This protective ‘bubble’ of small groups in schools. How will it work in secondary schools?

[Reastie]

I just don’t get it. I understand the logic of primary schools where children can spend their whole school day with one teacher for all lessons. I see the government are using language like ‘bubble’ and ‘family’ to build confidence with parents to encourage their children to go back to school when they reopen.

What I don’t get is how their main protective mechanism of keeping small groups of school children separate from each other to stop spread could possibly work at secondary where they have a different teacher for each subject and move around school for each subject. I see that they could reduce spread by each group staying in the same classroom and having teachers come to them to teach rather than they go to the teachers in their rooms, but logistically this will be impossible with different children in different sets and different options for different GCSE subjects meaning they have many different groups of students for different subjects.

So is the school bubble thing at secondary just a load of air to help parents feel better? Will students have core lessons in school in September in the same groups and option subjects taught at home online? Will they just continue to move around schools and narrow school corridors to different subjects but it’s ok because they know they need to wash their hands? Genuinely wondering how this protective bubble mechanism they are so keen to sell will work at secondary.

I don’t see how it can be done either

Presumably the y10 and y12 going in for some contact time, as govt is urging but without stating how, I’d in effect turning the issue over to teachers to solve - ie then professionals not the politicians

Soon it will be time to start worrying about the current y9 and y11 as well; because the autumn term is a long one, where so much of the syllabus is got through

I don't see how it can work either. I also think that if you do somehow manage to get yr 10 into a bubble which they can stay in all day (unlikely), a lot of them will just then walk to and from school with people from other bubbles.

I can see that in theory it would work at primary but don't think they have thought it through for secondary. 'Face to face' time with a teacher is so open to different interpretation anyway and I think all schools might do something slightly different.

I am secondary and have been told y10 will be back in 1st June. They will be in groups of 15 in one room and we (the teachers) will move between rooms teaching. Im guessing also staggered breaks and lunch?
I know some of our Y10s are already meeting up and I think schools reopening will be seen as a green light to do this more. Will also be able to hang out before and after school.

Boys grammar near me have said years 7-9 will not be back till September and y10 and 12 will be part time. I haven't seen how it will work in practise in the school but with much smaller numbers it will be easier to bubble...

Will the students be unsupervised whilst the teachers move rooms @roseapothecary? The majority of the year 10 I teach would be fine with this, but a handful really would not.

I can't see how they would be able to remain in the same group of 15 as they are all taking different options and are in different sets. one could be with one set for say history but then another for English or science. If it's just a case they will go in and sit with half their form then I imagine it will be just a case of teachers giving them instructions/packs for what to study at home. We need to get used to the fact that home study will make up the majority of education for some time.

@roseapothecary are you a teacher? Can you tell me how this will work please?
As an example, DS, year 10, has maths first with A, B & C. Then Gcse PE with B&D, while A has history and C has Computer Science. Then on to Geography with A.....do you see how a teacher moving to the classroom just isn't workable?
I'm genuinely interested in how this will work as DS is extremely anxious.

You could do one lesson each of maths, english, science in the morning. Students could stay in groups for these and teachers rotate.

Then in the afternoon, do a single option a day. Students have one lesson, per option, a week.

I was thinking if you had a corridor with six rooms, you could have 2 of each subject, and then you wouldn't have far to go at swap over time.

I'd be a lot happier having my own mouse and keyboard to take with me, though. I might suggest that.

Yes I'm a teacher. That is a good point about leaving the kids unsupervised, that wouldn't work well for a number of our students. I'm not sure what they will do because the TAs will be with the kids from other years who are currently attending.

They are mixed ability classes but they do have different option classes so again not sure how that will work because we've been told they need a full curriculum not just core subjects.
I (and the other teachers) don't think this is a good idea but we are part of an academy who are insisting we open.

@nellodee that still doesn't work - maybe it's just the way our school splits students for lessons. I'm sure it will be worked out, luckily we have been told that students won't be back in school for actual lessons for some time.

It doesn't even work for core subjects, different English sets study different texts; different Science sets study single, double or triple science.

Like the idea of the PP of at least limiting one class to 6 classrooms along a corridor to limit the amount of movement though.

@AStarSoBright
I doubt very much that they will have their usual teachers. The students will be set academically as well as possible. This will be doubly tricky as they will have chosen different options. Only certain subject will be taught. PE (the physical part) won't happen. Likewise science practicals.
It really is almost logistically impossible.
This is all purely supposition.
I am a secondary teacher.

We have been told nothing of the specifics of going back. I am happy to return when asked but no idea of logistics. I only have 10 in my y10 but the could all be split into different bubbles.

I dont envy those having to do the key organisation.

