What would you actually like the government to do on schools.

[StatisticalSense]

The demands on this site with regards to schooling are simply incompatible. Schools physically do not have the room or staff to reopen to their normal numbers of pupils with any form of social distancing in place, so it clearly isn't possible to get all kids back to school full time with social distancing in place.
What exactly would you like the government to be doing on schools that is actually feasible?

Ok, but maybe they could for a while, if that's what it takes to get schools fully open?

I don't think the people who ask for 'use of other spaces / temporary classrooms) have quite grasped the scale of what would beneeded.

So what's your solution then???

WowLucky

Do you have the studies that show the benefits of these screens in the education setting?

Yes maybe. Or maybe they could stand outside in the corridor?

Sorry, I think I’m losing it a bit now.

Personally no, but I'm sure the DfE could liaise with their Swiss counterparts regarding their experience. They're extending school opening now, so I expect they've been a success, or maybe they haven't, but worth investigating rather than dismissing out of hand surely?

I think it's more important for us to listen to our scientists and the advice they are giving, rather than thinking we know best.

I'm quite sure if perspex boxes for teachers were either useful or effective then they would implement them.

I cannot believe someone suggested teepees and stuff in fields as a reasonable solution 🤣

Portacabins - how would this work with schools that don’t have much outside space? Those inner city schools?

Outside in the parks etc? How many in inner cities are still there because the land sold and redeveloped for erm affordable housing locals can not afford?

Where is all the equipment going to come from to kit out these temporary classes? Many schools don’t have resources for each pupil as it is.

I wonder if these little problems are because every time there is yet another cut no one cares. It’s all twisted back to blame the schools.

Too busy moaning that little Johnnie had to listen to the racket of their peers. Little Johnnie is the only child in the class. I could do a better job etc.

And 🤣 at thinking if there was a mass recruitment drive people would be lining up to apply. Those of us who jumped well before this shit show yea right go back I’m not. Many since this shit show started have handed in their notice.

A few will apply of course cos well they can do a better job.

The rest who really wants a job where you are always attacked for doing your job. If parents don’t like the education they receive they could go private, home school but instead they choose to attack the schools. We see it clearly now, no respect at all for teachers. Many parents see them as child care.

Fuck the education for the years that need it. So long as little Johnnie is getting cared for.

History will look back and see yea some parents in 2020 really did forget about their own children. Adults so busy to carry on living their lives. The government pandered and told the nation schools are merely places for childcare. You want to educate your child you deal with it.

Curriculum got suspended how many months ago? Yet still teachers aren’t doing enough when they were told from the government to stop.

Someone mentioned exams and how they could be set for next year and this needs to be announced now.

How many put their suggestions to the exam boards when they were open for this (I forgot the official name sorry). The deadline closed a few days ago.

There was all parents chance to put their ideas across.

How many have written to MPS?

Oh this was the first time. Well here have a 👏🏻 where was the letters to the MPS about serious issues over the years? Where was those letters asking for more to be done about investing into education?

Solution - as the spokesperson from New Zealand said, it's actually really easy.

Lock down long enough, and hard enough, to deny the virus any new victims, so it dies out. Properly quarantine all new arrivals. Absolutely rigorous track and trace, isolation legally enforced but income protected.

Rolling programme of testing for all high-risk occupations e.g. in care homes and hospitals.

Then open up in September, with such low numbers in the community that proper opening is possible.

From what youve said, I absolutely agree you are better off out of it.

If we should be looking at successes of countries surely this should be the only one that has got rid of the virus.

Yea I know but it’s not the same.

New Zealand is a ridiculous comparison. If has fewer people in it than London and they grow nearly all their own food.

It doesn't mean that the things that they did - especially rigorous track and trace, and a real determination to stamp out the virus, rather than just 'live with the collateral damage, in terms of deaths, to us wanting our lives back' - aren't absolutely worth doing. The successful Asian countries have followed similar procedures too.

