What will be the 'new normal' for schools?

[Springhere]

I know it could be a long while before schools reopen, but it's inevitable that things will be far from normal when they do. What do you think the major changes will be?

www.tes.com/news/coronanvirus-reopened-schools-show-new-normal

@Eccle80 I live in Worcestershire. Funnily enough though where I am from (south coast) also had the same school system so I had no idea until a few years ago that most places don’t do it this way, I thought everywhere was the same!

I imagine there will be bubbles for EYFS, one key worker working with a group and not interacting with the other bubbles.

Up the school I think it will be keeping classes as bubbles, TA and teacher stay in that room all day, don't move to library or hall.

I think social distancing will be applied for pick up and drop off. If possible everyone drives their children to school, kids get out of the car to a member of staff and then sent in. Parents / carers stay in cars. Only parents with no car allowed to drop off and they can then be in masks and social distance from members of staff and other adults.

The hope is that in many places in a few weeks community transmission will be low and track and traceable. If people aren't moving about too much socially and commuting it is much easier to track down and quarantine cases.

Anyone with symptoms will be able to be tested and dealt with accordingly when we go back, that will help massively.

I do not think kids will be asked to socially distance within classes, they may be required to do things differently but it won't be as people invisage probably.

I think it'll be social distancing in one form or another.

It'll be smaller classes so staggered days or weeks depending on the age group of the child

It'll be no breakfast or after schools clubs. Just straight in and straight home. Because you can't have staggered days if Kylie needs a breakfast club but her day starts after lunch and George needs an after school club and his day finishes at mid day - for example. Too complicated for the school and the parent to manage.

Unless they go by key worker and do a 'stays at school all day' approach for the children of those parents - the parents will just have to understand that their year 8 child will not be with his/her friends because they've finished at mid day so they're now in with year 7 kids for the remainder of their day.

School gyms, halls, libraries etc will be used as classrooms because there isn't enough room to social distance without them - so sports inside and the luxury of a school library will be put to one side for a while.

More outdoor learning whilst the weather permits.

Closure of schools if Covid 19 hits. Just because of deep cleaning.

Lunches will have to be packed lunch and kids will have their own seat in a particular class - no moving around the school in secondary.

It'll be grim but they'll be back to a form of education.

It'll

@DaisylovesDonald yes me too! If they did return based on transition years it would be very confusing as the county has 4 different variations I think!
Most people from other areas seem confused about why my year 6 and year 4 are at different schools!

@DBML
Your post questions all the same concerns that the high school I work in face.
Also, for posters who ask if the kids can remain in the same class and the teachers move around - secondary doesn't work like this. Our secondary streams students from year 7. So a student might be Set 2 English, Set 3 Science, Set 4 Maths (we have 5 sets - big school). So a student won't be with the same students for English as they would be for Maths.
I can see a phased return for Primary after June 1st possibly working, but secondary would take months organising, not weeks, months. And then it wouldn't be anywhere near as effective as it is now.
And social distancing would go out of the window - even in secondary - teenagers not congregating in groups before and after school? All walking home individually 2 metres apart? Yeah, I'd like to see it!

Someone else has mentioned this but they will have to do something about the school transport too. The buses are very crowded and certainly no way of socially distancing. Also, there was obviously no refund when we stopped using the service in March (one of those things) but I can't see them happily laying on extra buses without passing on the cost. Ours is a private coach company rather than council provided transport but I'm sure the principle is the same.

Our HT was saying today that he thinks it will be y10, 11 and 6.

We are a primary. He suggested splitting the 2 y6 classes across 4 classrooms and teachers.

Except that's still only 1m part due to the size of the table. And even then that's not taking into account how close behind the next row is. 1m will be a push in my small classroom, easier in others.

To get 10 to a room, we would need to 'use' the y4 teachers too.

Which does 2 things...it widens the number of teachers you need to be available to teach (and not sick/isolating/struggling with their own childcare) and it means that they are perhaps teaching all day and then who sets the online work for their normal class that isn't in?

And who staffs the hubs? And how do the hubs stay open if they have to use their space for the clases who are in? Or will it be y6 in but with key worker children too?

Don’t get the year 6 thing as they have normally covered syllabus by now and the secondary transition stuff won’t happen due to cross site contamination so to me they should be the last ones!

They might have to stream rather than set.
So maybe on maths ability and science.

I think if kids cant? Transmit to adults thats good. But it's not saying they cant give to each other.
Plus they could catch from teacher.
The virologist on JV said he thought it unlikely that kids couldnt give it to adults...
Even so anyway kids have clothes bag stuff and hands which can spead virus everywhere.

Kids cough for ages after an illness.
That kid in france had 3 different viruses they found. What starts as a cough could end weeks later with a different virus.
With the masks on in school and public people would have less colds and flus and schools and pupiks would be off for 2w less of the time.
The swabs are only 70% so even if a key worker got one promptly still 30% chance they return to work with covid.

Don't think Australian schools are doing any social distancing based on their medical research so we should watch what happens there especially NSW which had the most cases.

Australia have had a much lower death rate than us though, haven’t they? Difficult to compare the two countries.

I think June time they will go back, but not full time and not all at once. So it'll be part time and smaller classes to allow for social distancing. It'll be nice, even just for final year students (like year 6, 11) to be able to have that final goodbye to their class mates. My friends son is year 6 and is really scared of the prospect of going to secondary without being able to say bye to his friends and teachers

I can’t see year 11 being a priory after all-once they’ve said goodbye to each other, what are they going to do?! They won’t teach them anything as they have finished.

