If blended learning was the thing for all of next academic year?

[porktangle]

www.thenational.scot/news/18454764.blended-learning-become-new-normal-schools-return/

This is obviously just an article and anything could actually change in the next year but I read this and suddenly the possible next academic year just hit me like a ton of bricks. I don't know why it's taken until now tbh. I think I've just been thinking about June 1st mostly!

I could still work (I'm full time main earner) but husband couldn't so we'd have significant money problems after a few months. My son is autistic and wouldn't have his EHCP fulfilled. He's done reduced timetables before and they were a disaster, he ended up out of education for over a year.

If blended learning (half in school with social distancing, half at home remote learning) is for the next academic year.....how would you manage?

We have an autistic boy too and nope, it woks be too much upheaval for him I think

It’s total bullshit, it can’t continue. Everything has to just be lifted virus or no virus and back to how it was. Anything else is just crap.

We would manage fine. In fact I think it would be welcomed by my children especially in the winter months. But they have, on the whole, worked well at home and I don't need to work so I fully appreciate that this is far from the norm.

I volunteer with vulnerable children and this is and will continue to be a disaster for them.

Autistic child here. It would harm her education and blight her childhood.

Two primary age children, one with SEN and a single parent. I’ve been worrying about this recently as well as it seems likely that there may still be social distancing by September. If so then schools wouldn’t be able to fully open. I’ve no idea what I would do. I currently work nearly full time. No family etc who could help with childcare.

Unlike me usually but I’m trying not to think about it as nothing I can do at all at this point. We just have to hope that somehow things go as well as they can and that even if it isn’t normal by September it won’t be a whole school year of it ....

I keep thinking about the teachers too. They would have to be in on their normal contracts so their children (and all other key worker children) would still have to be in somewhere....but they would need to be doing remote learning at the same time...but who would set it (and deliver it for key worker children) when al other teachers are teaching smaller groups?

It's such a head fuck. And nothing we've ever dealt with before. But what's the alternative?

As a lone parent, who is a lecturer also likely to have to do blended learning and a useless ex and no family support... I have no idea what I'd do. I'm doing a day at a time because my brain is totally overloaded

I guess any plans for September will be for the full academic year but could be curtailed at any point if covid isn't a thing anymore and we get a vaccine etc.

@Mumteedum yes, day at a time is definitely the way to go. I've not normally been looking ahead but for some reason, reading this made me suddenly crash.

I wouldn't. I'm a single parent and my job isn't possible to do from home. I haven't been able to work since school shut. I can't do this for a year. I've got no qualifications in anything so no chance of me getting a WFH job.

Ds is meant to start in August. I'm dreading the idea of part time. Dh is also likely to be working from home until the new year, I'm a student and we have an almost 2 year old. No idea how we'd get it to work. We technically have more than enough IT equipment (2 computers, a laptop and a tablet) but it's a fight for me teach ds anything unless it's his current passion. Maths, reading etc are not current passions. That's ignoring the fact that his sister wants to join in and it turns into a fight.

I'm hoping the fact that it's a tiny village school will mean that they get to go full time because their full class size is still likely to be smaller than big inner city schools divided into multiple groups.

Also for primary 1 what on earth does remote learning look like?

The government can't extend the furlough scheme that long, so there would be serious poverty if this happened.

There's also siblings to consider, it's unlikely that siblings of different ages would be in school on the same days.

After school care and wrap-around isn't going to reopen straightaway either. Nightmare.

Another autistic child here (except she's an adult now) she was rarely in class more than 30% of the week when she was younger so wouldn't make much difference, she self taught on a laptop in the school sick room mostly. Dd2 however needed teaching, she's remote learning (university) at the moment

Also if you have a part time job, in theory you might be able to manage...but there's nothing to say your child's part time session coincide with your part time hours.

I think this article is talking about Scotland but in reality, it could be what they are thinking for everywhere else too. If it's not this though, what are the plans for next academic year I wonder 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

Surely they’d have to introduce some kind of universal basic income in this scenario because so many people wouldn’t be able to work as they currently are.

Ds has severe sn and has no interest in doing anything on a computer so remote learning wouldn't work. He would find half in half out of school very confusing and it would make him difficult to manage. He is in school full time at the moment and I hope it stays that way.

I don't see my DD being at school full time after the summer. I'm not convinced that exams will happen next year either.

@AllTheWhoresOfMalta yes, I should think they would have to do that. People build their working lives around the constant that is school so to take that away would prevent many people from working

@Perihelion exams! That's another tricky thing for next year. Maybe they will get cancelled like this year.

I’ll bite. My DC is supposed to be starting reception next year but is summer born. I think half days in a reduced size class would actually be very good for her as it would be so much less overwhelming than being plonked into a classroom of 90 children.

Hopefully the walk to and from school would also be enough exercise to tire her out. We both are wfh at the moment so it would be disruptive compared to going into the office but we could manage it.

@EugeniaGrace actually for reception it probably isn't a bad thing at all. I wonder if they will also go back to staggered intake after Xmas and Easter once turning 5?

Bite what?!

I think it’s going to be necessary, and schools will be obliged to provide it

Because shielded children will absolutely require offsite education, as will children where an immediate household member shielding and isolation within the home is not realistic

Certain clinically vulnerable DC may not be able to access all
on-site provision

Remote learning has to continue to exist for a long time to come (until we are securely in the green). Unless we are prepared to abandon the idea that Every Child Matters, and day it’s OK to remove educational provision for the medically vulnerable.

This fills me with despair. I guess it's a gradually dawning realisation that this is for the long haul. My youngest has been offered 4 days but they've said when they have to take other year groups it will reduce to 2 days a week. I have Y1, Y5, Y8. I hope they will offer the same days for the two primary age children but there is no guarantee. I'm furloughed and worried anyway that there is no job to go back to, but how can any working parent manage in these circumstances long term. You can say school isn't childcare all you like, but most parents rely on it - we don't have any family nearby, and paying for childcare/homeschool for two kids two full days (if such a thing were allowed) would wipe out my salary.