To thinks something like this would be a good option for schools going forward?

[Notplannedforthis]

Like most on Mumsnet, the topic of Covid and schools has been on my mind recently.

Whilst suffering from another night of insomnia, I was musing about how we could reopen schools safely and came up with the below plan.

Have any of you been sat at home thinking "If I was in charge, this is how I'd do it" If so, what suggestions have you come up with?

My thoughts:

1. Schools don't go back until September.

1. All of the young and fit TAs and some of the teachers are allocated the job of providing childcare for key workers children that can’t manage with them at home, AND for people who will lose their jobs if not at work (they'll need to provide evidence for this). No rota system for staff. Their usual working hours.

1. Companies must be told that if their employees CAN work from home, they SHOULD get them the equipment to do so, and should allow FLEXIBLE WORKING where possible. It’s bloody hard trying to work from home with kids and allowances need to be made for this.

1. All teachers not working in the hubs are responsible for providing quality home learning for those at home. They can fit their hours in flexibly around their own children, but work their usual number of hours where possible, doing things such as:

-filming themselves teaching lessons (if more than one teacher for a year they should communicate and divide up lessons for the year rather than for the class)
-having a system where kids can submit work and have feedback
-posting work packs for children with no online access (with stamped addressed envelopes so work can be returned for marking)
-ringing children and parents to see if they’re managing to access work etc.

1. Parents will be advised that all work provided is optional. So kids have access to high quality home education, but there’s no pressure.

1. Senior leadership teams in schools have the time from now until September to come up with how they will manage a September return for ALL children with some degree of social distancing. This is likely to involve using playing fields or even land on different sites to put up porta cabin classrooms and hiring more staff. I appreciate this will be an extremely challenging task but having observed the mammoth effort and innovative solutions that NHS leaders have come up with to change their working over the past 3 months, I believe it can be done. Not perfect, but workable. The NHS have managed by doing things including: -people who have left the profession returning – staff changing their roles -students qualifying early. Needless to say this will require a large injection of cash from the government who will HAVE TO SUPPORT TEACHING LEADERS to do this.

1. When schools go back in September, children will go back to the year that they were already in.

1. New reception starters start in January, year 6 kids move up in January, new university entrants start in January.

1. The country changes permanently from a Sept-Aug school year to a Jan-Dec school year, but keeps the age cut off date as is. Meaning the age of reception children will change from ‘4-5’ to ‘4yrs4months to 5years4months’ which is much more sensible anyway as there's plenty of evidence that starting school at JUST turned 4 is detrimental.

10. Teachers who will need to shield for the long term work with Oak Academy to continue quality home learning for children who need to shield long term.

@LemonPudding yes I am aware they are not childcare but given we generally in this country need two incomes to support our housing costs, people do rely on the fact their children are in school (plus alternative provisions such as pre and after school clubs, grandparents etc). But if the alternative provisions are not available either, people don’t have any back up. I think blaming the parents (which I’m not saying you are doing but I have definitely seen others do on here) ‘because you chose to have children’ is ludicrous. No one made their career decisions on the basis of a global pandemic. If we are accepting the government supporting those whose workplaces remain closed, why do working parents get the shit end of the stick here? I’m working and paying tax which the country needs, I do feel a bit hard done to trying to do that around small children when the government has shut down all childcare settings. There is provision via furlough for those whose workplaces are closed. Those whose support network enabling them to work has been entirely pulled from under their feet are expected just to carry on.

We have to work on the prospect of about half of school age children in part time education. On line lessons and workbooks to supplement the loss of classroom time

Sorry but our children don't deserve some kind of half arsed bullshit education.

Also how are parent supposed to work of their kids are only in part time?

You can say "schools not childcare" until you're blue in the face but in reality it is....b

Trustthegenie our teachers don't deserve to be treated like this either. No-one 'deserves' any of this.

@TrustTheGeneGenie I have no idea why that phrase is repeated so often. Are people supposed to base their entire lives around the fact there might be a time a child is not in school? People have contingency plans for e.g. illness but if it’s not childcare what are you saying - anyone with kids in school should ensure a stay at home parent as it’s not childcare?!

You’ve suggested that teachers produce fabulous resources (paraphrase) but whether or not they’re used is all to be optional? I don’t think that’s a reasonable suggestion and a phenomenal waste of time. I do applaud you for genuinely caring and trying to circulate solutions though.

Apparently yes @tapppitytaptap we should just be sat at home waiting so just in case disaster strikes we are available. Bloody ridiculous isn't it.

Most people can't afford to live on one wage nowadays!

Sorry but our children don't deserve some kind of half arsed bullshit education.

I'm not sure anyone has said they do. But we're stuck in a pandemic. Schools are not childcare, I went on to suggest a possible alternative but you chose to ignore that.

What do you suggest? Classes will be limited in size for the foreseeable future. It's not the teachers' fault, the government's fault or the parents' fault. But we're stuck with it and have to find a way to educate children safely for them and for the staff, teaching and non teaching.

