Schools Reopening?

[Liveforever86]

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

I'm a teacher and would actually happily go to work during July and August. I teach Year 4 and saw how much it affected them thinking that they may not be at school at year 4 again. Also the year 6s were so upset at the thought of this being the end of their time atchool primary school. Some of them won't be at school together again if we stay off until September.

I would happily spend a few weeks of my summer holidays at school even if it meant the children could play on the school field together! By that time we will have been inside and away from all our friends and family for so long I think, for everyone's mental health, going back as soon as we can is the right thing to do.

@Burratorchildhood Please can we not teacher bash and tell teachers to ‘suck it up’. Suck what up? We were forced to close. And when we’re told we can open again we will. End of. X

I was the one who said teachers will have to suck it up. It's not 'teacher bashing' it's my colloquial way of saying that your profession will have to do what the government decides just as the rest of the country will, and legislation will be passed to ensure you do. It will be done for the good of the economy which is ensuring you are still on full pay.

Maybe this will be the start of schools offering more care out of term for the children of working parents. This would be a huge silver lining

No, I find this hugely unlikely. All big maintenance and building work needs a chunk of time whilst there are no children there in order to take place-they need to be empty.

Keewee27 that's the spirit!

I know, I’ve been in teaching for over 20 years, posters are making it sound as though we only get paid during term time, as you have said; It is spread over the year and get paid roughly the same each month regardless.
We have a Whatsapp English Department group, everyone is working daily on writing and preparing news Schemes of a Work. Plus phoning parents of students are not sending in the work set(via email) and then marking it. We have the vulnerable and front line workers children in school. We are still working.

posters are making it sound as though we only get paid during term time

Teachers are paid for 195 days-as per our contract.

@Pineapple1
I didn't say that I was a teacher (?). I'm a nurse, my DH is a teacher and yes sorry, I rushed writing the post but what I mean is that the salary is averaged out in order to receive pay over the holidays. In these unprecedented circumstances, I also don't know many teachers who wouldn't volunteer some of their unpaid leave to go back to school for a few weeks to help and say goodbye to the children that they care about. We are all in this together and doing what we can to help.

Realistically I think September, most things up the end of June are cancelled, think it would be hugely disruptive to kids to go back for say 3 weeks then break up again. Kids are going to be all over the place with what they have learned whilst off. Much better to start over in September so teachers can properly assess them.

Once the lockdown is not needed I think they are going to want to see a slow return to movement by people. So wfh will continue to be encouraged etc.

I can see childcare providers being allowed to operate over the summer holidays though to slowly restart kids intergrating again.

I think September. I think they will lift restrictions slowly to see what happens. The likelihood is we will end up with a 2nd lockdown

they can't cancel the summer holidays unless they actually give them the 6 weeks off before that. They can't expect teachers or children to work right through from now until September and then through until Christmas. They would end up doing an extra half term of school if they home educate (and lets face it lots of them are getting given an awful lot of work to do from home) during normal term dates and then go back in for the summer holidays too.

@starlight13

I know we haven’t officially met, but you know now of at least one teacher who would refuse to work the summer holidays.

As I said, I’m giving up my Easter hols and half term with no expectation of pay. If we are getting back to some normality by July, I’ll not be volunteering for anything school related.

There have been 1million new UC claimants in the last 2 weeks. Companies are forcing employees to take pay cuts, so many are banking on the furlough scheme. How long can the government fund this for? How many more cuts can employees take?
There is no "encouraging" wfh - it's the only option for many and it's far from ideal.
The imbalance between kids who have engaged and involved parents with time and resources to support them in their learning and those who don't needs to be minimised as far as possible. If it is safe to return to school in June or July that needs to happen. Not say that it's not worth them going back for a week or 2.

Could we start the 6 week summer holidays early? Wouldn’t be ideal as if life is back to normal by August I would like to not miss out on my holidays booked!

But we’re in a pandemic, we all have to miss out on some things we don’t want to.

