Ways to make schools safer without closing them

[noblegiraffe]

Because I am so bored of the misrepresentation and lies going on on this site by people who shout down anyone who raises concerns about the current situation in schools as 'wanting schools to close indefinitely'. The people lacking in imagination who seem to insist that either things carry on as they are (with hundreds of thousands of kids not in school due to the spread in infection), or that schools close and there's nothing in between that can possibly be done to make things safer.

So here's my list, mostly copied from another thread:

We could start with an effective test and trace system, which we were told was essential for the safe re-opening of schools, but we opened without.

We could move onto making sure that all classrooms have windows. And then that those windows open. A national WEAR A VEST campaign to stop parents and kid complaining that it's cold. Germany have just invested a large amount of money in improving ventilation in schools, the UK should follow them.

Masks. Why do the government keep insisting they're not needed in corridors (from the comfort of a socially distanced parliament) and that it's impossible to use them in classrooms when the rest of the world seem to manage? What lessons can we learn from the international experience?

Marquees/covers on the playgrounds so that kids aren't inside for wet break. I know that wet break caused a whole year group to be sent home in a local school as it was uncontrolled indoor close contact.

For it to be mandatory (not simply 'where possible') that classrooms are arranged so that teachers are 2m from the kids when teaching. If smaller class sizes are needed to facilitate this, then solutions must be found even if the government needs to pay money for bigger spaces.

Parents to be supported/sanctioned to avoid kids being sent into school with symptoms or when they're supposed to be isolating.

The government to update its list of symptoms for children requiring a test to include the main ones that children experience, instead of the adult symptoms which they mainly don't.

Regular testing in schools, particularly when there are outbreaks, to enable more effective isolation.

Vulnerable kids to be allowed the option of staying at home. Schooling could be provided by Oak Academy (why spend millions on it and not use it?) and the army of 'catch-up tutors' to provide feedback on work (or ECV teachers also permitted to stay at home)

Any other suggestions?

@OpheliasCrayon is it necessary to be so hostile towards someone suggesting a number of sensible mitigations? You've said you're struggling to understand what OP would be happy with, yet it's all there in the OP. Are you this unpleasant to your colleagues and pupils?

@headstrong27

Windows need money spending on them so they actually bloody open.

Haven't disagreed with this

Air purifiers need funding.

or this

And class sizes need reducing to stop the atrocious over crowding that is bad enough in non Covid times.

I think smaller classes would be fantastic, I just don't think it will be straightforward to solve that using a portacabin, park or pub.

Fantastic! Glad you agree with the majority of my points. How class sizes are reduced should be open to heads discretion, extra funding, community resources available - details can be varied but the DfE needs to stop forbidding innovative solutions.

Obviously there are huge discrepancies between what some schools are doing & can do as they will have different restraints.

I volunteer in a school

Gosh - are you still able to? We’ve lost parent volunteers at my DC’s school.

@TheHoneyBadger

I would take smaller groups over masks any day. I'm asthmatic and have anxiety tendencies and the two merge to make me feel like I can't breath and start sweating and hyperventilating rather quickly in a mask.

Honestly at this point I'd happily accept just being supported in my decision to keep windows open and asking that students wear a school jumper or the plain black jumper that they're allowed to have (blazers are optional, jumpers can be plain etc in recognition of the fact that a) uniform shops were shut at first and b) some people are skint) rather than sit in a short sleeved shirt complaining that it's cold.

That and being given five minutes movement time and enough time to have a wee in the day would be enough for me.

I will even keep pretending it's safe if you let me have two wees and a proper lunchbreak in a day.

My standards have slipped massively can you tell?!

Two wees?????

Now that's the most unrealistic thing I've heard in this entire discussion!!!

@SmileEachDay yep

Where possible, are secondary school pupils mainly staying put and just the teachers going from room to room to minimise corridor jams? I'm primary so we are always in the same classroom anyway. Agree that classrooms are 'communal' areas and masks would help. Love the idea of trooping down the local pub for the school dayReady made blackboards a bonus! Although a nightmare when you arrive and realise you've left important stuff on top of the photocopier...

is it necessary to be so hostile towards someone suggesting a number of sensible mitigations?

Is @OpheliasCrayon the hostile one?

@noblegiraffe

But on the whole you seem to have a problem with most things from what I can tell.

So you decided to have a snipe at me instead of closing the thread?

Hope you feel better for that. Enjoy your half term.

Well no. I don't feel anything. But I just don't know what would be a suitable suggestion that you would be happy with! I mean things have to be realistic and possible and as far as I can see from where I work, people are trying the best they can in a pretty shit situation.

@kursaalflyer the secondary schools I know of have very detailed plans/routes to minimise contact.

Oh god yeah - time to wee would be amazing!
We only have 3 female staff toilets in the entire school and they are all in the same unventilated room (no window or fan). It's bad enough queueing in normal times, but now lunch is just 20 minutes and we all have extra break duties, it's become impossible!

