Advice on schools in September

[Bannerwag66]

Hi, does anyone know what advice there is for schools in September. Year 4 child here breaks up next week. No communication from school yet so no idea what to expect really and just wondered if there is official advice or does it depend on district and particular school?

The overall guidance says that all children should be back roughly as normal from September. So term dates as planned - check the school website as they might be there. There might he different times to the school day. Unfortunately, the guidance was only released last week, so many schools will still be working on plans.

Our school has gone down the route of a very staggered start for reception (going into October) and staggered start/finish times for all years. Still dubious as to whether any of it will happen or we'll still be homeschooling at Christmas.

I would email school Friday if you haven’t heard. The guidance was only out last week so many schools will be formulating their risk assesssment to them email out plans to parents.
I will be asking about things like- bubbles, toilets, what happens if my dd hurts herself - will a teacher help her or won’t they be able to.. any more questions or considerations I would like to hear to..

Our school has been updating weekly on the website. The plan at the moment is to open as normal for all year groups in September in line with government guidelines. I've just received a text today telling me who DS's new teacher will be.

October? God that really leaves working parents in the shit doesn’t it!!

My DC are split across two schools but advice from both is the same.

• staggered start and finish times. I have one DC doing 8.45 to 3pm, one doing 9 to 3.15, and one doing 9.15 - 3.30

• allocated drop off and pick up points, they've been given a specific school gate to use so that parents/carers are spread around rather than congregated around one gate. They've also asked that only one person does drop off/pick up and younger siblings are left at home where possible, again to limit numbers

• all the children will be with their usual classes and will stay with that class all day. This includes year 7 DC who would usually move classrooms based on subject, instead they'll be based in one classroom and the teachers will travel to the children, they won't be streamed into ability sets for the foreseeable future and teachers will deliver a differentiated curriculum instead

• they'll stay in the classroom for lunch. There will be no hot food but school packed lunches can be provided, either free or for £1.50 a day. Packed lunches can be brought from home too

• there will be no fruit or milk and no tuck shop or snack trolley (one school has a tuck shop, the other has a snack trolley), the stationary shop will also be closed

• school uniform will be worn and should be clean each day. On PE days they need to come to school in their kit and will stay in that kit all day as there'll be no changing facilities, PE will be held outside and if its raining it will be cancelled

• no equipment is to be brought in from home. School will provide every child with a filled pencil case that is theirs to keep but it needs to stay at school for the time being. They're giving every child a water bottle too and that is to be left at school too, the children will be helped to put them into racks at the end of school and staff will put them all in the dishwasher as part of their after school cleaning

• any child with any CV19 symptoms is excluded for seven days regardless of whether they test positive or negative, work will be provided for them to do any home. If someone in their household has symptoms they are excluded for fourteen days, again regardless of test results and again work will be provided. They haven't clarified yet what will happen to children within that class if a pupil presents with symptoms

• there will be no assemblies, no award presentations, no before/after school club, no after school activities, no sports clubs, and no face to face parent-teacher meetings including parents evening

• the school office is out of bounds to children and parents, the office entrance is not to be used by anyone except staff. If a child is late for school and their allocated gate is locked then they won't be allowed into school that day (lots of parents complaining about this one especially with staggered start times so some of them have to be at both the first school and the middle school for clashing drop off times)

• all the children will sit at desks in rows all facing the front. They will have opportunities to move around the room but this will be in small groups and as needed. There will be no carpet time and no Wake Up Shake Up (10 minute movement activity at the start of school to get them alert and ready to learn)

We’re in Wales.

I spoke to a head of dept at ds’s state comprehensive last week and they are anticipating that the kids will have very limited time in school for at least the autumn term.

Spoke to a couple of teacher friends tonight about whether next years GCSE's would be put back till July as the possibility had been mentioned in the press.

They gave each other a look, and said they thought they'd have to do some form of teacher assessments next year as they have done for this years exams, even if that were alongside some very slimed down exams. DS is just finishing Y10 and I don't think it's going to be 'back to normal' in September ☹️

@BankofNook

My DC are split across two schools but advice from both is the same.

• staggered start and finish times. I have one DC doing 8.45 to 3pm, one doing 9 to 3.15, and one doing 9.15 - 3.30

• allocated drop off and pick up points, they've been given a specific school gate to use so that parents/carers are spread around rather than congregated around one gate. They've also asked that only one person does drop off/pick up and younger siblings are left at home where possible, again to limit numbers

• all the children will be with their usual classes and will stay with that class all day. This includes year 7 DC who would usually move classrooms based on subject, instead they'll be based in one classroom and the teachers will travel to the children, they won't be streamed into ability sets for the foreseeable future and teachers will deliver a differentiated curriculum instead

• they'll stay in the classroom for lunch. There will be no hot food but school packed lunches can be provided, either free or for £1.50 a day. Packed lunches can be brought from home too

• there will be no fruit or milk and no tuck shop or snack trolley (one school has a tuck shop, the other has a snack trolley), the stationary shop will also be closed

• school uniform will be worn and should be clean each day. On PE days they need to come to school in their kit and will stay in that kit all day as there'll be no changing facilities, PE will be held outside and if its raining it will be cancelled

• no equipment is to be brought in from home. School will provide every child with a filled pencil case that is theirs to keep but it needs to stay at school for the time being. They're giving every child a water bottle too and that is to be left at school too, the children will be helped to put them into racks at the end of school and staff will put them all in the dishwasher as part of their after school cleaning

