Why not secondary schools?

[barbites]

I get that getting primary kids to school will help some parents get back to work. But as a parent of a year 10 child I'm confused why it's only a hope that they might return before September. Theories on this?

I agree it’s a joke. We now need proper clarification and reassurance about what there going to do about next years GCSES and not all this ‘they’re still being educated at home’ crap. For most dc it’s nowhere near the same or good enough. And if I read about one more year 10 who’s getting all lessons live on zoom just like a normal school day plus homework all marked I’ll explode. My ds has not had to submit one piece of work since March 23rd

Secondary school kids will not self distance...they stand in huddles and hug each other. It will be a nightmare.

@bigbananafeet12 completely agree. My kids are at a "good" fairly middle class school (so access to IT equipment not an issue) and they have literally been sent homework. Nothing marked, nothing chased, no updates from school...not even re trips we've paid £300 for and certainly no zoom lessons. I have no idea what my kid's teachers are busy doing as I cannot imagine many key workers are sending their kids in.
I was expecting it to be year 10 and 12 first, surely more important?!

@TabbyMumz yes and reception children are so good at social distancing are they? You can’t use that as a reason when its impossible with year R and 1.

@TabbyMumz and reception kids will?! My dd understands perfectly well...

Here we go- more teacher bashing. I am
Sure your teachers are sat with their feet up, getting pissed and watching Netflix. Ffs - have a problem with your school? Contact them and ask.
And Reception and Year 1 going back- what a joke... zero social distancing.

They accept reception kids cant social distance, but there is scientific evidence that years years are less likely to die of covid that older children.

Maybe...
Yr10’s are more likely need to use public transport (particularly busses) to get to school.
Y10’s are more likely to have ‘relationships’ and can’t be trusted not to snog each other.
Yr10’s are old enough to stay at home by themselves so it doesn’t affect parents ability to go out to work.
Yr10’s are more likely to catch and spread the virus than younger children (under 10 I believe).
Yr10’s are more capable of home learning and self motivation than younger children.
I guess 🤷‍♀️

Younger years

I think the Reception and Year 1 is there to see if bringing in year groups which can't socially distance will have an affect on the R. There's no other reason for it in my opinion.

If they wanted to phase schools that could have been done by prioritising more year groups and having half the cohort in. It's not about childcare as such as Years 2-5 are still off which means parents have to work from home but yes it's easier to do so with a 7 year old than with a 0-5/6 year old.

Why is it teacher bashing to wonder what they are doing? Generally they would be in school teaching. Currently they are not. Since March my children have had no teaching and no contact except a call from the head of house. I'd rather one zoom lesson a day than 20 pieces of homework I have to talk my children into doing whilst wfh!

Probably about transport and youngest children being least able to learn remotely. When in theory secondary age can. I wonder if it’s more about safeguarding and giving parents of young children a break before summer holidays.

Childcare. Secondary kids are able to look after themselves. It's a joke.

I am so sick of all this moaning about zoom lessons. The union's have said don't do it. Our school has said we can't even upload audio of us.

I would imagine it's to safeguard us as some little darlings would alter it and upload it to social media.

Work is getting set and marked. Most of us are spending hours sorting out GCSE grades for the current year 11.

We too (along with the rest of the country) are homeschooling our own kids.

I agree it's a surprise for reception and y1. I would imagine they must be the lowest risk I'm terms of outcome from catching covid. But I don't know. I do remember that many countries haven't sent secondary age back because of this age correlation thing.

Does anyone think GCSE's and A levels will be cancelled next year too?

I don't think any under 10s without pre-existing conditions have died have they, though do correct me if I'm wrong. My logical conclusion is that this is the safest way to test out how teachers and school staff can work with a reduced population and then maybe they will bring in more and more year groups at a time.

I think everyone is interpreting it wrong - I don't think it's the importance of this age group's education, it's the fact that they are highly highly unlikely to become seriously ill.

@barbites it’s teacher bashing because there are many many threads explaining what teachers are doing. Enough already

Teachers I’m sure you’re busy working from home it’s not about that. Surely you can understand the concerns we have about our year 10s. Can you really say they’re getting the same standard of education learning at home than if they were at school? That’s all I’m saying- it’s not teacher bashing.

User1471530109 let's not waste our breath- these people don't read anything we say and continue to blame teachers for everything. It doesn't matter how many teachers/parents post and explain, it's ignored.

Of course we understand your concerns. But there is a bigger picture out there. You need to be petitioning the Government to ensure either the exams are done differently next year or that grades are scaled down. It's not the fault of the teaching community that there's a global pandemic.

I'm not teacher bashing either...they are doing what they are told, but it seems that what some kids are getting is greatly different from others.

WTfdidwedo - what about the huge amounts of staff needed to run a school?

Well that's my point. They will need to return at some point and if it's only infant ages returning then it limits the amount and allows schools to control a gradual increase in population on site.

I'm a Parent Governor at our Secondary. I have a Y10 and a Y8.

As a school we were hoping for a steer about Y10 and Y12, I'm hoping we get more details in the coming week.

Our school are not doing Zoom lessons. As a school we decided against it for various reasons. They are being set a lot of work online and work has due dates. We are keeping a log of all work. Tutors are phoning home each week. Our Head and governors are meeting constantly on Zoom. Our school is still open for key worker children.

I have no worries about how hard our teachers are working.

However we are a rural school. Over 60% of pupils come to school via school bus. Our school is old, our corridors are narrow. We need a shed load of planning to do in order to do any social distancing at all. I'm not sure it can be done in anyway.

I'm worried as a parent that Y10's will go back in September and be expected to be situation normal regarding GCSE's. Our Head assures me it won't be. However OFQUAL have been concentrating on current Y11's and Y13's. I'm sure after this is done and dusted they will turn their attention to 2021 exams.

Secondary schools are bigger. The pupils are bigger. There are more staff. The kids move every 50 minutes in to different rooms, mixing with different people. It's a logistical nightmare to manage infection control. I see upwards of 120 pupils in a single day.

Before they closed we had kids coughing in each others faces and spitting on each other "as a joke".

I'm working my usual hours, helping kids with their work, marking it and sending feedback. We are undertaking training, creating resources, planning coursework when we have no idea what school will actually look like when they do go back. I have been working shifts in the keyworkers kids centres, teaching age groups I am not qualified to. I have a 5 year old at home too.

There is talk here in Scotland the exams may be cancelled next year too. We have been explicitly advised by unions that zoom meetings should not be held for a number of reasons. Maybe the shift to coursework and teacher judgement will be the answer. I never rated exam performance anyway, its a memory test really.

Hundreds of thousands of kids are in this position. I think parents do need to take more interest in keeping kids motivated to learn off their own back, it is hard enough when we have them in front of us.

Hope that helps.