SD in my secondary school

[Mandalalorianna]

There is none. Nowhere. Just not happening! Impossible as there simply isn't the space. If there's going to be new wave, this will surely be the start of it. But then I was expecting one after VE weekend and it didn't happen. Not sure what my point is. Just musing I guess. We'll see.

Scottish secondary schools have been back for 3 weeks. No mega increase in cases linked to them.

There is no sd at dds secondary either.
It's impossible. Dd said she's crushed into queues everywhere! IT doesn't surprise me, the school was awful over lock down. Forcing them into queues to sd elsewhere doesn't surprise me.

I think in about 4 weeks we will know the impact of this.

My dc at secondary haven’t gone back yet (tomorrow and Tuesday), but I’m not really expecting social distancing.

Dd1 is at a SN school, and they have already staged it isn’t possible to social distance. She was at school part time for the whole of the summer term, and the same then too. It just isn’t possible, given the structure of the school and the assistance needed by all the pupils.

Dd2’s school are able to spread out a bit more, and I have had a very thorough document through about year groups and areas - it’s a private school so the pupil/space ratio works in their favour. The year group bubbles will be as separate as possible, but there will be be obvious bottlenecks. Again, these have been thought out as much as possible, but there will be crossover. It is inevitable. And then of course there is the whole bubble issue anyway. Dd2 has 70 odd in her year (I realise this is far less than most secondary bubbles), and while they have reduced movement around the school (staff moving rather than children), it still has to happen sometimes - lunch, PE, some specialist lessons.

It is what it is. I known there won’t be social distancing, but I had to confront that early on with dd1 going back to school after Easter.

My youngest is back (primary), and again while the year group is reasonably well isolated, pick up at the end of the day results in different year groups standing side by side for collection, even with staggered collection times. And after school care gets widened, so ds is in yr4, but after school care is yrs3-5, so suddenly his bubble of 60 becomes a different bubble with the same number (ish), but from 3 different original bubbles.

No idea how its going to go. Not expecting there to be no covid outbreaks at all, but im hoping that they can be fast contained at least within year bubbles or even less, and without having to go back into a lockdown. I mean, even in places with epidemic levels its not actually that many cases in all

Thank you @ClarencesMum, I'd forgotten about the differences in rules between England and Scotland. I'm wondering if there will be a difference in cases as a consequence.

Are they not reducing contacts rather than strict social distancing. Ours have ks3 at least taught in the same classroom in their form groups and teachers come to them, each year group has a separate start and end time and as it’s London with regular public transport (and actually a very high proportion walk anyway) this will reduce actual contacts quite significantly. So no no proper social distancing in her class of 30 but much less likely to have any contact at all with a child in a different form group never mind a different year. It’s actually not remotely “school as normal” as talked about on here.

I don't think it's possible at any secondary.

Of course, some schools will try, but given class sizes, building design, transport, siblings, GCSE options, lunch etc and the nature of humans (staff included - not just children who might flock together, some of my colleagues did this on the staff training day!), it's not possible.

Teachers and schools knew this and warned that it wasn't feasible. The Govt and media prerended it would be fine.

I’m massively impressed by my dds secondary school. Staggering start and finish times, public buses are providing school only buses where dc sit with dc in their year group with mask on. Each year group are taught in different blocks. They wear different coloured badges so they know who they can mix with. Teacher are wearing visors if they choose to and can ask dcs to wear masks if they are vulnerable or if there is a vulnerable dc in the class (so far she hasn’t been asked to) Dcs wear masks in communal areas. One way system so no massive crowd issues, new paths and sinks installed outside and lots hand sanitisers. Don’t think they could do any more. We’re in a very low Covid area too so feel quite confident.

I think a lot of the other mass gatherings have taken place outdoors. I also cant actually work out how long that exponetial growth thing takes to be noticeable. It seems to be quite a laggy process.

On the plus side there are many, many community measures in place which should all still help a lot and might keep infections manageble for the nhs. And schools are doing what they can - which is quite a lot in some schools. Others have more issues that tie their hands.

I think agree I think there's going to be a rise in cases, although I think testing capacity is going to struggle with the number of kids that'll end up being advised to get tested.

