Why only primary school going back?

[Mummypig2020]

Just that really, why do they only want to get primary school back?

As much as I want my year 3 to go to school (as I have a job I can only do 50% of from home), I can understand why years r and 1. My 8 year old can be trusted to work independently even if I have to be in the house to watch him, in year R it wouldn't have worked. I am curious about nurseries as wfh and home schooling will be a lot easier with my one year old out of the way.

The selection of years will also be to gather data and to experiment with 'what works'.

Year 6 do not have an enormous amount of 'formal curriculum' left to cover, so time can be spent working out how to transition children of that sort of age back into schools, work on counselling & support, work out the routines, processes etc that could be used for the whole school without the constant 'but we also need to cover x.y. and z' that would be the case for other years. Because they are the oldest children in the school, they can be models / mentors for other years to show the new expectations and procedures if / when they return. And statistically, data from how much they increase R can be applied with some confidence to e.g. Y5 and Y4.

Yr and Y1 are the most difficult to educate from home, and are absolutely the worst case for social distancing - so again, if having them in school can be done without an epidemic amongst staff or a huge rise in R, then it's a reasonable bet that opther year groups will be less risk.

So there is definitely an element, it seems to me, of choosing 'guinea pig' years to inform statisticians of the likely effect of returning other year groups.

Beth Rigby from sky implies Nurseries will be included too.

More will be said tomorrow in Parliament.

Definitely needs clarifying

FFS.

Haven't RTFT so sure I'm not the first to make this observation but...

Yr R, 1 and 6 returning? Yr R and 1 won't be able to maintain any social distancing. The social distancing that must be implemented in construction and manufacturing and is currently required in supermarkets 🙄

The government promised schools 3 weeks notice to make appropriate adjustments and preparations but only a maybe returning - and maybe year groups. How can we prepare for that!!

There are no parameters set out for any of it!

Fkn ridiculous.

Plus... schools are breaking up mid July time. A phased, possibly part time, return to school will see the children in for a matter of days.

So basically, nothing more definite than MN speculation.

Utterly ridiculous.

How the hell does this work?! With some children going back and not others....how does this help anyone??

@Biscuit0110 do you really think it's possible to go from lockdown to having full schools and packed classroom straightaway? While still telling everyone else that they can only meet with one other person outside, two metres away? And telling everyone to still stay home?

Of course it's got to be phased. And as someone else said, starting with primary children who remain in one room so are limited in who they interact with, rather than secondary kids changing classrooms and, groups and teachers every hour, makes perfect sense.

Presumably by just having two/three year groups out of the six, they can divide pupils into smaller classes so that their desks can be set out at a distance, and year 2-5 teachers will be re-distributed to teach the returning pupils in the short term.

It has to be remembered that there is a 50 page document to come tomorrow. Many of the details will be in that.

I agree, Cant, it's about getting Year R and 1 back to see how the non-social distancing between children affects the R value.

Year 6 because they can mostly social distance fairly well so won't impact too much on the R value.

My year 1 isn’t going back this year, not even in September. (Nor is my youngest due to start in September). Probably not until there’s a vaccine or until there’s enough immunity it isn’t dangerous. I don’t need the childcare and nor am I playing roulette with my children’s lives. It’s only safe for them to return with social distancing, teachers want PPE and perhaps children in masks. It’s going to be stressful for children and teachers

9 children under 10 have died in the UK to the 28th of April . 10

I’m pleased. I think these years are the right ones to go back first. One of my children is within these years, and one isn’t.

It kind of makes sense to me

Under 11s first (so primary) because the limited data we have shows they are the least likely to get sick and also the least likely to transmit it. Also NT senior school kids can (in theory) work at home without need for childcare and be guided by teachers online.

