School half day once a week for deep clean...

[Baconking]

..and non teaching time for staff.
Are any other schools doing this? Just wondered if it is the norm?
We're also being charged for childcare for the afternoon if unable to pick up after lunch

Perhaps my timings were a bit optimistic, especially for younger children, but I don’t see why the TA can’t take groups of children out to wash hands in groups whilst the rest of the class is doing things.

The children need to have washed their hands before ‘doing things’ in the classroom. You really have no idea what schools are like, do you?

What is hard for non teachers to understand is what work routinely happens when the children aren't there. E.g. are 3:30pm every day. You hear stories of teachers marking until midnight. If that is still true, the PPA time seems almost irrelevant.

When the kids go, I stay for half an hour ish (unless we have meetings) and make sure I'm ready for the next day in terms of resources, I phone anyone I haven't managed to get through to and then I get my own kids.

Once they are in bed, I work again. Because you are right about PPA being not long enough to get everything done. However if those 3 hours weren't available it would make the situation worse.

You beat me to it, CarrieBlue.
They must wash their hands immediately upon arriving in school, after break, after lunch, after using the loo or if they sneeze/cough/pick their nose/whatever. And probably a few other times as well.
I'm fed up with people thinking they know how to manage 30 kids in a small space in a school, just because they have a couple of kids at home. It's nothing LIKE the same.

but I don’t see why the TA can’t take groups of children out to wash hands in groups
And that's assuming every class has a TA.

The children need to have washed their hands before ‘doing things’ in the classroom. You really have no idea what schools are like, do you?

As you’ve guessed, I’m not a teacher, so I accept that I will get stuff wrong, I don’t doubt that it’s a challenge, and that I won’t appreciate many of the difficulties, but if hand washing is taking 20% away from children’s education, then that’s too much, and a bit of creativity and proportion should be able to overcome it. For instance, why can’t children use kid-friendly sanitiser before starting the day? A few dozen bottles outside that each child needs to use before coming in.

Besides, if a child is infectious, hand washing/sanitising is unlikely to have a significant effect anyway. If they are producing enough virus to spread via surfaces, they’ll have infected children in the class anyway... There have been few, if any, confirmed cases spread by touch, almost all infections are via the air (droplets/aerosols).

There have been few, if any, confirmed cases spread by touch
Where is your evidence for this?

And what is "kid-friendly" hand-sanitiser?

derby I think you need to take up your complaints and ideas for change with your MP.
In schools we are following the rather lax government guidance because that's what we have to do, including Risk Assessments provided by HSE and PHE to try and be as safe as possible. These include regular hand washing.

Soap vs ‘kid friendly’(?) hand sanitizer - I wonder which is cheaper? There is no money for ‘creativity’, hence schools closing early so no PPA costs. You don’t know about schools. You should know about school funding if you have children and you should be appalled at the situation schools are in and you should be demanding more from government and voting accordingly.

@CallmeAngelina

And what is "kid-friendly" hand-sanitiser?

And who is going to pay for it? Soap and water much cheaper when schools are struggling.

Wow, some of the comments on this thread are hostile and idiotic

@Derbygerbil

Hand sanitiser cannot be used in place of soap.

Where is your evidence for this?

The most recent advice is that it is " spread mainly from person to person, mainly through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks"

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#:~:text=The%20virus%20that%20causes%20COVID,be%20inhaled%20into%20the%20lungs.

I think soap may even be preferable to hand sanitizer. There is really no reason to use hand sanitizer ever for covid prevention in a school

Once they are in bed, I work again. Because you are right about PPA being not long enough to get everything done. However if those 3 hours weren't available it would make the situation worse.

Now I am just interested in a teacher's work life. I assume primary is completely different from secondary in term of work hours. How much of the school week do you have breaks for during the school day?

Sorry, I should have expanded. It takes 20 minutes for the children to wash their hands and put their things away with the two sinks in our classroom. They are not going to the toilets to do this.

I don't think some people have any concept of how long it takes young children to do things and how that problem is exasperated when there are 29 others after them.

Most of our children have been rightly taught to wash their hands for 20 seconds singing a song. At the very least that's 3 children a minute not accounting for the time it takes them to put their things away, time spent dawdling along at a snail's pace, trying to talk to their friends or anything else a seven year old might do. Like wash their hands, realize they need the toilet so now they have go to the toilet and wash their hands again.....

Now I am just interested in a teacher's work life. I assume primary is completely different from secondary in term of work hours. How much of the school week do you have breaks for during the school day?

I think they are similar over a year but spent very differently! I'm secondary and I have 2 half hour "breaks" a day. But 3 of those I'm on duty. I get 3 hours PPA in my timetable which I can do non lesson delivering stuff in.

*I think they are similar over a year but spent very differently"

There is very little or no marking in primary which must make a huge difference.

There is very little or no marking in primary which must make a huge difference.

Primary colleagues would disagree! They have to mark crazy amounts and most of it the kids can't read. All change now with corona but primary marking was notoriously insane.

Yes our school finishes at 12.50pm on Fridays

I get to work at 7.45 to prepare my classroom. This is rushed as in Foundation Stage there is a lot of preparation. The children come in at 8.40. First break for them is at 10.15am but not for me as I’m supervising them. Lunch is 11.30-12.30. It is incredibly rare that I would get more than 15/20 minutes for a rushed lunch. I obviously have to prepare for the afternoon sessions, catch up with the paperwork and observations, fill in any relevant child protection forms etc. Children go home at 3.15. Again, they have a break in the afternoon but not me as I’m supervising them. At 3.30 the final late child will have been collected. 2x per week I will then go for a meeting until around 5.30. The other 3 days I will work until around 5pm. This includes observations, parent contact forms, child protection forms, assessment, tracking, planning future lessons. I will phone parents and answer emails. I will also spend time on co-ordinating my subject for the whole school. Often, we will have extra meetings with parents/outside agencies which use all of our after school time. When I am home I eat, feed my children and put them to bed. I will then spend time sat on the sofa half watching something and half answering emails, on Pinterest looking for ideas for my classroom and planning and preparing the next day. Cutting out resources, laminating etc.

Obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list. I love my job and wouldn’t change it for the world. My husband who works in an office thinks it’s the most ridiculous job ever. He now understands that I only actually get 1.5-2 hours 3 times a week plus 3 hours PPA away from children where I can actually read emails and do paperwork etc. He thinks I’m a fool.

Oh. And I forgot that for one big term I run a lunch club for the whole of my lunch break.

Primary colleagues would disagree! They have to mark crazy amounts and most of it the kids can't read

My DC almost never had anything marked in primary. That's all I know about this.

Out of interest, do you not mark during lunch break? I never take off more time than it takes to eat lunch as it would just add work in the evening if I did.

I don't mark in lunch, it's not long enough. 30 mins becomes 25 once the kids have left the room. Then back to staffroom/office to get the food. Then move to your next classroom and log on etc. I'd manage one book if I was lucky!