Every child in every year group will return to school in September, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said.

[itswhereitsat]

I didn't catch the briefing but read the above comment in the news. The big question is, did he say whether children returning would be part-time or full time? Or did he just gloss over that bit?

In primary, full time is more possible because of bubbles of 30, if they have lunch in classrooms and do no assemblies etc

This is pretty much what my primary head is planning.

No maths or phonics sets, no assemblies, no breakfast/after school wraparound care, no lunch or after school clubs, no mixed-class interventions. Basically nothing that compromises the class bubble. This won’t be a bubble of 30 as they’ll have up to 34 children, one teacher (2 if jobshares), one TA and one MDA. These staff members won’t mix though. If there is a positive case, that class would close.

@Piggywaspushed

They better get that 'world beating ' test and trace up and running then!

Contact tracers apparently are already complaining that schools, in their limited numbers atm, are amongst their most challenging jobs with an average of 40 people to contact. That's now.

If schools go back in September , full time , with no SD, and no real bubbles, that is going to be an almost unimaginable feat.

Can’t they do a mass contact through the schools communication system that’s already in place?

No, because it is the job of the contact tracers? I can't decide if you are being ironic or not...

I can imagine the furore on MN if schools started trying to do contact tracing themselves.

Apparently, the tracing people are already cracking under the pressure of the 40 average contacts per primary school.

What about parents of children with, say, cystic fibrosis? Or impaired immune systems through chemotherapy?

Horrible as this sounds, shielding is ending 1st August and the DCs are expected back at school from that date onwards....and, I assume, therefore , the staff, too.

In practice, I think many of those parents will make a different decision. What with medical needs provision being so poorly resourced, that one will be a minefield.

Basically nothing that compromises the class bubble.

Everything that compromises learning and/or plugging gaps though. Erk, teaching is going to be a shit job to have next year. Shitter than usual I mean.

I have been trying to contact parents of kids that aren't doing work. I've got about a 20% success rate, if that. Numbers that don't work/aren't answered/ parent answers asks you to call back in 10 minutes then never answers again. I don't envy those tracers

Schools should be able to say a member of x bubble has tested positive. Or y secondary year/class.
I mean they school would need to contact them asap or they will turn up the next day...
So if they just have all staff on that comms.
What hours do contact tracers do?
It took about 3 days for gov to decide people returning from northern italy should be isolating..

My understanding is the school doesn't make decision : PHE does that.

Sorry got interrupted and pressed post!
They are also now dithering about Leicester!

I am sure some schools will take things into their own hands but those comms need guidance and to be carefully managed. Otherwise schools get it in the neck.

Schools week are publishing this:

schoolsweek.co.uk/whole-year-group-bubbles-dropped-gcses-and-ofsted-inspections-still-suspended-in-draft-dfe-guidance-reports/?f

Will be interesting. Whole year group bubbles of up to 240. In my daughter's school they have up to 270 in a year group, same as at my school.

I wonder how it will work in sixth form colleges where there can easily be 2,000 students in a year group.

It also reports that they are advising students at secondary are 1 metre apart. This means my school can fit in 50% of students at any one time. I really don't think this has been. Thought through...

@Sarahbeans

It also reports that they are advising students at secondary are 1 metre apart. This means my school can fit in 50% of students at any one time. I really don't think this has been. Thought through...

The TES article has that handled with the superbly vague addition of, ‘but not all the time’. Oh and schools aren’t allowed to do anything that would require extra space or staff ergo, not any of the time.

So thirty teenagers elbow to elbow as usual. These aren’t children in the real sense. Mammals who can sexually reproduce are biological ‘adults’.

Forgot link sorry:
www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-revealed-dfes-16-point-september-school-opening-plan

I saw that Honeybadger.

It's worrying. I have a daughter with a long term health condition and she'll be year 9 in September. I'm expected to send her back (after shielding) with no social distancing at all?

It's crazy. 12 weeks of not being allowed out at all, then a few weeks later, the govt says she needs no protection at all?

Not buying it.

No me either. Also just found this:

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

Regulation 4 requires every employer to ensure that such suitable personal protective equipment is provided to employees who may be exposed to a risk to their health & safety while at work unless the risk is adequately controlled by other means that are equally or more effective.

The above is for employees which, despite the sense we should be selfless and happily work for free through holidays, is what we teachers are. Presumably those under our duty of care are entitled to the same.

That guidance is surely illegal.

@TheHoneyBadger

No me either. Also just found this:

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

Regulation 4 requires every employer to ensure that such suitable personal protective equipment is provided to employees who may be exposed to a risk to their health & safety while at work unless the risk is adequately controlled by other means that are equally or more effective.

The above is for employees which, despite the sense we should be selfless and happily work for free through holidays, is what we teachers are. Presumably those under our duty of care are entitled to the same.

That guidance is surely illegal.

Hopefully the unions will get hold of that.

Found it on a union website. It beggars belief that they think they can ignore all employment law in the case of school staff

Oh God. I've just read about dropping some GCSE subjects to catch up on Core.

My own Y10 DS has fallen way behind in Maths/Science which he hates. He's not engaged/understood a lot of it and has therefore just let it drift. And I'm worse than useless at these subjects. What he loves is PE and has spent ages doing GCSE PE coursework. He's going to become a school refuser if they make him drop PE and focus on Maths.

Really stressed about this.

I suspect there will be many more changes to the plan before then.

Or if schools do go back in September then we have a massive winter spike - I think parents will just refuse to send kids in and I reality as parents that is their right. School itself has never been compulsory - providing an education is.

They would have to deregister though. It’s compulsory if you’re registered with a school. You are entitled to home educate but have to write and ask for your child to be removed from school roll because you intend to home educate. If you change your mind you have to go with the school allocated to you which has spare places.

More details on the 'dropping GCSEs'

schoolsweek.co.uk/dropping-gcses-only-for-exceptional-circumstances-leaked-dfe-guidance-states/

Oh so continue embedding literacy and numeracy across the curriculum like I’ve been doing since I trained in 2001. Big news pretending something is a new idea from on high rather than what we already do.

And if a student drops a gcse where will they be and who will supervise them during the lessons of that subject? It’s not like there’ll be spare maths teachers to sit and help them given we can’t recruit enough maths teachers and they’ll all be busy teaching classes that kids can’t sit in on even if there was room because even the supersize porous bubbles of secondary wouldn’t accommodate that if a different year group has maths.

Anyway. Same old saying nothing really