Schools 3 day a week?

[Sunflowerkeep]

Is this for real or just media again? Is it seriously being considered?

@Droughtpout ALL schools are becoming academies within the next 5 years anyway. Most already are, the rest are being made to.

Yes we do! The trays, cutlery and cups and pots the food is served in need washing up. Do you think the kids eat off the tables with their hands?

As it happens I'm SLT in an LA school where we have recently used exactly this action plan (on the advice of the LA). Why would the answer be to cancel lessons or close the school?

This would really suit my youngest son too. His secondary school have a half day on a Friday, so 08:50 -12:20. I think this is such a waste of resources for such a short time in school. School busses still have to run and school meals provided. A 4 day week would be perfect for us but I can see that it could cause real problems for some children from deprived or low income families who rely on free school meals and the extra support of school.

I’ve noticed in a couple of schools more and more TAs or unqualified teachers teaching and not getting a teachers wage.

I hope the government aren’t thinking that actual teaching would be over 3 days and expect the TAs to pick up the slack the other 2 days.

State schools don’t have a pot to piss in!

covid tipped recovery budget plans over the edge and now with energy costs and inflation increasing parents will have to fork out for more stuff

TPS is already struggling with teacher exodus ‘we’re currently processing a high volume of September retirement applications…..’

I read an article earlier today saying the opposite. The majority of people still go into work, even if working a hybrid pattern. This is particularly true of so many in "essential services" which simply cannot be done done WFH.

Of course you are.

LEA schools can run a deficit but only for a maximum of 3 years and they need a plan to return to surplus. Academies have to balance books and so have to build up a surplus for any investment.

My secondary has been fine so far because we’re expanding, no money for frivolous things like cleaning windows or updating textbooks, but no staff redundancies. Small schools must be really struggling.

Our village primary cut teaching on Friday afternoon over lockdown and never reinstated it, they meet their hours over the other 4.5 days, they offer free childcare on Friday afternoon, but this is run by teaching assistants. I believe it saves them having to cover PPA time, although they do have specialist MFL teaching. I’d imagine it’s quite popular so helps recruitment and retention? Some parents do like being able to have kids home Friday afternoon.

Academies don’t legally have to employ qualified teachers with the exception of the SENCO! My school is struggling to recruit teaching assistants at the moment, I suspect there aren’t many people keen on working as an unqualified teacher. If unemployment increases it may be different obviously.

Well you can think what you like, but I am and have been for nearly 10 years.

When I see threads like this I do worry for education because so many school staff seem determined that there is no solution to the challenges we face. However, that's not my experience in the schools I've worked in, where the vast majority of staff are very ready and willing to find solutions and do whatever it takes to make things work.

We should all move to a 4 day week, much more sustainable.

Only if the Tories stay in power at the next election, which they hopefully won't.

There would be uproar if schools went to a three-day week and the knock-on effect on the economy from parents not being able to work would be too great. The Govt would have to find the budget to keep them open.

In that case you’d know it’s perfectly fine for schools to run at 4.5 days.

It couldn’t happen in Wales imo as it would kill Welsh medium education. Children from English speaking families need more than 3 days a week immersion in the language.

TAs have been really hard to recruit this year, but actually for the first time in ages we've had plenty of teaching applications for our vacancies. We've even had situations where the decision was quite difficult!

We do employ quite a few unqualified teachers, but they're usually people with significant industry experience in their subject or specialist coaches, not TAs. They're paid as unqualified teachers not TAs too and the scale overlaps a bit with the qualified teacher pay scale.

"I hope the government aren’t thinking that actual teaching would be over 3 days and expect the TAs to pick up the slack the other 2 days."

Most TAs are there for children with EHCPs. There aren't many class TAs these days.

I can't imagine there's any way the government would let this happen. It would put our provision near the lowest in the world which is ... well, unimaginable.

I've worked in schools in two much poorer countries than ours, one of them an extremely poor, developing country. The poorer but okay country had 2 school sessions a day, one from 7 - 11 and one from 1 - 5 (I think, can't remember the exact timings). Basically all children only got 4 hours schooling a day and lots of homework. But they all got to go every day. The very poor country had classes off up to 120 children in one room. It was extreme and, if the child was ahead or behind the average pace of a class they weren't progressing. Yet they still all got to go every day. We can't possibly go below those terrible standards.

Other reasons it wouldn't be possible are, of course:
working parents
children with needs that can't be catered for online
subjects that are difficult or impossible to teach online
children who are vulnerable at home
private schools will stay at 5 days a week and everyone who can scrape together the money for them will use them resulting in even more a 2 tier system than we currently have.

THIS! ^

Instead of trying to work out how schools can run on a shoestring and coming up with ideas about boiling kettles and not paying teachers, as parents we should be protesting about getting them funded properly! If the Govt can waste billions on test and trace they can find more cash for schools.

Schools have limited budgets and these have been decreasing year on year since the Tories got in.

Heads have to manage the books. While costs are increasing.

Stop bloody voting Tory !

Given how many schools are stuck with ancient ineffeicnt heating systems that are expensive to run then this winter is going to be a nightmare for them to try to juggle the books. I doubt it will come to closures but something has to give.

thankfully Ds school is having a new system fitted over the holidays so that should help them a bit

I am very worried about this. I am worried about how schools will fund heating and the impact on students, but from a personal perspective I am very concerned about my job. I am an old experienced teacher - have been teaching for over 20 years. I am therefore very expensive. I work part time and currently have no management responsibilities (through choice - I used to be SLT but stepped down due to family commitments). If I were managing my school budget, I’d be looking at me and thinking, ‘If we can squeeze out OhTheLeetle, we can employ a full time NQT or even two qualified cover supervisors.’

There are lots of us old workhorses who have kept plodding along through the years, including providing cover for key worker kids during Covid and quietly getting on with it whilst the virus raged through classrooms and staff rooms and who are about to be rewarded with being ‘managed out’. I imagine they won’t want the cost of redundancy payments, so the narrative will be that the old workhorses have suddenly become incompetent teachers, and we’ll have our professional integrity, reputations and mental health trashed with ‘competency’ procedures before being unceremoniously tipped out onto the street.

It's already happening slowly. Most schools where I am close at lunchtime on a Wednesday or Friday. It'll happen bit by bit.

I don’t understand how it will save money though. Children will still be entitled to the same number of hours of schooling so surely if they aren’t being taught in school then they are being taught online. As we know this isn’t an option for all children and I expect we would be in a position where, for example, pupil premium children will be able to come into school and do online lessons from the classroom. So if the building is open for them then it’ll be lit and heated. No money saved there. The teacher will still be paid as they are teaching and also you can’t just suddenly reduce hours. So where is the saving?

We've just moved into a new building purpose built for us by the LA. It's supposed to be energy efficient and we shall see what savings there are there, but the increase in running costs for everything else is huge. There's so much highly technical kit that needs servicing annually by specialist companies. Before we could use a local plumbing company and shop around. Now there's much less choice and they all seem to think they're quids in when quoting for public sector work.
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