Homeschooling if locked down

[Lemons1571]

Has anyone heard from primary schools how homeschooling next year will work in practice, with all parents also back to work? Presumably schools have to plan for the 7 days / 2 weeks that children will have to isolate every so often.

I am praying that they come up with something that kids can attempt independently, and does not rely on a working parent to try and shoehorn into a busy day. With the best of intentions, we wouldn’t get it done. Or alternatively, if both parents work full time, that the kids can still go to school.

We have somehow got through to now with ft work and home school, though failed pretty badly since half term. Come September we have no hope!

Anyone else worried about this?

Unless the contact develops symptoms of course them the family do isolate.

Presumably if a bubble (class of 30) has to isolate, the key worker kids in that bubble also have to isolate?

If your child has a cold they can be tested and back in school within a few days.

Hardly fair to ask school staff to look after children who are isolating. If a child goes home because a bubble is isolating, they shouldn't be back in school at all.

If you isolate as a contact you have to isolate regardless. If it is a local lockdown situation the child may not have to.

It unfortunately is what it is. The younger the child the less they can do without constant supervision. If a young primary child can do something without an adult gently moving them out of their comfortable zone, then as a teacher I'd call that a "holding activity" and it doesn't demonstrate learning, it is essentially a revision / practice task. The good news is that the lockdowns aren't likely to be as long as the national one has been, although as pp say there are more of them.

get every cold going so we could be off for 14 days every couple of weeks

You get them tested, if it's negative then they are back to school.

The testing system is going to have to be better and quicker than it currently is (more consistently, I know some places are more efficient than others). Also, the test currently isn't very nice, if children are having to get them regularly, I can see parents not doing it. We need a spit test or something.

Imagine what this is going to be like for teachers.

Pp's saying young children can't work independently. You clearly don't have teenagers because it's just as difficult if not more so, supporting and encouraging a teen in Year 8 or 9 to work and stay on task. There will be a few teens who will work without any encouragement all day every day but not many. No child can be fully expected to work independently, that's why schools exist.

@lemons1571 of course the bubble has to isolate. The virus doesn't discriminate so isn't going to ignore someone just because they or their child is a key worker.

It's one of those occasions when us parents are going to have to suck it up and hope we have understanding employers. Dh and I are both classed as key workers. We cannot do our work from home. Although I am sure with changes to my role that there will be things I can do from sept.

If any of our kids bubbles get sent home we fully plan that one of us will be off depending on the circumstances. Eg if our children are symptomatic, we will all be isolating pending either the negative test or the end of isolation period. If our children are sent home because of someone else, I believe we can still work so we would take it in turns to go in depending on dh's shifts. There are some he cannot take off.

@ohthegoats

get every cold going so we could be off for 14 days every couple of weeks

You get them tested, if it's negative then they are back to school.

The testing system is going to have to be better and quicker than it currently is (more consistently, I know some places are more efficient than others). Also, the test currently isn't very nice, if children are having to get them regularly, I can see parents not doing it. We need a spit test or something.

They're trialling a spit test in Southampton at the moment I think. Fingers crossed that this goes well. If it does then they're talking about routine weekly testing for schools and healthcare settings (I think?) which should help a fair bit.

Imagine what this is going to be like for teachers

Yep I've been having a lot of anxiety about this. Two children of my own and likely to catch every bug going too resulting in absence to cover while testing them. Being in school is also going to be as chaotic when people are off.

I have heard of proposals to have mobile testing units and kits in schools but given it seems to take so long to get anything done, I don't have faith that'll be there is sept.

So as far as I’m aware the policy atm for September is if one person in bubble has symptoms, they isolate at home and request test, the rest of the bubble remain at school. If that person gets a positive test result they continue to stay at home but rest of school bubble remains in school. If 2 or more people in a bubble test positive then PHE will advise and it’s likely bubble will need to self isolate. Within that time, especially if test results aren’t that speedy, there could be further bubble transmission. Bare in mind in secondary most, if not all teachers will be teaching, often at less than 2 m distance, classes across bubbles and the current guidance for them from September is they will not need to self isolate with the bubble unless they have been less than 2m from anyone testing positive for longer than 15 minutes despite being in an enclosed space and no PPE (for context, Matt Hancock has said supermarket workers are 75% more likely to catch Covid, I can’t see things fairing any better for teachers once everyone is back and there’s no distancing or PPE). Imo this leaves teachers open to vulnerability to both catch it and spread it across bubbles.

If the testing and track and trace isn’t up to scratch by September I really think this will be a nightmare.

I've been having a lot of anxiety about this.

Me too. I'm not particularly worred about getting the virus (rightly or wrongly), I'm concerned about me or my child bringing it home to my vulnerable partner.

BUT, if I think too much about it, I'm massively stressed by the potential logistical nightmare that will be this autumn and winter in school. If you're teaching a sequence of work that has each lesson building on the last, and required for the next, and you have say one or two children who miss an important stage, then it's sort of OK to catch that up using TA support. But my bubble for example, doesn't have a TA, and the likelihood is that children are going to be in and out a lot more - probably for 2 or 3 days here and there waiting for test results. Suddenly you've got loads of children needing to catch up the last one or two stages in the sequence, otherwise they don't know what they are doing in the lesson on the day they come back. How do you get that catch up to happen? Again, if it's one or two children, you can sort of do it without anyone else to help you in class, but that means that everyone else is losing out on your support time.

All this 'don't worry, everyone will catch up' stuff is nonsense - really hard to get your head around how on earth it's meant to happen in reality.

Someone is going to come along and tell me THIS HAS BEEN HAPPENING FOR YEARS, NOT EVERYONE HAS A TA YOU KNOW, I'VE HAD NO SUPPORT IN MY CLASS FOR YEARS, 10 CHILDREN ON THE SEN REGISTER IN EACH CLASS, CUT IN TWO WITH BREAD KNIFE AT LUNCH TIME, and so on.. but I'm SLT with responsibility for teaching and learning in a really big primary school, I'm not a weak or lazy teacher, I don't need support staff in normal times. And I'm dreading it. We've already had the conversation at home about me leaving at Christmas if it's all a bit too much.

Yes it's going to be hell for teachers. Add providing quality home education and complaining parents to the stress of full time teaching, knowing you could catch Covid at any moment, and many people are going to be walking away from the profession.

@NeurotrashWarrior, the providing mobile test centre etc is only said (in the Guidance) to be for if there's an outbreak at the school, not generally. And then only maybe....

I thought that an 'outbreak' was 2 or more cases in one bubble - or it was according to the surveillance report at some point. But I guess that's decided by local PHE and the LA. Ours have been quite involved in how we interpret the guidance in our school because of where we are located. Lots of multi generational families and high levels of community transmission apparently.