Schools fubared till November?

[Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]

Disruption to schools could continue to November, MPs told www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52895640

Is this a dystopian joke?

Are we actually trying to fuck up our kids?

Schools need to be instructed to open fully five days a week with enhanced on day cleaning, increased buses to allow distancing, staggered start and finish, covered but open refuge areas allowing distancing whilst outside in all weathers for breaks and no assemblies. Relatively low investment needed, huge gain economically but more importantly for our kids education and mental health. Some of these kids will never get back to school if they are out for so long. Some will fail to achieve their potential. And all for an illness with a tiny mortality rate overall?

Our school sent pictures so the children knew what to expect but thankfully it looks nothing like some of those horrific pictures shown online of red tape around everything. If anything it looks quite calm and nice!

snowballer

the local schools have ALL published videos to show what the classrooms and schools now look like, and keyworker parents have been the first to share their experience before even the first year group came back.

Your school might look different, but it doesn't mean everything is so positive. Funnily enough the positivity seems to have gone a lot downhill since the first day.

Not all schools have reopened in the same way either! Schools haven't even started with accepting the same year groups.

The one thing that is obvious is that postcode lottery is not just medically related, it's even worst regarding schools. There is absolutely no consistency whatsoever across state schools in England.

My Yr6 boy is absolutely loving being back. Full credit to his amazing teachers who have made it this way. He says he loves it. Loved the other positive thread with al the good experiences.

delatron are the children in Switzerlan all abck, full tiem in full classes? And how big are their class sizes?

Genuine interest.

Other countries often emntione:

Denmark : only primary back, with bubbles as we have. Rotas and part time. Never partially open for KW prior to this
Sweden : oldest children at home,universities online. Growing unease about virus transmission. Social distancing in society and schools. High absence rates of teachers.
Australia : many areas overruled PM and made their own arrangements. Staff felt bullied. Union intervention. Not all children back full time in all year groups in all areas. No oartial opening prior to reopening
France : region by region approach. Bubbles. SD of very young children expected and enforced. schools completely closed prior to this.
Germany : variety of approaches. Some areas opened after others. Older students back in most areas to prep and sit exams. Much earlier start to summer holidays than we have.
Spain : school completely closed
Ireland and Italy : ditto

All of these countries have had staff and parental anxiety and union representation. They aren't the utopias described.

We sound pretty good really!

Excuse typos!

It read all schools were open but il need to go and find the info. May have been primary but it was definitely full time and all years.

What I will say is Spain and Italy remain closed as they would close in June anyway so you can’t read in to that situation. Especially as Spain are now allowing groups of 10 round each other’s houses.

I’m not saying all years should be back now. I’m saying look how far we have come. And we really think that in November we’ll still be in the same situation?

I appreciate other countries have had different and more successful handling of this virus tang doesn’t mean we can’t watch what they do and learn from it.

That not tang

Your school might look different, but it doesn't mean everything is so positive.*

That's why I linked the other thread. For the purpose of demonstrating I wasn't just talking about my own experience. I thought that was obvious...

Just checked and it is pupils up to the age of 16 back to school in Switzerland. Not expected to social distance between the children.

Thanks delatron. Not that I want one, but I think teachers have masks. I think their class sizes are very small too.

I don't think everything will be as bad in November. Or I sincerely hope not. But I do wonder why the government met about that. What modelling have they got that pulled that date out of the bag? that really does concern me.

@Piggywaspushed November ties in with the end of furlough on 31st October. So we’d better hope there isn’t another wave in November.

Denmark : only primary back, with bubbles as we have. Rotas and part time. Never partially open for KW prior to this

Denmark - oh, Denmark.. you wondrous exemplar of how to do education in a pandemic. So good that the government used you as an example, the BBC was jammed with your brilliant work for days on end.

Oh....

I wish there was some consistency with home learning. Some schools have been amazing. We get a weekly sheet emailed - that’s it, no marking/ interaction at all.
My DC were in school Wednesday (Only 10 key worker children attend on Wednesdays, it’s the lesson planning day apparently ). They did not complete their home learning. Same last week. Have sent 2 emails to politely enquire about further support - no answer.
My DC are so disadvantaged having 2 key worker parents 😢 I’m probably feeling emotional - I’m so stressed and busy with work (nhs). We only send them 2 days as we juggle work on other days. Neither of us can give up work for a variety of reasons, too busy to take AL. It’s a dreadful situation for my DC.

My dd is y12 and gas been told today that the plan at her college is back in September for one lesson a week for each subject and the other lessons will be remote.

That isn't too surprising but what did get me is that they think this will be until March. I guess it makes sense to plan for through the flu season but I am glad she is old enough to pretty much get on with it herself.

@Pomegranatepompom This is my concern too and it just perpetuates the inequality. Some schools have a full timetable of lessons, kids plugged in learning all day. Parents cracking on with work..

