@Lostmyshityear9 bravo!
Teachers are going to leave education in the next year because of this. Some of it because of the opinions of the media and people who don't know anything about actual teaching.
My friend just asked me whether schools will be open in September. This was my response:
We've no idea at all.
Our government has advised the nation via a prime time announcement, that children who are 4-5, 5-6 and 10-11 can start back at school today. Cue parents and business getting excited about workers coming back/being able to work from home. No notice given to schools of this announcement date. They said at the same time that 'all primary children' will be 'welcomed back' to school for a month before the summer holidays.
Reality is that they then issues guidance saying certain safety things must be in place. So, schools all do what they need to do to follow this guidance. It's quite brutal in terms of how primary schools normally operate. It takes 3 or 4 days to work this out, clear it with governors, survey parents and so on. Lots of stress, it's literally a life and death decision for some teachers and children right?
Then 4 days later, after hearing that lots of schools were going to use a rota to make sure all children 'were welcomed by their teacher', rather than a random adult, they issued new guidance saying NO ROTAS.
A day later, having realised that lots of schools had literally no other way of doing it without rotas, they issued more guidance (8pm on a Friday night) saying DEFINITELY NO ROTAS, prioritise key worker children (new list coming out 1st June as to who is a key worker - so after the date that these children are meant to be in school, meaning no school can say yes or no to accepting more key worker children), and vulnerable children (try and get your SEND children into school - no thought given as to whether they are spitters, biters, runners, and whether or not their support adult will be there). Then next priority is reception aged children, who can't socially distance. Next priority is year 1 (5 - 6 year olds), finally address your year 6s. No thought to regions which have middle schools or 'through schools' for whom year 6 isn't a priority at all.
Cue loads of heads, governors and local authorities saying "Even with this new guidance, we can only do this with rotas - lots of teachers are sheilding, we don't have big enough rooms". Government gives up, parents and businesses are all pissed off because it's compeltely inconsistent across the country. Some year 6s will be in, some won't, some schools can't even take the additional key worker children they expect to have today. Schools were sending out emails last night saying "don't just turn up tomorrow" in a panic.
Then on Friday, one of the education ministers said "we're definitely looking at getting all primary school children back for a month before the end of term", and then later in the day another education minister said "probably won't be able to get other children back". There isn't the space in any school in the country to have 'all primary school children back for a month before the summer'. There aren't the staff to cover this.
Then over the weekend all the scientists said "This is fucking insane, why are kids going back to school, we don't have this under control". Head teachers who were due to open today, sat up all night on Saturday changing their plans and deciding it wasn't safe. More pissed off parents and businesses, who have at least another week of children at home. Some have said they are not opening until 15th June anyway.
Then randomly in the middle of the night on Saturday, they also said that anyone who was sheilding, now doesn't need to sheild, all support for this will be withdrawn. Suddenly there are more children who could be at school, and more teachers available. But they don't feel safe, and haven't been planned for in the school system.
Meanwhile attendance is voluntary. So, parents were given the choice - most of them made their choice 2 weeks ago when the initial guidance came out and schools surveyed them. Loads have suddenly changed their minds because they've been ordered back to the office, or similar. Even if your child is in school, it might be week on/week off, it might be 2 days a week, it might be only mornings, it might be Mon - Thurs only. Judgy parenting is rife right now - of each other, and definitely of schools and teachers who are 'lazy and cowards' if you believe the media.
Who is doing sick cover for these teachers? As soon as a child coughs, it's all off for a test. So, a 'bubble' is closed for 3 - 4 days while we wait for test results. If the teacher has it, all off. If a child has it, all off - or maybe not, who knows.. guidance keeps changing.
What I'm saying is, our department of education doesn't know its arse from its elbow. They haven't a fucking clue what is happening around the country today, let alone in September.