Can’t see how children will be able to go back to school in 2021

[Ouchy]

Let’s face it. The R0 may not be controlled for months. Vaccine unlikely until 2021. Teaching unions up in arms. People unwilling to accept the risk of the virus (low for many). I’m getting more and more concerned and the government haven’t published any forward plans for how school can be restarted in the various scenarios we may be facing come September (have they?). What on earth are the DfE and the Education Secretary doing during the working week if they’re not planning this stuff? Is there something I’ve missed - am I mistaken? I’m getting more and more concerned. The children are low risk - there needs to be a plan and fast as their educations and social development are being kind of ignored for something they’re super low risk for as individuals themselves. Looking for reassurance really - am I mistaken or being silly?

Looking at other countries I think part time school / home learning very unlikely to continue much longer. Certainly not into 2021. And we should be priortising young people. They are the future.

Absolutely agree OP. It’s not fair at all. This policy briefing from The Children’s Commissioner is interesting for anyone who hasn’t seen it already. We can’t eliminate risk but the risk to children is very low so we need to work out how to protect staff better and get kids back in to school.

I think schools should be getting more funding rather than less? Presumably they will need more staff, PPE, maybe more classroom space? Additional funding was laid on but it’s small scale (for cleaning, keeping open over the holidays etc.)

I feel like nothing long term is being considered and this cohort of schoolchildren risk being a lost generation. It will have a huge impact on their lives and it needs more attention. I’m writing to my MP too.

I think schools will go back to normal in September, I've said so on a few threads.

The government want children back in school. They're rushing to get them back now!

Bewilla, you will actually be doing double the work.

I teach online lessons. But not all kids can access this, so l do separate resources for those who can’t. And all the lessons have to changed or altered if being taught online. When we are in work, the lessons are mostly ready and we can tweak here and there.

But now, for each class, I’m doing online teaching. So old lessons need rewriting, and more lessons need setting for those with no computer access. It’s a right bloody merry go round. Just non stop.

"We can't keep funding for schools at current levels if they are passing at least half of the responsibility for education back to parents."

Are you proposing the same kind of cuts to the NHS as it isn't providing BAU services?

It's a ridiculous statement and suggests you know very little about school funding.

We will need a reduction in the curriculum. I'd like to see some of it stripped back anyway. There's quite a lot in the primary curriculum that seems never to be needed again.

My yr7 grandson has been told by his form tutor to just concentrate on the core subjects and if he feels like doing anything else then go for it. A lot in his year have admitted to doing nothing at all (his best friend's mum is NHS nurse, father a delivery driver and 3 brothers - they have one laptop between them and neither parent has energy to oversee work). This isn't an education for long term.

Secondary is much more an issue.

^ This. I can't forsee that many secondary schools will have the ability to take back full groups. They may try some guinea pig groups before the summer holidays but I think they will soon find out that it is not sustainable for September. I think they will have to allow carefully selected numbers from the exam years in september and the rest will have to learn at home.

It takes a special level of nitwittedness to imagine that reducing education funding is going to help in this particular crisis (on top of the crisis that is already enveloping school funding and teacher recruitment and retention). Obviously schools will be functioning full time but if class sizes have to be reduced - by GOVERNMENT direction, NOT because schools have decided this! - then either you need to double the building capacity or accept that the kids will be in part time. The teachers will still be working full time.

I mean, make teacher pay and conditions worse by all means but don’t expect your child to be getting a decent education when we come out of the covid crisis then. You won’t have the staff anymore because you will have driven them out. Which is extremely short sighted given the catching up and healing that schools are going to be tackling after all of this.

None of this is teachers’ faults and they can’t just carry on as normal - schools are following government guidelines. We are in a global pandemic.

Reduced or part time schooling is not forever. Don’t destroy what’s left of the education system out of spite or some misguided idea about dragging teachers into your pathetic race to the bottom. If you value education, you need to value the people delivering it. They have a massive task ahead of them along with the rest of society when it comes to rebuilding and moving on.

Both Scotland and Wales have effectively confirmed school in Autumn Term will be part home schooling, as have many Universities. With growing evidence that schools are outbreak hotspots there won’t be a back to normal in September.

My kids are studying practical subjects that can’t be properly done online.

Add for education to be successful in the near future, the government need to do proper investing.

Bigger rooms for social distancing,more staff, more hand basins. If they employed 1/2 as many staff then schools could work in a social distance manner. But they’ve given them no extra money.

When l see stuff in Korea sand China, where they are disinfecting the schools, l wonder just what Britain is doing. Whilst COVID is here, schools will not run properly. But l think if the government actually planned it and invested in it, it could work.

But they won’t, so don’t blame Biris, blame those lazy workday teacherts.

@NeverTwerkNaked and @Gunpowder thanks for those links - good to see some evidence of planning afoot on the first one and just need to read the Children’s Commissioner one now. Good to hear the views of some similarly concerned mums and great idea to write to MP - I will do that as at least then I will feel I am doing something. And teachers - I don’t know how parts of this thread ended up arguing teachers should get a pay cut - no way we want and need you all more than ever now (or at least that’s how I feel personally). Never have I been more aware of the value of school and teachers

@Oaktree55

Both Scotland and Wales have effectively confirmed school in Autumn Term will be part home schooling, as have many Universities. With growing evidence that schools are outbreak hotspots there won’t be a back to normal in September.