The bottom line is, no one wants to pay for extra teachers and buildings which could end up being mothballed in 2 years when a vaccine is out. No government will - it's a non-starter. It's sadly far cheaper economically to allow unemployment to rise and work on a single income household model for a while.

work on a single income household model for a while

What's that when it's at home?

For us it would mean the repossession of our house so I don't right fancy it tbh.

I notice most of the teachers on this thread are the negative ones that have a problem with every idea . I think there will not be a one size fits all for every scenario. This is all unprecedented. The thread title asked for ideas , people are offering them - They may not be feasible because we don’t know the ins and outs of every school , but some of the responses are so angry ! To the person that kept quoting little Johnny- I’m so glad you don’t teach anymore , so bitter !

Single income thing is ridiculous. People have their lives set up and will lose their homes.

Anyway, the main point is that children need to be in school. So put them in school.

So put them in school.

Schools want their pupils back, desperately. parents want their children in school.

The Government could say 'OK, all children go back to school now', but they know that the number of people infected and the risk of transmission just don't allow them to say that - or rather, they don't want to be held responsible when in fact all those hopeful statements of 'children don't really spread the virus' doesn't turn out to be quite true when the 'children' in question are 15-18, or if parents dose them up on Calpol and send them into school poorly.

Government know that parents want children back in school, that working parents need them back in school and that children are missing vital school time. I'm quite sure that if they could send all children back to school then they would.

The fact that they aren't allowing all children back yet suggests that they know it isn't safe to do so.

Yes. What is preventing us as schools taking children back is, in fact, the government's own plans.

If they said 'we could do rotas', we could do rotas.

if they said 'we could do more than 15 in a bubble as it is now safe for that many households to be linked', we could do that.

If they said 'actually, as the keyworker childcare completely messes up the rotas, you can stop doing that now and offer 2 days to everyone', we could in fact get the whole school back in, two days a week, from Monday.

The point is, the risks of the first 2 are too high, and the worries about the 2nd wave are too high to risk some NHS staff having to be at home for childcare. So it doesn't happen.

@Hearhoovesthinkzebras

Government know that parents want children back in school, that working parents need them back in school and that children are missing vital school time. I'm quite sure that if they could send all children back to school then they would.

The fact that they aren't allowing all children back yet suggests that they know it isn't safe to do so.

Is it a case of that the government think it won’t be safe by September or have the government just not planned properly. Then this has put fear into parents and teachers and now we have a separate anxiety issues as well as people not wanting to adjust back to normality. I can understand people don’t want their children at risk however we all need to earn an income to keep a roof over our heads. I know what I’d rather.

Sweetlikecoca

I've got no idea but Patrick Valance was very clear today that numbers of cases are still too high.

It would be an easy win for them to just say re open schools fully, so the fact that they are willing to hold tight and keep the schools closed for many children shows me that the risks must just be too high.

Of course I'm angry.
I am angry that so many have no respect for teachers.
Angry that they are getting blamed for following what the government are telling them.
All those saying it's so easy yet they don't want to put themselves through the training to teach, or work as a TA, lunchtime support etc.
Parents bullying schools into still teaching their children despite government said no.

But of course people don't want me back in the classrooms. I don't jump at the demands on the parents. I don't see schools as childcare. And of course, years 9 - 12 should have been given priority over other years because I believe in education not childcare.

Oh I will not get involved in the single income thing. Because well, circumstances change all the time. I do suggest however that to get some idea of the options available when no childcare etc, go and read all the threads with lots of helpful advice to well single parents. Households that one had to give up work because of health etc. Look for the suggestions for the summer holidays. When both adults are working etc. THere's years and years of helpful advice for when circumstance change.

Yep, scrap the social distancing, to an extent anyway. Maybe lengthen the school day and stagger classes/shorten days to begin with, so children are in say 4 hours a day, first group 8:30-12:30pm, go home, second group comes in 13:00-4pm. More outside learning where possible.

I am very frustrated that people are so resistant to considering anything new to get things moving, which is a recurrent theme in anything to do with education, but I actually think but would have been better to leave schools as they were to try and ensure numbers were as low as possible by September and go back to the old normal then.