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?

@BertNErnie exactly! Why is it going to take two weeks for the guidance to be released? It's not like they will actually talk to anyone in the sector, they know what they want to happen already.

DS’s school breaks up on 2nd July, they will have very little or no time to implement the new guidance!

I wonder whether they will go down the route of online learning but in the classroom for Secondary school. So you can have bubbles but the pupils are all plugged into their own laptop and have a live lesson from a teacher, possibly from another room.

I think they won’t set a final number on bubbles just say it can be the size of your class.

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat
of course you know that doesnt carry on
Of course I know that but for the younger ones it could be helpful to reduce the amount of pupils moving round the school at the same time if they held some of their lessons in the same room

No, it would mean redeploying staff that have teaching qualifications for other subjects to the core ones, same as we have witnessed in the NHS.

They can't all teach the core!

he spent a lot of time not really answering the questions as they were asked - ie social distancing how they were going to do this & about lessons on the web not being equal or enough - burble, burble, burble
catch up plan scheme children coming back in holiday? who is going to keep the school open & teach & who will look after teachers/tutors dc
2 metres distance decrease??? what protective measures??? further guidance review????
you will find out details in a couple of weeks (& see how many errors or assumptions will be enclosed!!)

love to see some English teachers teaching maths or visa versa!

This is fantastic news and a big relief.

@DuDuDuLangaLangaBingBong but what would be the motivation for doing that? Why have a mandarin teacher teaching maths instead of mandarin? What is the benefit to schools or pupils? Sorry, I'm not trying to be difficult, I just don't understand what you're getting at

Our school has said that they hope to get every child back next academic year but will be predominately online so not holding my breathe. Quite worried as have one entering yr10 and we get 3 subjects a day online instead of 5 at school.

Whilst returning children to an education setting with their friends and teachers is a great aim, it should not be at the expense of the health and wellbeing of anyone.
I don't see how a 2m distance is going to be facilitated if classes return to their full quota (and what about larger classes - where to those 'extra' children go?) or how it can be impelemented. Is there going to be money to build extra classrooms and things to house all these distancing people?

I wonder whether they will go down the route of online learning but in the classroom for Secondary school. So you can have bubbles but the pupils are all plugged into their own laptop and have a live lesson from a teacher, possibly from another room

If you do this it can't be live lessons, just pre-planned. No way can I impart knowledge to 30+ kids in a room I'm not in, whilst simultaneously managing the behaviour of another 30+ kids.

The best you could do is babysit a class while they complete pre-set work. But they'd all need laptops and (a) we wouldn't have enough for every kid (B) the ones we do have aren't fit for purpose.

As for teaching out of specialism that requires a huge amount of time for the teacher to learn the material and understand what skills are needed. Nevermind the need to understand the next 2 years worth of material beyond what you're teaching so that you can actually answer the random questions the kids ask.

We'd spend the whole of the next academic year reteaching everything because it would all be wrong.

Nevermind the fact that it would be soul destroying for the kids.

I think the distance will soon drop to 1m because the Government want to open pubs.
Then it will be fine for no distancing at all within schools, according to the Government. Hence the announcement that they intend for all children will return at all ages in September. Covid knows to not enter school grounds.

Not sure how this will work in a school nursery. I have potentially 52 children in my class (all at different times) plus 16 two year olds in the same room. I guess me being in contact with up to 68 families may be an issue.

Covid knows to not enter school grounds.

It might get given a detention

Obviously he has not consulted with schools, scientists or councils and is unable to rule out a second wave but being Boris, who cares? He can always claim he didn’t say that or make the usual u turn.

I would rather take the advice of school head teachers than the government about the safety of any measures.

Year 11's (by then) should absolutely be back full time. They have no more time to lose. Other year groups as and when.

Oh thank goodness.
Long term social distancing in schools is total nonsense, unachievable and unrealistic...and for primary children in particular really unfair for them. The risk of covid-19 seems low but the risk of highly anxious children high.

They might be able to enforce bubbles of 30 in my local secondary school, but when 3.30 rolls around and all 2000 kids leave at the same time to go home. ..not so easy.

@Arogog even with no social distancing in each bubble they still won’t be having full days as staggered starting and ending of the day plus outside breaks

Yes, for all those questioning the 30 number, he said increasing the bubble to class size, so could be over.

There isn't a plan, they are completely inadequate.

I suspect they will be scrapping social distancing (a bit at a time) but with 11 weeks to go until the start of the new term it would be absolute madness of the government to announce that now because everyone will just be like sod it, no point in us socially distancing now then is there but, it will be very important to keep with the social distancing for the next 2.5 months so that we are in a much more favourable position come September.

How is he going to get round the wraparound care problem??

Or will bubbles be just fine to mix?

@starrynight19

Muffey well yes but we have roughly ten phonics groups so with two staff having to deliver each session of an hour to each different ability group in their class it would probably take up all of the day. So would that be good use of time. Looks like it just won’t be able to be differentiated and kids will just have to keep up with what the majority of the class can do.

Your school are choosing to do phonics that way. It is possible to teach phonics in a bubble of 30. It may not be as effective but phonics can still be taught.