Do people think schools will have to close again

[louise4745]

Jut curious.

@BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou

I work in school. I HOPE we won’t have to shut again but I think we will. There is no social distancing. No masks. Not even for the front desk. All staff crammed into the staff room for a meeting at the end of school today. Actually touching in some cases. No money for more soap or sanitiser when it runs out. Reduced cleaners due to budget cuts. It’s just a matter of time........

Genuinely CANNOT get my head around having staff meetings ffs. All ours are on zoom. Even my NQT time with the head is on zoom every week because she’s vulnerable. How heads can excuse in person staff meetings is beyond me - we have a staff room rota, even, and aren’t allowed in each other’s rooms for more than 15 mins at a time.

Yes but I don’t think all at the same time again until we have another big spike of hospitalisations.

I think most things will close on and off over the next year or so but hopefully it will be staggered and no need for another full national lockdown.

Genuinely CANNOT get my head around having staff meetings

We are having staff meetings. Zoom wouldn't be appropriate for all of the types of meetings we have. Staff are currently based in the main hall (mainly due to building work that over ran over the holidays) so much more room and possible to be 1m+ (and can choose to wear a mask and/or visor) apart. Its also doubling as the staff work room and staff lunch/break time room.

We can't hold staff meetings by video conference unless we're at home. School IT infrastructure is not up to it (no Web cams/mics/speakers on some machines plus WiFi is shit). We're in the Hall all spaced out, too.

No. There will be distuption to schools individually, but a repeated widespread shutdown is unjustifiable. During lockdown more physically healthy children died by suicide or murder from their families than from Covid 19. Many of those deaths would not have happened if normal support and the respite of school had continued.

Covid 19 is not the only threat to health and life.

@BogRollBOGOF

No. There will be distuption to schools individually, but a repeated widespread shutdown is unjustifiable. During lockdown more physically healthy children died by suicide or murder from their families than from Covid 19. Many of those deaths would not have happened if normal support and the respite of school had continued.

Covid 19 is not the only threat to health and life.

There is a difference between a full lockdown and schools being closed.

We can't hold staff meetings by video conference unless we're at home.

You can get Teams on your phone.

• Genuinely CANNOT get my head around having staff meetings ffs. All ours are on zoom. Even my NQT time with the head is on zoom every week because she’s vulnerable. How heads can excuse in person staff meetings is beyond me - we have a staff room rota, even, and aren’t allowed in each other’s rooms for more than 15 mins at a time.*

Mobile phones don’t work on our site - genuinely. Parents think we have some sort of blocker, we don’t. No idea why they don’t work.

We’ve been told that staff are “exempt” from bubble rules and can move freely around the school. I don’t agree and would much prefer to be following SD but instead I am monitoring my health and hoping I don’t catch it.

I’m hoping that the DfE/ofqual/exam boards will get their arses in gear and publish a proposal for how exams will be managed next year in the event of localised lockdowns.

It’s possible that schools in high infection areas could be hit multiple times by closures, with other schools not closing at all.

I think we need a plan now for robust moderated teacher assessment AND government funded IT so we can deliver high quality online learning to all (rather than to the 50% of my school who have no IT access, for example).

We don’t know what will happen, but there should be a centralised plan for “just in case”.

Same here, BuggerOff. No WiFi, no 4g.

Some people don't know they're born

Definitely. 2 have closed near me today and Im not in a lockdown area.

A few year groups in a few years here already have

We’ve been told that staff are “exempt” from bubble rules and can move freely around the school. I don’t agree and would much prefer to be following SD but instead I am monitoring my health and hoping I don’t catch it.

I think whoever is in charge is being is being quite negligent at your school. Even if there is no Wi-Fi or phone coverage they shouldn't be cramming staff into a small room for a meeting. Why can't they have the meetings online after staff get home for example?

Shame they're not also exempt from catching or spreading covid, innit.

To be honest, it's the teachers I feel most sorry for. At the moment hospitalisation is low but it's only a matter of time before those figures start to rise. The pandemic isn't over just because we (or the useless government) want it to be. I think the last 6 months should have been spent making sure online teaching was available to all. The amount of time wasted in the average school day is quite significant. If online lessons were properly planned and delivered I don't see why education should suffer. Socialisation is another thing, as is child care for those who cannot work from home. But I think we just have to accept that until there is some breakthrough, life is going to be very different. If I was a teacher I would be dreading going in to work.

I'd like to add, before all the people who don't have access to online start to chip in, that my point is it should be provided. Some secondary schools in my area already provide tablets to their pupils and I see no reason why that can't be done nationwide. Any house without wifi should now be able to get a grant towards installing it because even without covid it has become necessary.

Pliudev

I agree and I think government missed an opportunity to get schools planning good, robust on line and blended lessons and putting necessary hardware in place for students who need it.

When schools close they should be in a position to instantly switch to on line learning with the minimum of fuss. Instead, thanks to the government's infamous "head in the sand" strategy, many of the obstacles to on line learning that occurred in March still haven't been solved.

Tesco had far superior contingency plans than our government have!

They'll have to. 315 schools apparently currently have had confirmed cases of covid19 within their populations, and it's rising dramatically. It's just not sustainable like this, and as cases rise, it'll become even less so.

We desperately needed better planning by government for this. This is exactly the situation that a lot of us have been worrying about for weeks now.
If they'd sorted out combinations of distanced learning, mixed with smaller classes or regular but part-time learning (by using other public buildings/building extra classrooms over the summer/offering well-paid jobs teaching smaller, distanced classes to the large number of qualified teachers who have quit the profession over the years, then the economy could keep going more easily and fewer people would be at risk.

It's such an unnecessary situation.

"Some secondary schools in my area already provide tablets to their pupils and I see no reason why that can't be done nationwide. Any house without wifi should now be able to get a grant towards installing it because even without covid it has become necessary."

This.

@Pliudev

I'd like to add, before all the people who don't have access to online start to chip in, that my point is it should be provided. Some secondary schools in my area already provide tablets to their pupils and I see no reason why that can't be done nationwide. Any house without wifi should now be able to get a grant towards installing it because even without covid it has become necessary.

Money! My school have made people redundant, people have had hours cut, because there is NO MONEY! Budgets have been cut, wages have gone up, other costs have gone up. We’ve run out of money!

@CouldBeOuting
That's the problem. I can see our school is doing the very best they can under the circumstances, but they need more funding to be able to do more, and that has to come from government.

But surely having year such large numbers of children having to isolate until getting a negative test (especially as they're hard to get hold of in some parts of the country), with all the disruption that causes to parents' work, is also costing a lot? It would be cheaper and safer for the government just to fund a proper plan, rather than have people off work randomly for days at a time everytime someone gets ill.

Yep and I'm expecting another lockdown.

If we get to November before that happens (which I hope it's not before then as I have plans) it will be a miracle.

Surely it's better to have a smaller number of children not in school than an entire nation of children? The option of closing schools is just not realistic, for both the wellbeing of children and the demand on working parents to homeschool.

Yes, it's frustrating and yes, it's not perfect or easy to handle but it's better to have a smaller percentage of children not in school than EVERY child not in school.

I’ve got my first child off now self isolating as a family/household member has symptoms and they’re waiting for a test.
Child apparently has no symptoms (yet).
Happy days.

Who knows?