Is a change beginning to happen regarding schools?

[Covidfears]

I’ve been noticing more articles lately in the mainstream press about the difficulties in schools (which will come as no surprise to most people). There’s also been some research which has basically confirmed that schools are driving infections. So, along with it looking like this lockdown has been a waste of time (due to schools being kept open to continue the spread) and people in power calling for Hull schools to be closed do we think that schools will be closing early for Christmas?

Is there any chance that blended learning or rotas will be coming in after the Christmas holidays?

We are a vulnerable family with children in primary school and the risk that sending them every day with no safety measures poses to our family is causing me huge amounts of stress.

@PineappleUpsideDownCake

Bananaskin - I must admit although I'm all for tighter covid measures and follow nobelgiraffes school posting....

I don't really get why a child who has been sat next to another child all day and played with them in the playground etc shouldnt then go home together after school. I am higher risk, and generally risk adverse but I can see why parents can't see the logic in this one!

Because there's a difference between sitting spaced in a room with an open door, or in an outdoor playground, Vs snuggling up together to watch TV. Because being indoors together for 6 hours will get you lower viral load and risk than for 10. Because there's more chance of a child over for a playdate passing it on to a whole family Vs 1 child.

I'm really tired of this argument, it makes a mockery of all the hard work schools are doing to distance if families all just merge after school anyway.

Question for teachers. Would it be better to write education off for the rest of the school year, keep schools open, but with reduced attendance - maybe three days a week - and then reboot and repeat the school year from next September. It would mean moving the age children start school from 4 to 5, which I think is common in many other countries, but might take the pressure off both teachers and pupils. Obviously it’s not ideal, but could it be workable?

@StormyInTheNorth: "Meanwhile I saw ds's FT teacher walking round a beauty spot in school hours in June."
And? So what? Have you not heard of flexi-hours? For all you know, she has got up at 6 to start work and was taking a couple of hours out for exercise and fresh air during the day before returning to her laptop later on?

There’s also been some research which has basically confirmed that schools are driving infections

There's also a lot of evidence which says they're not.

I would be happier about the idea of "blended learning" if they had actually delivered ANY learning remotely between March and summer holidays, which they didn't. In this area the provision was absolutely dire so if teachers/schools/councils in my part of Scotland think parents are going to be on board with school closures they will have to up their game substantially.

I’m hoping something will be done as schools cases are really high and It will only get worse if they only send home close contacts.

Far better to go blended or remote and stop cases. Health is more important, education can take place anywhere.

With no distancing, no PPE, little ventilation and huge numbers in rooms I’m not sure why it’s different for children and staff compared to most workplaces.

[quote Pomegranatespompom]@StormyInTheNorth kw didn’t receive any teaching at our school. It was babysitting as we were told. Colouring and a film.... we only used about 6 times - we were keen to protect teachers and others from our high risk jobs.
Online learning provision was poor. Weekly email.[/quote]
There was a huge difference in provision across schools during lockdown 1. From June 1st KW children in my school had a big advantage as they had to attend full time school even if care wasn’t needed that day and they were taught the curriculum each school day. In contrast the home learning from 1st June for all other year groups and children not in school was work books with no contact from the teachers as all the teachers were working with KW children. I’m glad this disparity has ended now.

I would be happy to see local closures (similar to the Tier 1,2,3,4 measures in smaller districts) and a long break for Christmas.

My children's schools have been moderately affected (odd cases) but they haven't been sent home yet themselves, I'd rather they all carried on if possible and they have the staff.

But a 3-4 week break at Christmas, break up a week early go back late seems an obvious solution.

@Peppafrig

I believe in Scotland children who received certain benefits like free school meals were allowed to attend school with the the key workers children.

No.

In some schools that would be 75% or more of the kids.

In the spring, a few children who were identified as vulnerable by social services went to school. But that's only a very small number, certainly not all children on free school meals.

And remember, because our school holidays start earlier, no children in Scotland returned to school at all until August, unlike some children elsewhere who had some education in June/July.

For those saying education can happen elsewhere- for bright motivated students with parents with some time to spare to support learning, yes.

Everyone else, no.

I'm a uni lecturer and I've noticed some of my student disengaging completely, most are doing great both on campus and online, but a significant amount just drop out/become demotivated and stop doing the work.

That's 18 plus years who are struggling to motivate themselves at home online, so I can't imagine if you are 13, have some learning difficulties and are trying to work at home. Impossible for some.

"There's also a lot of evidence that says they're not."
Well, no, actually. Absence of proof (in months gone by) is not proof of absence. There wasn't much data to go on back in the spring/summer, as schools were largely closed.
And even now, parents are being dissuaded from getting their children tested and schools are being effectively told to mask their cases so who knows what the real figures are currently.

@RaspberryCoulis in English schools we have to provide quality remote learning tasks from day 1 of isolation whether that’s an individual pupil or a whole class. It is now mandated by the DfE whereas the DfE suspended the curriculum from the end of March to September meaning there was a huge disparity of provision between schools.

@Cookiecrisps my 12 year old has been off for a week.

Couple of Maths worksheets. 15 minutes of French homework.

That's not an education, it's a fucking joke.

I do think blended learning can have advantages for many children if they have space at home to work on the week they are not in school.