• any child with any CV19 symptoms is excluded for seven days regardless of whether they test positive or negative, work will be provided for them to do any home. If someone in their household has symptoms they are excluded for fourteen days, again regardless of test results and again work will be provided. They haven't clarified yet what will happen to children within that class if a pupil presents with symptoms

• there will be no assemblies, no award presentations, no before/after school club, no after school activities, no sports clubs, and no face to face parent-teacher meetings including parents evening

• the school office is out of bounds to children and parents, the office entrance is not to be used by anyone except staff. If a child is late for school and their allocated gate is locked then they won't be allowed into school that day (lots of parents complaining about this one especially with staggered start times so some of them have to be at both the first school and the middle school for clashing drop off times)

• all the children will sit at desks in rows all facing the front. They will have opportunities to move around the room but this will be in small groups and as needed. There will be no carpet time and no Wake Up Shake Up (10 minute movement activity at the start of school to get them alert and ready to learn)

The exclusion for 7 days for them and 14 days for a household member regardless of test results is a lot. There are a lot of other things that cause temperatures. A few weeks ago DH had a UTI, he got a CV test as a precaution due to having a temperature, as we had children in school and nursery. They stayed home until the results came, but it was very clear to him and the GP what it was, and the test was unsurprisingly negative.

I don’t think they will have many children in school with that rule!

And no provision for late arrivals is pretty harsh too, especially given parents will be juggling multiple complicated arrangements

At my primary school, we are planning for normal re-opening although with each class in a separate bubble, so no assemblies etc, staggered play and lunchtimes and probably staggered pick-up and drop off. The government guidance says SATs assessments to the usual timetable so we are currently planning for that too.

Doubtless there will be some entirely new guidance released by the government on 31st August which will necessitate us completely going back to the drawing board but for the moment we are planning on opening to everyone.

Is it odd not to have heard anything at all from schools about what to expect in September?

We've heard nothing at all from our primary school either ...

We are in Wales and the check on, catch up, prepare is in readiness for September. I'll be surprised if we are back to normal by Christmas.

Schools are probably waiting for any further guidance. There have been over 40 different/amended ones so far for this term.

All of the details like staggered start times etc are for me logistics but I’m more interested in things like if they hurt themselves and the toilet etc.. more details of how things will affect them I.n the day

Risk assessments for every part of school life are still being done in most schools. It is a massive, painstaking task, and different for every building and school set up.
I do think schools should be communicating with parents, however even if it only to say that eg. 'There will be staggered starts- full details published on Monday', or 'We are finalising our plans for September and will be sharing them by Tuesday via the school website'.

Wales are announcing today but it is expected to be a continuation of blended learning. Gutted as DS starts school in September and wanted a normal start for him.

We have been told that there will be new government guidance issued on 11th August. I think my school is planning to do what it’s doing now in bubbles of 30 with tweaks. If the whole school is in it’s over 600 children. We currently have over 200 back so some things will need changing to accommodate a much larger number of children.

The absolute musts we’ve been told are
Books and resources shared between class bubbles must be quarantined for 48 hours, social distancing between bubbles (not sure yet how much is expected within a bubble as limited space in the classrooms), all children must sit facbig the front of the classroom rather than facing each other, no parents on the playground, staggered start and finish times, wraparound care likely to run but not sure about how to distance the bubbles within it yet.

Involved heavily in our secondary planning. Agree that it would be helpful for schools to send a quick email/text/website message that they are 'working on plans and will update shortly.'

However, I wouldn't be concerned if you haven't heard just yet. It's a very complicated job to try and put all this guidance into something actually workable. We won't be informing parents on plans until late next week.

We have had communication from both our primary and secondary schools stating they are working on plans and will be in touch

@Watchingtv44 we’ve carried on as normal with toilets (children go when they need to but only one allowed in the toilet block at a time), first aid given as normal. We have been told to listen to children read as normal and send books home after wiping with antibac. Every school has different ways of operating under the guidance though so it would be good if your school could do a FAQ page on the website and letter to address these questions.

Meant to add though as PP that wading through the multiple revisions, additions and changes to the guidance to write risk assessments is a huge job so schools need time to communicate this information.

I am a teacher. I have no idea what my own workplace or my children’s workplace have planned for Sept. Trying not to worry but am starting to get concerned about wraparound care or staggered starts. I will have to take unpaid leave until I can organise childcare and then that obviously means my school is a staff member down. Not looking forward to that conversation!

School has said dont expect an update until August, as they need to make sure they are following the government advice of the time and it might change between now and then. We have been given first day of term dates (different for different year groups)

I am also in Wales and we are waiting for the guidance. School have said they expect dc to be in part-time every day. I am currently in the car for two hours a day for my dc to have two and a half hours education.

Thanks didn’t realise there was more guidance in August. I may be not understanding but with say the toilet I don’t understand how that will work - in a small primary school there are only 2 toilets. If children can go in then that means they mix? They can’t clean the toilet after every time a child goes in. Plus the corridors are so narrow. I suppose I am finding it hard to see how it’s going to work. We are at a small school and the thought of the kids having to stay in one room all day does t sound great.
Nice weather is ok as at least they can go outside but imagine winter!
There are lots with Sen in dds class too and movement breaks are definitely needed for all kids. Will await news next week!