What about other Primary School Years?

[Adelais]

Unless I missed it, I didn’t hear anything mentioned about when other primary school years can go back? Will my year 2 child definitely not be going back until September or is there any chance they will go back before the summer holidays? I wish we had some idea of when it might be.

His aim is for all primary school children to hopefully return before the Summer. However, its really going to be down to individual schools due to pupil numbers, staffing, facilities etc.

He won't ever really be able to give a definite as he won't be able to account for the complexities of each individual school and a lot will depend on the next couple of weeks as they start to take more pupils in. However, theres a good chance they'll get to go back, even if that's only for a couple of days in the final weeks.

You're better off speaking to your school to see how they're personally getting on and what their plans are as all schools will be a little different.

There hasn’t been any guidance on how schools are meant to do this yet. Will it be by increasing bubbles back to 30? Swapping year groups invited into school? A rota system? Schools have no idea what the plan is anymore than parents. We just have to wait and see what the government guidance says (and we have no idea when we will get that!)

As time passes and no further official guidances are issued on the topic, it seems less and less likely primary schools will widen their intake further before the summer break (except perhaps a token day or to at the discretion of each school? Like for some of the secondary school kids)

I've noticed the "aspiration to have all primary school kids back for a month before summer" seems to have been quietly dropped from government statements. The only people still mentioning it in the media tend to then ask embarrassing questions such as "how the hell can you half the classes and still teach all the kids at the same time, without doubling the number of rooms and teachers?"
I suspect in the long run there might be rotas... I sure would like to know, as my employer is starting to ask questions re: when would I want to use my annual leave (currently saving it till the situation is clearer)

Thanks all. The only communication we have had from my dds school only mentioned reception going back next Thursday and possibly year 1 and 6 the week after but no word on other years.
Although I live in England, in our county the schools finish earlier than everywhere else so she would be finishing early July and going back the end of August. I can’t see it being before the school hols now though I was hoping she’d go back for at least a week or two.

The only way a lot of schools will be able to have all year groups back is if social distancing is relaxed and everyone accepts they will eventually catch the virus. Our school is using all available staff and facilities to create four bubbles (R, 1, 6, key worker+vulnerable) and there is nothing more to give.

We have been told only reception (& keyworker) will be in before they break up for summer, no room or enough staff for any other years.

God knows what will happen in September.

We've also been told that in my dc's primary once the key worker, vaulnerable, R, 1 and 6 children are in there is no space for children from any other year groups.

I think it’s extremely unlikely. The government has said that plan is under review and most schools simply won’t have the classrooms/staff for it.

Nick Gibb said today that he wants all primary school children back, and would consider rotas allowed. Considering many schools are doing rotas already, against guidance, and yet still have all staff and rooms used, I'm not sure what's going to give. Apart from the health of school staff.

I suspect that as soon as more children are back, and the alleged track and trace thing gets going, schools are going to be in and out all over the place due to staffing issues. If a kid's family member has it, and the kid tests positive, then that's a bubble with 1 or 2 staff members off, you'll then have children from other bubbles who are siblings of the original bubble off isolating, the another member of staff will get a cough and be off for 3 days testing. Then you'll have staff with children in other schools who have to isolate. If staff get it they could be off for 8 weeks, even with mild cases.

The last 2 weeks before closure were chaos. It's going to be that again.

I suggest that anyone with a child going back has 2 weeks worth of food in their house, just in case.

My DSs school (separate infants/juniors rather than primary) aren't able to accommodate any of the kids from yR, y1 & y6 due to staffing & not having the relevant rooms/space to teach safely, so unless the rules about number of kids per class etc change, I don't think they'll be back until September. They are remaining open for key worker/vulnerable kids & will allow more kids for both categories.

I have lost any hope that my yr 5 daughter will return to school this academic year. The super positive school I work in can’t manage it as all staff and space is being used for Yr r,1& 6 and keyworker kids so it’s not going to happen at hers.

If they keep the advice that bubbles must be no more than 15 it can't happen due to space.
If, as I suspect they will have to do in September, they increase bubble size to 30 but stick to isolating bubbles, staggered start/finish/playtime and no assemblies then we can all get back.
I am a TA and quite frankly I want to go back properly everybody, I can see the benefit in no assembly and staggered drop off but I genuinely see no reason why everyone who wants to can't return. Once you factor in shielding staff, parents and children numbers are vastly reduced anyway also the children whose parents just don't believe it is safe take it even lower.

In any case when you look at statistics I am sure I read community transition is very low, with 0.25% of people outside of hospitals and care homes actively infectious.

As a rough in my head calculation 0.25% of the UK population is about 40 people. Yes there are lots of people still suffering after effects of the virus or it dragging on but as awful as that is for them they are most likely no longer infectious.

I must be mistaken though as it just seems ridiculous we couldn't get back to normal at those numbers.

Our school says they haven’t received any guidance yet on other year groups - just a vague hope that they’ll get some time in school before summer.

They’ve also said that they don’t have enough classrooms or teachers to take all the year groups, so we should assume years 2-5 won’t be back this term.

I think the aim was to have all children back for a month before the summer holidays. Our school isn't opening until the 8th for the first lot and they're doing one week in, one week off. I've resigned myself to the fact that DS probably won't be back before September.

Our school have basically told parents (in so many words) that other years won’t be coming back. I’ve told my DC they probably won’t be going back before Sept and we’re all resigned to them going back into the next year groups. A real shame as they had lovely teachers and were really enjoying school before all this :(

I've said all along that I didn't think schools could take more than 30%. Our local school is taking keyworker children, children belonging to staff so they can work, year one and year six on a rota. They haven't got the teaching capacity, hopefully this will ease at the end of June. They're going to struggle space wise as there's three spare classrooms unoccupied, the halls and being used for storage for contact items removed from classrooms. Having said all that it would be nice to think all children could have something like one day a week in July. Not great, but along with remote learning it's something

Our school is managing to take yr r, 1 and 6 full time with no rota, but I’m not sure how that leaves space for anyone else!

As a rough in my head calculation 0.25% of the UK population is about 40 people.

Your maths is a bit off there. 0.25% of 66 million people is 165,000.

Other years can not return before social bubbles in schools are no longer operating.

There just are not the staff to do otherwise.

This is one of the reasons I'm keeping reception age DS off. People keep saying stuff like 'yeah but what if its still like this in September'. The bottom line being that it is an all or nothing situation - schools can not fully operate all years in bubbles. It has to go back to normal or there are will be more full school closures or children who are off for a lot longer than six months.

It isn't crucial for DS to go in. We are all coping well. And if that helps free up a teacher that may allow other children in other years to return sooner.

Only other possible alternative is summer opening in August. I can't see this going down terribly well though.

It isn't crucial for DS to go in. We are all coping well. And if that helps free up a teacher that may allow other children in other years to return sooner

It definitely won’t be working like that in our school, I asked. If they have fewer children in from the currently permitted year groups, it will just mean smaller bubbles from those year groups. They have to keep those places open in case parents change their mind, so they cannot free up teachers for other year groups to come back.