Will schools close in January/February?

[BaileyBoos]

Just that really.

Given the huge rise in cases and the inevitable,
upcoming January fiasco, do we think schools will close? Primary and secondary, or just secondary?

Purely speculative I know, but the recent lockdowns haven’t been hugely effective, so I can’t help but wonder.

Years 7-10 might be sent home.
Primary would be last resort i think.

Quite possibly. I'd imagine they'll prioritise online lessons, or attending every other week for secondary school and colleges, but try to keep primary schools open.

I don't think there's any change primary schools will close.

chance

Unless they physically don’t have enough staff, no I think schools will stay open. It’s been pretty clear it’s the priority for the government. They’ve been willing to ride roughshod over legitimate objections up to now.

No

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55348886

If the hastily scrambled together "mass testing" plan of secondary school staff and pupils works then schools should be able to stay open without fuelling spread as they have been.
That's a big "if", though.
Which other hasty Covid plans put together by this government have actually worked? The aim of getting it sorted by beginning of January will probably morph into half way working by April if we're lucky.

That’s only the first week @Anyother

Secondary schools in my area have been sent emails for home learning in January. Key worker children and year 11 to attend back at school after Christmas.

Just popping this here. I personally think secondary schools should go online until end of January. I can't comment on primaries as I'm not fully aware of the issues in them.

I think what is interesting is that within the first lockdown the only differences which made the swift decline in numbers was schools/colleges/unis being closed.

However, with them not being closed this time round for the short burst the numbers did go down but not significantly.

I am not sure they will shut the schools again, but tbh it's kind of the only thing left that they can test that makes a difference!

when SARS broke out they found that closing the schools for the 7 week period really helped in China as well as limiting people going out.

I don't wish us to be a dictated country, but i think the reason some countries are now almost covid free is because they enforce compliance. Shutting borders, curfews, and totalitarianism in actions. Which is a scary thought!

No because the damage to children is far too high. Schools need to and will stay open.

I think they will (secondary have already confirmed a staggered return in England). But as per, it will be an eleventh hour decision and will even further cripple our poor schools.

The data has been pointing at this for long enough for the government to take action. Yet of course they haven't and they have punished LA's who have tried to negate the inevitable rise in cases in January. I live in one of the London boroughs who were advised by PHE to close on Tuesday, until 11th January one of the boroughs who were then threatened with legal action and had to make a U turn

I do not work in education but the way schools are being treated is beyond reproach.

They knew in March that closing schools had the biggest impact on the R rate which is why they did it. They have been reluctant since then due to understandable needs of childcare and mental health etc etc. If they had planned rotas in secondaries and masks in classrooms and improved ventilation etc we could be avoiding all this now....

I think year 11 and sixth form will be in school as usual. Lower school may be online and a staggered return.

However, nobody knows. Not even Boris himself...

@KnowingMeKnowingYule the rates of infection on the yellow line for primary’s is rising at an alarming rate.

My school (secondary) is doing online learning for all year groups bar y11 and y13, and those who are key worker children or vulnerable. It's the same country wide I believe, although possibly depending on tier (I'm in tier 3). This is just for 1st week.

We had an email from high school saying that years 7 8 9 10 and 12 now have to stay home with online learning for the first week of term. The tone of the email was that the head was pissed off to be emailing so late and had not been notified before he read about this news in the press.

@Plsv87

My school (secondary) is doing online learning for all year groups bar y11 and y13, and those who are key worker children or vulnerable. It's the same country wide I believe, although possibly depending on tier (I'm in tier 3). This is just for 1st week.

It is everyone. Tier is irrelevant.

@starrynight19 I know I just don't feel qualified to talk about the 'primary experience' as a secondary teacher but I wholeheartedly support colleagues in the primaries. It must be just as difficult there too.

The aim of getting it sorted by beginning of January will probably morph into half way working by April if we're lucky
There is no aim from the government to make it work. The aim is to offer it so they can say in future, look we tried but those lazy teachers and nasty teaching unions wouldn’t/couldn’t deliver. And they only did that because suddenly MSM started reporting that in some areas there was only 53-55% of secondary school pupils in school and the wider public started to think, wait, is this why we’re in tier three?

I'd be very very surprised if schools across the country shut completely for longer than a week or two, max. I think it's possible there might be some kind of rota system introduced for secondary in areas with the highest case numbers, but also wouldn't be surprised if everyone went back full time after the first week.

I'm also not convinced that Christmas will have as big an impact as most people here think though, so maybe I'm just completely naive!

I do not work in education but the way schools are being treated is beyond reproach.

I think that’s the opposite of what you meant to say.

Meant to say also that individual schools might obviously have to close if there are high case numbers, but I don't think it'll be a blanket national closure.