Teachers: What is your school doing?

[noblegiraffe]

The DfE have said DO NOT CLOSE YOUR SCHOOL. Ofqual have said KEEP PREPARING FOR EXAMS AS NORMAL

My school seem to have taken this as an instruction to just keep on trucking. They might have put some posters up in the toilets about handwashing tbf.

Other schools, from what I can tell on here, are gearing up to teach lessons remotely, cancelling trips, stopping assemblies, wiping door handles with disinfectant, making kids wash their hands before lunch.

I can’t see much chat about it on edutwitter, even after the Times article suggesting that A-levels might be postponed and GCSEs put back to September.

My head would take the view on that that if you are removing your cold voluntarily then you are taking responsibility for educating them when they aren't in school and staff will not be adding to their workload by providing work. We might point you in the direction of some websites you can use, but that is only if it is convenient for teachers to do so. I do quite like our head in terms of protecting us from unreasonable parental expectations.

To the PP asking about parents evening - we had ours last week. They encouraged people to not shake hands but refused to enforce. I had several parents who sat in front of me explaining how sick they or theirs children but they’d struggled in. 🤬

A case has been found at a school near my sister today.

The grandparent of a child apparently has got the virus and because he’d been in a meeting with the headteacher and some other members of staff, they are all self isolating for 14 days. The rest of the school is open for business as usual though!!

Teacher Tapp suggests that if schools close, secondaries would be fine for setting and collecting work from kids (probably due to online homework platforms) but primaries would be screwed.

teachertapp.co.uk/will-schools-closr-cope-with-a-coronavirus-closure/

Do you mind if I ask a quick question for any teachers/school staff?

My 5 year dd seems to be suffering a reaction to the school handwash (rash all week which cleared over the weekend but is back today) I've spoke to the school to see if we can provide our own sensitive skin unfragranced anti bacterial handwash, but they're very reluctant to allow it in case other children then use it.

Can you suggest any solutions that they may be willing to accept?

My concern is her hands are starting to look dry and a little cracked so she's going to be at risk of infection from that.

Thanks

We have mathletics and TT rockstar

The issue with schools and nursery is the kids are even less giving than adults. I think it's a bit crisp that teachers and parents have to accept they will get it from the kids no matter you being careful.
Kids are also ill so much that it is worrying if they get a cough or fever etc.

I'm allergic to soaps and handwashes , too...

Tbh, I just use water when out and about and have the constitution of an ox. I was very sneezy and itchy after going to Morrisons on Saturday because all the till staff were slathered in anti bac.

It's a hard one but I'd say allergies and cracked skin pose more risks for your DD.

Well, we've upped our game today - hand washing every time a child comes into school, eats a snack, has lunch, goes to the toilet and also hourly, so every quarter of an hour there's a different class going to wash their hands.

At the end of the day the toilet floors were soaking wet.

Tomorrow we might work on not picking noses and not sharing lip balm

We're setting up appropriate links on the website for children who might be at home for a while so they can do some English/Maths but I'm not sure what they are yet.

Do you think they will shut schools and when?
I was convinced today in light of Italy struggling so much.

Rory Stewart just now :

The government has made a serious mistake today. They should be acting much more aggressively to contain coronavirus.
Schools should be shut now. If the government are not prepared to shut them now, they should - at the very least - state clearly and transparently what their triggers will be for closing schools over the next few days.
All medium and large gatherings should be cancelled. All passengers coming from hotspots should be tested and quarantined. There is no excuse for passengers not being tested off a plane from Milan last night.
There is no justification for half-hearted measures. The government and the Mayor keep saying they are simply following “scientific advice”. But the scientists are clear that this is now a political decision - on whether the government are prepared to spend very serious sums of money, and take a large economic hit, to maximise protection of the population.

Primary TA here.

We are getting children to wash their hands on arrival and after lunch break as well as having hand sanitiser available.

