1600 paediatricians have written to the prime minister

[havefunpeleton]

Demanding schools reopen or risk scarring a generation. Reported in Times today.

I am hoping this will be the push needed to ensure this madness ends and all our children can go back to school full time in September.

Agree with you crowded. It will be hard for alot of children to settle back in come September if schools don't open then. It is one of the reasons why I would move heaven and earth to get every child back in a school building for two weeks before the summer break.

@pigeon999
Please don't check out! We need as many voices of reason as possible arguing that government has got to prioritise schooling. One of the problems with all this is that we have a populist government and a lazy PM and they will only listen to those who shout loudest.
At the moment, those shouting loudest are a bizarre mix of those who think everyone will die if schools ever reopen and want a cure for mortality, and industry lobbyists. Rational people who can calmly assess population-level risk and want their children educated in a school setting aren't getting a look in because we're too measured and not click-baity enough. We have to make our feelings known.

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@Flippetydip is there no more room in your school? The government guidance was that schools had to prioritise the younger year groups, hence Y1 in and not Y6. Your DH as a governor should know this.[/quote]
Plenty of room, and yes he is aware of that. There is room but there is not the will. If you had read my initial post correctly you would have noted I said that there was a solution to how all year relevant year groups and KW children could be accommodated but there is not the will from the leadership.

@iamapixie totally agree

Good thread here from Lewis Goodall and sounds like Newsnight might be worth watching.

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1273524302336405504

The fundamental problem is we have a government that we know has no care for the country as a whole, that has built its whole raison d'etre on catering for their base and condemning the rest of us as "the elite" and "the enemy". And that works fine until you need the trust of the whole country. There is no reason to believe this govt will prioritise our welfare above politics.

So can you say how they could all be accommodated, that may help other schools adopt it, even if your school doesn't. I am intrigued how any school could fit all pupils and have sufficient staff to do so, with social distancing in place, and having a maximum 15 pupils in a bubble @Flippetydip

I have just seen this reported on BBC news:

Social distancing rules are to be relaxed in French pre-schools and nurseries to allow all children to return from 22 June, education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said on Wednesday.

"We know that it's not easy to enforce this physical distance and the scientific advice says that at this age we can [lift restrictions] according to the data that we have," Blanquer told a French TV programme.

Though some pre-schools and primary schools have been open since 11 May, strict controls have been imposed on class sizes and parents had the choice to keep children at home.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Sunday that a return to school would now become compulsory for all pupils.

Primary schools in the country will retain a 1m social distancing rule but Blanquer said that certain classes "will have to have a little less than 1m".

The Gov need to abandon the Social Distance rules, or class 'bubbles' of 15 children, before schools can open properly.
Obviously 15 children max, means, probably double the number of classrooms (space), and double the staff. Alternative is a rota system, which at least gives children some education.
The problem is the scientists, and, it seems to me, Matt Hancock, who all want the 2 metre rule to remain.
The Gov (Boris Johnson) have said repeatedly they are following the science, so at some point someone has to realise that some things are more important.
Also, it seems to me that the 'goalposts' have moved. The purpose of the 'lockdown' was to 'flatten the spike', etc. so the NHS could manage the rate of infections without being overwhelmed. Yet, the NHS was NOT overwhelmed. The Nightingale hospitals have not been used (or hardly). Now the purpose seems to be to stop infections altogether!

I think they have to wear masks in school in France, in particular in Secondary school

I think I trust the scientists more than Boris, and if they think 2m should currently remain then there must be a good reason.

@ineedaholidaynow

So can you say how they could all be accommodated, that may help other schools adopt it, even if your school doesn't. I am intrigued how any school could fit all pupils and have sufficient staff to do so, with social distancing in place, and having a maximum 15 pupils in a bubble *@Flippetydip*

They could have fit years F, 1 and 6, plus KW in with 15 to a pod. What they have done however, is have KW pods per year, so some pods only have 7 children in them, some have 4. They refuse to deviate from this.

What a strange thread, started nice and positive and degraded into foulness because someone dared to question the haloed teaching unions.

Rather than fighting to the death to defend the unions or slagging off government funding it would be nice to see people putting the needs of the poor children who are at the centre of this first. It's a bloody travesty how school funding has been cut and teachers have a right to be angry, but it isn't the fault of the children.

Schools need to open properly in September somehow and that's the end of it. If we can build nightingale hospitals it can't be entirely impossible.

Also, it seems to me that the 'goalposts' have moved. The purpose of the 'lockdown' was to 'flatten the spike', etc. so the NHS could manage the rate of infections without being overwhelmed. Yet, the NHS was NOT overwhelmed. The Nightingale hospitals have not been used (or hardly). Now the purpose seems to be to stop infections altogether!

Exactly and as the UK is a major travel hub it is actually impossible to completely eradicate them. Unless we close our borders, which would quite simply not be tolerated.

So are they teaching the KW children rather than childcare @Flippertydip?

was there a problem in staffing Nightingale hospitals?
thus would there be a problem in staffing schools?

Schools were also told to try and keep some capacity for KW children

Yes there was a problem with staffing for nightingale hospitals. Also I assume the government paid for them to be set up, it wouldn't have come out of an individual hospital's budget. Schools haven't been given any additional funding

If we can build nightingale hospitals it can't be entirely impossible.

I’m quite sure ‘we’ could build any number of ‘nightingale’ schools. I would expect that they would be as well used as the nightingale hospitals which didn’t really get any patients as there were insufficient staff. Exactly the same as schools.

@ineedaholidaynow

So are they teaching the KW children rather than childcare *@Flippertydip*?

Yes, they are teaching all the pods. Just with varying numbers of children. I know you're trying to find a way to excuse it but there really isn't. And I'm not saying this is the case for all schools, but for ours it is being appallingly handled.

The staff problem can be overcome by getting new graduates on apprenticeships for whom the job situation is dire to work alongside experienced teachers. But money is needed for that and lots of it.

I really really hope that Covid leads to a reduction in the long term in class sizes. It would be better for children but also teachers. 30+ in a class is ridiculous at any time.

CrowdedHouseinQuarantine

the unions have only asked for the same provisions that the vast majority of keyworkers have had.

Teateaandmoretea

The problem isn't only the money.

Any "new" teachers would be left in charge of a class or bubble. or there would be no point in them being there, this would cause issues with training , Safeguarding etc.

@NoraEphronsneck I posted a link but it went unacknowledged by @pigeon999.

@pigeon999 is not interested in facts and is just here to ignore anything that goes against their weird and bitter agenda of hatred. So many time this poster as been shown to be wrong but they just ignore it when it's pointed out.

Very odd behaviour.

If KW children are in mixed bubbles it is very hard to teach them, much easier if they are in year group bubbles. So most schools with mixed bubbles won't be teaching KW children just providing childcare.. Again KW children were higher priority than Y6 pupils

@Teateaandmoretea how do these apprentices train? If they are working alongside the teachers they aren’t available to teach any extra children. Unless you’re yet another person who thinks any warm body in front of a classroom is good enough, in which case admit that this has nothing to do with education and everything to do with being able to work at a set time in the day