@notevenat20
temperature checks are specifically not recommended by the DfE
I am not a head so I don't quite understand what this means.
Does it mean that heads must not check temperatures of children and there will be repercussions from central govt if they do?
Or does it mean that most heads agree with the DfE that it's not a good idea which is why they are not doing it?
Or does it mean that heads are free to implement temperature checks but they won't get any extra funding for it?
@notevenat20 - What makes you think DfE guidance is any more comprehensible to headteachers than it is to you?! DfE advice is littered with unnecessary, unhelpful and constantly changing advice and rules, and a lack of clarity on the full implications of ignoring it. Although, with respect to funding, that seems a bit of a dim question on your part? Of course extra funding would not be expected for something the DfE deems inadvisable. Google Classrooms or Microsoft Teams were, however, offered to all schools that did not yet use one or the other for distance learning, with funding for installation provided by the DfE, if installed by an approved body. I think that was a great idea - although to really work it needed to be backed up by provision of more technology for the student end of the equation. Obviously, it failed to live up to its promises on this bit. Also, it failed to consider many schools had their own poor internet connectivity issues and unreliable hardware which they could not afford to upgrade. So, it had the right idea and got partway there, but lacked the financial clout to be effective, as severe underfunding for years beforehand had already done so much damage to schools, and growing inequality has done so much damage to the poorest in society.
One cunning ruse the DfE came up with on funding was to advertise extra money for covid-related expenses, and then to move the goalposts massively, after schools had purchased extra cleaning products, hand soaps and sanitisers, gloves, hand towels, stamps and envelopes for posting work home to children without technology every week, gazebos to enable children to be outside more in hot weather, pedal bins for every classroom, soap dispensers, salaries for extra cleaning staff, etc,etc, and decide that the bulk of this extra pot was only for use for dealing with confirmed cases in the schools, not for keeping the schools running and clean and trying to keep covid out in the first place. So, effectively, the DfE was giving schools rules on how to set up their classrooms, how often children must wash hands, how often surfaces must be cleaned, how far apart children must sit from each other, how the premises should be cleaned and how often, telling schools to have children outside as much as possible (getting heatstroke because it won’t even help pay for shelter in the summer), and pretending it would fund all these extra costs, and then reneging on a big chunk of its funding promises (presumably when it realised how expensive it is for hundreds of children to wash their hands on arriving at school, before eating, after eating, after playing, after sneezing into their hands, etc, etc, as per DfE advice), and how expensive it is to pay for enough staff to ensure constant cleaning is taking place throughout the day, etc, etc.
Basically, if the DfE were being honest, its own guidance on how to keep school communities safe with all children back in school, on which school risk assessments have to be based if schools do not want to be sued for negligence, is unaffordable for schools, unsustainable, impractical, probably ineffective, and lots of other negative words!