When do we think schools will shut and likely turn of closure.

[whodunit3]

I don’t like either Nicola Sturgeon or Boris Johnson but I thought NS got it right with her press conference outlying the finding is the meeting and the plan for the foreseeable future. I didn’t agree with the outcome but I was a lot more reassured by her speech than I was by the wally BJ who waffled on with no real clarification or plan.

Are the schools likely to close, how soon do we think this will happen and for how long...

Surely if school closure is imminent the more time you can give people to put childcare, change of work plans, etc in place the better...

I work in a private school (not a teacher). We close as usual next week for Easter for a month but are preparing to be closed for the whole summer term and that we will have to roll out digital learning.

That’s reassuring thank you, hopefully my daughters school will be able to offer the same, nothing beats a teachers input over other methods of learning.

I think the biggest question needs to be that if children fall slightly behind, is that worth the loss of a committed teacher/grandmother/grandfather? School work can adapt, loss of life is definite

How on Earth did you and your colleagues have time to pre-record full lessons when you’re all still teaching, and eight weeks away from exam season, @Katexoxo?

My school has taken quite a sensible approach, I think. We are going to use Teams if the need arises, but the head has refused to make us set any work for the ones who’ve been removed by their parents for self-isolation, if there are no symptoms or recent travel to an affected area. The head said this is to protect staff mental health and well-being, as we are too busy with everything else we have to do at this time of year.

There's no need for recording at all, plenty of other more than suitable alternatives for the situation. We're using Microsoft teams as an example.

DD's school is likely to be closed from Monday. A child was sent home today with a raging temperature & a cough, they had been in contact with every class over the past coupleof days... DH works there but is only supply, so won't be paid. Bollocks, bollocks & crap.

@SachaStark I have been in work until 10pm every night this week

Union advice today for teachers said that there would/should be no expectation of things being recorded, so as not to open teachers up to any dodgy dealings with online content being copied, altered and circulating.

Bristol University closing on Wednesday. Will reopen in September.

That’s absolutely madness, Kate. You and your colleagues need to all start refusing to do this.

Not to mention the fact that this surely means you aren’t getting enough hours of sleep right now, something which your body will desperately need in a time of trying to avoid infection. Another point our lovely head teacher made: we all need to be making an effort to get enough sleep, no more marking at silly hours, etc.

@Joyfulljenny

I’m wondering what private schools will do. I know at our school there is already rumblings at pick up about recouping fees if we are closed for a substantial amount of time

That's tricky, but I would imagine there is a very real risk of the school having to close permanently if they had to pay back (for example) a term's fees whilst still paying teachers. Or they could not pay the teachers? (I worked in a independent school who did that...)

So I guess, as parents, you would have to balance your need for a refund with how much you want the school to still be there next term.

@moggiek do you have a link?

End of next week then it will tag onto easter hols

Apparently the Secretary of State for Education is meeting teacher Union Leaders next week - that will be a key meeting in this process. The NAS will have a list of concerns that will make him realise some of his potential scenarios are not going to happen eg 1 teacher 2 classes together.

Glasgow uni will have no on-campus big hall exams.
What they do have instead will vary from course to course.

Edinburgh is phasing out in-person teaching next week. All remote from Monday 23rd.

No link, sorry. My nephew is a student at Bristol, and they were told earlier today.

Swansea Uni is moving to remote lectures too.

It will be interesting to see if this results in a change to the way education works in general. Certainly at University level I have heard rumblings that going to a lecture hall and sitting in silence making notes it very outdated and a bit of a waste of everyone's time. I know of several lecturers who already record their lectures and make them available to the public for learning purposes... It might be interesting what comes of it all.

I don't think schools will close or should close. If your child has underlying health conditions, it may be sensible not to send them, but otherwise there's no reason to for schools not to continue. Children have to be looked after and unless every other workplace is suddenly closing down, including the NHS, they will have to be looked after in groups. Might as well be schools.

The NHS won't grind to halt because schools close. Most families have two parents, and if work places and offices close too, then there will be another parent at home to care for the kids.

I too felt a lot more assured by Nicola Sturgeon's than Boris Johnson's conference. I especially liked her comment that she was minded to impose a ban on large events because though the current advice was not to, it seemed at odds with them further down the line taking more harsh measures which are expected. She showed a lot more empathy and realism I suppose.

A week today.

We are a week or two behind most of Europe so I reckon they’ll tack a week on either side of the Easter holidays. I think the aim is to do a moderate closure at the time of steepest rise on the peaky graph they keep showing. That way it will “flatten the peak” and spread it out over the next few months rather than all in a couple of weeks.

I think they will add and extra 2 weeks to the Easter hols- so they'll either close next Friday, keep going until schools break up and extend the holiday at the other side.

People needing to get to work is obviously a massive factor. I understand there are issues surrounding childcare with that.

But it needs to be what's best for everyone. Childcare could be arranged for NHS staff etc if Boris put it in place. The children as long as they are healthy could be cared for.

I don't like this different approach. When China hasn't even hit a million and they are saying worst case 80% of us will get it. That is millions of us. That means we could be worse of than China eventually. Surely that's not right when it started in china.

The numbers are doubling everyday. So I'm guessing that's 400 tomorrow. 800 Sunday. 1600 Monday. At what point is he going to start crowd control. They have not even put anything in place to allow children with vunerable family to stay home. It's not being handled well on my opinion. I hope he gets it right. But I think he's accepted it's here and thinks we just have to carry on until it gets us.

Next week sometime, I think. I don't think it'll be much longer than that, anyway.

My thinking is they'll extend the Easter break by a week either side.