Telegraph reporting primary schools to return 1 June

[MummaGiles]

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/02/primary-schools-reopen-june-part-blueprint-unlock-britain/

Sorry it’s behind a paywall.

Just heard about this on the radio. They are suggesting that Johnson will address the country next Sunday (10/5) with the roadmap, part of which will be primary schools returning on 1 June.

Not saying I believe it, just sharing the link.

My children will be attending as soon as they are allowed to. If nurseries reopen but not school ones I'll try to get my 4yo into a different nursery for the last half term. The risk to children is almost nil.

I don't care if it is school, or if they just widen school aged childcare to working parents (not just 'key' workers). Childcare is 'essential' to working parents, not optional.

If the number of deaths and new cases has dropped by June I would happily send my children in. But we are not in any risk category and they are struggling at home, missing their friends. I wouldn't send them now as the new cases etc are still too high. However, given that deaths have halved since the peak of the virus around the 10th April, it is entirely possible that by the end of May we will have less than 300 deaths per day in all settings, maybe less. My husband has a science background so he has been following reports that children under 10 don't spread the virus as much and there is limited evidence for this, but both WHO and PHE are actively looking into this. Plus we have an advantage in that some countries have started opening up primary schools so we will have 3 weeks to see if they have a rise in cases among teachers/pupils to guide us. I don't think anyone has said teenagers spread the virus less which obviously has an impact on high schools.

At the end of the day parents have to make what they feel is the best decision for their family. I am hoping for a June start and will wait and see what happens between now and then, but until the government changes things we are all abiding by the lockdown rules and will continue to do so.

To the PP who asked about private schools, I'm pretty sure they will open as soon as they are allowed. Not all private schools have a healthy profit margin and they will lose pupils as parents are hit by the economic effects of lockdown. Plus, they generally have smaller classes and big outdoor spaces so it would be easier to social distance than in many state schools.

“If you refuse to send your kid to school your an idiot, period!!
@user1471510720”

Bit rude. Homeschooling isn’t something I’ve ever really understood or felt inclined to do but I suspect some people much smarter than I teach their kids at home.
Each to their own, no need for observers to be snotty about it.

bathsh3ba

Teachers/houseparents in private schools, another group of key workers.
Many have hundreds of overseas students, lots of whom, because this all happened so quickly, have been stuck in the UK at school for weeks and weeks when they had been looking forward to Easter at home with their families.
can’t imagine how difficult it must be as a staff member to try to maintain some sort of normality while tending to the heightened emotional needs of scared children and teenagers, some thousands of miles from their families.

My children are at private school, and they will reopen their doors as soon as the government recommends they do so. As a PP has said, social distancing should be easier with significantly smaller class sizes, and larger premises.

I really hope they get to go back for the last half term of the year.

In England maybe, but unless we change the date/length of our summer holidays, I would be shocked of Scotland are back until the end of August.
Be a bloody nightmare getting school uniform/shoes/PE kit etc as well 🤦‍♀️

Ffs, if & before

I also hope my Y6 at least can get at least a couple of weeks of term time. Not so bothered about the Y7 but I'll send them both in when allowed to. My work is really suffering from them being home and I can't be furloughed. If this goes on much longer my mental health problems I had just about got a handle on will spiral and they will have an ill, penniless mother which is more of a risk to them than Covid.

Simple question from someone who is seriously concerned with food 😀
How are school lunches going to work? Imagine the queue, 2m apart and the tables they’ll need.
Packed lunches won’t work, the children who probably need to go back most are the ones who rely on a cooked school lunch as their main meal. A sandwich and an apple won’t really suffice for those.

I didn’t realise there were lots of overseas pupils stranded in the U.K.

That’s really sad.

(Lunch outside where possible. It’s summer - ditto lessons. I remember having outside kessons in summer in the 1970s).

There are quite a few at our nearest independent. Mostly from Asia, caught out unable to fly home.

That’s really upsetting. I hope they’re ok. Are they secondary age?

I remember having outside kessons in summer in the 1970s

Yes, probably before the government sold off all the playing fields...

We could probably have one class outside on the playground at a time to keep safely apart-there’s no shade though, so if it was v sunny, raining or cold, it wouldn’t be much good. Doesn’t much help the other classes though.

I expect rather than hot meals, there will be a cold packed lunch option (virtually all of our infants have it as they get FSM in KS1) which can be eaten in classrooms.

(Lunch outside where possible. It’s summer - ditto lessons. I remember having outside kessons in summer in the 1970s).

Not all schools have much outside space. I can think of one school I worked in where part of the play ground was the graveyard of the next door church.

according to the guardian live blog:

First Minister Mark Drakeford has said schools in Wales could reopen at the beginning of next month

Asked for an indication about when pupils could return, he told the BBC’s Andew Marr Show: “Our advice from the trade unions and from the local education authorities is that you will need three weeks as a minimum from the point that we decide to do that, to when schools can reopen, so we are talking about the beginning of June.”

Drakeford said some groups could return earlier than others, citing the examples of year-six children who are due to move up to secondary school and Welsh medium pupils who may not have had opportunities to use the language at home during lockdown

I think special schools should reopen first to all age groups. The children in these schools are the most difficult to educate out of school and their families will be on average having a more difficult time of it with most respite having been stopped.
They are also already in smaller classes.

Daffodil

Could be all ages, they board there from 7-18. I don’t know who the youngest is though, currently.
One of our oldest children has a couple of friends there and is in touch on WhatsApp (or whatever, she says casually trying to pretend she understands how it works 😁)

Yes in the same papers they are all still talking of ‘social bubbles’. It’s all guess work. If the children can go back 30+ stuffed in a classroom and on a school bus. I am not telling them they cannot socialise with their friends outside fo school. It’s illogical. Neither will I be sticking to a ‘bubble’ if between us we are potentially mixing with 180 families a day minimum. Looking good for a summer break in the UK too as I won’t be cancelling that either. The fact is they don’t know.

I think special schools should reopen first to all age groups. The children in these schools are the most difficult to educate out of school and their families will be on average having a more difficult time of it with most respite having been stopped.
They are also already in smaller classes.

Smaller classes yes, but with a large proportion of adults in. The two special schools near me had to close completely due to a lack of staff. They had so many in the shielding group it wasn’t safe to reopen.

Finding someone skilled and available to replace shielding staff may end up being a huge barrier in reopening schools.

If schools start opening in early June, do you think it was the right decision to cancel GCSEs and A-Levels ?

I think this decision was made as it was thought schools would be closed until September.

It would be nice for Year 11 to be able to do their 6th Form induction days,. My DS school has said they hope to run these, but I'm not sure this will be possible.

I really feel for the Year 11 and Year 13 kids.

happymummy2010

And the 10s and 12s, halfway through their courses. Will allowances be made for this interruption to them too at next years exams, I wonder?

The government guidance said that keeping special schools open should be a priority. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been with local authorities. There are no LA special schools open in my county whereas the independent specialists have stayed open for some judged the most vulnerable children and more places are becoming available as fewer staff are showing symptoms.
I know that some parents will choose to keep their child home but now re opening for those children who would wish to return needs to really be treated as a priority as there is enormous suffering going on in some families at the moment.

The private school DC go to have a few overseas students mainly from Hong Kong. Before lockdown we had agreed to have one student stay with us over the Easter Holidays rather than him flying home. Then the school/parents realised that this could be long term so hastily managed to repatriate all the pupils. Not sure when they will return.