Another school one

[SabrinaTheMiddleAgedBitch]

I know none of us can know for certain but just wondering what the general consensus is re:schools - do we think they will close or not? I know everyone has different opinions on whether they should but I'm more interested in whether people think they will?

I have a teenager with ASD - the last lockdown was a nightmare situation and I'm wondering if I should prepare her for school closing. That in itself will cause her anxiety but so will the government dropping it on us at the eleventh hour (which is what I think will happen)

I think secondary schools will close in tier 4 to everyone except KW, vulnerable and exam year children. All other year groups will be online learning. My main reason for saying this is because instead of ‘schools must stay open’ ministers have started saying ‘children must stay in education’ subtly and in amongst all the other utter tripe they spout

Does your child have an EHCP? If so they are still entitled to attend school along with key worker children.

My DD has anxiety and is incredibly worried about being isolated again, with no school, especially as she is in an exam year. The first lockdown broke her, as she’s an only child and we were both working working flat out from home.
I have started trying to prepare her for schools closing, as I don’t want her to think that them opening is a given.
However, I have nothing to base this on, other than a gut feeling that unless they work out a more sensible return to school plan than there currently is, then they’ll have no option at some point.
The risk to the school staff, parents and the wider community is surely going to have to be acknowledged soon.
I’m not one of these that’s wanting to see schools closed, as I know my DD won’t cope at all well but I do think it will come to it, in the short term.

@mirror9 She has, she attends a sen school so all pupils have a ehcp to meet the criteria for admission but they were still closed last lockdown to all but essential keyworker children due to staff shortage

Dh is a key worker (funeral care) but I'm a SAHM so felt very pressured into not taking up the keyworker place last time despite her finding lockdown incredibly difficult

I don’t know so not much help op but I can relate. I have two children with autism. Does she have an EHCP? I didn’t send mine during the first lockdown because their school wasn’t actually open (children who could go in were sent to a neighbouring school - crazy) and I was anxious about it anyway. But yeah if the schools shut and they could go, I’d absolutely send them this time for sure. I’m also a stay at home parent. It took several weeks to settle DS into school in September. Weeks of screaming outside and me trying to get him the playground etc. Wouldn’t him, me nor the school to go through that again. My Dd can cope better. It all sucks.

I think secondary will. I'm (hoping) primary won't.

I am worried about ds1 too. I can imagine our special school will try and stay open this time but we had to close in the last week of school because of staff shortages so I am not sure.

On the other hand ds1 is autistic in a mainstream school and I am a key worker. I have discussed options after Christmas but he is struggling with all possibilities except 'normality'. He is refusing to go as a key worker child as that will be 'different', happy to stay at home but he does very little work as it is 'different'. He is in year 10 so really needs to be working. My preference would be for the school to do blended learning so at least it could be a new normal and he would get work done in the weeks he is at school.

@lorisparkle Yes, a big issue for me with the keyworker set up is how different school is (its taken me ages to resettle her) But in her eyes school and home are completely separate so I really struggled get her to do any work (also year 10)

I think they will stay closed for a couple of weeks after Xmas

How is she with thinking of pros & cons generally? Could you do a mindmap or list the advantages/disadvantages of different options? Just thinking it might help plant the seed that there are pluses & minuses in different ways.

Eg school

• clear systems, with friends

• have to get up early, no snacks until break

Eg home

• can stay in bed a bit longer, can organise own time

• timetable not the same, get bored

I think possibly secondary schools in tier 4 will go online with the exception of y11 and y13 and the KW /vulnerable.
I dont think they will put primary schools online

@XenakisCarter thats a wonderful idea, thank you

I think they've already said that they're not going to reopen until Jan 11th, someone said to me this morning that she was going back on 4th as she is in Y11 but not the others. Someone else is going in for testing in the week of 4 Jan - it's a 6th form college so they're doing online teaching for Y12 and testing the Y13s with a view to getting them back in for 11 Jan. However, both will be in tier 4 from Saturday so that could all change.

