Finally some news about schools

[pontypridd]

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/03/revealed-year-six-primary-school-pupils-may-return-on-1-june

In NI schools break up at the end of June. I have a shielding letter. My children are 6 and 4 and both would be vulnerable. No way to self isolate from them at that age. Especially in a small 2 bed flat. They wont be going back for a while yet.

Schools have NOT been closed to stop everyone from getting it. They have been closed to slow the spread......IF they open on the 1st of June, but you decide its "safe" to send them in Sept, Nov or even next June there is nothing to say your child won't bring it home then...... Why do people not understand this??!!! 🤷‍♀️

Until there is a vaccine NO ONE is safe from it.

There's been some discussion about that interview with Mark Drakeford. He tried to say that they would need 3 weeks to prepare, so we'd be talking about first June 'there' when he then ommitted to say 'if the decision to open was indeed made by Friday'.

It's been clarified since. And clarified as not being 'imminent'. Kirsty Williams has clarified also that it will be Welsh Gov, not England who decides, and that it will be released through official press release only as it is 'too important a message' to come through any other channel.

Regardless, those worrying about 2m distancing in schools shouldn't.... they will do away with the 2m requirement as soon as they open schools. The WHO says 1m in lots of their info not 2, so I imagine we will be told to work on 1m distancing by then.

@1forsorrow We’re in an old house, converted to a school in Victorian times. Very oddly shaped rooms with sticky out fireplaces and random L shapes. Currently, when a child in the middle/back of my long but extremely narrow room gets to to go to the toilet, several others at the front have to get up and move out of the way. Admittedly my classroom is in the older part of the building - the reception and Year 1 rooms are in a more recent extension so much bigger.

This is not uncommon for small village primaries which were originally two or three classes, but then have gradually expanded to be one form entry due to increasing populations.

We’ve been desperate for years for someone to declare our building too small for H&S reasons so we can move to a purpose built one!

Agree @Whattodowhattodooo
Schools are just one method to control the spread. It’s unclear what impact closing and reopening them may have.

All this talk of ‘when it’s safe’

We are in the middle of a global pandemic. Everyone will have different risk levels but it won’t be ‘safe’ for a very long time. Until we not only have a successful vaccine but everyone has been vaccinated.

Schools won’t stay closed until then. The government will be working on how to manage the spread. Not make it ‘safe’ for everyone.

I wonder if the council will still run all the school buses just for year 6.

This is all conditional on figures falling sufficiently.

oh I so hope Y7 can go back too before summer holidays. DS2 really needs to go back. Y9 would be a bonus too for me but to be fair dd is coping a lot better.

Schools have NOT been closed to stop everyone from getting it.

But if we are only 10-15 percent through. Then it still needs to be slow or we will overwhelm the NHS.

July seems like it will give the R value chance to go even lower bearing in mind Denmark estimated phase one cost them 0.3 ( I know its a different demographic) but still.

I don't want to send my Y6 DS either.

I'm 52 and DH is 61 (we're the age of the grandparents of many of DS's classmates LOL) with some health issues although not the 'official' ones for shielding. We have been being hyper cautious. I'm damned if I'm going to throw that away by risking infection via school, or risk DS's health especially as I know that the parents of at least two classmates are NHS or similar and will have been exposed due to lack of PPE.

I really don't understand all this talk about Y6 being such a crucial year. Sats have been cancelled. The final six weeks of the term would have been mostly 'fun stuff' like plays and parties, none of which can happen with social distancing. There is literally no other reason for Y6 to be in school except to do transition days, which our HS have a very sensible contingency plan for anyway.

We should get an opt-out if we really don't feel comfortable sending them back! DS is ready for high school NOW, not in four months time, and he definitely doesn't need to risk all of our lives for the sake of an extra pointless six weeks at his shitty primary.

@thunderthighsohwoe, how many do you have to a class? I know a local village school that has just over 30 children in the school which is a bit different to schools with 30 to a class.

Not again!

There's going to be a lot of disappointed parents soon.

When schools do return, it will be phased, maybe even just hours per week.

Can't see year 6 being a priority.

Can I just jump in here and say that Teachers do not seem to have the same LOVE or whatever that NHS staff have right now,

And to be fair teachers are more involved in our lives every day.

They need to be more respected. End of story.

New infections are falling now. It will be interesting to see how the next few weeks go but the more new infections fall the more the R rate goes down and we have more room to play with.

Our students sit two to a desk. You would still need to have just one to a desk even if they said only 1m was sufficient. That would still be a maximum of 15 students in a classroom.

Teacher reticence for pupils returning to school is being seen as us wanting to be work shy and not have to do face to face work, rather than worrying about the impact of reopening schools on staff AND pupils.

Delatron, R does not keep falling as cases fall. An R of say 0.5 would mean that cases would drop 80, 40, 20, 10, 5.... but even when you got to 5, the R would still be 0.5, just the same as it was when it was at 80.

Just bring the school's back. We both work full time with three kids, we cannot teach them and their whole education is going down the pan. The reception one can't read any more even though we've tried every day to get him to do his phonics. The risk is there, it won't go away in September either. So.

Oh and one size does not fit all.

My son's large secondary is in an inner city CV hotspot, area of high deprivation. 95 per cent of pupils are BAME, many friends living in multi generational households. Most teachers BAME.

Much emphasis this week on possibly moving BAME HCPs off the frontline due to increased risk.

Now compare that school with a tiny village primary school, one form entry, so small it has mixed year groups already in sparcely populated and wealthy Little Britain. Where I imagine many MNetters who can't see what all the fuss is about abide.

Sparsley!

Are they going to protect the adults working in schools in some way? Children may be at lower risk but what about the adults in school?

Missing a term of school does not mean a child's education is ruined. Teachers can catch them up. Lives are more important.

Most LAs only fine for non-attendance after 20 sessions (10 days) are missed in a 12 week period. So if we return eg 2 days a week it will take 5 weeks to rack up 10 days....and then the fine is £60/£120. If you're really not happy sending your children in then don't send them...but be prepared to pay. I'll keep mine off for the first few days at least to let the school snag any of their organisational issues.

I'm not sure why yr6 would take priority. It makes no sense. Yr 10 and 12 surely are older, understand more about distancing, don't (usually) need childcare (no grandparents etc) + are able to get to school themselves plus they have crucial exams that as far as I know, are going ahead.