Headteacher has posted this to facebook

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The headteacher at my DCs school has posted this to Facebook. He says that social distancing is impossible and unless we would be happy to let our DC play in a supermarket for hours to 'not even think about' bringing them to school. I have 2 expected back on June 1st. AIBU to keep them off after this?

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10222994594279008&id=1403891361

The unions are making a lot of noise. The same ones who said teachers should not do online lessons. Whoipping up parents fears is so helpful. How about how can we make this safe

"By using his observation skills and digging a little deeper than scanning Daily Mail headlines he will be able to find hard evidence about the result of sending kids back to school, take some best practice from the countries that have gone before us, and be able to look at how children being back in school affects the infection rate in staff and families because again - fortunate that we are not the guinea pigs - that information will be available to help him form a plan, and a reasoned, fact based argument for that plan."

That's what the Government should be doing. Perhaps if they did their job, instead of wasting money paying activists to stifle any form of criticism, Rob wouldn't have to rely on the media for his information.

No kids are expected back on June 1st, where did you hear that? It's if's at the moment

Ifs yes but schools are planning for it so discussion is needed now not 31/5!

Bit late to plan on 31/5! Schools will need to be ready from 31/5 so that whenever they get the call they can open immediately.

This makes me really angry. It's fear mongering at best. I hope he gets struck off.

@Fedup21 in terms of toileting, as I understand it, the school has to take them but doesn’t need to change the child unless child has paid 1-1

Poster noting the need for ‘strategic’ decisions is right but it is reasonable for devolution of this to schools - give very different local context. This head did not apply any critical reasoning.

We have to start plotting this out and trialling it, as chances are we may need a longer socially distanced period at some point over winter with a second wave. Avoiding full lockdown at that stage would be useful. This is a way to try it and then break for summer and more thinking time.

Unfortunately there may not be the magic ‘safe’ point this year when all can go back to school!

Let’s start trying part-time, staggered, more cleaning and working with a reduced staff rota and see how it pans out. He may not be in it for the money but he will be on a salary which many senior managers are on in the public sector and who would be expected to do this contingency planning

That's what the Government should be doing.

The govt can do the macro management. A HT should be doing the micro managing. He should have already given lots of thought and planning as to how to make his school safe. I.e. has he examined each room to measure and plan how many desks/people can be safely accommodated given 2 metre separation? Has he planned his lunchtime room(s) for maximising seating layouts and serving areas for 2 m separation? Has he worked out how many people can sit/stand in the hall safely with 2 m separation? Has he asked how many of his staff are shielding, how many can return to normal hours, how many part timers can work more hours, how many are vulnerable and need more protection? How many kids are likely to return when they re-open? So many highly relevant factors that only HE can answer - or does he expect Boris himself to come around and plan HIS school for him???

in terms of toileting, as I understand it, the school has to take them but doesn’t need to change the child unless child has paid 1-1

That is incorrect.

@Tanith yes but in the absence (as you believe) of the government doing it (which, really, you know they are) if Rob has his own opinion on it he should still be doing his own research before posting a load of old cobblers on his Facebook?

Out of interest, have any of the countries that have sent kids back to school as they eased out of lockdown decided to do a u-turn and close the schools down again because everyone was suddenly infected and dying? I don’t believe any have. Happy to be proven wrong.

Teachers are just making themselves sound like they’ve desperate to not go back to work

Alright for them being on full pay isn’t it

My sil is a teacher and so many of her colleagues suddenly developed reasons why they just COULD NOT be on the rota for going in to support key workers kids. When you think about the nurses and doctors and HCAs and research staff going in every day to look after very sick people and risking their lives, not being prepared to do one day a week supervising about 6 kids in a primary school playground is pretty pathetic really

Ok, so it really won't be sustainable for most parents to be able to work for another 4 months without any childcare. Many are at breaking point. And economically it is a disaster - also for those kids educationally if their parents are trying to work and don't have time to home educate.

So, for those who don't want schools to go back yet, would you accept that schools and nurseries should open so far as possible for small groups of children - say, up to 8 children per adult kept separate from other small groups so far as possible ONLY for those with under 8 year olds with two working parents (on their working days) or deprived children?

Those small groups could then go through school worksheets set by the school - at the moment, my key worker friends' children do not get any assistance with their work at school from the same teachers who set that work. They are civil servants working until the early hours every night on the government's coronavirus response and are having that same teacher who set the work call them to ask why they haven't uploaded their daughter's phonics work. They pick their kids up at 5.30 - are they supposed to cram this work in between 5.30 and bedtime? You really couldn't make it up. Some teachers just don't have any empathy for parents - I understand that some parents don't have enough empathy for teachers either by the way.

