Schools Reopening?

[Liveforever86]

When do you honestly think it will happen? And when do you want it to happen?!

I am sensing there are many teachers that are resisting the potential reopening of schools for their own reasons, because of course we are able to teach classes of forty five. It is hardly going to be a scandal in the short term if it means we can offer some kind of education to the students.

Solutions will be found, because the alternative is that the children will lose much of the academic year will not be able to catch up, their mental and physical health compromised.
It helps no one to simply say it can't be done, when in reality of course anything can be done with goodwill and a solution based approach.

It may not be the usual school day that we are used to, we may have to improvise, but to continue closures into the autumn for no good reason is very hard to envisage.

With using supply teachers, do bear in mind:

-There is a limit on the number of supply teachers who can make a living in a given area, so a limit on the number of supply teachers available.
-Some of these are older and/or fall into vulnerable groups.
-Some supply teachers like to pick and choose when they work and what schools they work in.
-Some supply teachers won't want to put themselves at risk (and won't need to financially).

The last week before schools close we were absolutely scraping the barrel on supply teachers, and still couldn't do full opening, and we are a school most supply teachers are happy to come and work in. There aren't enough supply teachers available to cover all the gaps in staffing that would appear if we reopened schools after Easter.

Almost by sheer coincidence, I have just received an email to say our school based in the south west, is aiming to reopen in seven weeks time.

That takes us to the half term by my calculation, so reopening is being planned now for June at least here.

I just thought I would share that with you.

I don't think the governments main reason to open the schools again is education, they want the economy running & to manage the infection.

Cornish,

I genuinely think this will be like the clamour for school closure that was here only a couple of short weeks ago.

Followed by a dramatic 'This can't go on because it is too damaging! They must go back'

There will be a clamour for children to return.

Follwed by an 'It's not worth it! My family is now ill because of the vurus X brought home from school. Their teacher was only in for 5 days before she went off for a fortnight, and I gather she's now in ICU so won't be back soon. There aren't any proper lessons anyway, and none of the usual special events for the end of the year can be organised so why did we send them back so soon?'

The best - and IMO most valid - reason to send children back for a few weeks at the end of term is to catch COVID and be ill over the holiday, to reduce the inevitable peak falling in October / November. I suspect parents will be unhappy because so many of them will be ill, and so many of their teachers will be ill, but that will be the point.

It would be nice if they reopened before September even just for a week so children can see their friends and in some cases say goodbye to their school.
It's the year 6 that's it going to hit really hard. I hope they stagger the secondary schools in September so the new year 7s are in school for a week before the other years pile in.

@cornishdreams1 You are absolutely twisting my words- you said that there are schools that teach classes of 45 under normal circumstances. I said that would be a scandal if that was happening.

I am resistant to schools going back too early because it means that students, staff and their family will be put at risk of catching the virus, and yes, dying. The death rate in China for 11-19yos was 0.2%- that's about 2 children in your average large secondary school.

I would suggest the person with their own agenda here is you- why are you so desperate to have schools open?

I do think there are a subset of parents who are struggling to cope with having their children at home. If that's you, then maybe you should be asking for help and suggestions, rather than pushing for schools to go back before it is safe to do so.

Well maybe mocha but in the kindest possible way, it helps no one to force an even deeper recession, taking longer to recover and seeing more and more companies hit the buffers.

because of course we are able to teach classes of forty five.

I can certainly try to teach a class of 45. However, it's going to be almost impossible for the pupils to learn in that environment.

our school based in the south west, is aiming to reopen in seven weeks time.

I presume only if the Government allows them to open for children over and above the emergency childcare for which almost all schools are open throughout? It isn't, AFAIK, up to the individual schools - it is a government diktat, applying to all schools including private schools and FE cvolleges, for all schools to be closed for an indeterminate period of time.

The recession is not a zero sum game. Lots of deaths and lots of very ill people will also cause a recession.

For balance, my school, also based in the south west, is asking us to plan for the school to be closed to most students for the whole summer term. They are also asking for staff volunteers to go in on weekends to care for key worker staff, should this be necessary. I have volunteered for this. They are planning for things to get worse before they get better.

I really do hope we can go back in 7 weeks, as that would mean the outbreak is basically under control and harm has been minimized, but I really do think that is unlikely to happen.

In the UAE they announced yesterday that distance learning will continue for the rest of this academic year, so children will not return to school here until very late August. That's six months of being out of school, although teachers are providing daily lessons.

Yes- individual schools can't "aim" to reopen. They will do as they are told by the government.

sansa I am sure there are many parents wishing for schools to reopen, I am not one of them however. I have much older children that are using the time wisely to study for next year's exams. It makes no difference to me, however I am very alarmed at the number of posts wailing it can not be done. Of course it can and will be done.

I have just received confirmation that our school is reopening in seven weeks time, I am sure you will hear in due course about your own arrangements.

I would like to see a rational decision made based on the statistics and the spread of the disease, as to when the safest moment would be to reopen schools.

It is not rocket science to run school even with limited staff, it happens every winter!! Children deserve our commitment to their education, every effort must be made to deliver their education and not to seriously damage their prospects by extending a closure after the peak.

The death rate in China for 11-19yos was 0.2%- that's about 2 children in your average large secondary school.

That assumes that every pupil in the school gets it, gets symptoms and those symptoms severe are enough to pass the threshold for testing in China at the time of those statistics.

This is why i think schools will reopen n late June / early July, to deliberately infect as many people as possible and create a new peak, then close for the summer holiday for as many as possible to recover, then back again in September with more herd immunity.

I agree with this. Even if we could manage to keep up this level of extreme social distancing till September, it wouldn’t be a good thing for managing coronavirus as we’d then get a huge spike in Autumn when more people are sick anyway.

I have just received confirmation that our school is reopening in seven weeks time

That's not possible. The school isn't able to choose when they reopen.

@cornishdreams1 I know hence my post

September 100%

I have just received confirmation that our school is reopening in seven weeks time

No, you haven't. You have received an e-mail saying that they will aim to do so (as you said in your earlier post). If allowed by the government - which is why they say 'aim' not 'will'. It's NOT something individual schools are able to decide - that is very clear.

sansa I very much doubt the principal in my school is working outside government guidelines.

Can you please explain to me why you think schools should remain shut until September? What would be the purpose exactly? (apart from ensuring a second wave at the worst possible time)

@SpokeTooSoon do you know personally every single member of staff in each of the school's and can 100 % say that none had underlying health conditions? This is something HR and the heads would know, not some random armchair expert parent.

I don't think mine is planning to until September.

It is not rocket science to run school even with limited staff, it happens every winter!!
A big difference between a normal winter, with its colds and flu and other bugs going around, is that staff will push themselves to come in until they just can't do it anymore. Totally different now - one hint of a persistent cough or a temperature and you are off for a week. Add that to the staff already off due to being pregnant or asthmatic and I'm not sure how much useful learning can still go on.

I have received an email to confirm we are working to a seven week time scale, and we are aiming to reopen then. Without a shadow of doubt our school would not be operating outside government instruction, so I assume they have been told that this is the plan.

I have no idea if it will vary from school to school, or even area to area. I am simply sharing with the information we have just received.

I would imagine we have been told to plan for this, and assuming everything goes well this is what we can reasonably expect. I don't think anyone can be 100% certain at this point what will happen, we are being guided by the most likely scenario, based on the model being used by the government to date.