Finally some news about schools

[pontypridd]

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

They haven't been off for the length of the summer holidays yet.

Hth

Y6 aren’t going to do transition days to their new secondary anyway.

Remember to send them in with a body bag each

Bit unnecessary, @Paddington68

Pure speculation but I'm guessing some forms of childcare will be open by the end of June as that's when the furlough scheme ends.

I'd be really surprised if schools go back for the beginning of June. It's only a month away, we still have tons of cases and they will only be in for 5-6 weeks before the summer holidays.

Not all y6 transition activities have to be done at the secondary. Iirc teacher from the secondary visit the primary for a chat so there's a friendly face on day 1 and a speech from a current student or q and a could be done via Skype or similar. I remember a few PSHE sessions where they discussed potential worries and solutions to questions like "if homework is too hard, what should I do?" "If I get lost at the school, what should I do?"

Only 5-6 weeks is half a term. A sixth of their school year.

Send them back. They are low risk and hardly likely to be less risk cone September when the cold and flu season will shortly be kicking in.

I'm not sure what the right thing to do is but if I am sure that schools will reopen at a time where risk still exists. We are all going to be asked to consider working and schooling our children sooner or later,
and this can't wait until the risk is at zero.

So, if there are preparations needed prior to schools opening that will take three weeks surely it would be pragmatic to start working on these preparations now? Surely there's no harm to being prepared early? In the case of my DC school o would like to see more hand washing facilities in place. They currently have to queue to wash hands in toilets and there are insufficient sinks.

Oh and one size does not fit all.
I agree with you. I also think you're spot on with your assessment of many people on MN not having a clue. The number of threads to the effect of 'my DC is horribly disadvantaged by not having 25 hours of live streamed lessons like the private school' demonstrate this as those people claim to care about disadvantage whilst seemingly having zero clue that their children in a nice house, with a safe learning environment, supportive parents who are engaged with their education, reliable WiFi with the capacity to support several people on conference calls and live video lessons, enough technological devices to allow parents and children to all work from home etc makes their child privileged because that's not the norm.

I give it until half term before someone is complaining that the local private school with typical class sizes of 12 in spacious classrooms have managed to go back whilst their DC's school with class sizes of 30-34 and several mobile classroom huts haven't.

Not a good idea at all. We need to consider the possible staffing issues if people have health worries or living with extremely vulnerable people. The logistics would’ve a nightmare, class sizes are huge already without trying to social distance. The best thing at the moment would be having online classes and waiting a bit longer.

Some of the other rumours about the next stage of lockdown look like a child care nightmare.

Staggering working hours and parallel team working on the cards. As well as long term homeworking, public transport restrictions and shopping alone.

A lot of the data we have is split into "below age 10" and "above 10". I wonder if this is why they have chosen age 10. It gives them a benchmark, so that if they fare reasonably well, then it's pretty safe for all primary children, and if they fare quite badly, then it's safe to assume that it won't be safe for secondary students. You get a lot of information bang for your buck with that specific year group.

@Passtherioja I don't think they should apply fines at all under exceptional circumstances like these. Parents should be allowed to make the final decision about whether they want their kids back in school at this point. Many do want to send them back, for perfectly understandable reasons, but nobody should be forced into it. Not for the last six weeks of the summer term.

I imagine that schools also maybe want to use this less important period of the school year as a trial run for September, because nobody wants the schools to still be closed then, and it would be good for them to get a feel of how things might work going forward. It should still be up to the parents to say whether they feel ok about their child being part of this 'experiment'. Sanctions by the LA should be completely out of the question.

I was wondering if they would ask children whose parents were happy to keep them at home to do that. Perhaps with the schools approval. Ie that the school were happy they were doing stuff wirh them.

They’re testing the waters, they’ll be reading twitter and threads here.

Is anyone else worried that they're running this show according to the ratings? They should be doing what they think is best, not what they think is most popular.

Is anyone else worried that they're running this show according to the ratings? They should be doing what they think is best, not what they think is most popular.

Yes, I am completely worried about that - in a way ... BUT, let's be honest - the average J.Bloggs knows more about how careful we need to be now - more so than the government. So in many ways I welcome them snooping here and on twitter etc to work out what to do.

The government is full of clueless idiots.

They’re testing the waters, they’ll be reading twitter and threads here.

Reading here? Hmm

I only managed to socially distance my class properly when the class reduced to 8 kids before lockdown (due to the number self-isolating). Even with 15 I couldn't manage it. Small classroom.

@Turquoise50-I agree completely...however this was a question posed at the briefing in the week and the answer was that we would only return to school when things were "normal" ..(wtf!!) and then things would've treated "normally" Which is a politicians way of saying "if you don't send your kids we'll find you!" Let them fine me-I've got two children I won't send, it will be worth the money! In reality I think so many people will refuse to send them then they won't be able to fine everyone (and heads won't want to!)

Year 6 has a lot of 11 yr olds in it though, so if they are sending them back the under/over 10 years old doesn't work, Year 5 would make more sense.

If they insist on fining us - we need to find a way to band together and protest/strike.

I'll send my Y6 if they open so it won't only be people who need it for 'childcare'. We all make our own risk assessment based on our own circumstances.

Sturgeon has announced schools will reopen in Scotland when she says, because it's her government and Boris isn't the boss of her.

I would have thought Year 6 would be a priority so they get to say goodbye to their primary years and friends in some sort of way. So it is more of a pastoral reason to send them back. Most year 6s have had their shows/end of year trips etc cancelled and might not see their friends properly again. It is also an age group that can listen and wash hands reliably, makes sense from that perspective. However, it doesn’t help working parents as most year 6s can work independently at home.

Scotland, update from area manager to not even think about getting back to work before summer holidays (end June).