Extended School holidays leaked document (Scotland )

[Peppafrig]

What’s everyone’s feelings on the leaked document suggesting school holidays could be extended till the 11th January ? I think it makes sense to keep them shut for the week. Allowing everyone to not mix again for two weeks after the Christmas bubbles end . Seems like it could save a further even longer lockdown later on in January.

Absolutely the government should have said no mixing. Schools are currently driving this virus. Hence why cases are still rising in that age group.

Sadly the government won’t listen to the situation in schools so by giving the green light to mix at Christmas they have now exacerbated the situation even further in Schools in January.

Now school staff are saying the situation will be impossible to manage. It is them who will have to stand in front of those children who are carrying the virus whilst they have stayed at home all Xmas as they are too frightened to see their family in case they pass it on given their current work place situation. It is them who will have to organise remote learning for those children bounced in and out of school due to isolating.

Obviously this will have an impact on parents with childcare , the staff and the children. Whether they open as normal on the 4th or a week later. It will result in children being out of school and more staff getting ill and parents without childcare.

It’s a terrible situation for everyone which ultimately comes down to very poor government decisions. We all want the same thing. Children in school safely.

The situation in schools is unsustainable
The link to indie sage is about English schools but it will happen here or may be happening already. It certainly will after xmas.

@BefuddledPerson

If Scotland do this they are sensible imo. One week of missed school for everyone is not going to be here or there educationally.

I'm sorry, where have you been this year?

One week of missed education

They are set up to go remote and so should. At least for two weeks after but it would be better until half term in Feb to get cases as low as possible for the vaccines to be rolled out.

Leaving then open will mean unplanned bubbles bursting continuously and many getting sick. Who would want that?

I agree it would have been better to say no mixing but so many would have done it anyway as think the rules don’t apply to them. Plenty don’t follow them now.

Dd has remote learning via a different school for one of her advanced higher classes (English) and its shit! She feels unsupported and with it being English it would normally involve discussion and sharing points of view and she's getting none of that.

Why are people referring to this being a good plan to avoid the bursting of 'bubbles'. Scotland doesn't have 'bubbles' does it? I thought that here schools only send home close contacts, rather than whole classes or year groups (unless multiple positive tests of course).

In my experience they only send close contacts home - ds has only had to isolate once and dd hasn't had to isolate at all

You can’t have it all. As a teacher I know what’s happening in school - we have multiple kids isolating, bubbles bursting, and no social distancing at all.

So if you want your families and children to mix over Christmas then you need to be willing to accept than having a circuit breaker afterwards is needed to help mitigate the inevitable rise in infections.

Remember there are adults who work in school won’t be seeing their families this Christmas because they are aware of how high risk we are due to the environment we are working in.

And yes the kids I teach have missed enough school - but they’ll miss even more if whole year groups have to keep closing.

Personally I would have preferred no mixing at Christmas but that’s not happening so there has to be a plan to deal with the fallout ?

My dd has been isolating. She just joins in lessons via Teams.

She says being in the waiting room is the best of all. All sorts happens in there. She usually starts the lesson crying with laughter after waiting room hilarity.

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

My dd has been isolating. She just joins in lessons via Teams.

She says being in the waiting room is the best of all. All sorts happens in there. She usually starts the lesson crying with laughter after waiting room hilarity.

That sounds brill but not sure it would be the same for my 7 and 5 year olds. They aren’t quite at the stage of being able to join in online chats at speed, especially as they’d be sitting alongside DH working full time (spending most of the day on the phone) and I would be working out of the house full time.

Why are people referring to this being a good plan to avoid the bursting of 'bubbles'. Scotland doesn't have 'bubbles' does it? I thought that here schools only send home close contacts, rather than whole classes or year groups (unless multiple positive tests of course).

No - if we have a positive test in a class the class/bubble is sent home. This may be more than one bubble if for instance the child attends breakfast club. We absolutely have class bubbles, staff are only allowed cross between 2 bubbles and only when necessary.

I’d personally rather see them close now and use that week the teachers are due from August while things are difficult.

School here is due to finish on 24 June so a week early. I’d be hopeful of normality by then and believe kids should be in school for that week learning in a proper environment.

Obviously they should be learning now but let’s face it the last 2-3 days before Christmas is usually relaxed and not full on lessons.

@Apple1971

*You can’t have it all.....
**
*So if you want your families and children to mix over Christmas then you need to be willing to accept than having a circuit breaker afterwards is needed to help mitigate the inevitable rise in infections.

