the afternoon cohort would have to leave their TVs and tablets, have lunch and then come in for 2-3 hours of learning. It isn't going to happen.

Whole days are much better: two days in, deep clean, two days in.

However, this whole thing about having a "bubble" doesn't work. If children are not in full time, each class will have two bubbles, requiring two teachers. Otherwise the one teacher is potentially spreading the virus from one bubble to the next. Also, the children with siblings will mean their family are in two or more separate bubbles. The bubbles are separate in school but mix at home through siblings, then back to the bubble.

Perhaps have family bubbles instead? Each classroom has 15 children filled with siblings from across the year groups. So potentially only having five or six different families mixing. They do the online learning set by their teacher (who is in school with one bubble two days a week and setting and marking proper remote learning the other days) with an adult available to help if need be.

They could even do three days a week for each bubble, with week A having bubble 1 from Miss X's class in Mon-Wed and week B that bubble is only in Mon and Tues. Big cleans would happen after school after that bubble has had their two or three days.

To have enough adults to cover the two halves of each class, we'd have to get all teaching students with DBSs in to help, plus ALL SLT will have to take on a bubble themselves. Many schools don't have enough TAs for one per class due to cuts. Plus, there are children who need one-to-one help.

Secondary schools have been told they must have Y10 and Y12 in "face-to-face". So they won't be standing around empty.

Core subjects is fine for a couple of weeks, but doesn't work for Y12. Let alone Y10 stressing about their GCSEs.

Core subjects to be taught lecture-style in exam halls with space out desks

We can't fit a year group in the hall with desks spaced far enough apart! We only have one hall. And the academic difference across a year group is too great to 'teach' like this. It's a comprehensive school- we have children that get 9s and children that scrape 1s. They are taught separately so that they can be taught appropriate material and progress at their own pace. It's laughable to think they could all sit and learn the same thing.

For primary schools, as class limit is 15 I imagine one half will be in in the morning, say 8.30-11.30. Then have cleaners in to clean the classrooms from 11.30-12.30 then have the second half from 12.30-3.30. Without suddenly investing in mobile classrooms it's the only way they could accommodate classes of 15. Schools may return but it wont be like school was before

Depending on how much land is around the school, perhaps they could hire portacabins as temp classrooms?
Or maybe the children could go part time, for example, one half of the class go on a morning, and the other half on the afternoon. Or perhaps one half of the class go for two full days and the other half go for the other two full days?

Oh and staffroom closed with staff to eat lunch separately in their own classrooms.

with the children?!

And a huge OMG to "family bubbles" - because can you imagine the phone calls?

You can't put our family in with the Carter's, because they're anti-vaxxers. Not with the Smiths- they constantly have head lice! Don't put us with the Zhangs! They're Chinese. We can't go near the Aslams, because mum works at the hospital, it's not safe. Not with the Millers, they're across the road from us, and they've had visitors all through lockdown, they're paying no attention to it.
And on. And on. And on. And not the Listers because their mum looked at me funny in reception... Or the McKenzies because Izzy is always mean to Kitty...

You know this is how it would go.

ADreamOfGood

I've just had flashbacks to when I had to orgnaise the rooms for the residential.

Shudders.

Organize

Remote teaching. Invest in the technology so the kids can get taught from home. I refuse to believe it’s impossible. Difficult? Yes. Annoying? Yes. Impossible . No.

I'm currently in school marking out 2m spaces. I have 10 classrooms, In most classrooms I can fit in 8 tables, just 6 in one though. I have 40 year 6 children and 80 year R and 1. It's going to be like one of those logic problems to solve!