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.

Invest in the technology so the kids can get taught from home

Where will the money for that come from? 15% of my school's pupils have no internet or computer/smart phone at home.
A good 40-50% are sharing a single laptop/tablet with siblings (thankfully mostly just one other sibling, but some it's four, five, six siblings). Probably another 20% are accessing the work set via a smartphone, which isn't good for their eyes or posture, and makes things such as excel sheets, word docs, pdfs etc trickier.
The staff thankfully all have machines, but they are mostly funded by themselves.

My youngest child is at a tiny school with just 3 classrooms and 70 children. The teachers aren't going to be able to do social distancing in the classroom or the room where the children eat lunch.

My suggestion to my union when surveyed was rather than a 15 per class have a max of 15 but a limit per sq meter.

I also think hiring outdoor marquees is a good idea and perhaps portable toilets. Have staff who's responsibility it is to spray etc after each child and monitor hand washing.

PPE especially face mask because let's face it kids won't always remember to social distance (my pupils don't have the concept as special school) and we need to limit the transmission as much as we can.

Split sessions. 9-12 and lunch is had at 11.30 and 12.30-3.30 and lunch is eaten at 12.30 on arrival.
Dinner staff to oversee all lunch and teachers and TAs have an hour off to eat properly and have some space away from possible transmission.
Cleaning or TAs to clean classrooms during this hour period.

Social distancing in playground must be enforced between parents dropping off. If parents dropping off are not following these rules it's an increased risk for staff. We do not want to transfer the mini epidemics to schools and when they were open there was a high amount of illness and also school staff have died due to covid.

Shielding staff to do the home learning.

Vulnerable staff to do home learning as much as possible with limited time in school.

Staff with shielding and clinically vulnerable family members again to do the majority of home learning and only attend minimally.

Education is one of the best things we can offer children. But it's not value if the risks are higher. We need to look at other things such as adopting later GCSEs for this cohort. So everyone except the current year 10's (who can take gcse later maybe July) remains same school year from September. Nothing changes with regards the year the move to juniors or secondary. I'm talking repeating the curriculum from February half term as they would have done and following on from there.

toastedcrumpetsforme
Core subjects only in secondary schools, to make complex time tabling easier.

I have also thought along the same lines.

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

Most schools don't have halls that will take the entire cohort of pupils.

We are lucky in that we have several sports halls and an assembly hall.

So we could just about fit them in with the required spacing.

To take the core subjects aspect further.

It would be possible to use the non core subject teachers to take the core lessons.

But it would need a large input from core staff to be able to facilitate the lessons.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves makes the good point that each school is different and there is no 'one size fits all' solution.
For one thing, I can't believe that the government didn't think to consult Headteachers and unions before making any decisions - what did they think would happen?
Maybe headteachers might have a good idea of what's needed most, and what will work best for their particular settings? Could government have said: ok, we want to get children back into school safely and gradually, could you come up with a rationale that is workable and best meets your school priorities and needs? And then make changes to curriculum and exams at a national level to ensure level playing field so that no cohort is ultimately disadvantaged?

Teaching staff do what NHS staff do and follow a bare beneath the elbow policy. Makes hand washing much more effective and does away with the need for gloves which can be a source of infection if not used properly.

Installing extra sinks to allow for effective hand washing.

itsgettingweird The TAs are to have an hour for lunch away from children...but they're also to spend that changeover hour helping the cleaners clean the classrooms?
We have 2 TAs btw. And 54 classrooms.

And we can't fit all our staff into the staff room either...

Teachers will need PPE and children probably masks. Class sizes will have to be reduced to begin with so it may be a case of half of the class only doing mornings, half doing afternoons but I think they should ensure siblings have the same slot so it doesn’t make parents lives difficult.

They will have to sit apart in the classrooms and probably not have playtime for the foreseeable. Dinner will have to be at home.

Dinner staff to oversee all lunch and teachers and TAs have an hour off to eat properly and have some space away from possible transmission.

At my child's school the teachers and TAs are the dinner staff.

www.france24.com/en/20200512-french-teachers-anxious-as-schools-gradually-reopen-after-covid-19-lockdown Here are some of the measures France are taking.

Following on from Sirius post, here's some information about the way Denmark are approaching it.

famly.co/blog/covid-19/denmark-reopening-child-care-corona/

Found another slghtly more relevant one from France with some pictures of how social distancing is being adhered to in French Primary schools. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/world-news/chalk-playground-photo-school-france-18243576

In the school I made mention of upthread teachers have also been told they must maintain social distancing from each other and are forbidden to use the kettle, fridge or microwave.

Could all those students who are no longer at uni be used in some way? Or perhaps the new grads without jobs? I'm thinking pre starting teacher training or just a job for now whilst the economy is flat.
Is get History students ( uni level) into history lessons In secondary schools under supervision of older experienced teachers.
So you could split up the children into smaller groups plus by using young fit 20 year olds all risks are lowered?
This could be done across all subjects and grades.
It would also give the students/graduate something for CV and vital experience plus the mental health benefits and pay that working provides. They would probably have to creat some kids of apprentice teacher role for them.

Also maby marquee s in the school fields to act as additional classroom space. Or outside lesson as weather permits.
Forest schools are popular in pre schools now do perhaps use that principal in primary schools.

I am probably way off but I honestly think we must do something for all these children and young people who this is so awful for especially as they are genrally not the ones getting very ill..

Wow. What a Manteachersplaining thread.

Do the nurses in ICU get this kind of thread?

NothingIsWrong marquees and Military tents. You could also have secure scaffolding structures with waterproof cladding. It's summer, you only need to keep the rain off. It then gives a few months to work out suitable insulation and heating solutions. There also quite a lot of suitable warehouses and storage facilities that could be used temporarily. They have heating and sanitation. Its a matter of attitude and application. Its a case of getting it done rather thinking up a dozen reasons why you can't.

Are you Boris Johnson? You should probably employ public health experts for this rather than random parents.

Its a case of getting it done rather thinking up a dozen reasons why you can't.

But if there are legitimate reasons why these things can't be done, such as no budget, then it's surely reasonable to point this out.

A dream clearly with 2 TAs in school that wouldn't work. Our TAs get half hour lunch break so that hour away would be half hour lunch and half hour assisting cleaning. Clearly I'm looking at it from SS pov because that's what I work in and we have 35 odd TAs but most primary schools would have 1 Ta per year for 1-2 form entry?

But yes ultimately I think we need all hands to the deck and consideration if what else our role may be at this particular moment in time.

People seriously suggesting that graduates with no teaching experience take over the classes? And we teach in repurposed warehouses?

This is a skilled job, believe it or not, with lots of safeguarding aspects to consider especially for the care of early years pupils. We need to provide a familiar and safe environment where children can learn, not lob them in a warehouse with a non experienced graduate.

Those asking for full PPE

what are you thinking of, given that PPE is to minimise risk?

Investing in a centralized curriculum like Oak, but expanded and more extensive would be good. The benefit of this is that it can be used by kids who are unable to go to school due to medical treatment. It will also be good in case of future pandemics.

It won’t replace teachers, but then maybe teachers could spend more time doing Q&A sessions?

I actually emailed the school and council to suggest a road closure outside the school. In part because it is massively congested and a constant risk to cross, but more space would also make it easier to socially distance adults at drop-off collection times. By no means a perfect solution and of course there are many other issues, but potentially something that could help.