On a day of extreme worry for parents not a mention re schools not opening in the daily briefing.

[Av0cetSi3sta]

Not a sausage, not even a question.
But plenty on business.

As clear as day where this government’s priorities lie.

Its shocking. Can anybody seriously think this is a sensible tradeoff. The risk of significant transmission in school is low and the risk of harm to children from covid near zero. The harm through missing school is massive!

They have given up because the teaching unions and the jobsworth councils won’t back down.

It’s really annoying and my daughter year 6 can’t go back because the school can’t take anymore children except the children of the key workers and today we got a message from the school saying unfortunately they won’t see all the year 6 back to school so they will arrange end of the year celebration in September. It’s really sad.

It’s nothing to do with unions and councils, since when did a conservative government ever ever make decisions based on unions and councils?!
They’ve just had to finally accept that you can’t halve class numbers and fit the same number of children in schools. And they can’t lose the restrictions yet because R, and the number of infected are both going down stubbornly slowly.
The astonishing aspect is that they didn’t plan for this eventuality and so that is apparently that?
The education and well being of our children during this should be one of the top priorities and they are a complete afterthought in all this. It will take years to unpick the damage.

The shops are allowed to open but for fair contrast it should be noted that it will be with social distancing far fewer customers allowed in at a time.

Shops won’t be getting back to normal for a very long time either.

I agree that it does seem crazy though but important to note nowhere is getting back to normal

Schools are full with the classes they have asked to return

PRIMARY schools may be.

Secondary schools are empty (other than a few younger children of keyworkers). Why?

the problem is that the government actively discouraged rotas and/or part one places and they will not now go back on their decision as to do so would be admitting they were wrong

I thought the guidance said schools could be flexible, so they could use rotas etc but without saying it expressly.

I thought the guidance said schools could be flexible, so they could use rotas etc but without saying it expressly.

Yes because why would a government give specifics when it can pass the buck on the decision and instead imply things that people then don't know if they can implement or not. The added bonus being they can also deny blame or responsibility when it goes wrong. It really is the mark of such strong leadership. How lucky we are to be in such trustworthy hands.

@Kljnmw3459 When is the next review? Surely they're looking at other countries and learning from them?

25th June Apparently It's been quietly changed from 3 weekly to 4 weekly with some pathetic lame excuse. So another 2 weeks to go

Hmm the 3 to 4 week review change policy was kept very quiet wasn’t it
And as prev poster days primary schools may be full. But secondaries only have keyworker children. I can’t imagine lots are accessing these places purely on the basis of their age at this stage. Other than some year 7/8 I’d imagine they’d stay at home anyway. So these are big schools with many buildings and large classrooms sitting empty. Why? Why has there been no provision for even part time secondary schooling. A day or two a week would be better than nothing and could at least cover some maths and English teaching. I’m concerned they’re getting a bit forgotten now. My ds is year 9 and while he is doing all work set and receiving praise from his teachers I am certain he is not learning much of any new material. It’s time the government started addressing this now.
Even our year 12’s have been invited in but for one 90 minute meeting each!!! That’s all they can offer?? No teaching whatsoever. And the same for our year 10’s. What a shambles this has become.
I think when it all started we thought it would be home schooling until the May half term then some teaching would begin. Not they’re saying sept won’t be normal school either. They say they have a plan. But they don’t want to share that with us. It’s so bloody frustrating. And im a lucky parent who is at home and doesn’t need to coax my child to do the work. He has space and quiet to work. I have the time to give him if needed. But there are many who are not in this position.

They have realised that the maths just doesn't work. They don't want secondary kids in because they will be travelling further to get there in the community and using public transport.

We can't just use any building for classrooms. We are using year 5 classrooms for year 1 children and they are struggling on the chairs and tables. We are also more dependent on our interactive whiteboards as the children at the back can't see the pages in a normal size book. Most churches and libraries don't have iwbs . Please don't see this as making excuses it is reality. Councils have offered buildings to us but they are so far away the children would have to be dropped off and picked up from them and there is no playground or safe outdoor space.

Just bring back normal schooling as soon and as safe as possible and we will all be happy. I am sure the Dfe has people frantically making up new directives as we type. I'm sure it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Questions about schools today. Big plan is going to be announced next week.

Yes a lot more questions this evening and a lot of press around this today thank goodness. Although not sure I have much confidence that that Education Minister will produce anything of substance next week....let's hope he is feeling the pressure and steps up. Finally.

Most churches and libraries don't have iwbs

Lol. Because we all know education has never previously happened in a school hall or without interactive whiteboard.

We know education has not happened before with social distancing. The children at the back of the classroom can not see a book properly and we are not supposed to walk around the room. I am not dependent on my whiteboard normally but when the children are so far away a big screen is needed.

Social distancing to 2 metres isn’t being adhered to every minute of the day in primaries it just can’t be.

I do not want my teenage dc spending the summer in a mish mash of crappy buildings all over the place with a mish mash of ‘teachers’ cobbled together who aren’t properly equipped to get them ready for exams.

I want them in school in September no ifs no buts. They need to sort it, end of.

Stop just focusing on primary aged children and do what they’re paid to do.