School will be closed at lunchtime one day a week from Sept

[Ilovecranberries]

The school (primary) had just informed the parents that they will be closing at lunchtime on one day a week from September to facilitate "planning".
I don't even know what to say. AIBU to think it is ridiculous? I am a single working parent, not sure how I am supposed to work around this. Extra childcare for these 3.5 hours at the local childminders rates will be £56 a week (two children here). Or two grand a year post tax. I probably will be told I am BU (I probably am), just very anxious right now.

People working in education will be paying for this pandemic. There will be significant pay freezes, staff will lose their jobs due to funding or not be replaced when they leave (e.g. support staff and cover teachers) therefore workload will increase for existing staff members just like in the private sector.

I do think some staff will pay with their health (physical and mental) just like in the private sector and perhaps with their lives if the virus spreads in a school setting to vulnerable people. Schools are not a special protected group.

We are not allowed visors even if we buy them ourselves as the DfE guidance says we don’t need them. I think staff should be given the choice and it’s good you have acres to them @Useruseruserusee

User
Visors don't protect on their own - only when worn with a face mask.

When I was in school we didn’t have diagnoses of needs such as autism or attachment disorder which we have now and every child’s learning must be personalised and accounted for. That’s why TAs are vital to support learning.

Vital they absolutely are! It is a great shame, therefore, that so many secondary schools are culling most of them.

Both of my two previous schools, have gone from 20 to 30 full time TAs (or LSAs) to less than 5. The ones that are still in post are doing small group interventions and there is virtually no in class support.

The number of children with recognised or diagnosed additional needs remains the same...

People working in education will be paying for this pandemic.

Not, job wise, as much as the private sector.

But that aside, it is absolutely in schools interests to facilitate parents doing their jobs.

Not doing so means more children falling into poverty, exacerbating issues for teachers having to deal with the fall out.

Preventing revenue producing private workers from doing their jobs and raising money for the exchequer will have a knock on effect on the money available for public services, which could ultimately affect education funding and staff salaries.

A visor is better than no barrier at all when working next to a child which is what we’ve been told to do when reading with children, supporting their learning and marking work alongside them especially if a child sneezes or coughs in your face.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53423453

Teachers in Scotland can wear face covering if they can’t maintain distancing.

I can’t speak for all schools only my own but we’ve absolutely done the best we can to support working parents particularly key workers with 8-6 childcare every weekday since March and in September wraparound child care will start up as we’ve got the space to distance and numbers of pupils needing it to make it work.

An early finish on Fridays is not ideal if people can’t get flexible work or childcare. School staff will be affected too as their children will have to go to paid childcare or go home at 1pm just like everyone else’s children. It is perhaps the best a school can do with the resources they’ve got at the moment.

@YewHedge

User Visors don't protect on their own - only when worn with a face mask.

A visor will protect against the sneezes directly in the face, at least somewhat.

That’s good about Scottish schools as I think it’ll help limit the spread in school settings. The guidance for England currently doesn’t say that and is absolutely the reason why my head said no visors or face coverings for staff and children.

If I had a choice I’d go for visor.

It should be up to an individual as to where they wear a visor or face covering in a school setting. It’s not something which be decided on by a head teacher or government department.

Me too. I suppose it gets tricky around who’s paying for it but I’d still prefer teachers have the choice.

It doesn’t say who is paying for Scottish system, unless I missed it.

Cookiecrisps I completely get you. Unfortunately our country has adopted a do good attitude to the detriment of many areas of society. It should not be for teachers to have to be a Jack of all trades. There should be other bodies that should deal with the issues you have mentioned. In our area there are schools and colleges for special needs. This benefits all members of our community and society. Going off thread it is like the reduction in care for the elderly and for people with adult learning disabilities, who should be in a safer place than the community for themselves and others. Schools should and are for some children a safe place. That is why half day Fridays may not benefit alot of our society. Unfortunately we are heading to troubled times. Due to technology and social mobility, alot of people do not have or live near their safety nets. This is why school is for some parents a safety net to allow them to work. Therefore they need to stay that way.
Schools being open, will enable people to work to improve the economy. To save their homes, families and themselves. This will in turn benefit the schools by reducing the knock on effect of people losing jobs because of issues created by having to find and fund additional childcare.

