Headteacher has posted this to facebook

[NameChangeAgain111]

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

Governors handbook on the dfe. HT has to be a governor. Talks about school reputation..basic flow diagram

I want to make a public rant > as a HT in post > do I think twice or > do I put my schools name to it and fire away. Answer might be "back away from FB"

Or interpret this however you like, It might be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing so let's take a punt for the likes

It's not my school and hes not going to be at my next FGM so I'm not that invested. But I think theres a good few docs he should know inside out that suggest this might not be a clever idea.

Good luck to him

@LemonadeAndDaisyChains directly from the government handbook

The government aims to have every child back in school by mid-June.

He is saying what I’m sure most Headteachers are thinking. Many parents don’t want to hear it though.

@SpanishFly I presume your colleagues aren't young children? Do you even have children?

England is that the 2nd stop may include
Taken from your just posted screenshot

Yes. As I said - may include.
Nothing's definite yet.
Hence the word may being used there.
IF it all goes down, IF the public can use common sense lol

@EveryLifeHasASoundtrack I think you've hit the nail on the head there.

As far as I can see, about 7 children have died from covid19 in the uk thus far. About 11 children die in the uk every week in road accidents. Is this guy on Facebook telling parents to not even think about putting their kid in a car or crossing a road? Are all the parents saying no chance their kid will go to school until there's a vaccine also keeping them off until there's a vaccine against road accidents?

Maybe its because I'm NHS and have gone to work/DC gone to school throughout, but I genuinely don't get the terror about something which is extremely unlikely to cause your DC real danger even if they do catch it. I can only think that lockdown has been very damaging to a lot of people's mental health and caused a lot of catastrophising. We're not trying to avoid getting covid at all costs, we were never doing that (medically shielding people excepted). It's all gone a bit bonkers when a school head can post that bobbins on social media and be applauded for it.

I’m glad HTs are speaking out about how unfeasible this is. The very last thing we need right now is meek and mild sheep doing as they’re told because they’re afraid to speak out. Parents should hear from the people they are expected to hand their children over to exactly how safe they can keep them.

@LemonadeAndDaisyChains of course they'll be opened. It's the opening of the schools that will cause the R to increase.

The government aims to have every child back in school by mid-June.

Yes but not necessarily full time. I assume if they have to split classes some kids could do mornings and some afternoons. Frankly if all the parents I can see moaning on FB don't send their kids back then there won't be any issue with having class sizes of 15. I'm absolutely sick of reading BS that if you want to send your kids back to school you are happy for people to die, it's not that black and white and as I'm not qualified in epidemiology I will rely on the scientific evidence and follow the guidance given. If you don't want to then send your kids then don't but for a HT to be posting stuff like this is dangerous and scare mongering.

nothingcomestonothing

Totally agree with you.

@nothingcomestonothing I'm not concerned about my DC catching it necessarily, I'm worried about them spreading it to vulnerable people. This will likely cause a second peak for the sake of a few weeks in school in a very unnatural environment.

I think he is right. Schools opening in June is far too soon. September is far more realistic.

Well done, all of his points are valid and the top of the iceberg!

Supermarkets have social distancing and protective screens, Nurses are paid to work with the sick and (should) wear PPE.

Teachers and support staff are paid to educate. There will be no educating when we have 12 classes of 15 with staggered arrival times, staggered home times, staggered lunchtimes, staggered toilet breaks staggered playtimes and not to mention the cleaning in between. All whilst looking after children that are hugging, touching coughing sneezing spitting (yes some are know to spit) biting, picking their noses and refusing to wash their hands with no PPE as that’s not allowed. Oh and with less than half the amount of staff as these have to be split across twice the amount of classes. So children will not be returning to education, children will be returning to a military system where most of their day is spent queuing and waiting.

But it’s ok - we work in a school it’s our job to put our lives at risk in order to educate children. Nevermind about our welfare and that of our families - what on earth could we possible have to complain about - we’ll just shut up and get on with it shall we!

I don’t see how you can possible form an accurate opinion if you have never worked in that environment.

Teachers and support staff want to be back at school ..... but ONLY when there are stringent procedures to keep YOUR children and US as safe as possible.

It's the opening of the schools that will cause the R to increase

Sorry op didn't realise you were qualified and knew better than the scientists giving advice!