I noticed that when we came back to school on June 1st with a small bubble (15 children) we could give much more personal feedback, cover more work at a faster pace and get more quality learning out of the children. Essentially we were covering 2 week’s worth of work in 1. Everything was quicker and more efficient due to the much reduced class size.

Parents also commented that their children made more progress working in their bubble of 15 in a half term than they had done in a whole term previously in a class of 30 before lockdown.

@CallmeAngelina

Such a good point. Surely it is better to have a consistent, workable system that means other industries can open. Are we to sacrifice thousands of jobs to keep schools fully open to all students FT (which is not what is happening)?

Those saying you can’t work without school childcare- what do you do about before and after school care? If this was extended through government investment, would that work for you?

Also, do you think your job will still exist in 6 months if we keep most of the economy shut to facilitate schools being open without meaningful safety and contingency measures?

@RaspberryCoulis take it up with the school. It’s not why we’re allowed to do where I work. We’ve also got to phone the family twice a week for a minimum of 10 mins to review the work and check in to see how the child is getting on. We’re also encouraging parents to email with any questions and must respond within 48 hours. This is on top of a full teaching timetable as this provision is for individuals isolating. There are individual 15 minute video calls to every child twice a week from the teacher, a set timetable of work fir all pupils and TA required to call every pupil every day if a whole class isolate. If any child doesn’t engage we have to phone them 3 times, alert school who then attempt contact and mark the child as absent if they don’t do the work.

I'd agree with a pp and say schools with a high case load could close for a few weeks (supported by mass testing hopefully)schools with no cases shouldn't have to close surely.

@Poppingnostopping

For those saying education can happen elsewhere- for bright motivated students with parents with some time to spare to support learning, yes.

Everyone else, no.

I'm a uni lecturer and I've noticed some of my student disengaging completely, most are doing great both on campus and online, but a significant amount just drop out/become demotivated and stop doing the work.

That's 18 plus years who are struggling to motivate themselves at home online, so I can't imagine if you are 13, have some learning difficulties and are trying to work at home. Impossible for some.

But it's having to happen anyway. 64% of secondaries have pupils self isolating.

And when it's just a few pupils off, we (teachers) can't support and chase students in the way we could if it was planned blended learning.

I agree that some students become disengaged when home learning, but if they were only doing this for 1/2 days a week, and in school the rest of the time, I think it would keep engagement higher than losing them for 2 weeks at a time. It would also be more planned and we could make expectations really clear.

@womaninatightspot

I'd agree with a pp and say schools with a high case load could close for a few weeks (supported by mass testing hopefully)schools with no cases shouldn't have to close surely.

Schools with no cases can be schools that are closing a week or two later.

I'd support schools staying open only if mass testing was available to check they actually had no cases.

Yes it needs a targeted approach not a blanket one.

Many schools have no cases at the moment. We don’t in either DS primary or DS secondary.

As many children need to be in school as possible.

I wonder if the strategy needs to change? More mass testing in schools but less entire bubbles isolating for one case?

I agree it’s unsustainable at the moment but blanket closures aren’t the answer. The government should be pouring money in to schools to try an keep them open.

@BelleSausage I'm one that can't work without school open. I pay for wrap around club. If there was some kind of government subsidised childcare in the event of school closure that would work for me and I'd be happy with that. I literally have no other childcare options - I physically can't do my job from home, I don't have a partner and my parents both work full time in key worker roles.

"As many children need to be in school as possible."

But that is exactly what is driving the problem. Schools are over-crowded, and it is impossible to manage effective mitigation procedures.

@RaspberryCoulis please talk to your school.

It honestly still crushes me when people say that teachers did nothing and failed their child during lockdown in March - June. Yes, some where shit but there are thousands of us who didn't and teaching during that time was incredibly difficult; I was working from home with my own kids. I get it. And I was in doing the childcare too. I did live lessons for my A level after spending hundreds of pounds on IT equipment (even a new router!)

Blended learning how is not a repeat of lockdown. We had to put robust plans in at the start of the year for a rota system, and ours are superb. At the moment, if I find out a child is off their work is set to be accessible 10 minutes before the start of the lesson. The only reason we don't stream the lesson is the fact our internet won't support it, and we've even tried using mobile data. I was here until 7pm last night filming a practical for some chemistry A level so I can teach half of a class and have the other half still access it from home on time, rather than later. Then I went home and edited it and uploaded it for today.

That's just an example of one day. Blended learning will be much more sustainable.

My children's secondary school now have the entire year 8, 10, 12 and 13 self isolating and one class in year 7 isolating. Year 11 only going in for mocks. A third of staff are also out either because they have tested positive, are isolating or have their own children out of school. It seems like an impossible situation with the whole year group bubbles. I wonder if a blended approach could work to make those bubbles smaller, with part time school attendance? We are in the South West with average case numbers overall.

My children were disadvantaged by having KW parents - we had no ability to home school in the day. We thought we made the correct decision by limiting attendance at school to lower infection risk and tbh if just watching a film they might as well do that at home. So yes- provision was variable and v v unfair and remains so for many children.

Blended learning won't work as well if parents are having to work full time and don't have time to supervise their children. For primary at least. My DS fell behind during the first closure and that was with me on furlough so I had time to help him. He just struggles to engage at home.