School children should go back on a 1st come 1st served basis?

[Faraway20]

Just idle musing but there are lots of people on both sides of the fence either keen for their children to return but they are in the wrong year or saying they absolutely won't send their eligible child back in the near future.

If the school has a set number of children they have deemed safe to have in the building, could they not ask all parents to complete a form stating whether or not they will send their dc in, then pick names at random/1st come 1st served from the yes list until the places are filled?

Rather than planning provisions for 60 year 6 children but maybe only getting 30?

Because the government guidelines say that children in eyfs, yr1 and y6 have priority and those parents might choose to send their children in after June 1 and would be entitled to a place ahead of those in other year groups.

It seems logical to take a survey of parents to have an idea of the uptake before 1st June though?

Well take that up with the Govt, their guidance is the key transition years

The government won't permit us to admit any children except for N,R,1 & 2

All children should go back unless they or their families have an underlying condition. You can never fully eliminate risk in life and at this point the risks are low. The risk of kids being killed or seriously injured travelling to or from school is probably greater yet this has never been a reason to shut schools.

It isn't just the risk to the children though Back. If 400 students return you need adequate staff numbers to staff them, caretakers, office staff, catering staff. Given those who are shielding, ill etc you need to pull in agency staff too. And then say 200-300 parents dropping off. Ours is a school in a residential area, one way in and out. If you approve that as a Govt, you might as well cancel lockdown. Why would I do that every day but not be able to visit my sister or get my hair cut.

Lots of schools have sent out surveys.

I think perhaps if a school can't accommodate everyone and have to prioritise who can and can't attend it could be done according to need- those with parents who now need to go back to work, those who can no longer work from home and so on.

How do you teach all the way across the age ranges, though?

The government won't permit us to admit any children except for N,R,1 & 2

Do you mean 6 rather than 2?

Our school sent out a survey to see who would attend. Due to the size of the school the responses were that many would return and so they were not able to safely accommodate all students so are now only having foundation children in based on gov advice to prioritise youngest

If schools are safe why have at least 65 teachers died from the virus so far?

@Bignet182 because people from all walks of life have died from the virus. There are over 400,000 teachers in the UK. 65 is a very tiny percentage (around 0.01%) of all teachers. Less than the prevalence of deaths across the general population (0.05ish). Very approximate numbers but teachers arent dying at a higher rate than anyone else.