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.

Exactly flippidy all the reasons not to teach will all still apply in September. So all schools need to decide how they will actually teach all children. Either online or letting them back into school. But coming up with reasons to do neither doesn't wash it's face when we are looking at another 12 months of this at least

People can stamp their feet and say how they think it ought to be until the cows come home but it just won't happen the way youu want it.

The reasons have already been given but some choose not to hear them. Just because it would suit you doesn't mean it's best for everyone. There will be classes of 15 and home teaching for shielded children for the foreseeable future. Get used to it and plan accordingly.

I know I will get flamed for this but hey ho.

We don't need to change anything, but we do need to get back to normal life as soon as possible.

The longer people are furloughed, the more they get used to not working but still being paid. More and more companies are going to fail. Companies can not afford to trade if they have no income coming in.

Unemployment rates are going to rise, people are going to lose their homes and livelihoods.

As a country we can't keep paying out money hand over fist, borrowing money that as a country we have no way of paying back. We need to start paying it back.

Schools need to go back otherwise we are going to have children whose schooling has been damaged beyond repair, they won't be able to catch up.

Government/teaching unions need to get with the times, teachers need to record, have the abilities to use Google classroom/Zoom to do proper lessons should we have to go into lockdown again. The disorganised and different teaching from schools is not acceptable. This needs to sorted out ASAP so every child has the same chance to do well at school.

We to do as a country/world learn to live with this virus (and the many more which will come) as we can not wait until a vaccination to be made.

What about the children whose family don't have a social worker. The criteria to be registered with social services is very high.

I am worried about the children whose families aren't involved with social services who have very difficult lives. They aren't accessing key worker schools now.

Then there are the full time working parents. Working and teaching your kids is almost impossible.

The parents who don't know how to or don't have the capability to teach or support their child's learning.

The parents that can't be bothered to help their child.

So many are missing out for so many reasons.

@cric (p6)
You've articulated my discomfort to the comparison between NHS and schools really well.

In response to the op, I wish we lived in that world. My main concerns are:
-what if its not safer in September? I actually agree with partial reopening now, because we can see if it can be done without increasing R

• telling employers they should allow flexible working will lead to a large scale return to work for any unscrupulous employer who thinks their employees will work slightly harder in the office. It's already happening to people I know, who absolutely could work from home but are being told to go in. Primarily, this will be bad for R. Also, numbers in school childcare provision could soar in some schools.

Sorry to be critical. I think it's a good basis to a plan overall.

A lot of that is happening already.

@fuzzymoon - absolutely agree.

@LemonPudding yes just accept your children will get a substandard education. Accept that it will mainly be women giving up and losing their jobs. Yeah just accept that equality will go out of the window alongside this. Accept that you'll be plunged into poverty overnight. Just accept that your house will be repossessed.

Sorry no but I won't accept it and I've realised that it's only the people who shout loud enough that get heard. I will fucking shout as loud as I can about this because it is WRONG.

WE SHOULD NOT BE CONDITIONED INTO ACCEPTING THINGS WE THINK ARE WRONG.

On the subject of WFH with children. Some employees are taking the piss with others picking up the slack. Sorry long post see employee E.

Most in our team work pt. We can do 80-90% of our jobs at home. We are not massively busy at the moment but we are providing a service and keeping things ticking over. All in the team have slightly different circs;
employee A line line manager works PT has 2 x primary school DC close in age (they fight & argue almost continuously), DH delivery driver so out working FT outside home. She is struggling continues to work hard & has taken AL each week and is working so many hours during the day and some on an eve to balance things out.
Employee B works FT. Her and DH working from home has a child at the beginning of secondary school and another in Y5. Works hard, her and her DH take it in turns helping Y5 child but he does a lot on his own. Flexible. She will just have half an hour for lunch and finish at usual time as spent half an hour helping younger DS.
Employee C works PT no dependent DC (both in early 30’s) DH working from home. Works ok but a bit bitter does minimum and absolutely no flexibility.
Employee D which is me myself and DH WFH, DH is a key worker so extremely busy, me PT, 2 x teen sec age DC both work independently rarely see them except for meal times. Work hard and flexible, mainly working usual hours/days to fit in with needs of job role as are the above employees.
Employee E- Works PT, both her and DH WFH (in same job roles for diff organisations) have a year 12 teen and a year 5 (dream child according to her parents eve reports). She has done her best to try and get herself furloughed as dream child bored. Freely admits she logs on in her PJ’s, (obv gets showered dressed in work time), then admits to getting DD sorted throughout day (always in works time), throughout the day openly talks about logging off for awhile to help DD with school work/baking etc etc. Frequently complains about her broadband, only ever has half an hour for lunch now WFH (usually have to have an hour), always finishes half an hour early, never makes any time back whatsoever, refuses to take any additional AL to allow her shorter days (to facilitate DD’s school work), no flexibility unless it suits her, when it is her turn to work a Fri she can’t possibly work a Fri pm and splits her day so she works her Fri pm on a Wed or Thurs am etc. No flexibility & you can’t SKYPE until you have checked whether or not she is available etc.

I've said this before, but if schools are not going to go back for a while, then we need to start letting households mix and allow childcare providers to operate.