Talking in assembly and in mornings about handwashing and minimising contact, catching coughs and sneezes in tissues or elbows.

Posters up around school on handwashing.

Doors held open so no one is touching door handles.

No handshaking or holding hands.

Google Classroom has been set up so we can set work remotely.

100% attendance today so no sign of parents wanting to keep children off.

I am slighted worried about what happens with TA pay if we close but in all honesty I would not be upset if it happened. Really hope DH's work starts wfh so he is not on the tube every day.

@TheSultanofPingu
Sorry, didn’t see your question this morning. We have 6. 3 for an hour before school and 3 for 2 hours after school. They do a great job and our site manager is like a Rottweiler protecting them/their hours.

We showed all forms the handwashing video on the NHS site last week, have posters up but thats it.

We had to close for a deep clean before Christmas as we had so many students and staff off with stomach bugs/flu like illness - apparently all that was done extra were doors (cleaners refused to do keyboards as the contracted company are not insured to cover IT equipment so the dirtiest items in the school were not touched)

What is Google Classroom? I keep hearing it mentioned.

I’m with the boffins on closing schools. Now is too soon.

My son's secondary is making them use hand gel as they enter the classroom and also spraying down all the desks in between classes.

Where are all these schools with hand gels??

Primary teacher:

More handwashing, reminding, anyone who gets caught picking their nose needs to wash their hands.

That's it.

Online learning: mathematics and TT Rockstars, but I can't see schools closing. Ever.

Nothing... absolutely nothing....

My DD uses Google classroom for lots of classes and homework. Each subject has a 'room' and they can upload and complete homework, work collaboratively with other students, etc and the teacher can see everything. School used it during Beast for the East school.closure to get them to do work
Each child has a Chromebook and a Google login and it's all controlled by the local authority

Mine are doing nothing. Pretty
Much been told keep going till you drop. I’ve washed my hands that much I’ll have no skin left by Friday

We have handwashing posters. That is all.

I have been wiping down my own room with spray every day - laptop, doorhandles, desk etc as I am not the only one who teaches in my room. I have bought in my own spray and cloths. No anti bac has been provided. No hand gel. No tissues.

I am telling kids to keep the billionty pens, pencils and rulers they ask me for as I hope this will help control any potential spread of germs.

I just have a gut feeling we will finish a week early for Easter but maybe keep GCSE and A Level classes in.

An interesting point raised on another thread-:

It seems to me like government policies are making more sense as we get more information. So the changing rules about class sizes is needed because they’re going to ask everyone with respiratory symptoms to self isolate, which will inevitably means teachers being off

So, it could be that the gov are expecting lots of people to begin to self isolate with respiratory symptoms in the next week or so and the class size cap being relaxed will allow teachers And schools to ‘cope’.

My school don't have much in the way of online learning platforms. We have Moodle, but the only departments that have ever used it are mfl and science, I don't know why. So the kids can probably log on to it, if they have WiFi and compatible devices (not guaranteed, we're a rural farming catchment, a lot of our kids live in areas without good internet coverage), but most staff don't actually know how to set work on it. We used to have things like mymaths but cancelled it last year as it's cheaper to just print out paper homework for them. I think the only pupils who will actually do any work if school has to shut are the ones who are already motivated and have GCSEs/ALevels coming up. The rest will claim they "never saw any work, we don't have internet access at home".

I'm also with the boffins on this. It's too early to shut schools. We've got 5 confirmed cases in our county, it's not a proportionate response to close schools at this stage.

Primary TA here
Lots of hand washing during the day for us and reminding of how not to spread germs.
We are preparing to send work home remotely if we end up closing. My opinion is unless we have a case I cant see what 2 weeks will achieve, it won't disappear in 2 weeks.

The trouble is, everyday has that end of term feel, cos the kids are convinced we're going to be told to.close at any minute. It's going to be a v long 4 weeks. And I'm supposed to going away at Easter