If SD is reduced to 1m in schools..

[happymummy2010]

Will that allow things to go back to normal or will children still have to return part time and still do home schooling ?

Will it just allow an increase in the number of children in each bubble ?

Also, would the 1m rule apply in FE colleges and 6th forms ?

Depends on the size of the school and the staffing. But no, it wouldn't be back to normal imo. A lot would still be at home

In my school 1m would help, but not enable full classes to be in all at once because the rooms and corridors still aren't that big.

In my school we would be able to have about 3 more children per bubble. To be honest our school is so small not all table are quite 2m apart now.

It's just depressing isn't it ! Just want to wake up and this whole pandemic be a bad dream and everything be back to normal...

My understanding is that the '15 children in a bubble' rule is a separate rule to the 2m one. So even if 2m was changed to 1m, the government would also need to change the number of children allowed in a bubble.

My hope is that schools return in Sept with no restrictions regarding bubbles or social distancing 🤞

I'm at 1m already with 15 in the classroom so no change for me. It would make drop off easier though without so many overlapping queues.

Not really no. They would still need a desk to themselves which usually seats two. The school wouldn't have enough desks or room.

@Kitcat122

In my school we would be able to have about 3 more children per bubble. To be honest our school is so small not all table are quite 2m apart now.

This is exactly the same situation as my school. It would however make drop off and collection slightly easier.

The only way that schools will return to normal is by scrapping social distancing altogether.

Not really. We have 16 desks per classroom to usually seat 32 children. We would only be able to seat 16 without them sharing a desk.

Unless we took all the 2 seater desks out and put individual exam desks in instead and then we may fit a few more. It would be a huge expense though to replace the whole schools worth of desks.

I guess in some schools it might mean that they can fit more in a bubble. At the moment some of dd classes are split into three because the rooms are too small for 15 per room. This will be of marginal effect in terms of getting other years back.

Another dd has so many in some classes that if there is no one off sick the teacher has to give up their chair as there is no space for them all to sit down.

This is revealing the underfunding of state schools. A number of local independent schools are fully reopened now. Small class sizes makes this easier.

Like Kitcat and Ickabog it wouldn't make much difference- I could have 3 extra children. It's a small room, and they would still need a table each.

If they scrap social distancing entirely in schools it should be scrapped everywhere.

I don't see why I should mix with all the families and then have to queue up to get in the supermarket on the way home, or not be able to visit family.

Our classrooms are set up with 15 desks and that means that there's only 1 - 1.5m distancing at the moment. Obviously those 15 desks normally seat 30 with two at a desk - but then the children at them would be practically touching not 1m apart.

So no, it wouldn't make any difference.

this would make a difference in secondary schools which seem to always be totally forgotten about Not enough of a difference no - but a small difference.

This would make absolutely no difference in my primary school.
We don't operate 2m within the classroom, for me to get my 15 children in (I'm year 6) we have had to remove furniture, and they are still not all 1m apart.
The children could only pass each other in the corridors with a 1m gap if they literally pressed against the walls on both sides.
I think the 1m rules would allow us to have the whole school in on a part time basis (but we then wouldn't have the space for key worker provision)

The 2m rule is not stopping schools taking more pupils. What is needed is:

• More room, such as letting schools use village halls.
• More staff to facilitate smaller groups and staff absence.
• Money for cleaning, facilities adjustments and IR thermometers.
• Centralised distance learning to stop massive time wasted on teachers all reinventing the wheel badly.
• Most importantly: A nation plan which is such to. The constant changes in guidance use up millions of man-hours as thousands of schools, academy chains and LEAs have to produce and communicate new plans.

Normal?

No.

My classroom fits 15 tables of 1m width, which 2 children share under normal circumstances. Sitting literally shoulder to shoulder and not 1m behind the row in front.

The 2m rule (Wales) means I can only get 7 in my class who will attend once a week from the 29th June. Trimming it down to 1m will allow half of my class to attend.

From a 'blended learning' perspective, this will be better. I'd envisage one day in, being actually taught, rather than just supported with the online learning, then follow up tasks to take home with them for the following day. Then back the day after that to review what they'd done and to teach them another day.

Still crap for working parents though. And still difficult to run keyworker provision alongside that.

No assemblies. No playing freely with any of their friends who aren't in their 'bubble' and no PE that involved shared equipment being passed from child to child.

It's a mess. But it's the pandemic's fault, and the fault of the government for declaring schools should get the kids back without realising that they don't magically have extra rooms and staff to accommodate them under the SD guidelines.

@Weepinggreenwillow

this would make a difference in secondary schools which seem to always be totally forgotten about Not enough of a difference no - but a small difference.

At the moment I don't think reducing the 2m rule makes any difference in secondary, as we are following guidance on only a small number of y10/12 in at once - so they'd need to change that guidance first. Also just like in primary our desks usually seat 2 (sometimes 3 with one squashed on an end) students who sit within a few cm of each other, so 1m would only allow for half classes.

I think a bigger problem with secondary, that seems to be conveniently ignored by those saying ignore/reduce social distancing in schools, is how the students get there. Many of ours travel on full regular route buses (I know ours are full because they occasionally refuse travel to some students as they can't fit anymore on - who then have to wait an hour for the next one) with other members of the public. Are we going to change the distance requirement on buses to allow standing and the use of all seats.

I’m in Northern Ireland. Our kids are going back in August/September at 1m distance. Apparently this will allow all up to year 10’s back (that is English year 9 I think). They will be staying in one class all day. No idea how this could work in terms of space in classes.
Plus ds will be year 11 in September so starting GCSEs and no mention of what’s happening with years 11 - 14 who obviously can’t stay in one class all day.

It'll mean that we need a ruling on whether the 'flu jab' vulnerable are actuallymsafe onky 1m from each other in enclosed spaces. Particularly when looking at older teens in secondaries on full, settled, specialist teaching (because I'm not sure bubbles are feasible for y9 and above).

The shielded vulnerable are clearly not being included in planned return (and it is awful that the educational future of the most vulnerable and isolated is routinely omitted). The risks to the 'flu jab' vulnerable need explicit consideration too

Agree with those who say it won't make much difference at all. Also, if NI is the model they will use, teachers will still need 2m distancing.

Our primary head is frothing at the mouth, sending shouty emails in capital letters. She’s spent a bomb on huge scary signs shouting ‘two metres’ in quite frightening colours, and she’s plastered them all over the fences, gates and windows.

I’m guessing she will be mega pissed off at spending all that scarce money when it’s reduced to a metre.

How can they have all the secondary kids in the same room and still teach GCSE?

My child is top of six sets for maths, as an example. How could they teach her and a child of lower ability simultaneously?

Unless we took all the 2 seater desks out and put individual exam desks in instead and then we may fit a few more. It would be a huge expense though to replace the whole schools worth of desks

Same with us-unless we replaced all our double desks with double the number of single ones (Which would be eye wateringly expensive and still not enable us to have all children back) we can still only have 15 to a classroom.

@CountessFrog

Our primary head is frothing at the mouth, sending shouty emails in capital letters. She’s spent a bomb on huge scary signs shouting ‘two metres’ in quite frightening colours, and she’s plastered them all over the fences, gates and windows.

I’m guessing she will be mega pissed off at spending all that scarce money when it’s reduced to a metre.

What an unpleasant thing to say. The signs are for the current guidelines, which haven't changed. Everywhere you go there are big signs. And we don't know it's going to be reduced to a metre, so they are still needed.

Why are you so constantly snide and unpleasant about teachers?