Disappointed secondary schools are reopening

[wovengrass]

I'm hoping for a sensible exchange of ideas on this.
I understand the importance of children missing out on learning, but I can't help but feel that a full reopening of all secondary schools in the UK at the same time is madness.
I strongly feel that it would have been better to spend time/money on making home learning a realistic and standardised solution, as well as putting plans in place for the children that need further support. That way if any future outbreaks happen we aren't just hoping for the best and blindly following this idea that "schools must be the last place to close no matter what."

I also can't get my head around the logistics, locally. The local secondary that my nephew attends (there are several large ones near to me) has over 1000 students, many rely on public transport to get there. With reduced space on transport due to social distancing, I wonder how children will actually all make it to school on time? Many schools are also not allowing children who are late to enter, to avoid the crossing of year group bubbles.

Throw also into the mix that many adult will be relying on the same transport to return to work. I'm genuinely wondering how on earth it is realistic?

I think primary and nursery schools are a different thing entirely, and obviously childcare is a factor then also. But putting 1000 teenagers/young adults + teacher staff into a building with no masks and no country-wide home learning plan if things go wrong, seems absolutely nuts to me.

Just wondering what others think about this?

I agree op and they need to be go on line anyway in case of further local lockdown! Or national lock downs. Agree primary school is different kettle of fish.

I wish some more imagination had gone into it. I'm in fe and students come in and from an extremely wide radius. I'm dreading it. No ppe either.

I'd like to make 2 points.

1. Teaching and learning are not the same thing, as any teacher will tell you. Teachers have not been trained to teach online, and we don't have the tools to do so. People saying, oh, we could have developed an online home schooling platform have clearly missed all the IT fiascos which have taken place recently. This kind of thing takes a very long time to develop. Most learners, and especially younger learners, need the stimulus of discussion and of other learners - as many have said, motivation is very difficult without the engagement encouraged by relationships, and those relationships are just not as powerful online. I have worked on blended learning postgraduate courses for several years and the one consistent feedback we get is that it's the face to face contact with the group and with the tutors which makes the difference. And this is with motivated adult learners.
2. Plans B, C and D could all have been developed if the government had worked with the education system from the start. Sadly this hasn't been the case; we can see from the A level shitshow today the value that the government places in the mainstream educational establishment in which most of our children our educated (but almost certainly not theirs). Teachers are still 'the blob'; education has been massively underfunded for years; the government clearly feels it doesn't need to listen to those who actually work in schools and undoubtedly could see solutions. I am desperately concerned for my children; I can't teach them as I am the sole earner in our household and have to pay the bills. I don't have the answers but we have to do everything we can to keep our children attending school.

Cycling, we managed with huge population of disadvantaged students. It's not impossible and challenges were over come

[quote AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii]@littlealexhorne not all secondary school kids are old enough to stay home alone all day, my 11 year old has just started S1, I wouldn’t be leaving her all day so would need childcare? Or to give up my
Job. If everyone was in the same boat there simply isn’t enough childminders or nursery provision to cope and not everyone has family to help[/quote]
This is MN, Alaska, the 11-year-old all stay home alone all day following a strict schedule of school learning, music practice, working out in the garden (MN kids are all sportive, active, tall and slim despite eating for Britain), yoga and chores before getting dinner ready for the adults and bringing in the washing. Ironing is done in the evening whilst the younger one practice the lute.

Captain, hundreds, thousands of teachers have managed to do almost exactly what they do in the classroom, on line, with plenty of discussion and interaction. I know because I've been part of it. Seen it work and helped it to work. It was amazing to be part of actually. Just a shame my own dc teachers, heads.. Didn't do the same so I was pulled two, three ways... With all the excuses.

YABU

@InDeoEstMeaFiducia well, unless they should never be left alone or to switch on a cooker or be left in a car at a petrol station until they’re 25.... 😂 as they need to focus on their lute at which they’re gifted.

Hospital near us no deaths for 10 weeks now.

This picture is repeated in many, many parts of the country.

Some are willing to keep children home/insist that schools don't open until there are no covid cases in the entire population of 67,000,000

@InDeoEstMeaFiducia honestly think some people aren’t living on the same planet where a lot of couples actually have to work to keep a roof over their heads and food in their kids Belly, if they are in the fortunate position of 1 parent being a SAH then feel free to home school. I work in community nursing which hasn’t enough staff as it is, shall I just leave then? When will be safe enough? Never that’s when

@MoreListeningLessChatting we’ve been lucky in my rural area of Scotland, we had no cases when schools closed and we never had high cases or deaths throughout the whole thing, it’s a disproportionate response now and if blended learning had gone ahead it would have been nothing short of shameful

Whenshewasbad said that ‘if lots of teachers are sick, schools will have to close’ . Teachers are only as likely be off sick as other essential workers ( less likely than some). So those threatening schools to close should also happlly accept we would also shut hospitals, police, food supply chain.

