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 did allude to that, Appuskidi)

Supervision so they can socialise, yes.

No.

This pandemic has highlighted the inequalities in education. Imagine, thinking kids are going to learn properly from a single A4 sheet of paper once a week, no other engagement with parents under a huge amount of stress during this crisis. I get the routine and structure is/was necessary but seriously, it’s laughable!

In terms of care homes and hospitals - you don't have to send everyone home all the time. This isn't happening because there is PPE.

If there is a positive case people who have had prolonged, close and most importantly nonPPE exposure need to go home and be tested. Not everyone in the building!

When I say PPE, I mean surgical mask, visor, plastic apron and gloves.

So again, if we're going back to childcare only, there shouldn't be any concern right now for online learning quality. It doesn't matter, these academic gaps don't really matter. If they dont need an education in June and July, they don't need one now either.

No one should have a pop at any school or teacher for the work they are perceived to be doing or not doing.

Excellent.

For me it's not about childcare or education. It's about fulfilling an EHCP that has taken years to get in place and my son has already been forgotten about for 2 years while he had no school and no one cared then either.

There are lots of us who have different reasons for wanting schools open and it's not all about childcare.

How would you all feel if this home lockdown life had already been your life for 2 years and you'd just had 3 months of normality where things were finally improving and you we're looking at another 6 months.....

That said, when schools go back all the children like mine will go back to being forgotten about at home anyway. Just annoying statistics on the books.

Pfrench it would have been better perhaps if that had been the case in the first place. I guess they’ve benefited from some structure to the day, if parents could support that.

I saw an article today from a think tank suggesting half class sizes on a rota of 4 days at school Mon to Thurs then 10 days off. Rationale was with 10 days off in a row you increase chance of CV symptoms on the non school days, but it allows parents to go back to work 40% of the time, with before and after school clubs running for the half that was in school. This would work for us, we could both sort out work so the 4 days my DC were in school was when I had meeting etc, either from home or in the office if we are allowed and then the off week I can work around DC especially if there is no requirement to homeschool on the off week. It would need organising so siblings were in the same week but I think it would be doable.

The government survailance reports on covid are really interesting www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-covid-19-surveillance-reports

If you read the actual document there were 2 confirmed CV outbreaks in schools last week. It doesn't say age or whether it was staff or pupils. The week before there were no outbreaks in schools.

It doesn't have to be either/or, childcare or school. I think it would be great to have some amount of learning and discussion going on, but without very high expectations or teachers getting judged by test results or anything like that.

Even if teachers can only manage a short amount of actual teaching, it's better than nothing.

I think we just have to focus on school as childcare. Park up the education part at this point and focus on ways we can supervise small groups of children so parents can get back to work. Trying to educate at the same time is just not possible. A day here or there to sit at desks with no play and no break time doesn't seem great for either education or childcare. Parents could choose if they wanted children to attend or not. Obviously the online learning would have to stop or be set centrally or by those shielding teachers. No idea who would be supervising these small groups or where they could be supervised however.

School is not childcare. If they can open as childcare the can open as schools and parents/ employers will just have to work around different hours etc.

We've now been told how my son's class will go back to school here in Berlin, it will start on the 18th. He's Year 4. They will go back three days a week for half days. No more details yet.

The half days are because they decided there's no way to do lunch within the hygiene rules.

They will only have about 5 weeks of school before the holidays, I think they will use most of that time to go over all the material they were supposed to learn at home, because a lot of kids have struggled with it.

with before and after school clubs running for the half that was in school

Staffing those might be difficult-it certainly will be in my school. Ours were run by LSAs and three of them are in the shielding group. We are going to really struggle with support staff. Two others live with ‘shielders’ and I would imagine they’ll resign rather than come back and risk transmitting it to their family. That will mean the children we have with 1:1s will have not support.

I guess every parent needs to make the choice what's best for their family and circumstances whether they decide to send their dc back straight away or not. Some will want /need the dc to go back asap some will want/need them to stay off as long as possible and its fine to want either.
Schools will do whatever they can to social distance/arrange pick ups etc dependant on the school and its size and layout. Lets be honest though its unlikely social distancing will work especially with younger ones but that's a chance we have to take at the moment. This virus isn't going anywhere any time soon we have to learn to live along side it as safely as we can to get back to a new normal

School is not childcare. It’s just a place where you’re legally obliged to send your kids, for a fixed amount on time, on set dates for a predetermined period of your child’s life. Oh and it’s publicly funded so you also pay for it.

Doesn’t take a genius to work out why parents think it’s generally a reliable enough resource to allow them to work during those hours.

If it’s not childcare why do teachers and schools owe a duty of care for children beyond education?

Not the schools as childcare thing again. Schools are interdependent with societal needs. In the modern economy - schools with wraparound provision are crucial to allow a greater number of homes to be dual income. We could probably do more actually, such as spreading the holidays differently. But yes, schools are places that also look after children during the day. Getting them running again in some capacity is necessary to get the wider economy running is necessary to stop the complete plunging of the economy into depression (we will be in recession) is necessary to stop the huge uplift in mental health problems, suicides, increased health conditions that come with economic downturns.

It’s an interdependent system.

That 4 days on 10 off works logistically as a child attending school. But if the teacher also does 4 on 10 off with half the class you either need twice as many teachers and rooms for the whole class or the kids would only be in for 4 days out of 20 with the other half in on the other fortnight.
Just not going to work.

There also needs to be some element of flexibility with risk areas.

I live in a very unaffected area. Only 4 cases in our local hospital. Very low incident rate here.

My son goes to a SEN school with small number on roll and only 8 in a big classroom.

The risk here for him is minimal compared to an inner city school with no space and 1600 on roll. For him the lack of school after all he's been through is worse than the very low risk of covid.

Maybe we are where everyone hopes to be in September? But we will all be lumped in together with the same rules.

If it’s not childcare why do teachers and schools owe a duty of care for children beyond education

But anyone working with children has a duty of care-not just schools.

If the main purpose of primary schools is childcare, what about secondary? Children are at higher risk as they get older, and simultaneously, less needing of supervision at home. Does this change people's priority between the four balancing factors of spread, safeguarding, education and childcare?

@Fedup21

Yes I know. It doesn’t dilute my point. They have a duty in line with whatever service it is they’re providing.

The sooner the schools reopen the better. There is risk in whatever we do in life. I have 2 kids aged 10 and 3. The risk of them becoming seriously ill with Covid is minimal. There is growing empirical evidence to show (read the BMJ-British Medical Journal)that kids do NOT transmit Covid19 even if they have it.

There is growing empirical evidence to show (read the BMJ-British Medical Journal)that kids do NOT transmit Covid19 even if they have it.

No. There are very mixed views on this with no conclusive evidence. I hope you’re not referring to the Viner report?

"Have some fun with your kids make some memories!!!"

Try using your imagination and understand not everyone has it as easy as you.