Um, I didn't think parent volunteers were allowed currently?

Personally I'm so hot from legging it around the school site all day and trying to deal with my classes and support supply covering classes around me for isolating staff that I probably could cope with a north wind blowing through the class.

Our heating is on though and some staff are still bloody closing the windows when it's the only mitigation we do actually have some control over and coddled children are acting like I'm asking them to shovel snow with their bare hands in february.

I may finally have discovered a benefit in being perimenopausal.

@headstrong27

is it necessary to be so hostile towards someone suggesting a number of sensible mitigations?

Is @OpheliasCrayon the hostile one?

I'm not sure to be honest. Maybe I am. I'll take the hostile lable if it helps .

I don't care whether you agree with it or not tbh.

No shit, but likewise

How is the school you volunteer in managing having a parent volunteer in?

Sorry - it’s a slight derail but I’m interested to know! Every school in my city has a closed door policy to visitors and volunteers.
We can’t even host pgce students!!

Um, I didn't think parent volunteers were allowed currently?

My dc do not attend the school I'm involved with.

But I just don't know what would be a suitable suggestion that you would be happy with!

Er, my OP? It’s literally a list of things I’d be happy with.

How long are you envisaging extra space being needed? Portaloos and marquees are in no way a suitable learning environment for any length of time. They will be on a field that will get muddy and slippery. Proper installation would need paths to prevent slip injuries, there would need to be access for a lorry to empty the portaloos. Handwash would need a potable water supply and must also be discharged either to a tank to be emptied or to the foul network.

I appreciate that you are looking for solutions, but mass creation of additional space needs significantly more thought putting into it. It would need to be a bespoke solution for every school. Some would be easy. Some would be impossible.

Hurdles that could be dispensed with are the need for planning permission (if it's going to be there more than a year), landowner consent (academies often are on leased land), but you won't be able to ignore building regulations. You might be able to get a dispensation on disabled access requirements as students that needed accessible rooms could be accommodated in the main school building which should comply.

Children learning in tents in howling gales, snow, ice and pouring rain is not a suitable environment.

on the school fields

What school fields? When we have a fire drill we just about fit on the playground as a whole school. When we had a real fire we had to walk 15 minutes to another school and wait on their playground.

I'm so sick of all the antagonism. I think it's time for me to take an mn break other than the weight loss thread I frequent.

I want to recoup energy over half time not spend it arguing on the internet. Yet I find myself here. Maybe I need to turn off the internet but my son would revolt.

@noblegiraffe

But I just don't know what would be a suitable suggestion that you would be happy with!

Er, my OP? It’s literally a list of things I’d be happy with.

Ok but some of those not everyone agrees with. I certainly don't. Some of them aren't practicable. Some of them aren't best for the kids.

And then, when other people say their ideas you don't like them either - like you don't like cleaning products now.

So I feel like you've started a thread, where it's your way or the highway.

So what was the point.

Some would be easy.

Let’s do those then.

@bodgeitandscarper
The actual North Yorkshire guidance to schools is that hand sanitiser should only be used when soap and water is not available, which is essentially the same guidance as for the rest of the population.

It may be banned in your daughter's school but it is definitely not banned by the county.

I’m volunteering at my children’s school, albeit I am no longer in the building hearing children read or sorting out indoor resources. Now doing remote or outside only tasks, far away from children.... think clearing leaves and detritus from a forgotten corner of the field and putting up a (donated) gazebo, repairing planters for children to plant bulbs, updating the PTA webpage. I just asked the head if there was anything he would find helpful if some parents took care of. Opportunities to contribute to the school are still there!

@NothingIsWrong

How long are you envisaging extra space being needed? Portaloos and marquees are in no way a suitable learning environment for any length of time. They will be on a field that will get muddy and slippery. Proper installation would need paths to prevent slip injuries, there would need to be access for a lorry to empty the portaloos. Handwash would need a potable water supply and must also be discharged either to a tank to be emptied or to the foul network.

I appreciate that you are looking for solutions, but mass creation of additional space needs significantly more thought putting into it. It would need to be a bespoke solution for every school. Some would be easy. Some would be impossible.

Hurdles that could be dispensed with are the need for planning permission (if it's going to be there more than a year), landowner consent (academies often are on leased land), but you won't be able to ignore building regulations. You might be able to get a dispensation on disabled access requirements as students that needed accessible rooms could be accommodated in the main school building which should comply.

Children learning in tents in howling gales, snow, ice and pouring rain is not a suitable environment.

It would need specialist planning absolutely. But there are people experienced in that sort of thing whom I am sure could work something out that would suit most of the time. Maybe it would have to be home learning for the week out in exceptional weather, I don't know - but I absolutely don't know why this isn't even being considered!