Schools reopening across European countries is misleading. They are not reopening to the way they were before, there are still large restrictions on numbers, where chn are taught and how they are taught. Many countries closed schools totally so now opening to a few at a time is in line with where we have always been. Same goes for other restrictions, many that aren’t lifted are restrictions we never had in place so they are not exactly way ahead of us tbh

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/29/coronavirus-schools-across-england-reopen-phases-education-secretary-gavin-williamson

You've probably read the Education Secretary's statement today. Things are moving too slowly. £100 million invested in the last couple of weeks to the extra provision for students, online learning and for vulnerable students, lap tops etc. And now they are saying that the majority of the lap tops won't be delivered until June!

How can they invest millions in this, then re-open schools the same month? Does it make sense to you?

It’s not just reopening schools but also ensuring social distancing for everything else required, such as pick up/drop offs, the companies who deliver lunches (if not made on site), wraparound care, public transport to schools or private buses etc.

Could this be the time that children repeat a year and as a result we fall in line with many other countries and start formal education at the age of six.

I haven’t seen anything said about nurseries or preschools opening. I wonder if the assumption is that it will all happen at the same time or whether it’s accepted it’s so impossible with younger children that they won’t be reopening for the foreseeable future.

The IT kit won't be in place til June As there is a huge shortage if processors for laptops due to China being hit first
other kit like webcams etc are like hen's teeth cos everyone is buying them and they are going out of stock as soon as they come in

Why do people keep suggesting children repeat the year?

Firstly, they had virtually two of the three terms at school.

Secondly, what happens to all the 4 year olds waiting to start Reception in September? We just tell their parents to keep them at home for another year? Stay at nursery? So nurseries have to create extra classes and staff and house them?

It’s absurd. Education is a conveyor belt I’m afraid not a pick and mix experience.

I would hope they didn't make DD repeat the year - they move up into S3 at the end of may and with 2 weeks Easter holidays and what should have been a week on a school trip she's not missed that much at the end of S2 and they are giving lots of work using Google Classroom

If they made Y12 repeat a year there would be noone moving onto university- and also unfair on those schools / students still working well remotely. Ds seems to be getting loads of assignments etc to do and is doing them so no reason he should have to repeat a year.

Repeating a year won't be a thing. In my opinion.

I think maybe year 6 will be back in primary in some form - maybe 8 children per classroom, spread out among all KS2 teaching and support staff. Maybe reception children, again - key worker approach, so stay with only a few children. My reasoning being that year 6 need transition to happen to some degree, and still have some learning to do. Reception because it's hard to provide learning for them at home.

OR, KS1 staff are shared out teaching vulnerable and key worker children in as far as possible, similar age grouped 'groups'. More encouragement for vulnerable and key worker children to be in school - at the moment lots are choosing to stay at home because that's the guidance.

This is my school though, won't work everywhere!

Also, if teachers go back to school, their own children need to definitely have places as key worker children, because at the moment, mine doesn't.

Y6 is often cited as the best place for reopening due to transition, but that usually involves lots of visits and mixing with secondary staff and pupils-is that necessarily going to be a good scenario to begin with?

They are a massive concern for mental health going forward. If they are going into settings that are otherwise mostly empty, just to get a clue about the place etc, meet a few teachers, that's better than nothing.

There are NO good options for returning schools safely in my opinion. I was in school today with 6 children and a TA. We made a concerted effort to socially distance (I haven't even tried on other days I've been in school), and it was sort of possible. Any more than 6 children per classroom and you're stuffed.

I'm glad it's not my decision to make!

They won't repeat a year, that can't happen for many reasons, most of which have been outlined above.

In a perfect world, they would all be on the same page when they return.

However, we knew when this home schooling started that there would be some students who just wouldn't bother with the work set, they're the same ones who don't engage and bother at school. (Only a small proportion, and I'm talking mainly years 9 upwards). This has been confirmed by the lack of work submitted thus far, despite phone calls, emails, extra help etc. When they return, they will be offered extra intervention in English and Maths, and might engage with this, but some won't. Then the exams will hit, and it will be too little, too late. But this happens every year, whether they are in school or not. I don't know if this rings any bells with teachers/TAs on here - but it's a true reflection in our school.

So I suppose my point is that the hard working students will be ok, and the ones who are not bothered will be affected. Just as it is every year.

I work mainly with SEN/vulnerable students and I worry about them being at home, from a safe guarding point of view, as they can be in school now, but we are only seeing about 20% currently in school. Some of our students are persistent school refusers, and I envisage getting students back to school, after months off, a real issue too.

This is the reality in a very big urban high school - lots of FSM students - lots of SEN. We have excellent pastoral care, rated very high in our county - but we can't help our students if they are not in school. And when they return, we will have many problems to face too.

Im in France where they have decided to reopen the schools from May 11th.

There is still a lot of missing info but the 'plan' for primary is something like this:

Putting your children in school will be optional.
First week the transitional years will go back.
Second week a few other years
Third week, school open to all year groups.

Classes to be less than 15 so more than likely 2 days in, 2 days homeschool (no school on wednesdays here).
No wrap around care.
Varied start and finish times to avoid large groups at pick up/drop off.
Staggered play times so you will only be in the playground with your classmates.
Lunches to be eaten the classroom.
They will be focusing solely on the important subjects, project work etc will not be taught.
Children will move up a year as normal in September (all being well) but the program will be adapted due to many kids being out of school for a couple of months.

I think it will be VERY difficult for everyone involved.