List of rules making me feel on edge

[Ziggyzaggy]

My daughter has been home since march and will be going into year one next week. The school said that they will be in a class bubble before the summer holidays. They made it clear that the kids would just be mixing in that one class. I was fine with it and because she's in with her best friend I know she'll be happy. We've just had a long email from the headmaster with all the new rules and guidance and plans in place. Basically the kids will be going through the fire exits into the classroom. They won't be allowed to use the corridors. They have decided that despite the government saying they don't need to social distance in bubbles that they are going to make them social distance anyway. they've decided that children can't touch each other in the bubble and no-contact games will be allowed. They won't be allowed to sit on the carpet and the children will be at desks facing forward. They will only be allowed to the toilet in a bubble slot and they are banned from sharing food. They have to clean up their own cuts and scrapes but if they can't you will be called to collect your child and clean them up yourself at home. the school will report your child to the health authority if they shows signs of being unwell but will inform you of this. They are only allowed to walk home with the adult and not with their class friends. They want us there for 9 a.m. in the morning. they don't want us to be early and they don't want us to go near other parents as we queue down the street. they are encouraging kids to go through the gate by themselves and say goodbye to their parents at the gate. the teachers are allowed to help children with work but have to stay at least 1 metres away and can't help them for no more than 15 minutes. my daughter has not been at school for months and barely got into reception before lockdown. I'm well aware that the schools will be supporting the kids as well and trying to teach these new rules in a fun way but I feel like my daughter will mess up every day. She's used to holding hands with her friends and walking with her best friend to school. They all used to share snacks after school in the playground. they are used to sitting together and working together as a team. suddenly now they're not even going to be allowed to sit and do activities together. I know it might sound worse on paper but I just think for a 5-year old this experience of school is really negative. They won't be having assemblies or anything at the moment and they've said for the first two terms that theres no school meals. It just sounds really tough for a five-year-old. I hope the school make it fun and this doesn't put my daughter of going to school. It upsets me to think of her being told off for going near friends. they've also said that people can't pick your child up from a different bubble. that's going to make it hard for some parents as they used to share the school runs with friends last year. I'm presuming that my family can collect my child if there's ever a reason I can't go go but it just all seems very strict at the moment. I understand but it's confusing for them to suddenly not be allowed to do anything they used to. Not to mention having to walk in alone from the gates after a long break to a new class and teacher.

It looks like these plans are remaining until at least January. Kids will be full of anxiety being expected to be so mature so young.

The bubbles seem a waste of time. My twins are in different bubbles, so they can go from sharing a bed in the morning into two bubbles that can’t mix.

I can't think of anything worse than 5 year olds not seeing people's mouths all day

Well, start using your imagination. Because there are plenty of things way worse. Some of which are what all these rules are designed to prevent. Some of which children up and down the country haavve been experiencing for the past six months. Some of which you never want to believe could happen.

Wearing masks isn’t fun for anyone, but nor is it the nightmare you are catastrophising.

Kids will be full of anxiety

There is a higher chance of your child getting very anxious because they are mirroring your behaviour than there is as a result of the school rules.

I can't think of anything worse than 5 year olds not seeing people's mouths all day

Well if your child has a member of staff in their class with a health condition, then they’ll have to get used to it (and they will) as there could be adults in class wearing them all day!

@ineedaholidaynow

As far as I am aware children have always been discouraged from sharing food at school due to potential allergies

As a Primary Teacher I can confirm you are correct! It may happen, but children are told not to share food.

Children are adaptable if their parents and other adults like teachers support them to be.

My 5yo went back for 5 weeks in June (Reception) and under many rules like you have described, and took it all in his stride. He has barely mentioned any of the rules and nothing seems to have bothered him except that two of his friends were in a different bubble.

Don’t let your anxiety pour over onto your children.

They have to clean up their own cuts and scrapes but if they can't you will be called to collect your child and clean them up yourself at home.

The vast majority of playground injuries at our school are minor scrapes and grazes with little or no bleeding involved. Cleaning them up is often a case of putting hands under a running tap or giving the child a wet paper towel to put on their knee for a minute. It's not often that anyone needs a plaster.