It would make sense to get Y11 and 13 in after testing. I would have thought schools and colleges could cope with those age groups and teach the others online for a week or two while the numbers come down.

And prioritise school staff for vaccinations...

There should be less staff shortages this time. Last time their were no tests so everyone with symptoms had to self isolate. I think special schools will stay open and continue as they have been doing since September, only shutting to certain classes when necessary. The school tier guidance said that they would not shut even if secondary and primary did and even though that guidance seems to have disappeared I think they will stick to that unless it is impossible for individual schools.

[quote SabrinaTheMiddleAgedBitch]@mirror9 She has, she attends a sen school so all pupils have a ehcp to meet the criteria for admission but they were still closed last lockdown to all but essential keyworker children due to staff shortage [/quote]
I work in an SEN school and we have been told that we will not be shutting whatever happens and we will be open for all age groups. I can't see that your daughters school will shut this time, unless there are staff shortages due to isolating/sickness but that will be something that could happen at anytime but hopefully won't.

Thank you all for the kind words. Her school is a very small secondary due to the needs of the children so class sizes are tiny on a normal basis. And they haven't had any classes sent home so its all been okay for us. Weirdly the same for my youngest and her primary but god only knows how as it's pretty much business as usual with a half hearted nod towards hand washing and we have been in tier three for ages now. I can only assume we have been very lucky thus far

I do think mainstream secondary needs consideration. Primary I don't know - I don't think my youngest coped very well with lockdown either albeit in a very different way to my ASD child.

I never imagined in March that we would be here now

Firstly- @SabrinaTheMiddleAgedBitch - I absolutely LOVE your username!!

Secondly, I agree it’s a great idea to list pros and cons as it might help her to realise that nobody really knows at this point what’s going to happen, so she can’t have it planned out in her head but she can think about the pros and cons of both, and be prepared in that way.

I also work in a special school and we will be staying open to all (as far as I know) which is a bit scary, but to be honest, after the first lockdown I am not in a rush to do that again and would much rather my own kids went to school, too. Don’t feel bad about taking a place as a sahm, because you would be doing it in the best interests of your daughter. I dread to think what the impact of yet another full lockdown /school closure would be on our young people.

It's really unclear for a few reasons. I will try to list the questions I don't know the answer to.

The science is not clear yet about the new variant. It might spread as easily in children as adults but we just don't know. If it does, how much does it spread from children to adults? In Wales they seem to have very little of this new variant but terrible numbers nonetheless. Hopefully we will know more soon. It might be no more harmful than the old variant which would be good. There might be yet another even more virulent variant coming which would be bad.

It might be better to make everyone in schools wear a mask all the time. This is not a harmless thing to do but it might be the least bad.

If we close schools, what would be the plan to reopen them? We can't just close all schools for months and months.

Any school will shut if there arent enough staff to open safely. That goes for any Tier system or none, pandemic or not.

I so hope not! (Tier 4 secondary teacher here). I saw so much damage from the summer closures that will be be very angry if the gvt wimps on this. My school had good online attendance but some just did not engage at all and fell significantly behind and the kids confidence was definitely impacted. (Not all, a minority thrived but they were a tiny minority)

@BrutusMcDogface thank you

I think sen children have been hugely overlooked in this. I mean teachers/schools in general have been thrown under the bus in a shocking way but the impact of school closures goes so far beyond education for some children. I wish they would just put more into making school safer

Yes, I think primary and secondary will be online for 2/3 weeks in January in Tier 4 areas.

OP My husband is a key worker and I'm a sahm but eventually it was all wearing me down and I asked for my eldest (7) to go to school in a key worker place. My eldest although not diagnosed with asd has quite challenging behaviour at times and can't settle very well. He did great in the key worker bubble it was very good for him. Don't feel guilty. If you need help and you can get it then push for it. It will benefit everyone if your daughter is supported. Good luck. X