Did anyone else see the really positive news about primary schools reopening on BBC this morning? at 9am

[bigbananafeet12]

They were asking advice from a lovely primary school teacher in Denmark on how the'd approached it. She was so positive and encouraging it gave me hope for our dc for the first time in ages. Worth a watch if you can.

At the end of the day, we are a small island with a high population... and half of our land area is quite sparse, thus making things denser still.

We have reaped some of the rewards of that, but we are also discovering some of the downsides of it.

As a result, our solution might be very different than other countries.

We COULD have adopted a seriously Draconian lockdown like China, Italy or Spain, but we didn't... we went for a soft version. There were pros and cons to that too.
One of the cons now being we have a high death rate and no real sense of how prevalent the virus has been...
Apart from the furlough scheme, we've not had a particularly stellar end of term report for phase 1 of the Covid-19 plan. Can it really be so surprising that many might question if phase 2 will be any smarter?

Must do better...

I liked that they said instead of hugging to greet , they are high fiving with their feet or doing a little tic tok dance .

The guidelines for schools confirm that social distancing won’t be expected in primary schools. Hence the smaller class sizes

It would be ideal if parents lobbied the government to provide extra outdoor sinks, cleaning products etc. So schools can make this work safely. That's all school staff want. To be as safe as possible. Just like everyone else in their workplace or out in public.

The government won't listen to school staff but if parents championed for their children and schools in getting more facilities to hand wash safely etc - it could really make a difference.

I sent this to a friend this morning after seeing it. The UK headteacher was panicking and didn’t actually seem to have read the Government document she was talking about as she was worrying about things not happening. The Danish teacher was calm and practical.

The best bit was when the UK headteacher was wringing her hands because ‘she couldn’t get the image of a hurt child not being comforted out of head’. The interviewer then said to the Danish teacher what do you do in this situation and she simply replied ‘we hug them’.

cadburyegg

But it is possible, but only if you restrict amount of pupils in through the door.

Jesus, the paid government shills could be a bit less obvious.

This whole thread.

Everyone on this thread does know that schools in the UK aren't going to reopen on 1 June BECAUSE NONE OF THE EDUCATION UNIONS WILL ALLOW THEIR TEACHERS TO GO BACK TO WORK UNTIL IT'S SAFE?

So you can coo over Denmark as much as you like - but it ain't going to happen here, because unlike Denmark, which has tackled it's outbreak very successfully, the UK has the highest death toll in Europe.

So we're not ready to open schools yet. And even if you're happy to sacrifice the lives of loads of teachers and the families of loads of children, there are some grown ups in authority in the UK ie the unions, who aren't going to let you do that.

I really do worry that some teachers are so paranoid with a ‘can’t do’ attitude. As a previous poster said, if you were this negative about approaching problems and trying to find solutions in any other profession you’d get short shrift.

Luckily my son’s teachers and school are wonderful and haven’t come across any such teachers. Then again I’m in a big forward thinking city

My school plans to keep each year in a bubble using separate entrances, toilets, break times etc. There will be staggered drop off and pick up times. But, we have so many more cases than Denmark it’s just not comparable. Still we have 4000 new cases a day!

We can only fit 5 in a class with distancing.

effingterrified thought I was just being suspicious. I'd l o 've to get an a level lang class doing some analysis here.

Yes luckily all the teachers in our school can’t wait to get back.

Nowhere is ‘safe’ shouty poster! The virus will still be around.

Surely the schools will be ‘safer’ in June when we’ve all been locked down for months than in March when we were at our peak infection rate (just before lockdown). Yet all the kids were still going in..

I think you may have over-inflated your importance. I don’t think the government give enough of a fuck about teachers to be debating with them on Mumsnet. They’re probably pretty busy at the moment on....you know...other stuff. 🙄

(And I’m saying that as someone who’s a diehard Labour voter)

All the teachers I know (relatives rather than dc’s teachers) are happy to go back in and are actually looking forward to being back. Mumsnet seems to have an odd demographic that I never see in real life.

I think, in reality, they'll send everyone back with nothing more than the advice we had before to wash our hands and a bit of 'keep them apart if you can'. Because that's free. Infection rates will rise, we'll get a second peak and then we'll shut for the summer. Rinse and repeat until enough people have had it for it no longer to matter. 'Herd immunity' via backdoor.

