So sad for the lack of innovation in uk regarding schools reopening

[emptyfridge]

Watching newsnight about schools reopening. So sad to see the contrast to the approach here in the uk and how they’ve dealt with this abroad. We need to start thinking about the impact of all this on children and drop all this crap about home learning for the next year.

I agree no thinking outside of the box at all. It’s we can’t do what we normally do so let’s just not to anything.

Im still surprised how people seem to want solutions with no regard to safety or safeguarding. If my 4 year olds were in a public park or library, in a group of 15 for infection control, I'd want 3 staff there in case of an incident. One to deal with the children, one on phone to ambulence/getting support from other teachers/parents and one dealing with child involved in the incident. I wouldnt just want a TA who'd been asked to lead a group all on their own. My son's school has epilipetic children, diabetic children, blind children, children in wheelchairs, autistic children, children with attachment disorder, deaf children, children with downs syndrome who are non verbal
Volunteers could help but they do need dbs checks which take time and some aptitude for the task.

Are you kidding me? Schools have been innovating out of their arse since lockdown began - news ways of working, new IT systems, online meetings, new system for qualifications, new ways to offer childcare for key workers, and now new plans for getting some children back into school.

That was to Widow

Under staffed, under resourced, under equipped, yet millions of bloody hardworking, stressed, anxious school staff up & down the country ...

Blah blah blah ... you make it sound like you teach in a shack in Kenya. I am so sick of the moaning. We have empty buildings, we have teachers at home on full pay and we have children desperately in need of education. Let's get schools going again - where there's a will there's a way. My year 10 DD is ready - make it happen.

My year 10 DD is ready - make it happen.

Oh well, if your year 10 DD is ready - goodness, let's everybody else get their skates on!

So yes, there's more than a thing or two our government could have learnt from Denmark.

But the Danes don't keep voting for millionaire buffoons - that's the big difference. Until we sort that out (unlikely in my lifetime) we have no chance of being like Denmark.

Oh well, if your year 10 DD is ready - goodness, let's everybody else get their skates on!

That's the spirit!

How do you decide as a teacher that you are going to take over a local park or a museum or a town hall for teaching purposes? What do you do about other users? How do you organise the rigorous cleaning required in a space that doesn't belong to your institution?

The generous farmer is a nice concept except that the majority of the population don't live within reach of such a person and even if they do, teaching outside requires outdoor gear- which a good many parents are unable to provide.

I imagine a good many posters on here who say their children are clamouring to go back to school would still find a way of blaming the school when their child came home soaking wet and miserable after a day in the field and refused to go back again. Given how many MNers are outraged at the suggestion that maybe more children should walk to school even on a wet day- how do they actually conceive this idea of them being taught outside all day?

Also (as has been said repeatedly on this tread): we are not in the same position as Denmark. We have the highest numbers of excess deaths in Europe. Our testing system isn't working, our tracing system isn't working.

We’ve had years of squeezing as many kids into classrooms as is physically possible, education under funding, selling off school fields and a move away from embracing the outdoors and a more fluid education system.

The gov have set strict social distancing guidelines schools have to adhere to. Because of the above they can’t.

This gov is to blame, not schools.

Most schools will be at full capacity under the new guidelines with just these 3 year groups.

They don’t make the rules. If you want them all back the safety measures have to go.

the safety measures need to go if our children are going to get a good education.

I would agree that perhaps comparisons with Denmark are not the best model, it would be better to compare with France, similar population albeit slightly larger, similar though not identical rates of infection, deaths and criteria for testing we are thought to be about 2-3 weeks behind France they went back on 11 th May, the 1st of June is 3 weeks behind, France has done things slightly differently in that restrictions have been eased more in green areas ( less infections etcetc) and red areas have tighter restrcitions and less / no schools open, it may be that someone needs to look and say well there are few infections in SW and the Norfolk/ suffolk area so maybe they should go back but Cumbria and NE have a higher rate so these areas need to wait another 2 weeks, same in Scotland 10 out of the 15 health board areas have less than 5 cases in ICU so maybe these rural areas can go back but Glasgow, Aberdeen Edinburgh and Dundee need to wait longer ( though hopefully by August the rates will be down here too)
also I think we should look that if R is much much lower like 0.1 instead of between 0.7 -1 then pupils could be 1 metre apart instead

maybe there could be lessons delivered on BBC from 9-12 and 1-3 as even if kids don't have online access there is generally a TV
pre school, P1 & P2 and KS1 on cbeebies, P3-7 KS2 on CBBC and S1-S3 KS3 on BBC3 as well as oak academy in England and the equivalent in Scotland/ Wales and use BBC2 for GSCE./ A levels BBC Alba for scottish grades and highers

