School only having Reception/Foundation children back not Year 6

[Flippetydip]

Is anyone else's children's school doing this? I am having a call with the head today and want to be forearmed.

I have a year 6 child and a year 4 child and I really want my year 6 to have some sort of time in school before transferring to secondary in September. The school are offering the whole of foundation the option to come in and despite only 35 out of 60 parents in that year group being willing to send their children in and 50 out of 60 year 6s wanting to go in, they are keeping the spaces open "in case foundation parents change their minds".

AIBU to think there should be some better thinking around this and a better solution found?

Have you read the guidance that schools have been given? My understanding is that this priority list has been given to them by the government. Your problem is with government guidance and you may be better taking this up with your MP rather than the headteacher.

At one of my DC's school, they are offering places for yr 6 but not reception / Yr 1. I guess each school has to make their own decisions based on available resources etc.

Our school has done it the other way around too. Year 6s are back on Monday but it’s staying shut for the time being for all other years. Makes sense to me as these children are never going to be at this school again after these last few weeks, so it would be a shame for them to miss out.

What do you want the 50 year six kids to do in school? What are you going to say to the Head? There was another thread on this yesterday. The school are following the guidance in prioritising reception and year 1. Under normal circumstances I'd agree with you, but it's going to be far from normal in schools.

At my DC's school they are also only offering places for year 6 and not reception/year 1. The head has made it very clear that she doesn't think it's safe that any go back and she is only offering year 6 two mornings a week which hardly seems worth them going back.

The school has to keep spaces open for reception and year 1 in case more parents send their children back in the coming weeks. My child’s school is anticipating that more children in these returning year groups will be sent back to school and new ‘bubbles’ will be made. The DfE guidance prioritises early years returning over year 6 if the school can’t accommodate all 3 year groups at once. There could be other considerations the school has had to make such as shielding staff in returning year groups and classroom size. There is much more of an expectation that year 6 social distance therefore many schools can fit fewer year 6 pupils in an average sized classroom.

As daydreamermummy says, it's not worth it. Slot of stress for not much reward. They won't be 'missing out' on anything. Concentrate on next year, leave the Head alone and trust their decision making processes. They've got enough to deal with.

Daydreamer is that a state school? Gov guidance is v clear that it should be the other way round.

Schools need to come up with a workable plan that will keep staff and students safe.

They obviously don’t feel that at the moment they could safely have 85 children in school whilst also following the advice that has been put in place.

I really understand why you would like the school to not follow the guidance which is to prioritise younger year groups but i think its much harder to persaude someone to go against government guidance than it is to persuade them to change to aligning with guidance.

Our school is only having reception back - after a week this will be reviewed with the possibility of adding year 1 too, again after a week they will look at year 6s going back. They state it will be reviewed weekly and that if they don’t think it’s safe they won’t have other year groups back. School is still open for key workers.

Same for my school

I'm a bit irked but because I totally trust the head I'm willing to just roll with it

You have no choice but to roll with it. Gov has given a priority order list and safety instructions. When schools follow those instructions the amount of children it can accommodate is cut hugely. Clearly op’s school is full after Rec/ Foundation who are supposed to fill those fewer spaces first. That is it. No point challenging head, she/ he will be up to their eyes in it as it is.

Our school aren't having any of them back, they have too many keyworker and vulnerable/children they have identified as wanting then back.

Guidance is that reception and year 1 should be prioritised. Likewise they should be planning for them all being back as it's quite obvious parents will change their minds very quickly.

It won't be the school your year 6 left.

Why do you expect the head to do? Magic up more room, more space and more Staff?

Will also be interesting to see how schools who have gone against guidance have managed the insurance issue because I know several schools have been told if they go against guidance it affects their insurance

Yeah same here
They just didn't have enough staff available to safely cover all 3 year groups so they prioritised the younger ones.

Also remember critical worker children and vulnerable children from any Year groups take priority before YR or nursery if your school has one. Some local schools haven’t been able to offer any places to the Year groups from 1st June as they are full to social distancing capacity with critical worker and vulnerable children.

Schools are desperate to get as many vulnerable children in as possible as the take up from these families had been very low. They don’t want these children to be invisible for 6 months.

It might be OP that they are actually trying to keep spaces open for them but didn’t want to say that.

Many schools are going with the opinion that the Government guidelines are just that guidelines and not statutory. If they are anything like my local schools they will be erring on the side of caution, I don’t think any of them are having class sizes of 15, more like 8 or 7. And some are offering part-time which again goes against the guidelines.

Don’t worry, I’m sure that after talking to you on the phone the headteacher will forget all the government documents and risk assessments she’s been working through the last couple of weeks and will change her mind to suit you. You have come to MN to get forearmed after all!

WaterBubble5 yes it is a state school. I'm not against children going back now but my DC'S school initially said they would take year 6's back for 2 days a week. This has gone down to 2 mornings. They will be sat at empty tables 2 metres apart working independently on the same work that they would be set at home. They will have no play time. I understand that year 6 parents feel that their children are missing out on their last term of primary but if it's anything like my DC's school I just really don't see the point in sending them back and feel there won't be any benefit to it.

@ineedaholidaynow that is precisely what my DDs school have done. Gone from 30 keyworkee/vulnerable kids to 160 because they desperately want the ones who need to be in to be in.

Same here.

DD's year 6 isn't going back as there simply isn't enough space to fit in all the smaller classes. Only keyworker children, YR and Y1 are going back. The head can't make the school bigger can she 🤷‍♀️.

I'm not sure what you're wanting the Headteacher to say or do about this situation. The Government guidance was clear- (rightly or wrongly) Reception and Year 1 were to be prioritised. It's a crap situation and I really feel for those children who are due to move schools in September but this whole situation is unfair on so many people/children and exceptions can't be made for everyone.

I can’t understand what you think will happen if you contact the headteacher.

The decision will have been taken for a reason. There won’t be enough classrooms or there won’t be enough staff. They won’t be just not providing for the year sixes for the hell of it.

Just keep your child home and your family safe.
We've literally just started to recover from the last 6-8 weeks of carnage - in many peoples opinion (including scientists and scientific organisations) it's still too early to mix, it will mean more cases emerge, how can it not! So just be grateful your child remains safely at home