The exit plan and schools.

[NeverGuessWho]

I know this whole thread will be hearsay, but I’m just interested in hearing people’s opinions of where schools are likely to fit in to the exit plan?

A friend thinks they will be opened early on, as this will free up more people to work, and hence enable furloughed workers to return to work. This will crucially save money.

IMHO, schools will be one of the last restrictions to be lifted. Once schools are opened, there will effectively be multiple mass gatherings in every town and city, all at the same time. Surely this will result in a surge of cases of the virus.

Unless of course, they pursue the antibodies/certified passport route?

What do people think?

So then the only solution - if none of these problems in the state sector can really be resolved - is for schools to reopen without further delay.

EYProvider most of the parents of our vulnerable kids are keeping them at home. Even if they were at school we couldn't currently put in place all the things we do to support them. Our SEN department, like most secondary schools, is the largest department in the school. We have a team of LSAs, specialist teachers and visiting teachers, we send children out to local colleges, work placements and special schools. We also have a large pastoral team who work mostly on safe guarding and mental health care.

And actually only children who have an EHCP or social worker are in the vulnerable group. Kids on the SEN register or getting additional support due to poverty aren't entitled to a school place on that basis.

Quote-So then the only solution - if none of these problems in the state sector can really be resolved - is for schools to reopen without further delay.

An the award for missing the point goes to....

I have toothache. Can you tell the dentist to fo back to? and Parliament while your on.

I love the idea that computers have suddenly become the best way of teaching (disclaimer : they aren't) and that the (very few) schools (notably in other countries) who provide all their kids with macbooks are somehow providing a better education.

Our exam system is totally predicated on sitting in exam rooms doing handwritten exams, except for a very few students. Normally, providing all with obsolescent tech kit would be seen as a huge waste of the public purse.

EYProvider an interesting username which suggests you should know more about education, public funding and schooling than you seem to.

But its not the swedish solution in uk because we have very few beds and are generally incredibly inefficient.
Hed immunity = many people like BJ - DEAD!
If he hadt shut the school then without preferential treatment he would have died. He needed at least oxyen.
If you want to let it run then i think you would have to assume no hospital admitanve for anyone over 50. Even for oxygen. Even with lockdowns countries are all losing care home residents as they are not taken in and italy didnt ventilate anyone over 60.
Do you not have anyone over 60 in your family, noone with high BP, diabetic (t1 or 2), pregnant or asthmatic.
Possibly the swedish are heathier or have more BCG or vitamin d etc.
And the proportion of Black and other minorities dying here and in US is higher. Many countries do not have such high % to start with.

Aside from anything else if you overwhelm the heathcare system more drs and nurses will die and teachers. I prefer we go back later and actually have teachers to teach and an nhs.
It takes 3w for people to recover in icu and its not like the cases have stopped yet

And reopening schools wouldn't be problematic for the NHS?
Not to mention the number of school staff that are shielding or in isolation? We're a way away from having the testing capacity to test teachers and their families so they can be cleared for work.

@refraction - I’m not missing the point. I’m saying find solutions quick to the problems preventing the state sector from opening virtual schools the same way the private sector has.

If these solutions can’t be found, then there will be no alternative but to reopen schools. Surely this is obvious?

Reading this thread is like talking to my mad auntie who claimed to be clairvoyant.

I am decidedly not a teacher-basher (I emailed one of my children's teachers yesterday, in fact, to tell him that they are all brilliant). However, I do agree with Xenia that schools should open on 1st May, and should not have shut in the first place.

@EYProvider Your ignorance is quite astonishing

I am also wondering where physically these students without IT kit are supposed to get it from. Make a journey on two buses to a school to perhaps find the IT staff not there and , if they are there , to engage in a not very socially distanced process to hand it over?

Good grief, my DH is an actual teacher (in a private school) and three weeks after requesting one still hasn't got his promised chrome book.

It is very very MN for people to disbelieve teachers who say that not al teachers, not all students, have a suitable device and internet connection EACH.

If the independent schools can sort out a virtual learning platform in the same timeframe

I honestly have no idea where the robust evidence for this is coming from.

@Ihavenoregrets - Can’t, can’t, can’t. It’s all anyone ever hears from the public sector.

Find a fucking solution the way everyone else has to.

So then the only solution-if none of these problems in the state sector can really be resolved-is for schools to reopen without further delay.

Luckily, you are not in charge of schools or running the country .

My DC’s state schools teachers are amazing. After a few teething problems with technology and workload, we seem to have reached a comfortable balance of work which doesn’t involve any of my DC being stuck in front of the screen for hours and is accepting of the facts that many households-even those containing educated professional parents-don’t have access to a computer each.

I’m sure state schools will open as soon as it is safe to :)

Are you doing anything to provide education for those who can't attend your nursery ey?

The computers may not be the best way but
It is 1-2-1 so tailored to child's own ability.
It can hold their interest
My nearly 5yo couldnt recognise numbers at the start of lockdown (she's very stubborn) but playing a game she can now do numberbonds to 10.

I cant see why across the uk we cant do a % of teachers doing short videos of curriculum content.
Easily done to do phonics/numbers.
Read a few stories.
The schools using zoom could just save them and 'sell' or trade them.

And re cost my kindle can do
Tt rockstars/mathletics etc and only cost £35-50. It is not like it's hundreds. People spend more than that on kids toys or parties.
If the content is available all the time rather than lesson times that would fit more with any parents using the equipment to wfh.

It's nice that you are currently housing keyworker's children and yet have such disdain for their parents, who will mainly be public sector workers.

These are the people who, at very little notice and with no extra training, and usually low pay and no protection are keeping the country going the best they can,

I am sure all that already exists on YouTube keep.

@Piggywaspushed - The children at my nursery are below compulsory schooling age, so no.

DD - Y12, state school - gets a week's worth of A-level lessons and work e-mailed to her every Monday morning.

She has a 1:1 language speaking lesson once a week.

Teachers respond to e-mails - so e.g. she has had a telephone conversation with one of her teachers.

Again, it's remote schooling. Not 9-3.15 online, not a single teacher video, but she's covering the same curriculum material as she would have done in school.

But how is opening school compatible with social distancing? I was I'll the first week of lockdown, pretty sure I caught covid at school. I'm only 40 and have no underlying health concerns, I was fine after a week in bed and a further week taking it easy. Lots of school staff will be shielding or self isolating at any one time. I can only see school open part time as an option, even then it would be impossible to enforce distancing, kids would be coming in, spreading it around an then infecting their families. Education is important, but not more so than the health service.

Our numbers were well down the week before lockdown, I suspect if you opened schools soon lots of parents wouldn't send their children.

There is NOTHING WRONG with a powerpoint or a worksheet or a textbook or a book, also available all the time!

A video is not necessarily better.

Isn't ANYONE bothered about the suggestion of 5 hours screentime, way in excess of what they would get in a school day??

Excuse caps but there are so many armchair epidemiologists and educationalists at the moment.

If the content is available all the time rather than lesson times that would fit more with any parents using the equipment to wfh

That is exactly how all the state schools I know of are operating - they are providing learning material for every pupil, just not via live online lessons.

A voice of reason : thanks cant.

I was feeling bad about what I was going but I really don't see why I should.

I know from the experience of trawling through a load of lessons on YouTube that many videos educational material is great; and much of it is dire.

Children do need tasks to do : staring at a video 'lesson' reduces concentration, makes them passive and probably loses half of them after about 5 minutes.

@EYProvider Why are so angry?

However, I do agree with Xenia that schools should open on 1st May, and should not have shut in the first place

Another clueless wonder.