Our schools federation has gathered the key worker children from three primary schools and one secondary school, put them all together in the secondary school and used teachers from each school on a rota system. As many others have done. They did that with a few days notice. On top of ensuring home teaching - DS has just finished a language test, is working on humanities, did a week long project for English, does a maths test every day and a weekly science project. His PE teacher has sent through a PE test each week - measure 20 metres, run it 5 times, record your time etc., His school sends a newsletter home every couple of weeks and they're running 'virtual school clubs' - a cookery club where you can send in photo of something you made, a photography club (speaks for itself), a film club where you write a review of a film you've watched, a book club (same), and a sports club (!) where you take a photograph of yourself doing an individual sport and write about it. I think that's very innovative!

1400 of the secondary school children are now on line every single day.

The children who are in the key worker school go to an outward bound school during the holidays (mini-bussed from the secondary school) so the main school can have a deep clean and the kids can have a bigger area to run in. So the idea of using another type of place isn't beyond the scope.

I think the issue around using town halls and museums etc though is that it can only be temporary. The town hall, leisure centre, museum in our town will be returning to work eventually. And probably by the autumn. Which means that the schools in our area could get everyone back (in theory) within the next few weeks - assuming we have enough teachers/TA/support staff to cover nearly 3000 primary/secondary school students now split into classes of 15.

But come September we'd lose many of those temporary classrooms and would be back to square one.

What's needed is an injection of cash to allow schools to rent porta-cabins IF they have school fields (and a lot of those within inner cities were sold off years ago). You could even use marquees in the summer months. But you need something solid for winter. We need permanent structures by the autumn term if every child stands the chance of returning to school properly.

You can't rely on other organisations spare space because it will only be 'spare' whilst they're in lockdown. As soon as they're back, they'll need the rooms again. I don't know many places around us that could have a full week of classes in rooms. Even our church hall has WI, yoga, meetings etc happening (normally) every week. Do they kick those groups out indefinitely? Because we have no idea how long our kids or teachers will need to work within these constraints at the moment.

As for Denmark, I didn't see the programme so can't comment on that, but DH has a client in Denmark and was speaking to his counterpart there. She has two children in primary school. They go to school form 8.15am to 11.15am each day. That's it. Three hours. She's panicking about what happens when her company calls her back to the office as there's no after school clubs at the moment in her area so she'll be stuck as her DH is a key worker so can't work from home.

@RitzSpy a park, a generous farmer's field, a forest etc.

Sorry do you live in the UK? Our weather isn't exactly reliable. Also then you have to contend with members of the public being able to walk directly past. Major safeguarding issues here!

I'd bloody love to teach my year 6 class in an unused museum. It would be amazing.
But we dont have one. Or any other spare civic spaces in our village. And we aren't a tiny rural school, we have 480 kids on roll.

@grumpyorange They are just ideas, we live in the south east - weather isn't too bad - you are living up to your name though, not surprised we "can't do" with attitudes like yours.

But schools have to stick to safeguarding guidelines.

I guess the downside to having a lot of rules for safeguarding is it makes things very rigid for schools. There isn't much freedom to consider different ways of doing things.

Im still surprised how people seem to want solutions with no regard to safety or safeguarding

Yet an other comment putting the breaks on! All we asked for is some outside the box thinking and I am sure a solution to this problem can be found.

DS’s school have been very innovative thank you very much.

Have you actually seen the gov guidelines re what schools have to stick to?

Denmark is a much smaller country with less tourism and immigration than the UK, it’s an unfair comparison. We have the second highest death rate in the world, we need to be sensible.

I don’t personally think sending back 15 kids who have to stay 2m apart is any better for them than home learning. I’m a teacher so I have confidently taught my DC for the past couple of months and it’s working out just fine for us. I’m happy to keep them at home until I know it’s absolutely safe.

But the Danes don't keep voting for millionaire buffoons - that's the big difference. Until we sort that out (unlikely in my lifetime) we have no chance of being like Denmark.

Denmark has one of the highest tax rates in the world. I can't see many in the U.K. being happy with "being like Denmark"

@RitzSpy I really don't want to be one of those 'can't do' people, but when those who have no idea of what it's like to teach and be responsible for a whole bunch of kids with no extra money or staffing come up with ideas that are totally impractical, it's hard to sound positive.

Every parent wants their child to be safe, and many of these ideas involve places where teachers simply can't safeguard the pupils - even if the facilities were available to them and free of charge. And that's just the start. For secondary pupils at the very least, without access to computers and the internet, the teaching can't happen.