Luckily my son’s teachers and school are wonderful and haven’t come across any such teachers. Then again I’m in a big forward thinking city

You think I share my misgivings with the parents of kids in my class? That's what anonymous forums are for!

@FourPlasticRings no but a few have said to me they’re looking forward to it and have plans they’re putting in place. And yes I do speak to them as he goes in as a keyworker child. And no they don’t social distance.

Flamingodial - "Then again I’m in a big forward thinking city" - which city would that be, and which country?

I hear the weather is lovely in St Petersburg this time of year?

I would like to go back in. But I don't think it makes me a terrible person to want to do so with adequate precautions in place - such as are being touted for the rest of society. If commuters on the Underground are recommended to wear face masks, why not teachers? If workers in Sainsburys /bus drivers can have protective screens (and rightly so), why not us?
All those protocols seem to be thrown out of the window when it comes to schools. Why? We already know.

For those saying the children could go in part-time, either mornings or afternoons, couple of days a week to help spread the children across the school staff, have you read the Government guidance? They have stipulated that that there are the bubbles that many of you like the sound of, so the children stay in the same small group - all good. The slight fly in the ointment for the number of staff required is that included in that bubble is a member of staff who should only be with that group, so shouldn't be teaching group A and group B, just one group. So the same teacher should not be teaching the group the comes in the morning as well as the group that comes in the afternoon. So doesn't help the staff shortage. This is not schools trying to be difficult, this is schools trying to follow the guidance.

The local Primaries near me start at 2 so include nurseries all on the same site, so trying to provide all the space for each small group is going to be tricky.

Quite a few class sizes are over 30, but that doesn't mean the actual classroom is very big, they are crammed in there.

Schools will also need to find space to teach the key worker children and the vulnerable children in the other years that will still be coming in.

The Danish teacher who was talking this morning said they were using Secondary school teachers to cover their extra classes and any classes where teachers have not been able to come in, as their Primary and Secondary is all one school, and also means they have more space to spread out. And Secondary schools haven't gone back yet. Not sure what happens when they do.

We are meant to be trying to spend more time outside, many schools have sold off a lot of their grounds. Wonder if schools in Denmark have had to do that?

I am sure most teachers in England would be happy to have the current Danish system, it just doesn't seem that easy to replicate it.

"All the teachers I know (relatives rather than dc’s teachers) are happy to go back in and are actually looking forward to being back."

Are these teachers in a foreign country?

Doesn't apply to any of the teachers I know or the dozens I follow on Twitter or all the teacher's unions.

Most strange that the teachers I know aren't all desperate to be sacrificial lambs so that Boris can get some childcare so the workers can go back.

@effingterrified Yes, so much fakery here.

Ooh, the lovely-wuverly hug, the sensible squeaky clean Danish teacher, the children skipping happily to the shiny sinks. Isn’t it all so lovely. Silly, silly parents being scared of the naughty pandemic.

My DC won’t be going back until it’s safe and it won’t be safe by June. And if another adult tried to hug them, I’d be bloody fuming. Their school had a CV case amongst the staff. I’d hate to think how many children they’d have infected if they’d gone round hugging them 🙄 (fortunately they were non-teaching and low contact).

All the teachers I know (relatives rather than dc’s teachers) are happy to go back in and are actually looking forward to being back.

I miss my class and wish I could go back in. It's very upsetting to think I won't be able to. But watching the death count rack up has been pretty upsetting too, and I genuinely believe that if we go back without the adequate measures in place, as seems likely to happen, we'll see a large second wave. Not necessarily comprised of teachers or children, though some will be affected, but the relatives of those kids, people who work with those relatives etc. It'd be better to open the schools to those that need childcare for work, if you're worried about the economy, in order to limit numbers. If they try and send everyone back in, as they've hinted, I think we'll see that second wave pretty soon.

Teachers will be mixing with a set group of 30 kids whereas commuters mix with loads of different randoms every day, same with supermarket workers. You must see there is a difference there? I am not saying measures shouldn’t be put in place, that’s what needs working out over the next couple of weeks but none of us have the option to refuse to work. Teachers and unions need to work our how it can happen not just refuse.

now portacabins. Still no sensible "solutions."

To be fair - Glasgow City Council appear to be planning lots of portacabins for schools returning in August.

Local pre-prep head has sent a very positive email to parents about returning to school 1st June. Vulnerable children (and teachers) not able to attend will continue with virtual schooling - but the school is providing live lessons now.