Covid/school closure. Children made to feel so unwelcome

[Lettuceforlunch]

Has anyone else had this? AIBU? I’ve never known a school be so ultra conservative in their interpretation of the rules around Covid. I’m at the stage where I think they’re now using it as an excuse not to have the children in. This week they’ve had all of four year groups out because of two confirmed cases in two individual classes. They’re in class bubbles FGS! Or at least, that’s what parents have been told.

[yeahdarling]

[quote Lettuceforlunch]@KatherineOfGaunt - but they have been made to feel unwelcome. Today one of mine was turned away at the gate as they’d made the last minute call to close her bubble at 8:30. No online learning until this afternoon as no one seemed to have prepared for this kind of situation (god knows why given how many times they’ve closed recently!).[/quote]
They're following guidance. It's not that children are unwelcome.

It's a massive job to prepare work for children at school and be ready to move online at a moments notice. Teaching is already a crazy job and that has doubled it overnight. Add in no assemblies and doing break and lunch duty every day and it's impossible to be completely ready to instantly leap on line.

[yeahdarling]

@cantkeepawayforever

If there is a risk of covid going through a school so close to end of term I can well imagine HT and Teachers being keen not to have their holiday plans interrupted.

I know that we hold our breath in the run up to every holiday because we don't want all our children's families to have their holidays disrupted. We know that ours will be disrupted anyway, because the extra Covid workload means that much stuff that normally gets done during term time now ends up being done in the holiday....

Absolutely.

I don't understand why teachers not wanting to miss their holidays is a bad thing? Does anyone else want to miss their holidays they can't rearrange? Must teachers constantly be martyrs?

[theluckiest]

@Lettuceforlunch

I disagree *@theluckiest*. 4 whole years, two classes in each, meant to be kept in at least year group bubbles. 240 children who at most have crossed paths in the playground are not close contacts. They have not all had the same teacher or TA who could have spread Covid.

You don't know that. I work with every class in my school. If I test positive, they all have to SI. Likewise, if a class bubble bursts that I've worked with, that's me out.

Also, I'm so insulted by the insinuation on this thread that teachers are worried about their holidays. Frankly, I don't give a shit about my hols namely as I booked mine in Aug well away from end of term. For this reason.

I'm actually more worried that Y6 might miss out on plays, end of term fun and transition stuff. Yknow, real stuff that most caring teachers do actually care about

[cantkeepawayforever]

Who covers PPA time in each class? Are there any subjects, like French or PE, that are taught by a particular member of staff?

Who supervises lunch, if that is inside?

Are there siblings across the classes? It may be that if the classes are strongly linked by multiple siblings, including e.g. a sibling of an infected child, that with the far more transmissable variant PHE has advised them to send the sibling-linked class home as well?

Also, we send letters for the first case, but not necessarily for subsequent cases within the same bubble unless it changes the length of isolation. So our most recent isolation will have looked like 1 case, but in fact there was a cluster of 4.

[Namechercanged]

Perhaps your schools online provision is rubbish. Contact them and ask for more if they aren't meeting DfE guidance.

You don't know why so many are isolating. It is PHE who advise on that.

[Notonthestairs]

Schools take guidance/instruction from PHE don't they? So I'm not convinced the school will have had much say.

You don't know who has CV (nor should you have private health information) so you can't tell whether PHE have advised correctly.

[Namechercanged]

I'm pretty sure no other people want their holidays messed up by isolating, not just teachers. At least other jobs may offer flexibility for you to WFH and have your holiday at a different time.

We also have the scenario described above where one case is a disguise for more. Once the bubble has gone home we don't need to notify but there are usually more cases.

[Biscuitandacuppa]

We have had to send more than one year home because of siblings in different years and a parent testing positive but still sending their children in. So funnily enough we got some positive cases in school, out magic force field must be on the blink.

Children left mid morning and started online teaching lesson 4 which I thought was pretty good!

[yeahdarling]

Don't forget, the teachers who are isolating also have to travel home, arrange emergency childcare etc. They will also have to work with the head to identify all close contacts such a dinner staff and ppa cover. These things take time.

And if they're anything like me who had to isolate over half term they will be devastated for themselves, their family and the children in their class and will need a bit of time to adjust.

They are humans too.

[LakieLady]

It's terribly frustrating for parents and awful for the children, but if the alternative is being put back into full lockdown nationally, surely it's worth it?

[toomanypillows]

My school have had 9 cases this week. We had an email last night at 11.30 telling us which year 10s would be out and to prepare for online learning. Problem is that some year 10s are still in so we are having to do live and online in person.
I had year 10 this afternoon. But this morning I had a double year 12, my form, year 7 and year 9. I'm already doing online lessons AND in person ones for 7s and 9s (because some are at home and some are in school)

So I had very little time to prep for the year 10 work this afternoon. Particularly as in my subject they are doing practical assessments.
Really annoyed at the insinuation that we "should be ready to go with online learning " - how can I be wehn I'm spending all my spare time being ready to go with assessments and practical work? How many extra hours in the day do you think we have?



Also, my nephew's school closed on Tuesday because the site manager and one of the cleaners tested positive. Might something like that have caused the issue in your child's school OP?
May I suggest you be slightly less judgemental and direct your ire elsewhere than the poor bloody teachers.

