To think schools will close soon

[hibbledibble]

We may well have as many cases by new year as we did in the first peak. In which case school closures could be a very real possibility.

Re the testing in secondary, how does that work? You will have to gather people to start with, which is a bad idea then d thy do the tests themselves? Where do they wait, what happens if they are positive? There are rumours that this strain is infectious at 2 meters and for less time? How and where will they gather people to do it?

We have been told the kids have to be in "isolation booths" 2m apart while they're being tested. As every child and every member of staff has to be tested twice in the first week back, for some secondary schools this means thousands of tests will have to be performed over four or five days. We have no idea where in school we can physically perform these tests. Head is currently looking into purchasing a large marquee to go on the field. As for where they wait, I imagine they will just have to queue up on the field, which means we will need staff to supervise the queue as well as actual testing. We will also need school staff to escort the promised 'volunteers' (if they ever materialise) to and from the toilet as they will not be DBS checked and must therefore be supervised by a member of school staff at all times. No idea where students will wait if positive, but they will also need to be supervised and I have known parents take hours to collect their DC or some we simply can't get hold of so this is a challenge. SLT are currently trying to work out all the logistics as the government guidance is very short on detail, as usual.

Each booth will surely need to be cleaned after use?

Testing is good in principle, in theory and on paper, but in reality how can it work with a surging mutant strain of the virus?

Managing the queue, stopping pupils from talking to each other, getting close etc... That alone will be nigh on impossible.

The gov is clearly determined not to, but I think they will be forced to do so for at least half of next term. I've held back some holiday I could carry over in expectation of this happening so I can take 5 days off for homeschooling. DH is luckily working pt for the next two months, so we could cover a few days per week.

A friend has all-too-accurately predicted they'll probably announce closure at 8PM on Sunday 3 January. Though my best guess at the moment is they'll go ahead with delayed opening and shut down in February. That said, if numbers continue to skyrocket next week they may not reopen at all, until at least after Feb half term, quite possibly after Easter.

Would love to know how EYFS can possibly be taught online when all learning is supposed to be done through play?

5 year olds and solely online learning does not work.

Head is currently looking into purchasing a large marquee to go on the field.

The flooring has to be non-porous so I would imagine that rules marquees out.

09:46SkySports

cookiemon666

My daughter is year 11, my son is year 9. Their school has only had 2 cases in year 9.
School is ready for testing. We are in an economically and socially deprived area, on line learning does not work for most of the kids. In our case the school needs to stay open.

Similar here....
Tier 2 and only 2 cases in large secondary since September!
No to closing. Madness with 2 cases

Enjoy it while you can. It wont last long and you'll be in tier 4 before you know it

Each booth will surely need to be cleaned after use?

Since we have no "booths" and no money to actually construct anything I imagine it will at best be a curtain that separates the students.

Managing the queue, stopping pupils from talking to each other, getting close etc... That alone will be nigh on impossible.

To be fair we won't need to stop them talking to each other or getting close really if we test by year group as the government has always maintained that "bubbles" of up to 200 secondary school children is perfectly safe.

The whole thing is a nightmare though.

The flooring has to be non-porous so I would imagine that rules marquees out.

He's exploring the possibility of some sort of flooring being put down inside the marquee apparently but I have no idea if this is actually feasible. The reality is there is nowhere inside the school we can actually do this without fairly major building work which we can't afford and certainly could have done by the first week in January.

I do not envy Head Teachers right now.

DBML. The webcam is focused on the whiteboard.

Teachers can see students working from home on laptops but they are concealed from students and from showing on whiteboard, so no one can see them or hear them unless the teacher asks a question .

Online learning is just part of the lesson.

@JacobReesMogadishu

I don’t want schools to close.

I want the virus to be eradicated so people can get back to normal. Or at least be down to levels low enough that the nhs isn’t going to be swamped. I want time to be bought so the vaccines can be rolled out to more people.

I want to minimise the amount of people who will die or be seriously ill in the next few months. I want any lock down to be as short as possible to try and preserve the economy, prevent as many companies as possible going under so there will be jobs for the children when they leave school. So they’re not paying stupid tax rates for the next 40 years to pay for this.

If this means teaching online for a bit, if it means cancelling exams again, heck if it means repeating the year.....I think we need to do it. Imagine sorry for the kids I really am. I’m sorry for parents of school age kids who will struggle.

But the nhs can’t cope. We will have people dying in hospitals car parks if this carries on. I already know someone who’s been told he has weeks to live (not covid) after being fobbed off with symptoms for months and told he had back ache, etc because the nhs isn’t functioning at the minute. I know 2 people who have died from covid. I couldn’t see my mum when she was dying. It’s shit for everyone and needs to stop.