It's fear mongering at best.

How is it fear mongering?
Putting groups of people together in a small space whilst a virus is going around is risking those people getting the virus. That's pretty obvious.

Now is true that kids aren't as bad with Covid as adults and older people, that's fine. But the kids will be in contact with adults, those adults in contact with other adults at their work places. Then those at their work places with their households. So on and so on.

Don't think of the class and the kids in isolation, think of each of the 15 kids as the starting link of a single long chain of people passing it one to the next.
That could be 15 long chains started per class, some of the chains will have vulnerable people in them somewhere and they're the ones that'll pay with their lives.

It's fear mongering for a head teacher to add to parents' concerns rather than try to find a solution.
There is no evidence that opening schools will cause a second wave.
He is comparing schools to supermarkets when they are very different scenarios.
Children being with the same group of children each day is not a high risk situation.
In fact, going to the supermarket is also not particularly high risk either if you follow the guidelines.
We're not all going to catch this the second we walk out the door.

My sil is a teacher and so many of her colleagues suddenly developed reasons why they just COULD NOT be on the rota for going in to support key workers kids

They don't have to go in at all.

When you think about the nurses and doctors and HCAs and research staff going in every day to look after very sick people and risking their lives

That's their job.

This is a post from the British Medical Journal. We could, of course, do doctor-bashing but it is a very measured piece. It isn't about schools, but about the wider community and looking at how the infection has not yet been brought under adequate control, so that the easing of what was never really a proper 'lockdown' appears to be very premature.

blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/05/11/covid-19-how-can-we-safely-exit-lockdown

I think if I was responsible for the health and welfare of a large staff team and a great many children, I would be very worried indeed.

We have a negligent Government, who are not 'following the science' and who don't really seem to care much about families and the safety of ordinary people.

@echt lots of NHS staff have been redeployed to manage infected people. They perhaps usually work in a cancer ward without any risk of catching anything. So no, putting themselves at great risk isnt usually their job. No medical staff I know are consistently risking their lives each day.

Again, posters defending teachers and dismissing all others. It's ridiculous.

I'd also add that I dont believe any schools will reopen on 1st june. And if they do, it'll not be to full capacity for months.

To 'bleat a diatribe' is an oxymoron!

I would understand the Government if they wanted to send back secondary school kids who have their future to worry about. These kids could understand social distancing and their education is at a crucial point.

Reception age children will not understand, will not social distance with each other or the teacher. At this age most of their time is spent in small group work handling objects rather than sat at non-existant desks. These children (unless vulnerable in which case they should be in school now anyway) will not suffer any long-term consequences of not being in school - just look at the Scandinavian kids who start school at an older age.

We are not in a police state so I think anyone is entitled to freedom of speech although it is disappointing to see that a headteacher can have such poor spelling and grammar!

They don't have to go in at all.

Well how about they don't get paid then??

@echt is it not teachers jobs to er, teach ?

I think a lot of teachers have got ‘keyworker jealousy’ they like to think they’re extremely important - which they are - and that they’re under appreciated and downtrodden. Now the NHS are ‘heroes’ they don’t like it.

I don’t think he did anything wrong. I admire his courage for speaking out. As far as I’m aware we are not living in a dictatorship.

Does anyone know if it will be compulsory to send children in?

@SpanishFly exactly ! There’s dietitians, physios, people who normally work on pretty sedate elderly care wards etc , all working on covid wards now. Redeployed. Pretty sure when they trained they didn’t sign up for that but they’re doing it anyway. Hardly think ‘it’s their job !’ Is fair!

It's fear mongering for a head teacher to add to parents' concerns rather than try to find a solution.
There is no evidence that opening schools will cause a second wave.

I think there is plenty of evidence that schools do spread viruses. Kids are not just coming into contact with their classmates, but with all the other children through toilets, handrails, doorknobs, etc. Schools are an ideal super-spreader environment. As others have said, it's not just the kids who will get sick, they will inevitably pass it on to their family members who will then pass it on to coworkers.

I actually agree that I don't think supermarkets are particularly high risk. The problem is close, enclosed spaces with people talking face to face, like... schools.

@Kazzyhoward yes agreed. Teachers seem to be defending at all costs on some of these threads. Most people arent getting a choice as to whether they return or continue to work. Teachers are at no more risk than the workers who have continued to work. I know loads of people in all categories, and personally the only people I know who have caught it are office workers who were furloughed immediately. I know loads of school staff who have worked on rotation providing support for key workers' kids. Not one has had any symptoms.
Youd think they would be at highest risk.