For those who want schools to go back..

[pfrench]

.. tell us how you think it should work. Primary or secondary.

In your ideal world.

How would social distancing be adhered to?
How about drop off and pick up?
How would classrooms operate?
How about lunchtimes and breaktimes?
What about after school childcare provision?
What about staff who are sheidling?
What about children who are sheilding?
What about staff who have family members who are sheilding?
Should only some children go back? Who should they be and why?

So many education and school experts on here, it will be interesting to read your safe solutions.

I wonder how you measure vulnerability?

I work in mental health, and throughout this pandemic, I have never seen such intense focus on physical health at the expense of mental health. There is a thread going at the moment about working from home with kids, and aside from the mental health of children, I am struck that parents are now at the very edge of their resilience.

But I suppose my point was, children’s mental health can make them vulnerable, but we aren’t measuring that.

@Kitcat122
'Use the provisions the school send you to teach your children. If you want more look online twinkle etc offering lots of free stuff. Keep a routine, get the out for a walk, bike ride etc daily. Facetime friends - yes it's a bit tricky and not ideal but come on, we just need to do it. Have some fun with your kids make some memories!!!'

1. some of us are still working and cannot 'get out for a walk' we are doing our jobs
2. FaceTime- fine if you have good enough internet. In our house, it barely works, and no one else can use the internet at the same time. Which is tricky for those of us WORKING
3. have fun with your kids- WHILE WORKING??! Honestly, some people have no idea.

Why don't you try 'having fun' and teaching your 3 kids while answering the phone to distressed & angry people, while writing reports & emails that HAVE to be accurate.

I also think it is incredibly difficult to identify vulnerable children. Any measure we had would include many who were not and miss many who were. I think probably a "one day a week" scenario for all children would be optimal for safeguarding, it would limit spread, it would make timetabling possible, it would facilitate SOME education and allow teachers to provide hard copies of work for those who needed it, practising the skills learned on the one day.

What it wouldn't do would be get anyone back to work.

@redtickreturn Abit harsh. OK I work in a school and homeschooling my 3 children all different ages. Dealing with them not always wanting to work and emerging hormones so yes think I do know what I'm talking about. It's hard I know, but there is a very nasty/deadly virus and we need more time to damp it down. I've also had Coronavirus caught at school before lockdown. I'm OK going back personally as I hope I've got antibodies but it is a horrendous illness even some mild cases are awful. We need to lower the risk first.

I imagine in most two parent families, like ours, one parent would probably go back FT, probably the one with the most secure job or who is the highest earner. The other parent needs work to be more flexible so they work the hours their child is in school. They then make up some hours in the evenings and weekends. They try and do as much as they can during home schooling days. That way they keep two wages coming in or atleast 1.5 to live on. If employers want their staff working back to normal levels at some point they are going to have to be flexible. This is what DH and I would try to do.

Or, they do shifts, so one parent works a long day on the day the dcs are at school and then they swop the other day. Then one parent works the rest of the days whilst the other home. But that's when 1 parent can work from home. It's very tricky for those who can't and single patents. I am struggling to find a solution in that situation.

Vulnerable children would need to go in full time and perhaps be in their own group, not mixing with the other children who are part time. Obviously I know that would cause issues. There is no perfect solution though.

I disagree. For track and trace to work you need tiny tiny community numbers. We are looking more at mini lockdowns in specific regions and second and subsequent waves of infection. It's just a pr problem now, having convinced people this lockdown was designed to search and destroy, how to lift it when it blatantly isn't.

Wait a minute though @nellodee where is the evidence that opening schools will equal exponential growth? What are you basing this assertion on? What about the other risks I mentioned in my post? Here is a section from the lancet report:

‘The WHO Director-General noted on March 12, 2020, that “all countries must strike a fine balance between protecting health, preventing economic and social disruption, and respecting human rights”.1 Currently, the evidence to support national closure of schools to combat COVID-19 is very weak and data from influenza outbreaks suggest that school closures could have relatively small effects on a virus with COVID-19's high transmissibility and apparent low clinical effect on school children. At the same time, these data also show that school closures can have profound economic and social consequences.’

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30095-X/fulltext

Plenty of children are having memories made, traumatic ones.

At least we appear to have decided to see how things go in Europe and learn from that. Whoever decided to ignore and waste our three week window to stop this should face criminal charges, again in my personal opinion, unless of course it was a deliberate strategy rather than negligence.

Evidence that young children spread it is still lacking

I've not read through the thread apologies.

But surely one size won't fit all here and each school will need to tailor plans accordingly.

My dd school for example has two ways to get in so one could be in and the other out for drop off /pick up. Ours is already a 15 min window anyway so it never gets crazy busy.