I think if the situation goes on for too long there will have to be a change in benefit criteria whereby people don’t have to seek full time employment until their child is in full time nursery or school. For the next while that’s clearly not going to be 3 or 5

I hope it doesn’t get to that because it would inevitably hit women harder

There is provision via furlough for those whose workplaces are closed. Those whose support network enabling them to work has been entirely pulled from under their feet are expected just to carry on.

Furlough is available as a government option for those without childcare

I think a lot of employers are missing that fact

Um, aren’t points 1-6 what are already supposed to be happening? Pretty sure this is what my school is doing.... (admittedly independent secondary, so well-resourced)

Schools are not childcare, I went on to suggest a possible alternative but you chose to ignore that

It's not really an alternative to education is it? It's paid childcare! I already pay for childcare so I guess I will have to continue to do that (although at present they're not opening because of our fucking council) but many people won't be able to afford that?

And yes we are mid pandemic but I don't think sacrificing our children is a fair trade off here. Call me heartless but I don't.

Furlough is available as a government option for those without childcare
In the short term.
I think a lot of employers are missing that fact

Swap missing for ignoring. Thankfully I am furloughed for this reason but many aren't and it won't last forever!

And yes we are mid pandemic but I don't think sacrificing our children is a fair trade off here. Call me heartless but I don't.

You still haven't suggested an alternative. Elastic walls, a magic wand to create twice as many teachers? What can be done?

Send schools back and keep vulnerable people shielding. Keep other social distancing measures in place. There isn't another solution which doesn't decimate an entire generations education and mental health.

, they've just had a super long holiday

My year ten has had school work from 9am to 3pm daily plus homework. Some super long holiday.

This is likely to involve using playing fields or even land on different sites to put up porta cabin classrooms and hiring more staff

a) where will the budget come from for the new staff?
b) teaching staff in most of the country are already in short supply. Supply staff are actually in short supply. I know medical staff have been super heros going back to work, and former teaching staff may also do the same, but it is hard to imagine it will enough. We are talking about doubling the workforce. As a minimum.

c) assuming you can get the staff, how will the DBS people manage to process all the thousands of DBS checks needed in time for September?
d) how will staff in senior schools work around multiple sites? who is going to pay for staff to move between sites - their own cars, taxis, bike, running.....?
f) how will all these new sites be equipped in terms of desks, books, stationery, toilets, hand washing facilities? who will be responsible for toilets and hand washing facilities - the school or the organisation/person who owns the site?
e) even if we temporarily lower standards and don't recruit actual teachers, how are we going to train people en masse to be competent enough to stand in front of a class and manage stuff like social distancing?

f) How will double the number of classrooms be supervised from a quality of learning delivered point of view? If you are a parent in a school like this, are you happy for your child to be taught by non-specialists who, for the most part, probably aren't teachers? For potentially a whole school year (or more)?

I am pretty sure the answer is part home learning, part on site learning on some kind of rota basis with current staff who will be there when this madness ends. I think there will be a need for additional pastoral staff and/or EWOs to deal with the issue of children who are never/rarely seen (because that is what will happen) but the cost of that would be a drop in the ocean compared with what you are proposing, OP.

Sorry, I don't mean to be negative but the solution is throwing up more problems than is reasonable to be able to manage. You would have to throw millions and millions at it for a relatively short period of time to not acheive anything better, I think, than a part-time in school/part time home learning timetable could produce.

I think there are good ideas here but the main thing that needs to happen is govt needs to make its mind up what it wants and give schools a reasonable amount of notice. And cash for IT, cleaning and extra staff. You can't just bounce a huge lumbering beast like the education sector into quick changes (and people saying but the NHS - bear in mind that's been at the expense of stopping most other acute and routine treatment...).

Furlough is available as a government option for those without childcare

Furlough is not available for those without childcare, furlough is only available for staff where the companies to not have work for their employees and would otherwise make them redundant, it has absolutely nothing to do with childcare availability.

Send schools back and keep vulnerable people shielding. Keep other social distancing measures in place. There isn't another solution which doesn't decimate an entire generations education and mental health.

You mean all children? No social distancing measures? That won't happen, far too dangerous. Until there's a vaccine there cannot be more than 15 in a class.

@sirfredfredgeorge there's a line in the guidance about it. Pp is right.

So potentially never then?

So a whole generation of children are going to get a substandard education?

Some of them will be plunged into poverty alongside that.

To save a very very small amount of people.

It's a really good idea that.

Do we not care about the future of our kids?

So a whole generation of children are going to get a substandard education?
What is going to be a world-wide issue. In the big scheme of things, as a rich, developed country, our experience shouldn't drag us down. But we do need to be flexible and realise that it won't be normal for quite some time. Making the best of a bad situation - part time in school, part time home learning.

So how do people work?

If that's the case the government need to advise that one parent of every family and every single parent needs to quit work. Alongside that they need to pay those people the equivalent of the wage they have lost. Not means tested.

They also need to ensure that home learning is adequate (which of course it won't be because teachers will be working in school full time)