To be annoyed that not all year 6 children that want to return to school can?

[spongebunnyfatpants]

This is not a teacher or school bashing thread, I'm just interested in people's thoughts.

My child is in year 6, we have just been informed that out of a class of 30 only 10 children will be allowed to return to school because they don't have the staff to provide for any more.

These 10 children will be chosen on a first come first served basis, we have to email if we want our child to return.

This means that some children who want to return won't be able to.

AIBU to think that this is very unfair and that part time schooling for more groups would be more appropriate rather than one group in all the time.

I guess I expect the system to be fair and all children be given an equal opportunity to access their education and not based on whose parents were able to access their email first.

So how would you choose the 10?

Our school have been steadily increasing numbers over the past few weeks anyway by identifying which students would benefit most from being in. Maybe the school should use their knowledge if their families and target certain families

We have been informed our school will only be taking year 6 back on 1st of June and not reception or year 1. Key workers who wfh are also being asked not to send children in if possible to keep them at home.

That is wrong, and the school should read and implement the proper guidance. If they do not have space or staff for all years, then they have to prioritise the youngest years, starting from the youngest and working up.

They cannot 'cherry pick' Year 6.

@PickUpAPickUpAPenguin.
That's very sad but true.

If they are only allowing 10 children in what are all the other teachers doing? Are they all shielding/WFH.

I am assuming one teacher for the 10 children to keep the bubble that each mixes with lower so the teachers of the year groups that haven't been invited back? Or did I miss something and they are also taking Yr 1 and reception?

Oh I missed something they are only taking 10 children for the whole school - so not really opening again then are they - just doing what the majority of schools have done so far in small number of key worker's children.

Schools have to take key worker children, then Reception, then Yr 1 and finally if there is any space or staff left they can take yr 6. I'm assuming they've run out of either space or staff!

They also have to prioritise keyworker and vulnerable children:

If you still cannot get enough cover in place and an arrangement which enables eligible children to attend consistently at another local school is not manageable, schools should focus first on continuing to provide places for priority groups of all year groups (children of critical workers and vulnerable children). Then, to support children’s early learning, you should prioritise groups of children as follows:

-early years settings - 3 and 4 year olds followed by younger age groups
-infant schools - nursery (where applicable) and reception
-primary schools - nursery (where applicable), reception and year 1

@Weallhavevalidopinions.
Some staff have health conditions and some have small children and no child care.
Year 1 and reception are going back too, they will be limited to 20 children per year in two groups.

Honestly, it does appear that schools are not reading the guidance.

The guidance says that schools have to plan on EVERYONE being in from each eligible year group, then cut their coats to meet their cloth in terms of which year groups they open to:

Guidance here

I’m not sure what else they can do.

I know, it was HUGELY irritating that there was an announcement, then 2 days later the first lot of guidance, then 2 days later this final set of guidance, but I'm not quite sure why that means schools are ignoring the most recent guidance.

because it is just guidance, so they can?

I’m not sure how my school is doing it

Usually reception and year 1 are mixed in one class

Year 2 and year 3 are mixed

Year 4 and year 5 are mixed

And then year 6 are alone

They aren’t big classes either.

I know for the reception and year 1, they are planning to have reception in in the morning, and year one in the afternoon, staggered between a few classrooms. Also staggered drop off time and pick up times.

I don’t know what they are doing for year 6.

Out of the EYFS group, so far, only about half are returning

It just seems really hard on those schools where staff will be taking on higher risk to 'follow what they were asked to do' and take on the non socially-distancing 4-6 year olds, while others are able to just say 'nah, we'll just do Y6'.

The guidance is all clearly marked as optional though, so Heads can do what they want.

My school has decided not to have Nursery back and to offer R, 1 & 6 two days a week.

If there isn’t enough teachers what can the school do, the school will have to split the children and the government advises no more than 15 per class depending on the size of the facilities.

Anyway you look at it, no matter how they choose the kids it will be unfair.

Government guidelines state that children and their teacher cannot be in another pod/bubble and due to this they aren’t allowed to mix/educate outside of their own pods/bubbles.

This guide has been designed by school leaders for school leaders. It is intended to provide a step by step guide for those responsible for mainstream primary schools to prepare for extending their opening to include all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 6 from the week commencing 1 June, alongside priority groups (vulnerable children and the children of critical workers). Eligible children should be offered a full-time place. Schools are not required to use this guide, and may choose to follow alternative approaches to preparing for wider opening, or to use some sections of this guidance alongside other approaches. We hope that some of these suggestions will be helpful to headteachers who are leading this important work, to support their own decision-making

This is in the beginning of the document so no they don't have to follow it if they don't wish to

This is part of the problem. The government have told them to open, given guidelines and it's not that simple. Then everyone gets annoyed when each school offers different things. The government get to step back and headteachers get the criticism.

That seems a rather poor way of allocating places. If they genuinely can't accommodate all who want to come, they need to come up with a better system than that! Is it a particularly small building. They really need to share their planning and the reasons with their parents so that people can understand the reasons behind it. I am a teacher and a parent and I would want more info than that.

Why only 10...I mean even with a lack of staff surely the fact 5 other year groups are still excluded should free up some staff

Guidance says no children part time.
Guidance says all KW and V children are first priority.
Next in line are the younger children.
They don't have the staff to cover anything else.

Anyone going back into groups of less than the 15 stated by the government, it's about how many children fit into a classroom with 2m social distancing in place. My child's school has 10 per group in most classrooms, 12 in some.

What would you prefer them to do?

Actually scrap that. It doesn't matter what you think. It doesn't matter what schools think either, they are doing what they've been told to do, usually against their better judgement, .Just suck it up.

Why only 10...I mean even with a lack of staff surely the fact 5 other year groups are still excluded should free up some staff

There's a cleaning lady who could do between 2pm and 3pm. That OK?

You have not a scooby what's going on in that school, athough I'm sure you could staff it and manage it far better than anyone else actually doing that for a job.

OP are you upset because you missed the email and don't think your DC will get to return? Or are you upset because you think no-one should be returning?
Because your suggestion that everyone returns makes no sense when you're aware that schools are working with limited staffing levels and that they can't maintain social distancing with larger numbers.

schools have been working on safety of their pupils as a priority for a long time now.

your issue is with the govt for not caring about the safety.

they arent getting an "education" they will be stuck in a class with probably not their usual teacher, maybe even a TA and probably just doing the same set work as there was for schooling from home.