Also her school is new and only half full so they're very fortunate to have additional space.

My preference is for kids to go back in June because I'm seriously worried about it happening in September as we head towards winter bug season.

I’m doubtful schools will go back in June, probably Year 10 and Year 12 if any groups will go back.

I imagine the younger children and all other secondary students will go back in September.

I know people are concerned about childcare but in terms of education, what do the children in primary usually do in June and July? Usually sports day, school trips (no longer possible now) and in lower primary usually fun activities leading up to the hols.

I can’t see a reason for them returning in June, I think the government will see this too.

I've said many times. There is conflicting evidence about spread in school. People cherry pick to back up their argument. The WHO have made huge amounts of wrong calls on this, the ineffectiveness of reducing incoming flights being their worst so far.

The solution to not having evidence is not to make a lucky guess. It is to GET evidence. A poster above said about nurseries being open without PPE. So, look at them. Look at schools which have had the biggest uptake in keyworkers' children attending. Find the data.

What we do next should absolutely be based on data, not public opinion. Our government should not just be being guided by the science. It should be asking questions of the science, and getting answers to the questions it needs asking.

It's pointless thinking about social distancing at schools when they will all be mingling on transport too and from school.Staggering starts won't work as lots of children come on school buses especially in rural areas so multiple journeys and pick ups would be too complicated.

Evidence that young children spread it is still lacking

Evidence that they don’t is equally lacking. Evidence that they spread other viruses is fairly well established.

In school one day a week wouldn’t help their mental health if they aren’t in school on the same day as a friend.

In my mind schools will need to get creative with spaces. So library's, the hall and rooms used for 1-1 work will be converted to temporary classrooms to fit more children in but keep them separate.

And who staffs those additional spaces? I can't be in three places at once.

My year 12 is in classes of 4,6 and 12.
Perfect!

I also think year 12 would be the easiest year to manage by far.

@trustthegengenie, the opposite I am a TA so not the best wage 🤔, my husband is the breadwinner in our family and not working due to Coronavirus. So not paying our bills at the moment as my money needs to feed us. Its just I have chosen to protect my children by trying to make this time as good as possible for them. And yes you are all flaming me but 'make memories'!!

WHO really messed up when they said banning flights from infected areas had no impact. The countries that did shut down borders have had such a lower death rate and got a handle on this much quicker.
I guess the issue is what happens when they open borders again.

Nice day

But the government want to open up business. For example, John Lewis is gearing to open up.

Some people who work in John Lewis have kids. They have jobs there because their kids are in school.

We all know school ‘isn’t childcare.’ But it is ‘out if the home care’ that allows parents to work. So that’s why the government want schools open.

I honestly can’t see how partial opening Or half days allows people to go out to work. It’s like when your child starts in YR and they do half days for a couple of weeks. I had to take annual leave to manage that, ie, I couldn’t work,

@Daffodil101 the main point of having children in one day a week would not be to give them time with their friends. It would be to maintain some contact with all children, and give an opportunity to spot severe abuse or neglect.

Its just I have chosen to protect my children by trying to make this time as good as possible for them. And yes you are all flaming me but 'make memories

Good luck with that approach. I'm not sure I personally would like to risk losing my house in order to make memories in the short term.

For those saying older teachers who are scared to come back should be managed out and jobs given to the younger NQTs, those new teachers need to be mentored by experienced staff, that is why they do an NQT year after qualifying. Being given ultimate responsibility for 30 children's learning is a shock to their system plus they have to navigate the dealing with parents who will criticise a new teacher at every opportunity.
So many young teachers last less than 5 years before going part time or giving up. Have a really good think about your child's school, how many teachers are still there at the end of Year 6 that were there in Foundation?
For those saying split the children into 2 groups and do 2 days a week each to lessen exposure, does that apply to staff too? Parents will then complain about which group their child is in.
If keyworker children have to be accomodated regardless, there will be fewer spaces available.
Would keyworker children be expected to repeat lessons if they are in all week and others are in for 2 days? Cue parents complaining that their child is being treated unfairly-either by the repitition being boring or them having extra tuition.
Lunches will have to be packed lunch and either eaten outside or in the classrooms. Half of my class never have a drinks bottle to use.
Teachers at my school are sending out a lot of work and maintaining communication with the families, how will they teach a full day for half and still do online for the other half?
What do we about siblings of those who are the class chosen to come in? Parents will want all their kids in.
I get that parents want their children back but let's be under no illusion that any normal teaching can happen.

I can’t see the government sending schools back anywhere near ‘normal’ any time soon. I think there will be a lot of very disappointed parents if that’s what they think will happen.