This will at least give working parents some sane choices. They can get together with a couple of other families and agree to take turns hosting the kids in their house. They can put their child in a holiday club and the holiday club staff can provide a bit of supervision and help with the kids' schoolwork. No, it's not exactly social distancing. But the kids would be in smaller groups than they would be in school. We know from the data on swine flu back in 2009, that swine flu more or less shut down during school holidays, even though nobody was stopping kids playing together or going to holiday childcare---because these things simply don't provide opportunities for the spread of infection in the same way that schools do.

Not perfect but better than the current situation. It would at least make it easier for parents to work. It wouldn't do much to improve the quality of education though.

I think it is understandable that teachers are super wary of posting prerecorded lessons that they have made themselves.

I know that many teachers are sending out links to video lessons/explanations created by nationwide programs, like the Oak National program. Perhaps this should be expanded. Whatever education is provided, it needs to be based on the assumption that children are not going to be able to get much help from whatever adults are providing supervision.

How do Year 11 and Year 13 "go back to their current year group" in September? They can't. So that's another 4 months off (on top of the 6 months they've already had) for 2 whole school year groups, who can't do the normal things that they might do (working, travelling etc). You run the risk of many of them never going back to education at all.

@LemonPudding not sure how I'm supposed to plan accordingly for this when I'm a single parent and my job isn't possible to do from home. Not everyone has the luxury of WFH.

@nevertwerknaked Are you at risk of your colleagues/audience editing the videos to make you look unprofessional and putting them on youtube?

Sorry no but I won't accept it and I've realised that it's only the people who shout loud enough that get heard. I will fucking shout as loud as I can about this because it is WRONG.

So what can be done, then? Covid19 is here to stay, we have to deal with that reality. Shout all you like, and I understand why, but it won't make any difference.

@LemonPudding not sure how I'm supposed to plan accordingly for this when I'm a single parent and my job isn't possible to do from home. Not everyone has the luxury of WFH.

I don't have an answer. As someone suggested above maybe allow childcare but finding somewhere to hold it, other than private homes, would be difficult.

I wish I had the answers but I don't. Schools will be online and part time for months. Teachers will, with practice, get better at delivering as best they can.

So what can be done, then? Covid19 is here to stay, we have to deal with that reality. Shout all you like, and I understand why, but it won't make any difference.

We need to learn to live with it. This is not living with it.

I will shout and if enough people shout it will make a difference. Don't ever say it won't.

If you want to lay down and accept a shit education for your child (and it will be shit) and for women's rights to take a massive step back then you do that but I won't.

Many others won't.

We don't actually know that school will be part time for ages though. Anything could happen over the next few months.

I will shout and if enough people shout it will make a difference. Don't ever say it won't.

It is shit, it's totally shit. I wish I had a magic wand.

But what do you want to happen? I wish you luck. It seems to me you want schools to go back to normal and that just isn't going to happen.

What I cannot understand is why there has been no distancing at all with key worker children at the two schools we're involved with (DC's school and DH's school - teacher) and yet suddenly there needs to be this massive project for distancing. There haven't been massive outbreaks at schools from key worker children who, by rights, should be at most risk of having the virus by dint of the fact their parents are in touch with all and sundry. It would stand to reason that there won't be massive outbreaks in schools going forward.

Because the point of distancing and keeping people apart is to slow the spread by reducing the number of contacts between different households. There are very very few key worker children in. And those children won’t be mixing with other families outside school. Once you have more groups of children in it becomes different. Especially if people start meeting up with other people outside school.

But what do you want to happen? I wish you luck. It seems to me you want schools to go back to normal and that just isn't going to happen

No it won't if we all roll over and accept a shit education for our children like you are.

Some people stand up for what they believe in.

No it won't if we all roll over and accept a shit education for our children like you are. Some people stand up for what they believe in.

That's unfair. You still haven't said what you want to happen. I believe in the best education possible. That will be part time and online for a while. Most heads and teachers will be doing their best.

You can shout all you like schools will not be back to normal. Work with reality not your fantasy. Your child is just one among thousands. People are trying to do the best for the majority. We all have to accept that.

Lemon this isn't what's best for the majority though. What we are doing is to protect the minority. The vast majority of children and indeed adults won't die from coronavirus and it would be better for them to be in school and going to work. Let's not pretend this is what's best for the majority.

Part time and online is NOT the best education possible. It is POSSIBLE to send children back to school full time. There is nothing actually stopping us doing this, as evidenced by Sweden, it has not caused sudden death to hundreds of thousands of people and exterminated all teachers on the spot.

You are being so condescending, and fine, you don't give a shit about my child, why would you? But i do, and i also give a shit about other children too. You are kidding yourself if you dont think this will put lots of children at a huge disadvantage. Not everyone has caring parents who can help with home learning. Not everyone has the money for a SAHP. Not everyone has internet access at home.

This is NOT the best for the majority. This is the best for the privileged few.

This benefits nobody.

Corona wont go away by keeping schools part time. It will still be there, pubs are going to open in july - do you think that will have a positive effect? No. Will we ban it? no, because it affects adult men and as a society we care about them.

Do NOT try and lecture me on how this is the best option, because it's not and it never will be. I am not the only person who thinks this.

@trust I agree with you. It feels like every excuse is being found not (by some teachers /schools and by the unions) to educate children and it is pretty astonishing and is going to have a devastating impact on educational attainment for state educated children for a generation

Sounds sensible to me and I’m a teacher myself.

‘ There is nothing actually stopping us doing this, as evidenced by Sweden’

According to press reports (The Independent) Sweden now has the highest per capita death rate. If that is indeed accurate, then I would be extremely wary of following that model without considerable further epidemiological investigation