My ds is lucky he's just started high school and it's a very small school with just 2 classes per year. Each year has there own zone of the school including play zone, so only specialist subject rooms will see mixed years. Eating Lunch in the classrooms etc so I'm hoping we will fear better here than most but we shall see

as long as people do the decent thing and not send their kids in when theyre ill, and people who have kids at school are not out partying and are doing their best to stay safe, then hopefully this will be a more sustainable way of keeping schools open for the rest

There is (supposed to be) a one way system around the school but that is causing chaos in itself. The year groups are (supposed to be) going in separate buildings but because there's aren't five buildings, some classes are in different buildings. The staggered lunchtime is yrs 7,8 and 9 together, then 10 and 11. They can't stay indoors to eat though. They're only given 30 mins for lunch, 15 of that is taken up queuing, then five to get to their allocated eating place, then a quick wolf down of their food before heading back to class.
I despair for the poor school management team. They're desperate to get it right, they really care, but it's all impossible.

In a bizarre way, I'm hoping the dangers of the virus aren't as bad as they've been made out to be, so the children aren't really at risk, they're just being put through the motions for the sake of appearances. IYSWIM

Send in a packed lunch for the lunchtime issue.

Everything else - hope for the best. Maybe a mask for corridors if allowed.

I despair for the poor school management team. They're desperate to get it right, they really care, but it's all impossible.

Ours gave up on Day 1. The risk assessment is a work of fiction, just window dressing.

"In a bizarre way, I'm hoping the dangers of the virus aren't as bad as they've been made out to be, so the children aren't really at risk, they're just being put through the motions for the sake of appearances. IYSWIM"

Even back in march we were telling kids they weren't at significant risk unless they had specific medical conditions. Then as now the issue was their spreading it to people at home grandparents etc.

After five months of closure you'd think that the govt and school leaders would've had time to think about this, wouldn't you? Some schools seem to be doing a great job (DS's secondary: one way in all corridors, face masks on school bus/minibus, hand sanitiser every time they enter a classroom, hand washing upon arrival at school, staggered lunch times so dining room never too busy and cleaned between shifts, desks wiped down at the end of every lesson), so I'm pretty shocked to learn that other schools are doing nothing. There are students/teachers who've been shielding for months FGS, how can they justify doing nothing????

There may be a rise but let’s not blame the bloody schools

Loads gone back to work this week, been on holiday, theme parks, shopping, gym, pubs all over summer etc but yes let’s blame the kids 😡 it’s bren normal here in Liverpool for weeks so any rises are nothing to do with kids

Blaming the schools isn't blaming the kids, it's blaming the shambles of a government for not opening them safely.

Maybe the common sense approach would be for achool age kids to limit their contact with vulnerable for a while

I’ve done that with my kids even without gov say so

It’s just common sense to limit the very vulnerable from those out and about all the time

Were people really expecting SD in a high school?

Could some explain to me how this is supposed to be safe:

• non-SD in school
• more than 80% use tfl for more than 40 mins, very few local kids (secondary, Greater London + suburban towns catchment area)
• even on the school shuttle bus they are mixed
• kids mixing outside the gate/outside of school
• a "bubble" is about 200 kids
• most kids will have parents working - so they can take home anything from workplace+their own tfl
• most have siblings in other schools with same frakking "bubble" system
• no masks (only in communal areas)
• kids go into lunch per yeargroup, but right after the other yeargroup
• kids sit 4-8 hours next to each other bumping elbows/shoulders
• kids mix within a yeargroup because of gcse subjects
• testing not widely and easily available

[Side point: shielding kids or families are not just not protected by any means, but are also called out for not going back]

Case at DN school, staff member, 2 Y7 classes are quarantined for 14 days. They have been in school for 2.

It's not possible at primary school either. You cant' teach 7 year olds from a distance.

@zafferana

After five months of closure you'd think that the govt and school leaders would've had time to think about this, wouldn't you? Some schools seem to be doing a great job (DS's secondary: one way in all corridors, face masks on school bus/minibus, hand sanitiser every time they enter a classroom, hand washing upon arrival at school, staggered lunch times so dining room never too busy and cleaned between shifts, desks wiped down at the end of every lesson), so I'm pretty shocked to learn that other schools are doing nothing. There are students/teachers who've been shielding for months FGS, how can they justify doing nothing????

This sounds good on paper. But unless you're inside school to see, I just don't know how you can be sure this works in practice at your child's school.

I think parents have expectations that cannot be met in a typical large secondary.