For the more serious injuries (bumps to the head, more than minor bleeding) we would usually contact parents anyway to let them know what had happened.

The new policy may say to call parents in etc but realistically no first aider is going to stand by and watch an injured child bleed or otherwise be in pain and do nothing about it while they are waiting for someone to turn up.

The worst of the scrapes tend to be on the knees of girls with bare legs, so one way to reduce the chances of injury would be to either send your DD in trousers or make sure she has tights on. In winter it helps if children are wearing gloves or mittens.

Food sharing has always been a definite no-no. Some children will have food allergies. Some will be vegetarian or unable to eat particular foods because of religious reasons. Others have to have their food intake carefully monitored due to medical conditions eg diabetes.

It upsets me to think of her being told off for going near friends.

Even before the summer holidays, when we had children in smaller bubbles with stricter rules, no one was told off for getting too close. Instead they would be told (very nicely!) to just remember to keep their distance. It will take time for everyone (staff and children) to get used to the new rules.

@Ziggyzaggy I can't think of anything worse than 5 year olds not seeing people's mouths all day. You've either led a very sheltered life or have a very poor imagination. Have a look at some of the news about kids in the Yemen or refugee camps and have a think about things that could be worse than not seeing people's mouths all day.

The situation is upsetting you and that is fair enough but try and keep some perspective or you are going to make this so much bigger than it needs to be.

The bubbles seem a waste of time.

Oh they definitely are. They mean nothing and anyone who has looked at a school will know this.

I'm in infants. We have class groups of 30 but bubbles of 90 due to the layout of our school. I work in all classes so my bubble is 270. These numbers only include children. Each class also has 2 adults to add in.

My friend teaches sixth form. Their year bubbles are approx 700 students. Most staff work across both bubbles.

Bubbles may have made more sense in May when they were made up of up to 15 children and a couple of staff, with SDing and no mixing. Now they mean nothing.

But the government like them - it sounds costly, safe and secure.

People have rule fatigue. I just got another lengthy screed from school about what is happening in September, with a distinct lack of paragraphs. Sigh.

Kids will be full of anxiety

That wasn't our experience between March and July when we had full bubbles throughout. The rules were stricter then too.

I can’t imagine they will bring masks in for KS1 children. Scotland have just brought them in for Secondary School pupils but only for busy communal areas. Primaries won’t have those as pupils pretty much stay in the same room all day unless having PE or possibly lunch, although many Primaries I know are having lunch in classrooms. They will also be having staggered breaks, and you have said they are not using corridors in your school.

I'm worried about DD2 (well, in fact both daughters) if it's all shouty rules. She was initially very happy to go back to school in June (Y6) but ended up having nearly two weeks off with acid reflux, I think entirely caused by stress and anxiety of school arrangements. It's enough to have a new and large school, teachers, procedures, friends, to contend with in Y7 without all the "stand here" "don't go there" barking orders.

I agree with the OP, the rules she describes are completely OTT, go far beyond government guidance and will negatively affect the learning experience for those children. I'm really glad that my kids' school is taking a much more sensible approach.

@YouUnlockedTheGateAnd

That said, it is very similar to the way school was when I was five. This was in the 70s. There wasn't any playing or shared tables. We sat at our own desks with lids. We did have playtimes and school lunches - but we were only allowed to go to the loo at break times, and then had to form an orderly queue headed by a scary teacher

This.

I started infants in 1980 and I clearly remember playing in sandpit and Wendy house with my friends, and sitting on the carpet for a story. It's just about the only thing I remember from my reception class, apart from my teacher's Lady Diana hair and wooden clogs (I soooo wanted a pair).

That does sound at the extreme end of things but each school has to interpret the rules in the way that works for them. I would query the first aid though. I'm school office and we usually deal with bumps and scrapes. But now it will be the responsibility of the adults in class who will have PPE for this purpose. Asking a young child to clean themselves up is not acceptable and I would definitely raise this.

I think it will be better than you're expecting. Children do adapt and she'll be excited to be back with her friends regardless of whether she can hold hands or not. And the school will make it fun, they have the kids' best interests at heart remember.