The evidence I've seen suggests the exact opposite. Sources please.

Schools being fully operational will coincide with furlough funding coming to an end. Which the government has said will be end of October 2020. Otherwise how are people supposed to earn a living, if they have to stay home and look after/educate their kids all day?

But I'll still be doing as many hours as normal for half my wage?

Will you?

If schools don't go back full time and as normal with more hand washing, as they are doing around the world, then your job will be a very different job.

I'm amazed that the teacher's unions are not fighting hard for education andthe importance of teachers to the functioning of our society.

At the start of this I thought teachers could ask for better pay and conditions and be more likely to get them. Certainly support from parents was very high early in lockdown.

But instead the unions are making it as difficult as possible for children to get back to their education and looking to spin this out for months and into nect year.

I wouldn't be making it easier for a Tory government to make permanent cuts to educational entitlement, but I guess I'm not a teacher any more.

How long do you think these bubbles will last?

What will happen if part time school has been accepted as normal and then class sizes go back to normal?

Part time school stays, but we only need teachers for half the time.

As for tone, I'm somewhere between bemused, infuriated, and laughing in despair.

I'm not sure how I feel about pupil premium, but I have always thought it opened some potentially dangerous doors.

To be clear: I want my kids back at school full time. I think teaching is a really important job. I think the unions are letting the profession down very badly here.

Now people can see how it has been for years for thousands of children with sen.

Education wise there is so much online for primary and workbooks available so most parents should be able to homeschool up to maybe yr 4 level there's actually too much. I have no idea where to start with all the resources available, no idea what order they should be learning stuff or the best way to say teach telling the time because I'm not a teacher. And I'm an engaged, well educated sahp. If the kids are in part time, what if the parents both work full time? I guess k ids do 25 hours a week? So 8-6 Sat and Sun is what, 17 hours school work? So 6-8pm for nights a week too? And whose caring for them in the day?

And it has to be asked, what about the kids of parents who are basically illiterate and inumerate, not to mention those whose maths skills won't stretch to y4 curriculum, whose English will struggle to make sense of any of it, who think it's all a waste and school is pointless so won't bother, whose mental health is too poor to cope with the pressure, those families with 4+ kids in education etc?

I cant read the tes article.
Im assuming though teachers cant teach 2 bubbles anyway so not sure how splitting the class would work. If the teacher teaches both anyway.
I do think people are so dramatic it would take years missed to have a huge effect on most children remember that schools vary a lot in provision anyway and kids manage to come to uk from different year groups abroad and cope some of whom speak only another language.
I think a huge issue is parental effort (not the ones working) the ones who cant be bothered at all normally.

My own dc is struggling (probable adhd/asd) but we are getting the fundamentals done. For me it's that im not being firm enough with a timetable.

All we can all hope is that mask wearing comes in for supermarkets too and that this and PT and hospitals and care homes becoming immune will bring it right down.

I know it seems a big sacrifice but there are still lots of young people who get hospitalised with this. (They estimated 1% of 20year olds).so while its unlikely to be your child etc the risks to the huge numbers secondaries and their parents are there.

Just to clarify what clearly some people are clueless about. Part time schooling won't mean the teachers work part time hours. It would mean a class being split and the teacher taking both sets. To make it work teachers will no doubt be expected to work LONGER hours to make sessions long enough to be viable. I am back doing my normal hours only now I no longer have a break and an hour lunch (which I used to work through anyway-but that was my hockey) but just one half hour lunch where I need to clean. I also finish later and have no PPA time. On my days off (I'm part time) I have to prepare all the home learning for those who are not in school. So if you think I will then tolerate a pay cut for working harder then I ever have, combined with the fact I have to put my own children at risk in three separate key worker bubbles to do so at another school and putting myself at my family at risk then you are one of the reasons I am so ready to quit, because I am sick of people who know nothing about what my job entails making flippant remarks about how we have it easy or should get a pay cut. Just sod off.

Why would part time schooling stay and class sizes be back to 30+? Are the number of children going to double? Why would anyone want part time schooling to become the norm?? That makes even less sense than the calls to make teachers redundant and/or cut their salary! How completely ridiculous.

Perhaps there needs to be some societal adjustments for some of this? But l don’t know what.

My children are going back to school in September 2020. We have had confirmation of this.

Nihil hates teachers. On every thread bashing teachers constantly. It's actually disgusting.

I think we split it. Low risk kids from low risk families and low risk teachers go back to school in September. For the pupils that can't attend, a national home schooling service, web based. They have the summer to ensure low income kids that can't attend get devices and internet.

Someone asked for source re blended school/home learning September onwards. I actually watched it on TV being discussed but found this......I think those thinking school ie indoor crowded environment in Autumn (ideal Covid spread) will be normal in September is somewhat deluded. They will need to limit numbers congregating indoors in crowded circumstances which for schools means not all kids in at once.....

gov.wales/check-catch-prepare-summer-and-september-all-schools-wales-enter-next-phase