Y6 because of the primary kids there the most mature and so able to distance. Also have to go to senior school in sept and some time to process that is important for their emotional wellbeing. Yes there not going to be able to trek round the senior school for a day but with some imagination their could be virtual tours, talks from senior school teachers and pupils, emotional transition work etc

YR and Y1 because these years are key. Yes some European schools don’t start schools till later but they all have nursery provision - it’s the same they just don’t call it schools. Developmentally children of this age must start mixing with other children and being exposed to people outside their parent(s). They need the socialing with peers so much to ensure they develop. For a 4yr old yR kid that might of delayed start only in Jan, if they are a only child with a Wfh parent, they are not getting that essential interaction with peers and other adults, they can’t be taught online at this age as it’s physical and tactile, these kids are at serious risk of lifelong emotional and social development disorder. Also for those without a garden their gross motor skills could be permanent affected. It’s not about phonics or reading, it’s that children this age need other people to develop correctly, they need to go back ASAP

I'm a bit sceptical about all the 'transition' work that people consider so desperately important. As it stands, very few people know what will be happening in the secondary schools that they will be moving to, they won't be allowed to visit and they don't know what the rules will be around actually getting there. The only useful skill I can think of is how to walk to school and keep a good distance from everyone else without leaping in to traffic.

I have a year 6 and he has already mentally checked out of primary school and really doesn’t need to have any fake transition.

My Yr5 would benefit lots more. Also Yr6 is 11 so older (and more at risk??)) than the Yr5 10 year old.

So are they using the year 1 and 6 to see if they increase the r number. Sounds bad for there teachers and parents.
I have 3 secondary kids 1 in year 10 and a year 3 with special needs hes not going back till September.

Four, I don't think the transition element is going to be possible to deliver this year - because it is so much around visiting, and being visited by, their secondary schools. However I do think that this very 'lack of anything very specific to do' is in itself a strength, because it really doesn't matter if working out how to manage social distancing (as far as possible), hand hygiene and cleaning routines, how to manage playtimes and how to set up classrooms, some PHSCE etc is all that takes place in school for that year group. Then once those are established, and the jump in R number calculated, years such as 4 and 5, where there genuinely is curriculum to cover, can be integrated much more quickly.

firstly it seems so improbable that several primary schools here have several teachers shielding when only 1 in 44 of piopulation are shielding the vast majority of which will be over retirement age

when it says phased I imagine it means half the class at once
th guidelines are 2 metres apart here but it is 1.5m in most of Europe and WHO say a metre
even a small classroom with tables facing the front like old fashioned desks will fit 9 pupils
to fit 9 pupils in all 2 metres apart ( 3 rows of 3)and teacher at front you need a space ( allowing 50cm for width and depth of a chair)
5.5metres wide and 6.5metres long there are very few classooms in primary smaller than 6m square, most i have seen are closer to 10 x7metres; it might require a bit of furniture rearranging but it can be done

Bit of you've kids in other years you still won't be able to go back to work. As someone said who is going to leave a Y2 at home alone!!

Plus what's going to happen in the summer? Are summer clubs / camps going to run?

When do you think pre schools will go back?

It will be really hard in infant schools which have a high number of staff in the shielding group.

@farfallarocks who said teachers are anti?? Excuse me but most of us as keen to get back. Thanks so much for yet another bashing comment!

So thankful my employer has agreed we may be working from home for like forever. Comes at a good time as I struggle in 6 weeks anyways. Even happier my 5 ye old going bk to school my y5 child can entertain her self

@TeacupDrama surely you can't be expecting Reception pupils to sit at desks - that's completely against the development of pupils.

There will be no social distancing in Reception as it can't be done. All parents sending their child back will need to know and be fine with this or keep them at home.

YrR and yr1 baffles me.
So a 4,5 yo needs childcare but a 7yo doesn't.

Also in my experience - the younger the children, the more likely parents to be part time/ stay at home parents. So doesn't make sense from a childcare point of view.

Yr6 need a week max, mixture of old and new school for transition.

Educational for me yr5, 10,12 are the priority. They have the most to lose

I thought message was quite clear it can never be perfect for everyone but I can see logic
the youngest children can't do school work at home without almost constant supervision which makes parent working from home almost impossible; by Y2 a child should be able to get on with worksheet etc for 20-30 minutes without distracting parents obviously Y2-Y5 can't be home alone but they can work at home generally with less supervision than YR & Y1, Years 7 upwards can normally be left home alone so they will be last back as can work from home even if parents back at work
Y6 in because for 90% of England this is transistion year
and years doing GSCE / A levels next year as they often start the syllabus in June after the exams

It will literally be childcare too. Can’t see the teachers wanting to get Physically close to any of the kids