Government reportedly considering schools going back in 3 weeks

[FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue]

On BBC News 24 now, article in tomorrow's Sunday Times says that ministers are considering schools going back in three weeks time. Plus allowing some shops and social gatherings, but not pubs and clubs.

Loads of people I know with primary school aged children are saying they are happier and more relaxed

Then that must mean they all are, eh?
I’m a chair of governors. We have 34 children identified as vulnerable who were offered places at the school, 2 of them have taken a place up. The teachers are trying desperately to keep in contact with their parents to check they’re happy/safe but in most cases failing (they don’t tend to appreciate being ‘checked up on’). In addition my best friends is a child protection social worker and she’s desperately worried about a lot of the children on her portfolio (which has tripled since schools closed).

@Quartz2208 You basically said what I meant more succinctly and effectively

One girl DH has talked about, her attendance is awful because the parents just don't think education is important for girls and keep her off school to look after baby brother or whatever. Unlikely this child will be encouraged, or even allowed, to access online schooling. And there is nothing that the teachers can actually do.

I think this just highlights how much has been off loaded onto schools in the past few decades. Schools are now providing a whole set of services to students that they often don’t receive enough funding or training to provide. Especially since the LEA services have been cut to the bone and academies have to opt in to them. Charities are now providing patchy counselling services in school because the child mental health service has vanished in a puff of smoke.

It also shows what an utter mess the system is. It is essentially only held together by the goodwill and hard work of staff- be it buying materials or working mountains of extra hours or providing safe spaces for vulnerable students or DSLs and HOYs physically going to homes and getting a child to get them into school.

Most Heads of Year teach an almost full timetable as well. They might get three extra hours across a fortnight and most of that is taken with meetings.

Something needs to change. Hopefully one positive of this situation is it outlines just how much schools do and how many actually amazing, hardworking teachers there are out there. Maybe then decades of mistrust can start to erode.

@Jourdain11 If parents do not think a girl should be educated, then yes her schooling is going to suffer.
I have seen parents on MN angry they have been identified as vulnerable and receiving regular phone calls from the school. I am aware though that there is rarely anything to support these kids over the 6 week summer holidays. No teacher is phoning then.

I know vulnerable also includes kids with complex disabilities and in some cases they are medically safer at home than school. I have sen a number of parents offered a place at school because of their child's disability say on MN they turned it down and explained why it was in their child's best interest to stay at home. So it will be a mixed picture.

I am also aware of the uber drivers who have died of covid 19 because they are migrants and can't claim benefits. Most have children. And their children will be suffering as a result, bereavement and in many cases crippling poverty as a result of their father dying.

No one is pretending any of this is easy. Lock down for some people is genuinely lovely, there is a thread about it. For others it will be difficult but manageable, I put my own family in this bracket. And for a smaller number really difficult.

@BelleSausage I agree. Schools should not be making up for all the inadequacies of awful parenting. But they are asked to do so without the funding for it. They are there to educate.

And since nothing else can really start back properly before schools,

There is quite a large proportion of the workforce that do not have school-aged (or younger) children, you know.

Whether the teachers get paid for the summer or not (and I don’t really agree with the argument that they don’t - they get paid a yearly salary the same as everyone else), it makes no difference to their salary whether the holidays are now or in July/August.

If the holidays are brought forward, teachers can take their time off now, along with the children.

Holiday clubs can then take over the hub schools, and everyone can go back in August.

Solutions like this could be found if people were prepared to look for them. No one will compromise.

No one will compromise.

It isn’t really about compromise. Schools do what the government tell them to do-that’s that.

@EYProvider , the reasons why this all can't happen have been done to death on this thread and others. It's really not helping the conversation.

and I don’t really agree with the argument that they don’t
It doesn't matter in the slightest whether you "agree" with the argument or not. You're wrong. They are only paid for the 195 days they teach (190 + 5 Inset days), plus statutory holiday, but this is spread over 12 months for ease of budgeting/accounting.
You have had this explained to you in detail countless times on other threads. Why are you unable to comprehend it?

For a start, I'd imagine the key workers and frontline nhs staff would rather their children were looked after, I imagine. Or does it not matter if they all take six weeks off at the moment? Think it through.

I know vulnerable also includes kids with complex disabilities and in some cases they are medically safer at home than school

Sorry, by vulnerable at our school I meant ‘at risk’... either current or past social services involvement and various other concerns. Not medically vulnerable. They are of course better off at home.

There is no education taking place in schools in terms of key worker children.

The curriculum has been suspended in school. It is now in effect childcare. Therefore no lessons are taking place as it would create inequalities in terms of learning.