Little bit envious that you have had information about it all, we've not heard much at all.

Some schools will be signing off their plans this week. Probably waiting as long as possible just in case the Government throw in some last minute guidance

It's bollocks OP, it's all so shit for them. Mine are older and I'm not sugar coating it for them - they are allowed to think it's crap and be fed up with it all and missing their friends and they're all OK feelings to have. They're allowed to think some of the rules are ridiculous and spot the inconsistencies and absurdities in them. They're also fine with it being a hoop they've got to jump through to get back to school where they want to be. I'm not going to make my kids afraid of something unnecessarily - we had a lot of issues with the youngest being very anxious and depressed early on in the lockdown - I've put a lot of work into getting her concerns into perspective and I'm not going to undo that - so we've spent time talking about how in years to come there'll be a Horrible Histories about all of this and 2020 being the year that everyone panic bought all the toilet roll and the like!

I know the staff well enough to know that, for all the reams of paperwork (ours went to 10 pages but that was because the head had paragraphed it neatly into a Q and A format so it wasn't totally incomprehensible) it'll be fairly OK for the kids after the initial setting of ground rules for the year that goes on in September anyway.

I'm fortunate in that DD2 is going into DD1's current teacher's class and DD1 has been in a bubble with her new teacher anyway - so I've got to know how they've been approaching things during the keyworker only period of schooling and I know the teachers have been making it fun and enjoyable for them - the only real nonsense we've had has been some of the midday supervisors shrieking at the kids for 2 metres - which school are adamant is not being expected when they return (they'd kept it in the keyworker bubbles as a concession to some of the more outspoken and neurotic parents) - they'll be bubbled and kept in their bubbles - but not expected to be 2m apart within them.

I'll be honest - when mine went back during the shutdown the first couple of days were a really unpleasant atmosphere (I'm very sensitive to bad atmospheres though anyway) handing over at the school gate... boxes for us to queue in (they've even spraypainted a little spraypaint box for the lollypop lady) and the Head was in a right arse about having to reopen the school to more kids (mine went back as the youngest was not coping at all with the situation) but by about the end of day 2 it was back to the staff all being normal with the kids and engaging like normal.

I started infants in 1980 and I clearly remember playing in sandpit and Wendy house with my friends, and sitting on the carpet for a story. It's just about the only thing I remember from my reception class, apart from my teacher's Lady Diana hair and wooden clogs (I soooo wanted a pair)

Me too, I also started school in 1980. My school was new and modern and we sat in groups around tables, as kids do now, or used to until recently. Lots of schools still had the wooden desks though.

There is a higher chance of your child getting very anxious because they are mirroring your behaviour than there is as a result of the school rules

You don’t know that actually.

I’ve been surprised and caught out by just how anxious my eldest has been when I am not. The fact that school closed really illustrated just how big a deal this is. Children absorb all of this and will be anxious as a result.

I’m constantly disappointed by those who sweep that under the carpet tbh.

Also I’m so fucking disappointed in the lack of coherent response and guidance from central government on this.

Appalling.

@Iggly

Of course I don't know it for an absolute fact, in exactly the same way the OP doesn't know for an absolute fact whether this will have any impact on her child.

I have taught throughout all of this and have seen the very minimal difference it has made to some children.

But OP clearly has ridiculous levels have anxiety, unhealthy levels.

I continued to help sort cuts and scrapes when we had KW children in and when R, Y1 and Y6 came back, and will continue to do so in my bubble when we go back into school next week.

Yes, the children will be doing some things differently: all facing forward, no singing, reminders to keep contact with others to a minimum, designated toilets, etc But we'll make it work.

Frankly, I'm in more danger than they are. So are the rest of the grown ups. The children are overwhelmingly likely to be just find, even if they test positive at some point. The procedures in place are to protect the grown ups who are less likely to be 'just fine'.

Genuinely confused re the people not wanting social distancing at school. Why not? I think during lock down in general that's been one of the key things that has helped control the virus. Why do kids not have to do it when they are all going to be in much busier school environment? Just wondering if there is something I am missing here.