Our primary school is not open for key workers until Wednesday

[RockawayBeach]

Is this the same across the rest of the UK? I appreciate tonight's announcement - while not a surprise - was short notice and I wonder how many key workers needed at this critical time won't be able to go to work tomorrow due to childcare issues? We only have 12 key worker children at our school and I'm amazed provisions couldn't be made.

Keyworkers have also been continuously working throughout Christmas whilst Schools were closed.

@Dereg

Ours went in today. They can go in tomorrow if needed. Then start Wednesday for Keyworkers & vulnerable Children.

Yes some Schools have managed this, just wondering why not all?

@NotSoHappyNewTier

Keyworkers have also been continuously working throughout Christmas whilst Schools were closed.

I take it you get annual leave though?

It's not as simple as opening up the spreadsheet from the summer and putting it in to action...

Lots of schools have significant proportions of their staff unwell with covid or having to self-isolate.

Tbf, an immediate closing of schools was a bit of a surprise, given that the PM declared yesterday that they were safe and they were given a few days notice last time.

Please don't blame school leaders in all this. They've mostly been working all Xmas break on track and trace, setting up the lateral flow testing, managing predicted staff absences, planning to go on site as they were told etc.

Honestly, I know it's a pita but so are things like postponed hospital apts, treatment or operations which also aren't anyone 'fault'.

@WellFiddleMyDiddlyDee no because annual leave not possible for two weeks over busiest time of year!

@christinarossetti19

It's not as simple as opening up the spreadsheet from the summer and putting it in to action...

Lots of schools have significant proportions of their staff unwell with covid or having to self-isolate.

Tbf, an immediate closing of schools was a bit of a surprise, given that the PM declared yesterday that they were safe and they were given a few days notice last time.

Please don't blame school leaders in all this. They've mostly been working all Xmas break on track and trace, setting up the lateral flow testing, managing predicted staff absences, planning to go on site as they were told etc.

Honestly, I know it's a pita but so are things like postponed hospital apts, treatment or operations which also aren't anyone 'fault'.

Thanks @christinarossetti19 yes it is frustrating because they still should have been prepared, I mean what if you had to miss a day in work / school because although your appointment was booked and we fine you if you don’t turn up we cancelled it on the day because we hadn’t read your notes from your previous appointment or something?!

Our school were open Monday so one very upset child here too.

[quote NotSoHappyNewTier]@WellFiddleMyDiddlyDee no because annual leave not possible for two weeks over busiest time of year![/quote]
But I presume you do get annual leave? We don’t get to choose and Christmas is mandated as ours. So pointing out schools were closed for Christmas suggesting we should have been working like all the other key workers is a bit pointless. Once again, it’s something else we don’t control. That’s when our holidays are.

Ask, you should totally retrain as a teacher. You seem to already know an awful lot about how we operate and it’s obviously a really simple job. Then you can have Xmas off too.

I didn’t say you should work over Christmas, the Pandemic started in March 2020 or so.

Some Schools really don’t prepare for this kind of thing?

Other sectors do have to prepare and adapt repeatedly at short notice, why are some schools so different?

Schools have constantly adapted and changed to the ridiculous demands of government. I guess the answer is that some heads are more willing to put their staff at risk than others. Some staff are more willing to take that risk. Some schools have no staff off sick. Some have several with Covid, others isolating and several pregnant/vulnerable staff. Some schools have 40 in their whole school and some have 600. The same as some NHS trusts are just awful and some and mind blowingly awful.

At my school the picture is completely different this time. Our keyworker children have quadrupled from last time meaning a completely different rota impacting on lots more people. I think a day for planning is reasonable, you can’t expect teachers to work overnight - especially if they need to consult with parents to find out exact numbers etc. It is really, really crap for all those parents who need to work on Tuesday but the blame most certainly doesn’t lie with school staff who are being messed about more than anyone.

Thanks @WellFiddleMyDiddlyDee and @VashtaNerada

We know the Government are useless at best though!

Some Schools are open tomorrow just not all so yes it does feel frustrating especially when DC very upset.

and we were open Monday so feels particularly ridiculous to now be closed.

Even the letter sent out Sunday evening said it could change at short notice so it wasn’t as if they didn’t know.

Some schools have opened for key worker and VC today. As they should, take the ones who turn up, work out if they are the right ones during the day.
The unions said we should switch straight to home learning that schools are prepared, they clearly aren't. I'd be surprised if many schools can get it nailed by the end of the week.

My school opened for key workers this morning. Thank god! Messaged me last night at 10pm asking if I will need her in. Said yes so they opened.

The school I work is in near to the city's hospital. The headteacher contacted all parents yesterday after the announcement and said that school would be open today for all children of NHS workers only, then open to all critical worker-children and vulnerable children from Wednesday. The HT understood that our hospital and other medical staff are needed urgently.

Yes, it's really, really tricky for all other critical workers (including school staff) but hopefully it means that everything goes smoothly from tomorrow and it has all been communicated correctly to parents.

NotSoHappyNewTier

But that happens all the time. People book annual leave or take a sickness day, arrive for their procedure or operation to find that it's been cancelled.

Or find out on the morning that it was due happen.

A pita, but just one of those things.

Give schools a chance.

They found out approx 14 hours ago that the country has gone into another tier of lock down and that schools wouldn't be open as planned today.

Having been informed by the PM on Sunday that schools are safe and that parents should send their children in as usual.

I would imagine so for most, the PM made the announcement at 8pm, even the most arsehole parents in the country surely wouldn't expect that school SLTs were able to arrange keyworker provision to start 12 hours later? Surely?

We’ve had nearly half the school apply for key worker places which is around 400 applications, which is A LOT more than last time. I’m not sure how anyone expects us to allocate different classes, agree who will be off doing the home learning and who will be in full time, sort out which classrooms will be in use, what the different timetables will be so there are different toilet slots so each pod doesn’t cross each other in the corridors, work out use of the playgrounds AND brief staff about it in about 12 hours.

We can’t just use the timetable etc we did in summer because we have WAY more children coming in and it’s going to be hard to even staff it unless we want larger bubbles and/or vulnerable staff to come in.

@christinarossetti19

NotSoHappyNewTier

But that happens all the time. People book annual leave or take a sickness day, arrive for their procedure or operation to find that it's been cancelled.

Or find out on the morning that it was due happen.

A pita, but just one of those things.

Some Schools have clearly managed to do it as stated by PP.

Imagine if you turned up today @christinarossetti19 needing acute care and the Hospital shrugged it’s shoulders and said “but we need even more time to prepare, you should have said sooner, not as if it is a global pandemic or anything is it now, come on dear, be reasonable” !!!

Or they have no Staff because Schools closed, innit