Learning should be taking place via distance.

The government has indicated that laptops, routers and online lessons will be available.

They are not going to fund this just for 3 weeks. The set up cost would be too high.

So l don’t think they will be going back in 3 weeks

Schools won't open until September earliest.

You know this how? @Cary2012

A teacher from Runcorn died from corona.
We need to keep the schools closed

I think the variety of interpretations is interesting.

The reality is he didn’t give an indication either way on when the schools will open. He dodged it. The investment in on line resources isn’t huge, it took forty teachers two weeks. It’s not some form of long term replacement for in school education for all kids. It can be used by kids who can’t go back to school Ie medically vulnerable and shielded.

And they are never going to be handing out lap tops to vulnerable kids, how many hundreds of thousands of kids is that, did anyone even ask if they have ordered them? How long production would take? Recruiting the IT support for them?

It would take months and months to order a couple of hundred thousand lap tops and then roll out that program. And then as said, a large percentage of those kids would have the lap top stolen or sold, sometimes even by their own parents.

In addition millions of kids don’t have lap tops or tablets. They are not defined vulnerable as such, simply their families don’t have them and they don’t have the money, how do these kids learn?

If I’m wrong I’m wrong, but I would bet good money they will move hell and high water to get kids back into school before they started handing out hundreds of thousands of lap tops to vulnerable kids, leaving at least a couple of million kids in the middle with no lap top or tablet.

It’s worst case for them to have to go there, it simply comes with so very many other issues. All that happened today was he dodged the question and they added some platitudes. Did he say how many he’d ordered? Nope. Did he answer the question on the kids who live in homes without that technology? Nope. He dodged it. Talked about vulnerable kids and moved swiftly on.

Because there is no way that the five criteria outlined yet again today will be met before the end of July. And it was confirmed that there are no plans for teachers to work over August.
Because there is a woeful lack of PPE for NHS and care homes. This is part of above criteria. Crucially, the NUT and other Unions would not allow their teachers in school without PPE as appropriate. If the government can't fully supply NHS, they certainly won't be able to supply school staff.
Because as soon as schools reopen to mainstream, social distancing ends. Not just in school, but on the way there and back. After school, before school. They have already said that social distancing may remain for 'some months.'
Because Ed Sec said today that it wouldn't be instant, it would be announced before hand so schools/parents can plan ahead.
Because the Government has just funded the provision of computers and IT, which they wouldn't do for just half a term.

I was thinking after May half term, now seeing the press conference today and weighing it all up, I think September.
By the way, I'm a teacher, in school with key worker kids. Want to go back to 'normal' but it's a long way off.

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

Learning should be taking place via distance.

But that's the point, keyworkers leaving their kids in this childcare for full time work aren't going to be overseeing their kids' distance learning. The kids wont even be doing the distance learning. They'll be painting and watching movies.

Which leaves keyworker women with 2 choices, leave our kids withdrawn from school and uneducated indefinitely, or resign from our jobs.

What do you want me to do?🤷🏼‍♀️

It’s the government who decided it. I can’t change anything. Take it up with Boris

they are never going to be handing out lap tops to vulnerable kids

These children already have ring fenced money which schools spend on them. It's called PPG money. Presumably this will be used as the school can't spend it in school this term.

It does sound like a big deal to hand out laptops, but giving away swathes of old and slightly past-it laptops is an easy thing for a big tech company to do, and they do this with schools quite a bit. That's why the tech is so old and dodgy half the time - it's a pr present. I think that even given the numbers involved, this would actually be quite a straightforward lean on a computer manufacturer.

Islington - Computers for Looked After Children and Care Leavers

"One of the aims of the Children Looked After Service is that all looked after children of school age and care leavers who are at college or university, should have access to a computer to assist with their studies. For children and young people in foster and residential placements up to and including Year 9 Islington’s expectation is that all placements for looked after children and young people under the age of 18 should provide computers and internet access available for use by children and young people."

"For Children and Young People Above and Including Year 10"

"For children and young people in Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 (Years 10 to 6th Form) and for young people who are care leavers aged over 18 studying in Further Education and at University we believe that, where possible and appropriate, a young person should have their own computer to assist them with their education."

islingtonchildcare.proceduresonline.com/chapters/p_comps_lac.html

PicsInRed

The kids wont even be doing the distance learning. They'll be painting and watching movies.

I can assure you that where I work the keyworker kids have set times during the day where they do the work set by teachers.

Please stop posting generalisations

Which leaves keyworker women with 2 choices, leave our kids withdrawn from school and uneducated indefinitely, or resign from our jobs.

Why women?