Stop being dramatic ffs, the NHS has been swamped for years all down to the governments, fund the nhs, reopen wards they have shut, and pay student nurses a proper wage instead of cutting that like this shower of shite have done.

@BethlehemIsInTier1

Sorry, what am I being dramatic about....not being allowed to see my mum when she was dying? My friend who’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer due to not being able to see someone sooner?

I’ve worked in the nhs for 15plus years, you don’t need to tell me what it’s like in normal times. I’m aware of it’s shortcomings. But it’s not normally anything like as bad as this.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

That’s very interesting. I’m not being funny now, I’m just wondering how it would work...let’s say I’m using a PowerPoint to teach through a lesson and showing YouTube clips etc. I never use pens on my whiteboard, it’s always projected, so my laptop is on its dock. Can I still teach this way, or would I need to do things differently? Genuinely interested.

I don't want schools to close. We are fighting an uphill battle trying to recoup lost learning as it is.

But I suspect we may not have a choice in January. It's ripping through secondary and upper primary age groups right now.

Personally I'm going to record lessons for YouTube type videos and then do lots of quizzing and checking of work via teams.

[quote DBML]@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

That’s very interesting. I’m not being funny now, I’m just wondering how it would work...let’s say I’m using a PowerPoint to teach through a lesson and showing YouTube clips etc. I never use pens on my whiteboard, it’s always projected, so my laptop is on its dock. Can I still teach this way, or would I need to do things differently? Genuinely interested.[/quote]
I don’t quite get this either.

I teach from the front using the laptop-so the kids in the room can see the PowerPoint that is on the laptop-projected onto the IWB. My laptop also has the webcam on it.

I think for this to work live, I’d need the school to buy a webcam that could be installed somewhere that points just on me, plus give me a laptop so I can see the the children who are at who had logged on (bit that must be facing only me, so I can see them, but no one else can) and then I teach on my existing laptop?

Yeah, that’s how it’s all delivered at my school. As the laptop is focused on the whiteboard all YouTube stuff etc is viewed. The problem comes when a teacher tries to write on the non

And my dd has joined in lessons via Teams. It’s the same there,

It’s just like teaching a normal lesson. Just a few little faces on your screen but not on whiteboard. My dd tells me being in the waiting room before the lesson is the best bit!🤔

[quote DBML]@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

That’s very interesting. I’m not being funny now, I’m just wondering how it would work...let’s say I’m using a PowerPoint to teach through a lesson and showing YouTube clips etc. I never use pens on my whiteboard, it’s always projected, so my laptop is on its dock. Can I still teach this way, or would I need to do things differently? Genuinely interested.[/quote]
My children’s school use Google Meet.

It is possible to both share your screen and project onto whiteboard- or alternatively share the PowerPoint with students at home in advance. Students would be able to listen to you in the same way as those in the class.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow I’m interested too. I’m a primary teacher. How does this work when you’re not teaching from the board? Many of our lessons are hands on and practical - not many at all are taught from the front. How do you avoid other children being on camera when the teacher is in the thick of the children, who are all participating as we teach? Where is the camera mounted? How does it know to follow the teacher and not other movement?

It doesn’t work for practical. And it’s secondary, so no random kids wandering round 🤞🏻Well sometimes🙄

The laptop is in the docking station projected at the whiteboard.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow I’m also interested in how you get little faces on your screen but not on your whiteboard. Our boards either project exactly what’s on screen, or you can freeze the board and work on your computer but that’s it. Only one in the school is new enough to work independently of the computer it’s attached to. I’d love to have more of those!

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow Oh ok, so maybe year 5 or 6 could make some use of it in primary but no younger. Our slides are very very brief because 90% of our lessons are practical, which is why a sudden switch to online involves a huge amount of work at primary level. We can’t just put our slides online, sadly.

@KittyMcKitty

Yes, we use Google meet to do online learning. So I invite the pupils, speak to them, present my PowerPoint and talk it through and then question them.

But, if I was also in class at the time, the Google meet would be what I would be presenting to the rest of the class would it not? Whatever is on my screen, gets projected onto the whiteboard.
I’m trying to work out how I deliver a normal lesson, but with learners looking in from home, without those learners being seen on screen or without filming anything I shouldn’t be. There clearly has to be a way, but I think I would need some training on this.

You can choose what to share. Select the file you want to share (power point) and that’s what kids are home see.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

You can choose what to share. Select the file you want to share (power point) and that’s what kids are home see.

But how do you see all the kids at home as well on the screen (with nobody but you being able to see them)?

Presumably you would need a separate webcam to the one on the laptop?