@ElizabethMainwaring I'm not worried about teachers, different sets will be studying different topics, exactly as @StrawberryJam200 has said. Also different classes within the same set are studying different topics so even grouping academically won't help. It's going to be a complete logistical nightmare and, despite the fact I want DS back at school, it seems like it won't work.

If they, understandably, can't do science properly, or pe that's 12 out of 25 lessons per week on his timetable.

I teach science. I asked about required practicals and was told they would be postponed until September. Haven't had an answer about my triple students yet.

Everyone we try to explain this issue we get told we are being workshy and purposefully difficult the truth is we don't know how this is going to work. Our Year 10 is 400 kids, year 12 well over 150. Most classes are over 30 squashed into rooms that don't fit them; even my set 14 (not called that obviously!) are in a class of 21. Someone in on rota the other day nipped to our department to take some measurement to see how distancing can properly work in our rooms, as most classes have kids not at actual desks anyway, but.arouns the outside of the lab; best we can do is 8 students spaced at 1.5 metres apart. How is that safe? And for us t3achers to move rooms, we, our desks are in the far corner, so we are walking past them! The canteen can't take more than 50 distanced, so eating in our rooms will surely mean teachers have to stay, so when do we get breaks? Dinner? The toilet? Speaking of toilets, there are 3 female staff toilets in our entire school, each with 3 toilets. With a 2500 roll we have quite a few staff!

I'm not even thinking about student toilets...

We’re using the social bubble model in June in my school. As a result they won’t be having taught subject lessons for all the reasons that everyone has pointed out. It just doesn’t work when they all have do different subjects with different teachers. We are going to use it as a chance to check in on their well-being, make sure that they have what they need to study at home and do some UCAS prep and study skills sessions. Subject learning will continue to be delivered via online lessons.
From September we are hoping that on a part-time timetable, with a strict one-way system, students will be able to move from lesson to lesson where necessary and we’ll be able to get back to normal taught lessons. By then we’ll have time to get other measures in place. We’re ordering washable face masks for staff, recruiting extra cleaners, making sure all staff have laptops that they move from room to room with rather than shared desktop computers in classrooms, training our staff on contact-free teaching etc. It’s going to be a huge undertaking to get back to some form of normality.

@Astarsobright
I think that a lot of time will be spent with students doing self led learning while teachers address relevant teaching to others. Perhaps! Who knows?

@roseapothecary I'm the same with practical. We usually work in groups of 3 or 4 because of a lack of equipment, so I doubt we can even do it in September unless we still have a reduced number of students so we can actually allocate a full class set to a split class.

Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to answer. I know that nobody has any real answers and it will be a lot of trial and error. I'm just so sad for DS that his time at school will end this way.

In regards to children left in class unsupervised- surely they are unsupervised when they are moving to class to class themselves?

I have a child moving to Y7 in Sept so I’m a little worried about how it’s all going work for them. My other dd will be moving to Y10 so obviously due to begin the GCSE syllabus.

Missing this bit of time hasn’t been too bad for my particular children as my Y9 has been getting on with all the work being set and contacting teachers for areas she needs support. My Y6 has mostly been recapping as she would be for SATS but next year is a bigger year for both.

I'm a Governor at a rural Secondary. Around 65% of students are buses in on small buses from surrounding villages. No room for social distancing there.
We have an old 1950's building. Small spaces and narrow corridors.
Our Academy Trust are not planning on any timetables lessons until September. Although we are waiting on decisions about the government means by 'face to face time' with teachers for Y10 and Y12.

To be honest, we have no idea how it would work.

Trying to keep teens in a small 'bubble' is hard on a social level. Can you imagine the teenage angst of not being in a bubble with your mates? (that you haven't seen for 3 months!). They'll understand social distancing, but I think a lot of them with rebel against it.

Instead our school are increasing their home learning output. Next week 45 teachers are going into school (staggered) to record specific lessons that will be uploaded to our school platform. We're also getting lots of phone calls home from 2 weeks ago we had to hand in students work diaries to begin some accountability.

In my school leaving a class of year 10 unsupervised for the amount of time that it takes for a lesson changeover to happen in a school with deserted corridors would just never be an issue. We don’t lock our classrooms anyway in normal times, and some of our corridors are narrow, so my key. Stage 4 classes go into the classroom and stand behind their chairs until I arrive from my last lesson (usually in another building) anyway. Leaving them outside on the corridors is chaos because there’s not enough space for all the classes to line up. So they are all just squished in and nobody can get past. The Key Stage 3 room that I teach in has a bit more space outside so they line up and wait but I wouldn’t be worried about leaving them for the length of a lesson changeover.