I would be for carrying on this online ‘school’ up until the end of May half term, so we only have to get through teaching one half term online, and then if the country is not in a state to resume schools, we start the 6 week holiday then (we could even increase it to 8 weeks for a nice break before school resumes at the end of July?

I also think it is likely well be back to normal, so able to teach over summer (as long as we get our break beforehand) internally. But I doubt other countries will be opening their borders to us this summer, so it’s unlikely any kids or teachers with holidays booked will be able to go away anyway.

JosephineKarlsson It sounded like the usual teacher bashing to me. As I said, we were asked to close to all but keyworker children and we did. When we are asked to open we will open again. Neither you or I could have the foggiest idea when that will be, despite when you might wish it.

Neither you or I could have the foggiest idea when that will be, despite when you might wish it

Are you really a teacher? Of course none of us know. This is a chat forum where we speculate. But we do agree that you will open when told. So if it's August, then so be it.

@teachpaint

Confirmed in Wales at least that summer holiday is going ahead as normal.

JosephineKarlsson why are you so angry? There’s a global pandemic. You’ll have to learn to deal with the unknown and suck it up like the rest of us.

Wales has also mentioned wanting to come up with a nation-wide view for the remote teaching going forward in case this extends into the Summer term. So they are acknowledging that it may, indeed, I doubt they'd waste time and resources looking into it if they didn't think it would.

But whoever upthread mentioned holiday childcare in school for free can give their head a wobble. Where would the money come from to fund the TAs/after school club staff to run this? Surely not from an already squeezed-tight school budget.

You chose to have children - as did I, fully knowing the structure of the educational year in our country. Pay for their care when it's needed - as I did.

@JosephineKarlsson

You’re talking rubbish.
No teacher is going to be forced to work for no pay. And the government is not going to pay teachers to go back a few weeks early.

There is significant work to do currently and distance learning is expected.

IF the country is in a position to be sending children back to school in August, it’s likely that other business including holidays will be back up and running. They’re not going to send children back to school and tell parents to stay home a bit longer for a jolly.

Pre booked holidays would have to be honoured, for both teachers and students. The disruption this would cause would not be worth trying to make it happen.

Wales has also mentioned wanting to come up with a nation-wide view for the remote teaching going forward in case this extends into the Summer term. So they are acknowledging that it may, indeed, I doubt they'd waste time and resources looking into it if they didn't think it would.

Of course. The summer term extends from April 20th through to July 19th. We may need to be more efficiently remote learning for the duration of this period.

I think the sooner people actually listen and stay home the sooner it’ll be but I think September will be the earliest. The UK lockdown is being abused and treated like a holiday. Just because it’s been accepted to go out for exercise once a day it’s being taken full advantage of. If you have a garden run around it and do the same with children. I’ve seen families prancing along on an outing constantly throughout the day and people admiring the view, taking photos of wildlife....for exercise. I have no choice but to go to work everyday and have had to make the toughest decision of my life and send my son to live with his dad till this is over. These people are prolonging when me and so many others get to see and hold their babies again xx

Teachers are paid for all the holidays. Why do people keep saying they are not.

Teaching assistants are not, office staff, kitchen staff are not but teachers are.

All non-teaching staff get 5 weeks annual leave like any other job (plus extra for long service etc) plus bank holidays. All the other school holiday weeks are deducted from the annual salary and the staff receive 1/12th each month.

Teachers get no deductions at all from their salaries for any of the holidays. If a post is advertised at £40k then that is what they get paid, no deductions, no spreading out over unpaid weeks. They get paid 52 weeks salary.

TEACHERS DO GET PAID FOR ALL THE HOLIDAYS. NO DEDUCTIONS AT ALL.

(Supply teachers are different and their enhanced rate includes the risk factor of no holiday pay, no sick pay etc)

Nope scuba, just nope.

JosephineKarlsson why are you so angry?

I'm not in the least bit angry. It's hard though trying to engage with someone who finishes with "End of" and then puts an X

@scubadive I'm not sure what is so difficult to understand. Teachers get paid for working in school for 195 days. This accounts for all the terms and inset days. Their payment for this is divided over 12 months. They are not paid for the holidays.