I assume if they have to split classes some kids could do mornings and some afternoons.

That is why thy should wait. At the moment there is no clear guidance and it’s a mess. Schools should only open with real thought and planning behind it.

1st of June is only two weeks away. Ridiculous. I’d be furious if I were a head teacher.

@OliviaPopeRules how can ending social distancing (given teachers are saying it's impossible) for the 4,000,000 primary aged children in England alone and 216,500 teachers in the UK not cause the rate of infection to increase? Has any single scientist said it won't increase?

I honestly don’t think that’s unprofessional at all. He’s describing the logistical difficulties that his school (and no doubt many others) would face if some year groups returned at the beginning of June with the rest following not long afterwards. His points are mainly based on facts as they relate to his school; it’s not some sort of emotive rant.

I wish more people were like him and I applaud his bravery in sticking his head above the parapet, as others have pointed out. He has given parents who have kids in his school with some objective information to help them decide whether or not to send their children back next month.

Sure, having kids off school just now is damaging in so many ways. I’m not in that position personally, but my three DGCs are all being home schooled at the moment and it’s horrendously difficult for my DDIL who’s having to do an office job from home at the same time. I can’t imagine how stressful that must be for her and I’m, of course, concerned about what the DGCs are going through - as are millions of people in the country. But the pandemic will eventually be sufficiently controlled for them to return safely and I think that concern trumps all else.

Well done to that HT for taking a stance.

My daughter is a teacher and part of the SLT, they have been in meetings all day trying to work out the logistics, as it stands with the year groups that were specified they will split classes in half, group A and Group B. The staff that teach group A will only teach group A and the same for group B. Those classes will be in for 2 days each a week, with Weds as a gap for deep cleaning. The head is worrying herself to the point of being ill about protecting her staff and the children, and their parents and their siblings. There are only 2 members of staff trained to teach nursery, they are trying to sort out the logistics of that, at the moment they’re thinking of group A toys and group B with a deep clean daily. They are also to provide these children with a hot cooked meal, which is also proving very difficult logistically.
They have cancelled the wrap around care, such as breakfast and after school club so that they can deep clean every day, but time will probably limit that.
The head has already said that should any harm come to her students or staff she will never forgive herself.
My daughter wants to go back, she misses her children and her job, but she has a partner and 2 children of her own, I am classed as vulnerable as was the childcare, not going to happen now, so that is another issue they have to conquer.
I feel that this hasn’t been thought through thoroughly and I am concerned for my daughter and 2 of my grandchildren that are in reception.
You should continue to work from home if you can.....unless you’re a teacher or aged 3-5 and 10.
I would rather they had said September and given the schools longer to prepare.
After all this planning, the high jinx on VE Day, might cause a rise in cases and it will all have been for nothing anyway.

@Colouringaddict you're daughters head sounds lovely. I'm sorry that they're in this position. I can only imagine how stressful that responsibility must be.

*your

I think it is unprofessional by far . I’m sure he has good intentions but knowing word spread and end up on forms of social media is wrong. It’s like teachers are black mailing parents. I don’t think teachers have as much power as they are making out to seek to FB . I don’t think teachers are entirely wrong but they could go about it a lot better and stand with other frontline workers too. When the economy goes bust parents start loosing jobs and so on I will be interested to know what the head post then.

@NameChangeAgain111 what research there is says that closing schools has a very small effect on the R.

Look if I was a headteacher I'd be pissed off, they've been given next to no notice to massively change how they work and no practical advice on how to do it with same physical space, same staff numbers etc, I get that. Guess what, the pandemic has had that effect on most of us, my work and home life are significantly more difficult now thanks to covid, head teachers aren't alone there.

But no matter how pissed off, it is unacceptable to me for a school head to imply publicly that school is not safe. Firstly, school is and always has been safe from a health perspective for the vast majority of kids and staff (the immunocompromised being the exception). It's untrue to say otherwise, all DC and school staff do things daily without a second thought which are statistically far more likely to kill or harm them than going back to school in June, whatever the arrangements end up being. But what is more troubling to me is that a headteacher must know that for some of his students, school is by far the safest place they spend time, and to scaremonger about the safety of school is to put those children at greater risk, that's unforgivable.

I agree. ^