Has anyone been told the circuit breaker two week half term is happening?

[justanotherneighinparadise]

We’re in the south east and it seems like my children’s primary school are telling the children they’ll be working from home in a few weeks and they’ll need to wear their school uniform. A letter will be sent out apparently.

Is it a done deal? I thought this was stuff that was just being discussed and not confirmed.

Meanwhile since I'm a lone parent abs I work full time (front line sw) I'm wondering how on Earth anyone will do any home learning with my kids 😢

Major decisions are undertaken by a very small number of people, none of whom work in schools! Some MPs are currently disagreeing with the decision making process and want major decisions to be debated/voted on in Parliament, so a closure of schools in several weeks time is not within the remit of Boris & co to make within their emergency powers without debating it in Parliament. They haven't, and so no, it isn't happening (doesn't mean it won't!)

However, with all the debate in schools, is anyone actually listening / reading about what government are saying?? They see the reopening of schools to have been a success, is not driving the infection rate, and positivity rates among children (particularly primary) are very low. There really is no basis for a shutdown at the moment! If there is one, it is secondary schools that look more likely, where remote learning might actually work.

Seems to be just mumsnet fantasy that the whole problem is schools 🙄

If it's going to happen I suspect there will be very little official notice, mainly to prevent people going into a frenzy. Two/three days at most.

I don't think it's a certainty and if it happens it's likely to be only in areas that have high infection rates.

I'm hoping there's still time for the numbers to come down and it won't be needed, but that could be wishful thinking.

Nothing going on in my school.

I work in a school and nothing been has been said about half term. We break up in two and half weeks time as usual.
We do have one case confirmed so things might alter , who knows?
(I don't think the government want to shut the schools , but they said that last time of course!)

Boris on the relationship board! Ha ha ha!
( He'd be torn to shreds with his track record. )

This morning on the Today Prog on R4 someone was interviewed from the government, might have been Grant Schapps, and they were asked about a 2 week half term. He neither ruled it in or denied it was happening. He said it was still on the table and no decision had been made yet.

The newspapers suggest that Boris has yet to decide between a national lockdown and a "traffic light lockdown" with different areas having different restrictions based on cases. I know that we have local restrictions now but it's an attempt to make things simpler because even the PM can't remember what is and isn't allowed

Agree that there will be little notice. They don't want people driving to second homes like they did in Italy

Work in a school - we've not been informed of anything officially at all.

However we sent our consent forms for online love lessons and have ensured the children remember how to access it all just so we're ready in case it happens.

None of us in education know anything.

This shitshow of a government has shown a total lack of respect for our profession (e.g. releasing guidance for the reopening of schools ON THE WEEK we were opening and giving us barely any notice when we had to lockdown or reopen) so I doubt they'll provide us with any semblance of a decent amount of notice.

Hate all this speculation. If they are going to do it they need to tell us by now. I’ve committed to something relatively important in half term and sorted childcare for the day
:(

Less than a week before full lockdown in March our Head had a meeting with teachers and other staff and said that ' things would carry on the same ' apparently!
By the Friday they were winding it down to shut to all but Key worker / vulnerable children etc! I doubt even the Government knows what will be the state of play will be by next week , by the sounds of things. (If the papers are to be believed! )
I bet they will fight to keep them open.

Nothing said at any of the schools I work in. But we aren't in a lockdown area. I do know of some schools who are preparing just in case but that's simply because it seems that the gvmt like to provide absolutely zero warning for anything at the moment so it's better to be prepared for them saying something than a last minute panic to sort out work .

I'm in the south east and haven't heard anything about it!

DH is SLT at a school in a local lockdown area and there has been no suggestion to them of a further lockdown. That doesn’t mean it’s not coming, of course, but I’m fairly sure 99.9% of the people on here who claim to know for certain are talking out their arse.

These threads are driving me bonkers!

There IS NO SECRET INFORMATION! Teachers don't have a clue. Why would they know anything more than anyone else?

I can't stand this idea that 'they' know what is happening and they might communicate it to the inner circle. It doesn't work like that. The government is deciding more or less from day to day in response to statistics. There was no secret meeting where teachers and the other elite (ha ha) were told what is happening at half term but told not to tell the little folk.

If you really think that there is a big plan that ordinary people are excluded from and that teachers know what the big plan is then you are the type of person who would fall for YouTube conspiracies.

South east here, DS secondary school has asked if all pupils have access to internet and chromebooks/laptops with webcam to access live lessons. If not they can provide routers (paid for from the government until Nov with a possible extension) and loan laptops from school supply. Somethings in the pipeline maybe reduced face to face in person lessons.

Schools are contingency planning in case of further lockdowns or kids not being able to attend lessons.

And people are assuming their planning means there's something sinister afoot

Schools aren't making these plans because something's known about closures, they're making them because nothing's known and they need to be ready, even if it's "only" that one of their bubbles closes for 2 weeks.

Yes schools here being told to ensure online learning is fully operational by half term. Implication is the pupils may not be returning to school after half term.

Implication is the pupils may not be returning to school after half term.

No, it isn't. There is no implication, just the fact that most students are likely to spend some time in isolation over the coming months and schools have been told they have a duty to deliver a remote curriculum for them.

Our schools have been very clear that they are making arrangements just in case - in case a bubbles bursts, or there is a local lockdown. We've just signed consent forms and children have been asked to wear a school shirt whilst on camera.

I'm a governor at a different school, we had a meeting last week and no mention of a lockdown. More concerned about whether the right people (staff and pupils) were having covid tests as there as the usual autumn cold circulating.

Tfoot or you are very gullible!
The main takeaways from this government are
That they outright lie (masks/Cheltenham etc)
They like a uturn
Incompetent

There are as many clusters in primary as secondary almost
And the last data was xhort of those 16k cases so who knows how many clusters that was

Very likely is what I’ve heard plus an extended Christmas break after the 25th just in case visiting relatives infect anyone. Planning for minimum 2 weeks at half term and 4 at Christmas

South east here. In staff meeting we discussed possible platforms for potential home learning and we're currently analysing data to see what methods helped to keep them on the same level. Our SPAG got better but writing really decreased.