We get a few sheets and lots of You Tube links and I basically have to teach multiplication of fractions whilst trying to do my own work..

This is a criticism of the government not schools really. There should be more guidelines about what schools provide if this carries on. Otherwise the attainment gap between children will just keep growing. Some will be at a huge disadvantage.

@Delatron my children are disadvantaged. I’m so upset about it. I could quit my job but I work in a very specific area, it would leave the nhs service compromised, leading to treatment delays (it’s normally end treatment, timing is vital, without treatment the only option is palliative care). It would take months to train someone. I feel in an impossible place.
We spend as much time as we can on schooling, crafting, baking, exercise- but they are still miserable as they miss their friends/clubs/school/ teachers.

I hope the pp doesn’t tell me to get a grip.

@Starcup

*I think you are making a mistake to think that the virus spreading freely won't harm the lives of the majority. That's what it comes down to.*

@eeeyoresmiles

It won’t harm the lives of the majority.

That's only true if you only include individual medical harm from the illness itself. It's not true if you include the harm caused by lots of people being ill at once. I think you're underestimating that harm.

The effects on society of this illness spreading fast and uncontrolled are not a million miles from the effects of lockdown. With both, you've got the NHS unable to carry out all the non-covid care they need to. Businesses and the economy can't function normally. Education is disrupted. Tourism and hospitality are screwed (as is a lot of foreign travel). It isn't something we wouldn't notice - hospitals would have wards filling up again with people (many vital people in the workforce), more businesses would close due to sickness, schools would have to send people home due to lack of staff.

If you could guarantee we'd all get the illness neatly one by one and not all at once, then you could judge what to do based only on the effects on most individuals. But the effects of lots of people being ill at once are far greater than that, for the whole of society. That's the thing constraining what we can do now, far more than the effects of the disease on vulnerable people or those actually likely to die.

Even covid itself will be worse for people if many people are ill at once because it has a high hospitalisation rate - if hospital care isn't there because too many people are ill at once, then the death rate will go up.

Even if we knew there would never be a vaccine, we'd still have to allow the disease to spread slowly rather than quickly, as letting it spread quickly gives all the problems of lots of people being ill at once.

In effect that's what we're doing by trying to get back to some kind of normal with social distancing, hygiene, testing and tracking. Lockdown cause a big slow down in cases and now we're switching to other methods (including limiting mixing in schools and trying to make it safer) to keep cases low and stop them going up again.

If we abandon all those measures and let the disease spread fast, based on the idea that most people aren't medically in danger of death from the disease, the majority will still be harmed - not all from the disease itself, but in all sorts of other ways.

For years schools have been worrying about underfunding, SEND, vulnerable children, austerity measures, exam changes, academisation. Honestly, few seemed bothered. These are some, not all, but some of the reasons for the inconsistency and problems that has been seen.

Belgium are re-opening their primary schools to all pupils next week (sounds like they are open to a couple of years already). I don't know what their class sizes are like, but this is a country that has also been badly hit by CV.
www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.eu/article/all-nursery-and-primary-schools-in-belgium-to-reopen-in-june/amp/

Wales have confirmed this already for September. What do people expect. We’re in middle of 100 year event but majority in Western Countries expect a couple of months disruption then back to normal. In for a rude awakening.

Something like 95% of those who have died are aged over 70. We can't have too many working in schools who are over 70.
I agree we are damaging a entire generation and any chance of some of them escaping poverty by not opening schools. I think its shocking and in years to come we will look back on this and wonder why people insisted on this??
All these years schools have banged on about how every day counts and suddenly its ok to have 5 months off. ha ha ha!

Totally agree with the original post. In years from now we will see a drop in GCSE and general academic results. I really fear that many of the current reception children & year 1 children will have a poorer reading age. Children from advantaged wealthy families will probably be fine but unless we get schools back to normal we are throwing many under the proverbial bus.

As a teacher in a deprived area, we have been discussing real concerns about the increasing level of NEETs as a result of this. There is going to be a significant number of young people who will slip through the net into further deprivation and there’s only so much we can do without face to face contact- we desperately need to see some of these students. The sooner the better, in my opinion.

However, I know how much the health of staff and students is also a real concern for so many and, for our headteacher, it’s a logistical nightmare trying to arrange reopening (in Wales so all students back in some form from the 29th). I don’t envy him that job. I’m more than happy to get back to it though, I just hope that we have a good level of PPE e.g. visors etc. My mum is a nurse in the NHS and she’s more worried for me, returning to school with no PPE, than she is for herself now that she has good levels of PPE.

My DC much rather be at school. I am working FT and not able to do baking etc with my kids and DH has had a traumatic head injury so not able to teach the kids / teach them in a good way. We are struggling. The children hate it. All this middle class shit about doing baking and stuff - only if you're a stay at home parent with plenty of time on your hands?