I think that's rather the point. I, and plenty of others, don't want 'it all'. We want our children to have what little time is available to them over the 20/21 school years actually available.

You say 'can't have it all' as if we somehow asked for it

I’d personally rather see them close now and use that week the teachers are due from August while things are difficult.

Mine went back the same week they were supposed to. There is not a week due to anyone.

@DumplingsAndStew

Why are people referring to this being a good plan to avoid the bursting of 'bubbles'. Scotland doesn't have 'bubbles' does it? I thought that here schools only send home close contacts, rather than whole classes or year groups (unless multiple positive tests of course).

I say it because in a thread where people from England are also talking it works. There are no official bubbles but mixing with 3 households over Christmas is essentially bubbling. So it just saves typing a longer sentence. Don't get too hung up on terminology, it amounts to the same thing.

@Apple1971

You can’t have it all. As a teacher I know what’s happening in school - we have multiple kids isolating, bubbles bursting, and no social distancing at all.

So if you want your families and children to mix over Christmas then you need to be willing to accept than having a circuit breaker afterwards is needed to help mitigate the inevitable rise in infections.

Remember there are adults who work in school won’t be seeing their families this Christmas because they are aware of how high risk we are due to the environment we are working in.

And yes the kids I teach have missed enough school - but they’ll miss even more if whole year groups have to keep closing.

Personally I would have preferred no mixing at Christmas but that’s not happening so there has to be a plan to deal with the fallout ?

All well and good in theory, but doesn't really help the millions of people who can't mix at Christmas as we will be working/too high risk, but now have the added headache of figuring out childcare and how to squeeze in home school on top of full time work?

You seem to be generalising and assuming everyone but teachers will be mixing at Christmas.

That simply is not true.

I am curious why some teachers think this one extra week off will suddenly prevent further class closures? I honestly don't understand where this is coming from, how would one extra week have an impact on the next few months?

Many seem to be forgetting that the Christmas mixing is likely to lead to LESS mixing for school children, it is the older adults who will be at risk (from the school children!). I am not convinced schools will be massively adversely affected in
January. Hospitals will be though after the school kids pass the virus on to older relatives.

@papaelf

I’d personally rather see them close now and use that week the teachers are due from August while things are difficult.

Mine went back the same week they were supposed to. There is not a week due to anyone.

Ours didn’t though and we are scheduled to close a week early in June.

We went back a week early in August.

@whitetilesmurf

I know what you were saying. I was pointing out all areas were not the same, we don't all have time 'due' so that can't be taken as a National decision.

My dc went back a week early too but the teachers were meant to work that week anyway in school so it shouldn't affect them - the dc went back early, the staff did not.

[quote papaelf]@whitetilesmurf

I know what you were saying. I was pointing out all areas were not the same, we don't all have time 'due' so that can't be taken as a National decision. [/quote]
Yeah, agreed. It’s a shit show.

I think most places have different term dates for Christmas too. We are due to close on 23rd and start again on Thursday 7th.

[quote papaelf]@whitetilesmurf

I know what you were saying. I was pointing out all areas were not the same, we don't all have time 'due' so that can't be taken as a National decision. [/quote]
Same here. We went back as normal in august so have no time ‘due’. So a blanket approach obviously doesn’t work.

@midnightstar66

Why are people referring to this being a good plan to avoid the bursting of 'bubbles'. Scotland doesn't have 'bubbles' does it? I thought that here schools only send home close contacts, rather than whole classes or year groups (unless multiple positive tests of course).

No - if we have a positive test in a class the class/bubble is sent home. This may be more than one bubble if for instance the child attends breakfast club. We absolutely have class bubbles, staff are only allowed cross between 2 bubbles and only when necessary.

You must be in a primary school then My kids are at secondary school and they arent sending whole classes home, just close contacts

We lets all party like its 1999.

Hogmanay parties here we come. There's loads of time to isolate after it after all.

Who fancies a Conga down the street?

Seriously though, I do wonder about the Scottish government at times. This just seems totally wrong.

I have seen no one and done nothing since schools went back at the end of august in order to minimise the risk of my children having to miss any more school. I planned to do the same over Christmas, to reduce the risk of them taking Covid into school in January.
If they shut schools for another week then I think my resolve on that would be severely weakened. What’s the point in us doing everything in our power to keep our children in school safely if they’re going to close anyway to accommodate those who don’t?
I realise the above isn’t particularly logical but I’m not feeling logical at the moment.

Wecan we are the same and its really quite sickening.

Give some people and inch and they will take a mile. Shes going to give them a foot so they will now take 10 miles. (If the deliberate leak turns out to be true)