To brace myself for schools being part-time for a while

[PasserbyEffect]

As one of my DS says "I wish the virus had never existed, and we could do everything like before".
Sadly that wish doesn't seem likely to be granted any time soon.

So back in the real world...
Schools are barely reopening in England, and that doesn't cover yet my kids' primary year groups. No clear plans from the government aside from vague aspirations. SAGE advice seems to suggest rotas. Scotland is planning blended learning... Other countries in Europe (the ones which have reopened) currently seem to favour teaching kids part-time, in order to keep classes small.

AIBU to assume that when schools do reopen for other primary year groups, it will NOT be full-time at first, and plan my life accordingly (e.g. when considering how best to use my annual leave, whether it is worth investing in home-learning resources such as laptops, whether I should spare some time to look for a nanny/baby-sitter, etc.)

Please note: this is not about what I want, or what would be the best policy, but about what seems most likely to happen.

I think it's likely that schools will be part time for some time, but who knows?!

It's so hard to guess.

I would recommend buying laptops, we panic brought some when the schools closed and it has been really useful I don't regret it at all.

It won’t be able to be full time until they can go back to 30 per class and completely ignore social distancing. I can’t see that happening any time soon.

There is currently no space at school for my Y1 child, they are unable to open to any Y1 children and as I can’t see anything really changing any time soon regarding social distancing I’m resigned to the fact that both of mine (one in Y4 too) will be at home at least til Sept. god knows what will happen then though.

It would seem sensible to plan on that basis.

Yep it won't be full time until social distancing ends.

Come September I think they'll have to have all year groups back, so I would imagine a day or 2 a week for each child.

I think if we're lucky they might be back to full time next summer term.

I’m in Ireland, schools are not opening until September and even at that it will be a phased return. It is what it is.
Hopefully this time next year we will look back on it all and be grateful for our usual normal !

Yep I'm going to have to go back to being a sahm, I really can't be bothered with the headache of trying to sort childcare, different school times for my dc, possibly homeschooling still also and then my job...no way!!

It’s highly likely that school will be on a rota for the years that go back later, if school opens for them at all. I wouldn’t even be sure that they will all be in school at all before the end of term. If social distancing is to continue, it will be impossible for schools to open full time for all year groups.

Yep. I have just switched mine to private schooling for that reason as it doesn't look like education is going to be prioritised for a horrifyingly long time.

I really cant see how it will be full time for all year groups. It would be really helpful to know what the plan is.

A couple of local authorities near me are proposing classes split one group in Monday / Tuesday, clean on Wednesday, second group Thursday/ Friday. Although I can well imagine that will end up being varied as they realise they will need loads of cleaners for Wednesdays and Saturdays and nothing for them to do the rest of the week.

I hope it changes and I hope that they sort out some childcare for non school days. But I just don't see how that will work with groups and SD.

I think that's a very reasonable assumption to make

I do wonder if I will end up homeschooling my yr 3 child if its really horrible when they go back.

Local schools are reopening full-time on Monday, but they only have 2 year groups.

When the other year groups start again, either they'll have to reduce the days - which is very unlikely! They won't have enough staff, as apparently teachers are not allowed to switch groups.

or.. they will just be back to near-normal because they can't magic new classrooms and new teachers out of thin air.

I can't believe there will be so much difference across the country and some schools will be full-time whilst others will barely open for a few hour per child. It's just not going to happen is it.

I think a some of it is going to come down to the spare capacity in schools.

Schools which were built to hold 400 kids but with just 200 in them will be able to cope better than the same sized buildings which are already over capacity 460 kids already spilling into portacabins.

Never mind a nanny...I'm beginning to think it's worth investing in a good old fashioned governess or home tutor.

My DDs school are following guidelines and full time from Monday for those in, however that means they aren't taking reception, year 1 or 6 and just the 160 key worker/vulnerable children.

I think schooling should be lower numbers or part time for a good while yet. However seeing the approach of BoJo and Cummings I suspect we will have 3 weeks followed by "Oh look it's all dandy everyone back full time in groups of 30" for the month before summer holidays.

I'm planning to have some sort of 'blended learning' until Christmas. There's a lot of talk about what will happen and the assumption things will be fine in September. I think that people talk about September because it seems a long way away and it's kicking the can down the road. The reality is that things likely won't be that different so it's sensible to plan for the long term. Fortunately my DC are not in particularly important years in primary although DS will go into Yr 5 in September so I hope it doesn't go on for too long. I work full time, but from home so it can be managed, but it's far from ideal!

^^Or maybe not Ive just looked to see how much a governess costs.. £800 - £1500 a WEEK plus accommodation needs to be provided..

That idea just went up in smoke

I honestly think give it a few weeks and social distancing will be cut to 1m and bubbles increased to 30 so everyone can go back.
However I am also preparing to hand in my notice as part time schooling won't work for us, which is a shame as I am a TA and it puts gives my current school more staffing difficulties if the 3 of us who need childcare do it.
I won't keep mine in keyworker groups as they are planning on not allowing keyworkers to move to their year group unless they do so in September and don't return to keyworker group part time.

I'm working on the same basis. Regardless of actual 'threat level' (can't think of a better term to describe it), I think it would be a hard sell psychologically for parents to accept their children being in close quarters with another 30 people for several hours a day.

My husband's a key worker so we had the option of sending both our kids into school from the start of lockdown. We decided against it, but with restrictions lifting we decided to send our youngest (Reception) back to school from Monday. This gives us the opportunity to see how home schooling the other child (in Y2) goes, over the next 7 weeks until school finishes for the summer break. Our school certainly won't be able to accommodate everyone in September as they have 14 classrooms but are having to use 2 classrooms for each year group going back tomorrow (with only ~45% take up rate per year). They'll only be able to make it work if the 2m distancing is relaxed to 1m (even indoors) and half of the parents decide to keep their children at home (unlikely by Septmeber I think).

DC's (secondary) school have already said they can only take in half the school at a time until social distancing rules are dropped. So everyone will be part time schooling (alternating a week in school, a week remote learning) until that happens. I can't see how this can be any different for any other school unless they have particularly large classrooms!

We’ve been told (civil service department) that we aren’t going back to the office properly until January. Only 20% of staff are allowed in at any one time. So maybe one day a week. That would make sense if schools are planning to do part time classes for the rest of the year.