How will large schools cope?

[oldbagface]

The school issue is worrying. Our school has approximately 1800 pupils. Inner city school in a deprived area. Huge percentage of pupils do not have English as a first language which may possibly hinder understanding of the plethora of new rules they will be expected to adhere to. Further, a high percentage of kids with learning disabilities, Ditto the same issue. Also, even if all kids were able to be compliant and carried out all expectations to the letter, who is going to clean the school throughout the day. Particularly high touch areas. It's not possible. I don't see how it will be safe.

Then if we go with the untested theory that kids don't spread it. In a school of our size there's a lot of adult staff members. Still plenty of opportunities to spread the virus.

Opinions please.

I work with lots of schools and I think that there are loads of practical difficulties which people have already raised:

• small kids not understanding SD
• buildings being tricky
• behaviour management of older kids (coughing pranks)
• split sessions and staffing
• transport (would parents pay for a half-used pass?)
• buildings being variable
• a number of staff with underlying health issues (12 week letters, pregnant, or live with someone with issue)
• staff with childcare concerns (eg nursery problems)
• staff with PPE concerns (masks doesn’t seem practical) - it’s not just teachers, there are cleaners, site staff, catering staff, receptionist etc - what about first aid? kids who need one-to-one?
• schools are struggling to buy stuff like hand sanitiser at the moment, it’s not in stock
• ordering stuff will take time, there is no one in to take deliveries necessarily

I agree with pp that SD may be withdrawn for schools which will resolve issues, but staff and parents are likely be uneasy.

The key focus for schools now will be bridging the gap between those who have been OK in lockdown with remote learning and those who have struggled for whatever reason. There is likely to be a real focus on helping the kids who need it. Schools are committed to providing the best education possible, but it’s not going to be an easy job for some time!

Then there are the practicalities of kids sharing texts and borrowing pens (there are always some who don't come equipped). And I'm afraid I'm not marking books.

The NHS is loads of spare capacity and would cope over summer far better than October (going in to peak flu season).

The whole pint of lockdown was to control the spread and ease the pressure on the NHS. This has been achieved and this is why I think some children will go.back in June.

I am a teacher with secondary aged children- one in year 10 . None of us are in high risk groups so I’m not personally worried about the virus , I am keen to go back to work- and for my eldest to get back to her GCSE . As a family we really need society to start on a pathway back to normal as we are facing the very real possibility that my husband will lose his job. However for all the reasons suggested I think that any social distancing measures will be lip service at best , and horribly complicated to implement. I’m worried that some of the measures suggested are going to impact the quality of the lessons to the point that actually that the pupils will be less well served than they are at the moment with our online provision. My daughter at the moment is keeping up well, if she goes back to classes which are random groups covered by non specialists she would very much be better at home . This is complicated by the fact if I’m in teaching I and others won’t be able to support the students at home the way we would like. If school are not opening fully then the benefits to working parents are much reduced and if they are open fully then at least 3 members of my department with serious underlying health conditions are going to be in a really tricky situation. I’m hoping for a definite date from the government so that we can all start to work through these questions. There are no 100% good solutions and we need to be realistic about the least worst options.

I agree that the quality of the lessons will be impacted definitely. And as a PP said teachers aren't going to want to mark books and things.
I think the now year 6s and year 10s will suffer the most so I think they should be able to go back first/full-time but with social distancing measures in place, their classrooms would have to be split in 2/3 meaning they will need more teachers.