No we don’t need a plan for long term home schooling. Because that is not a viable way for our society to administer education to children. This idea of mandatory home schooling cannot become the “new normal”. We are letting people go freely to pubs and restaurants. Children should be allowed to return to school as normal too. And there is another way here - the fact is most people who get the virus don’t get that sick. So most teachers who get it will actually be well enough to return to work within 2 weeks. Many won’t even get sick at all. I feel that it’s actually our response to the virus that is going to cause the most disruption here.

Yabu. It is outrageous to have shut schools for nearly 6 months. Those poor kids missing out on all that learning.

If you have a teacher go off sick you can’t leave a class on its own. Very few schools have a supply budget of any size so that budget will be used up very quickly. So what do you suggest happens when a number of teachers go off sick? Mix 2 classes of 35 into one small classroom with one teacher?
Could use a TA but most schools have got rid of general TAs because of budget cuts so they would have to use the 1:1 TAs. Now they got away with that during summer term as the rules on EHCPs were relaxed but don’t think that will cut it going forward.

DS has been back at school for 2 days . He’s a teenager. He’s like a different person! Chatty and brighter. It made me realise how much lockdown had affected him.

Deaths of teenagers from Covid - less than 10.

So those threatening schools to close should also happlly accept we would also shut hospitals, police, food supply chain

Well there’s a sandwich factory with 2000 staff that’s just had 300 staff test positive. This was a factory that had social-distancing measures, stringent hygiene procedures and regular temperature checking in place. Secondary schools have none of these measures planned.

It’s quite easy to imagine a virus being transmitted quite quickly through a secondary school.

Again I totally agree secondary schools should be opened. But not without additional precautions.

Again we are not necessarily talking deaths, it just takes 2 positive test results to burst a bubble. See what has happened in that M&S factory.

The Government needs to have put measures in place to try and stop potential spread in schools apart from 300 pupil bubbles

We can’t stop this. We are going to have to learn to live with it.

I’ve heard that in these factories there are strict distancing rules, hygiene, testing, staggered arrivals etc - then they all go and have their fag breaks together.

OP clearly doesn’t have secondary age kids.

I don’t drink or eat out, so I’d like all pubs and restaurants to close please. People can do “home eating” and “home drinking”. I don’t go to the gym or go swimming either, so shut them down as well. If people want to swim they can have a bath, it’s a perfectly good alternative. I don’t like shopping either, so close all the shops too please. Oh and I don’t use trains or buses, so we can stop them running, they’re far too risky. People can just walk everywhere instead.

Honestly, the selfishness of some people is unbelievable. You only have to read the headlines about A levels to see how devastating this has been to kids across the country. Kids have made vast sacrifices to protect adults, and it can’t continue.

@Mintychoc1

I’ve heard that in these factories there are strict distancing rules, hygiene, testing, staggered arrivals etc - then they all go and have their fag breaks together.

OP clearly doesn’t have secondary age kids.

I don’t drink or eat out, so I’d like all pubs and restaurants to close please. People can do “home eating” and “home drinking”. I don’t go to the gym or go swimming either, so shut them down as well. If people want to swim they can have a bath, it’s a perfectly good alternative. I don’t like shopping either, so close all the shops too please. Oh and I don’t use trains or buses, so we can stop them running, they’re far too risky. People can just walk everywhere instead.

Honestly, the selfishness of some people is unbelievable. You only have to read the headlines about A levels to see how devastating this has been to kids across the country. Kids have made vast sacrifices to protect adults, and it can’t continue.

💯

I'm telling my two that they need to find another place to live, after all, they're apparently perfectly capable of being left alone to fend for themselves now they are in secondary school whilst I pursue whatever I please. And teach themselves chemistry, biology and calculus into the bargain. I mean, why bother with schools, teachers, and degree courses when there's a perfectly good alternative - YouTube and TikTok?

All schools need to open and all children need an education.

[quote AlaskaThunderfuckHiiiiiiiii]@InDeoEstMeaFiducia honestly think some people aren’t living on the same planet where a lot of couples actually have to work to keep a roof over their heads and food in their kids Belly, if they are in the fortunate position of 1 parent being a SAH then feel free to home school. I work in community nursing which hasn’t enough staff as it is, shall I just leave then? When will be safe enough? Never that’s when[/quote]
You are correct!

It was fine for supermarket workers to work any and all shifts, no masks or screens, near hundreds of customers stood at their tills every shift, but now all the sudden it's not fine for kids to go to school.

Covid is king! The world was entirely 'safe' before that. Damn, why didn't I just put mine out to pasture years ago when they turned 11? They could have just been sat at home policing themselves whilst I went on all my jollies.

All schools need to open and all children need an education

Agreed. But what is the plan when/if the virus takes hold in the schools and they need to be shut again. We need a better plan A and a (National) plan B.

Every supermarket I have been in have social distancing rules, screens at tills, employees wearing masks. I have never spent more than 15 minutes in the same area as anyone in the shop.

They need to have measures in place for when cold and flu season starts.
Previously people would go to work and send kids to school with a slight cough and runny nose. Will teachers be told to stay off until they have been tested or will the be told to be in work and risk possibly infecting others