Schools Reopening?

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

Teacher here. Really hoping for and then only July for summer break. People saying that we can't go back in August as they have holidays booked are breathtakingly selfish.
For the children's mental health and the economy that feeds us all we need to get back to work.

As soon as it’s safe to do so. My life would be much easier if DC were at school as working from home with home schooling isn’t great, but at the same time, I like having DC home and safe.

I’ll be interested to see if they open the schools over summer, if the lockdown is lifted in say early July.

Agree @SpokeTooSoon
The plan isn’t to wait until we have eradicated this for us all to go back to school and work. It’s to control and manage the spread. I’m actually expecting they’ll have another couple of months off over Nov/Dec. But I do think they’ll prefer people to get back to school and work for some point over the summer rather than us all staying in until September then unleashing us all at the same time.

It will be controlled and flexible and ever changing. So hard to plan anything!

June 🤞

They could say - if you have a holiday booked already for July/August, you can go without a fine... that would be fair.

They’ll open in May

Those in the vulnerable group won’t even be out of the 12 weeks then! Do you want them to come back anyway?!

My school didn’t have enough people left NOT in that group to function!

I hope I’m wrong, but the numbers don’t lie

I think that's a bit harsh. I would be devastated if my child was in Year 6 tbh, especially if they were all going off to different schools. I know it sounds really silly but their whole primary school life cut off like this is really difficult, and I do think an 'ending' is very important actually.

@Vaginandtonic Well, much as I think it's a real shame, these children will get over it much quicker than those with cancelled GCSE's and A Levels. I don't really think you can compare the two. DS is in Y11 - no 'ending' for him either, no prom, none of the 'fun' stuff. But having his GCSE's cancelled has absolutely devastated him a hell of a lot more than any of that stuff.

They could say - if you have a holiday booked already for July/August, you can go without a fine... that would be fair.

And all the teachers and school staff with holidays booked?

Our school is still open for key workers children and will be open over the Easter holiday.

I think the earliest they can open is June. If isolation of the vulnerable teachers started in early - mid March and they have to stay away for 12 weeks that's the first time a school will be up to full teacher capacity. And that takes us to the second week of June.

There's not much point bringing kids back if you have to double up classes because the school is down 30% with vulnerable teachers missing. That only adds to the potential of the virus spreading, which will hit the NHS with staff shortages.

Not a lot you can do about those who have to go into 2 week isolation because of symptoms, so you'll lose some staff and children intermittently. But if you have 'planned' absences like vulnerable 12 week isolation, you have to work around that surely?

September, but I hope it’s earlier. (I’m a primary teacher).

I think it's realistic to expect that schools are back before "everything" is back to normal. So, schools could be back before pubs, restaurants and travel meaning we could work through the summer holidays as pre arranged holidays would be irrelevant.

We’re currently working a 1 in 3 week timetable for around 12-15 key worker children including the holidays for however long needed.

@cinammonbuns - good point about summer holidays.

September at the earliest.

Following the modelling done by imperial college, it predicted 3 months of closure, a relaxing of restrictions in late june/July then a resurgence of cases, which would then happen during the summer hols when schools were shut anyway.

So I predict late June for a month.

People can't help having a go can they? Teachers are working now. They don't get paid for holidays (salary is split over 12 months but they are contracted for for 44 weeks' pay). Many will still be working over Easter regardless of not being paid and having no hope of having the lost holidays to take another time. The salary may seem good, but it's on a par, or less, than many others that require you to have a postgraduate qualification.

If you want schools to be operational and ready to go then even more time will need to be spent than usual in August to put in the plans to make sure it's all ready to go.

I think that even if we only get a few weeks in June or July it will be worth reopening. Why wouldn't it be? We could use the time to round off the year, especially important for y6, and the kids wouldn't have been off for months then expected to hit the ground running in September.

They said that transmission rates were 1/3rd home, 1/3rd social events and 1/3-rd school kids.

September.
I have a teen in year 11 (who is missing sitting the GCSES’s he has worked hard for, prom, 6th form induction etc).
I also have another teen in year 10
who i feel is going to be affected worst of all
by this.

@fedup21 they won't be able to go on their holidays anyway, more than likely

They need to get the economy moving again, so schools will need to extend opening further to enable that, so for people who can’t work from home, schools will be made available. They aren’t actually closed at the moment,

So may latest, unless this virus goes crazy out of control then lock down is likely to be another four to five weeks max, they won’t change the holidays etc, and exams will remain off due to syllabus disruption and not full schools.

Some schools are closed. A school near to us is completely closed as no children needed to use the provision.

@fedup21 - What I meant to say is whether the summer holiday in August would be cancelled? In other words use the time that the students have had off up until then as essentially their, time off, and they go back to school in August.

But as several have pointed out, there are some contractual issues, and obviously the teachers are still working so there would still need to be a period of time off...

The government said school closures are only worth doing for a minimum of 12 weeks. And on another occasion they said it takes 12-16 weeks to have a worthwhile impact on the spread of the virus. It is not a quick fix.

Earliest date for reopening - 15th June. However, it depends on how the pandemic unfolds and whether there is good clinical evidence that this will not set us back. It could just as easily be August for Scotland / September for England. You can pretty much write off this academic year.

I don’t think it will be before September. BUT I’ve been told that we will be staying open for keyworker and vulnerable children all through the holidays, including bank holidays AND now they are considering weekends.