When my daughter started her school at age 5 there was no Friday afternoon school for that first year which was really really difficult. I think it was a throwback from when people left early on Fridays and even travelled to their country weekend place. It was very difficult as two full time working parents. We had get our childcarer through her driving test (planning this 1 - 2 years in advance! )!! just so she could drive 35 mins to collect our daughter on Friday lunch times as the school coach system did not operate at that time. I remember it to this day thirty years on.

I suppose if loads of teachers are unable to work on Friday afternoons something might be done about the issue. My children's father ( teacher) used to have to work on Saturdays (boarding school when he started -) but I doubt teachers will be jumping up and down to have to do that.

Um, why would you be surprised that teachers wouldn't be jumping up and down to work on Saturdays Xenia, if they've already worked their contracted hours Mon-Fri?

@Cookiecrisps

That’s good about Scottish schools as I think it’ll help limit the spread in school settings. The guidance for England currently doesn’t say that and is absolutely the reason why my head said no visors or face coverings for staff and children.

The system as currently described in that article about Scotland will mean that teachers can still pick up the virus from their unmasked pupils, but will be less likely to pass it on to other staff if they are masked and/or distanced. But of course the pupil who gave it to teacher A might have teacher B later in the day so could spread that way.

I will be buying my own visor @MarshaBradyo much like I buy many of the resources in the classroom but that’s a whole other story! I teach infants so will not wear a face mask as I cannot imagine teaching phonics wearing one. However I do think school staff should have the right to wear one if they choose. If nothing else, I hope it may act as a visual reminder to parents that while children don’t need to socially distance, adults certainly do!

Monday I don’t lame you I’m strongly for people asking their own decisions. It’s a shame some Heads ban visors in particular.

Why ban visors? I don’t get that.

People working in education will be paying for this pandemic. There will be significant pay freezes, staff will lose their jobs due to funding or not be replaced when they leave (e.g. support staff and cover teachers) therefore workload will increase for existing staff members just like in the private sector.

Absolutely! I work in a school office and have had my hours reduced by one day per week due to budget constrictions. Several of the TAs have had their hours reduced as have the premises staff.

The workload won't go down though......

We are already cut to the bone staff wise, we have no spare staff at all. Only two 'general' TA's to support four year groups. We have LSAs only for the children who receive funding for them. It has been made very clear to us that face masks etc are not allowed to be worn. We also have no budget for supply staff - if a TA is available to cover for a teacher all well and good, but otherwise, classes will be split around the other classes in school. Money for resources is already the lowest I've ever known so where any school would get money for the extra TA hours to cover a PPA afternoon, I really don't know. If children are not in school on a Friday afternoon, the money a school could save on reduced staff (assuming support staff also leave at lunchtime), lower heating, lighting etc could potentially cover the wage of one or more TAs.
If successive governments had funded education properly over the last 13 years or so, maybe schools would have the cushion they need to see them through this.
Somebody upthread mentioned what primary school was like for them as a pupil. Times have changed. Parents are not so keen to volunteer these days, DBS checks did not exist until around 2000, many sen pupils did not attend mainstream school, so support staff were not really a 'thing's. SEN in general were not really acknowledged - my old school had a 'remedial'teacher who came in once a week to work with some of the 'slow' children. Times were very different and now, rightly, these children do attend school and have the right to be supported. Problem is, funding hasn't kept pace.

Surely it’s up to the individual if they decide to wear a face mask. We were in a queue to go into John Lewis today and got chatting to the family in front of us. Their DC’s are six and eight - were wearing face masks and the parents said the DC ‘s would be wearing them when they went back to school in September.

christina, I agree and why should they work on Saturdays although loads of workers in the private sector have lost their jobs so paid a huge sacrifice through the pandemic; others have had forced on them a 20% pay cut and an hours increase of 20%; others in the private sector get no over time even if they work all night like my lawyer daughters (and I in my day)

Erictheavocado out of interest are TAs allowed to cover Teachers for lengthy periods of time? From your post and others it would appear that their is a lack of funding. Therefore there is a need to save money by cutting school hours. This is detrimental to both children and parents. Does this mean the teachers reduce their wages in line with this to make these savings ? Or is it just support staff and savings on amenities? The funds for the school who is responsible for the spending of them?