I also posted this on another thread. ^
^
*This isn't 'finger in the air' decision making, this is serious.
All school decisions have been made, by senior leaders and governors using Risk Assessment documents.
These RA's are comprehensive. They have been put together using the (massive amount) of government guidance docs. The RA's have been written by Local Authorities/trusts, healthy and safety teams and had to be agreed by unions.
All RA's identify risk, evaluate it and seek solutions to lessen the risk. This has and continues to be a huge piece of work as all schools are different.
Schools have different numbers of children and staff; proportions of vulnerable ( pupils and staff);those who are a priority to be in school, those that can't be.
Every school has a different layout, different classroom sizes, outdoor space and access, different corridors and lunch arrangements.
Policies for behaviour are having to be rewritten to apply, as are safeguarding documents.
There are issues with liability and insurance. For instance in a VA school the governing body (volunteers!) are liable as the employer, as are academy trusts and LA's for maintained schools. There are legalities - what if a child or staff member dies or is left with a life limiting condition following COVID.
This can never be an equal or fair offer to all pupils.
What can be equal and fair and has to be, is that risks are assessed and addressed. All children and staff must have an equal right to be safe*
I'm fed up with parents who are experts thinking this is all so easy, just reopen, just put children in a village hall with a student, just deliver online lessons, individually personalised, just work harder, just have a 'can do attitude...just do all of that whilst reading 1000 guidance documents and act on them as an individual teacher....you are being so unfair.
The amount of work and professional capacity this is taking is astounding. I work for an LA, we are working on this seven days a week, full teams of senior, experienced education staff, rewriting safeguarding documentation, mental health programmes, consulting legal teams and health and safety advisers, supplying PPE, trying to provide transport (SD) when we have no money and no bus' to manage staggered starts, trying to provide laptops to the most vulnerable because the governments much lauded announcement has actually only provided laptops for one in four of the vulnerable children who are eligible ( and they haven't arrived yet), trying to provide schools with enough teachers to allow for 'bubbles', when the government is not prepared to pay supply costs ....trying so hard to put into practice the government's unworkable guidance.
Everyone is doing their best in an unprecedented crisis to keep your children safe.