[WhenSheWasBad]

It’s really frustrating but please don’t blame the school.
They take advice from PHE. Also you really won’t know how many people in the school who have tested positive. Or which adult staff members have crossed bubbles.

[LemonFantaGin]

You don't know who is positive, it could have been any member of the school or pupils, PHE make the call on who has to isolate, not the school, I can assure you they don't want to send everyone home.

[Bagamoyo1]

There is no excuse for schools not to be able to switch to online learning rapidly. We’re not talking about March 2020. This is June 2021. We’ve had Covid for well over a year. Switching to online learning should be second nature to teachers now.

[Lilibet2022]

Year bubbles are a fallicy and always have been. Most bubbles are popped the moment all the years pile on to the same school buses in the morning or into people's car pools / walks to school.

This week they’ve had all of four year groups out because of two confirmed cases in two individual classes

I don't believe this to be true. Unless all four year groups have been in direct contact with the two individuals that tested positive (which cements my point about bubbles being a useless term) the likelihood is there's more cases than you're being informed on (and rightly so - only those who have been in direct contact should be notified by PHE). Schools don't do this for the shits and giggles and there's probably staff members who have come into contact with the positive pupils who have to isolate by law too reducing their numbers further.
If you don't want schools to close again push for better safety measures in the classrooms.

[cantkeepawayforever]

@Bagamoyo1

There is no excuse for schools not to be able to switch to online learning rapidly. We’re not talking about March 2020. This is June 2021. We’ve had Covid for well over a year. Switching to online learning should be second nature to teachers now.

It depends.

To switch to a whole class sent home, along with their teacher, in a primary - we have already double-planned every lesson for the year, so yes, we have online-ready material. However, it does require videoing etc, and it needs everyone including the teacher to physically get home and be ready to teach / learn (a teacher may need, for example, to arrange childcare for their own children).

We manage this with a standard set of day 1 materials, with the 'proper' daily lessons starting on day 2.

It is harder in secondary, and harder still for simultaneous live face to face and home learning, because in primary the two modes actually need very different approaches and resources, and in secondary a teacher may e.g. teach 4 periods face to face, then a period that is mixed, then the next day a period of all at home etc etc.

[cantkeepawayforever]

The point is that home learning, done well, is NOT the same as learning in school. To switch seamlessly from doing one well, to doing the other well, to doing a combination of the two simultaneously well, is hard.

[Lilibet2022]

My school have had 9 cases this week

Just the 9? Friend's DCs school is nearly at 50.

[MarjorieBouvier]

@Bagamoyo1

There is no excuse for schools not to be able to switch to online learning rapidly. We’re not talking about March 2020. This is June 2021. We’ve had Covid for well over a year. Switching to online learning should be second nature to teachers now.

It still takes time to actually prepare the work for online learning. And rework all your planning because xyz won't work online, abc instead will only work if xyz was done first so it all needs scrapping and redoing.


We had a bubble close on Tuesday morning. We heard from the parent at 8:15am. Some work was up by 10am (worksheets, nothing good enough by MN standards but as the class teacher wasn't allowed in the building it was the best we could do). Colleague dropped a pack of books etc the teacher needed so she could wfh and Wednesday was a full day of online learning.

[Lilibet2022]

Year 10 are doing mocks. They absolutely should be in. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that there's an explosion of cases in schools since masks were removed...

[RuleWithAWoodenFoot]

@Namechercanged

No online learning until this afternoon as no one seemed to have prepared for this kind of situation

It takes time to change lessons from face to face to be suitable online. Add in the logistics of closing the bubble, the paperwork, the phonecalls. Not hard to see why it isn't an instant turnaround.

Btw schools have barely any extra funding to do any of this.

So the teachers are being sent home themselves, yet somehow also have to be recording lessons, getting stuff set up for online learning etc while they are in their cars? FFS. Get a grip.

It took 9 members of staff 3 hours to do the logistics around our last class bubble closure. We're a big school and have the staff, one from the same year group was doing the online stuff. Smaller schools don't have that option.

[m0therofdragons]

There’s some misinformation on this thread. Public health teams at the county council will advise schools (schools can go beyond this with their interpretation of the guidance). 2 weeks ago my friend who is senior ph team hasn’t spoken to schools for ages as no need to; the last week it’s all she’s done and her team is struggling to meet demand. The delta variant is causing issues.

[RuleWithAWoodenFoot]

I currently live in a building site. I don't have a desk (or dining table or kitchen for that matter). Providing online learning immediately just wouldn't be an option if I was sent home at 8.30am.

Took me 2 hours to put together a video lesson and worksheet pack for an isolating child on Tuesday. When I was supposed to be writing reports.

[Lilibet2022]

I’ve asked the school but they’re very tight lipped

Yes that's because it's none of your business Is there an UFT column due soon or something?...

[Fossie]

My first lesson tomorrow has pupils working in pairs on a Maths game on a sheet of paper. That isn’t going to work online but I could maybe spend some time adapting it. That wouldn’t happen with no notice though. That’s what a positive case does to a planned lesson.