Dept of Education told academies they cannot close a week early for Xmas

[Gobacktothe90s]

Anyone seen this,

twitter.com/focustrust1/status/1330975676640464897?s=21

A group of academies announced they were closing a week before they were due to at Xmas on the 11th Dec to avoid any children/staff getting a positive result or self isolation over Xmas.

They have now been told this is against the law under the Coronavirus Act that they cannot change term dates.
I thought academies could change term dates and it will be interesting to see if private schools are threatened like these academies have.
It is obvious they don't want other schools following suit and shutting a week early so put the pressure on

I'm in a private school and we finish on the 11th anyway. Which is perfect for us to do a 14 day self isolation and see people who we may be allowed to see at Christmas, confident that we can't have the virus.

I think it's really unfair that private school children and teachers are in this position and state schools are not.

We haven't decided in my family whether we will do any travelling to see anybody yet. We might combine into pairs of households and see just that one other household. We might try and see elderly grandparents from outside in small groups. We might just all stay at home and not see anybody. But we have that choice If school was finishing on the 18th or 22nd we'd have no option but to stay at home, knowing we could be carrying Covid to others if we mixed.

And yes, I know lots of people are working over Christmas. I do have a lot of sympathy with them. But I guess that is also the case for them in other years too so it isn't specifically a Covid ruined Christmas.

It just shows that once again Boris has been bounced into announcing his plans without having had a chance to really think them through properly.

He hasn’t thought through that if he wants to open up life so people can mix a bit over Christmas, then many people will want to isolate themselves as much as possible so as to reduce risk to older or more at risk friends and relatives. There’s no point opening up for Xmas if that enables folk to have only isolated for a week beforehand, but then being locked down for new year when you’re done with the isolation and could mix with family.

I get why they have shut down for new year as that’s a time when lots of people are likely to mix.

But they needed to have worked through this all before announcing it to everybody.

It’s not really unfair, manic, the school term dates are published well in advance. There are plenty of unfair things about private as opposed to state schools but this is not one of them.

It’s not a free for all over Christmas, you’re only allowed to mix with 2 other families anyway aren’t you? Unless any areas are tier 1 again.

My DC’s private school has extended the holiday so that there are two clear weeks after 28th Dec before they go back to school so as to allow for a post-bubble quarantine period. They have already reduced the October and the summer 2021 holidays to give us extra teaching time. More than ever, I am seeing the benefit of a head that has the autonomy to make sensible decisions for the school. Was going to put my DCs into state school for secondary but having serious doubts now.

Our private school is shutting on the 11th.

@BungleandGeorge

It’s not a free for all over Christmas, you’re only allowed to mix with 2 other families anyway aren’t you? Unless any areas are tier 1 again.

People won't only mix with two other families. They will interpret the rule as two other families at a time so will in effect mix with hundreds of people. This is what they did with the rule of 6, went from one group to another.

Someone who can afford private school isn’t going to be struggling with the logistics of low paid work plus childcare, Bunsy

I for one am glad schools can’t just close at a whim. I don’t mean a day here or there, that’s different. Neither DH or I are low earners but we don’t have the luxury of having one parent at home all the time either.

But the rule of 6 you could change groups. It wasn’t one exclusive group of 6 each. Had to social distance though, it’s not clear whether that’s the same. I do t think the majority do flout the rules and the minority will do what they like whatever.

I wish my kids secondary school would close early. They have soo many cases day after day. Its getting a little worrying.

@Welcometonowhere Oh, there will be childcare issues. Huge numbers of working mums at my DCs school. That’s how many of us pay the fees - by using our entire salaries to fund them. Doctors, nurses, police, paramedics, state school teachers... and childcare is very hard to find at the moment given that the usual holiday clubs are not running.

You didn’t think we were all billionaires did you

@Welcometonowhere and the point that I was making was that we are getting extra teaching time to more than make up for the extra few days at Christmas. That amount of flexibility is simply not there in state schools.

Well I presume they’ve got a well paid partner or other means then. I don’t think there’s many paramedics or nurses funding private schools and living expenses without any other income

There must be a legal minimum though even for private schools otherwise parents would get arrested for allowing truancy.

There is just a requirement to educate your child whether in a state school, private school or home education, not a minimum number of days, but once you have chosen your method of education you need to abide by their rules on attendance.

Bunsy but there won’t be many on minimum wage and zero hour contracts, will there?

You might not be millionaires, but I’d still hazard a guess there aren’t many parents in that position either.

Good. Education is more important than Christmas.

If parents take kids out early then that's their problem and not the school. They are there to provide an education for the parents who value schools more than a fancy dinner.

@manicinsomniac

I'm in a private school and we finish on the 11th anyway. Which is perfect for us to do a 14 day self isolation and see people who we may be allowed to see at Christmas, confident that we can't have the virus.

I think it's really unfair that private school children and teachers are in this position and state schools are not.

We haven't decided in my family whether we will do any travelling to see anybody yet. We might combine into pairs of households and see just that one other household. We might try and see elderly grandparents from outside in small groups. We might just all stay at home and not see anybody. But we have that choice If school was finishing on the 18th or 22nd we'd have no option but to stay at home, knowing we could be carrying Covid to others if we mixed.

Thing is, loads of families with state school children won’t isolate for a fortnight. They’ll just finish on 18th, give it a week then just hope for the best.

I also think there aren’t many families who are going to cancel all plans and Christmas bubbles and stay under house arrest for the whole period, just because the school has told them one of their children needs to isolate until 1st January. I just can’t see it. Loads of people will think fuck it, I’ve had a shit year and seen no one, I ain’t giving up my 5 day amnesty to stay locked indoors on our own watching yet more telly. Particularly when their child looks perfectly healthy.

I know. All these people saying they'll withdraw kids early to self isolate, I can't imagine many sticking to it.

They'll give it a few days, kids start complaining of being bored and they'll mix anyway.

Our MAT doesn’t seem to be aware of this. They sent a letter out last week, for parents to ‘vote’ about finishing early on the 11th. 2 secondary schools and 6 primary schools have all sent the letter to parents. I have a DD in Y11 so I don’t want them to close early, but I seem to be in the minority going on the town FB page.

I wonder if the MAT have even told the LA/DfE - I wouldn’t put it past them.

I have a distant memory that it is 1265 hours but that may be something else completely!

As far as I am aware the same rules are not in place for private, nor for that matter home education. The 190 days is state provision.

Academies don't need to get permission from the dfe, they just cannot break their funding agreement, which it seems the dfe deem this trust did.

I know the conversation has moved on a bit but these are some relevant facts I know!

I'm team education. It's only a glorified roast after all....

I don't think schools should close, but if parents want to take them out for the last week then they should.