Will schools re-open?

[TVDFan]

Do you think schools will re-open after the February half-term?

YABU - Yes I think they'll re-open after half term.

YANBU - They will remain closed for longer.

The unions have the government over a barrel now so I fully suspect children will remain at home for most of this year as every time a demand is met, another will be made.
Keyworker children are not receiving any teaching whilst in school.
Our remote learning policy clearly states that teachers do not have to produce any new learning materials but can copy and drag documents into google classrooms. ‘Live’ learning can be done ‘at the discretion of individual teachers.
One of my closest friends who is HOD/head of pastoral care at my kids school spent yesterday completing a 180 mile round trip to pick up a new puppy for her kids. I’m not optimistic about the quality of education being delivered this year.
And yes there are plenty of excellent teachers and great schools doing their absolute best to fulfil their professional obligations as well. But it’s certainly not universal.

Another one that thinks Easter.
Then we'll have a summer term with everybody in but it'll be a bit like the Autumn term, bubbles bursting and going home to isolate.

I'm hoping by September we'll be able to wave our children off knowing that we won't get "that" phone call.

*Schools are OPEN

Unfortunately too many children are being sent in due to the government loosening the 'key worker' categories/failing to provide financially for people - people are desperate*

I also predict that within a week or two schools will start to try to really start scaling their numbers back. They'll be making places part-time and interviewing "key worker" parents to check that the children with places are the highest need children and families.

Easter or later, imo

I haven't voted because I honestly don't know. I'm hoping it's Feb because if they leave it untill easter or longer then they will have to arrange for kids to repeat a year. Missing 2 full terms in 2 school years is completely unacceptable and yes government will have to offer repeating years. Yes I know schools arnt technically shut but to the majority of kids they are.

I agree that the numbers won’t go down enough for schools to be ‘safe’ to fully open. There are too many children physically in school meaning they are still not safe. Some parents needs to understand that we are in a pandemic and not send their children in when there isn’t a critical need !! So selfish.

It's hardly selfish. Some parents have no other alternative.

@Marzipan12

I haven't voted because I honestly don't know. I'm hoping it's Feb because if they leave it untill easter or longer then they will have to arrange for kids to repeat a year. Missing 2 full terms in 2 school years is completely unacceptable and yes government will have to offer repeating years. Yes I know schools arnt technically shut but to the majority of kids they are.

This. It’s completely unacceptable now. Why on earth people aren’t standing up to these endless school closures completely baffles me. Shows just how much we value education in this country Private school kids will be so much further ahead at the end of this.

Completely agree it widens the gap. My current school is teaching live online lessons every day. Children have resources and computers and printers. My old school is sending out PowerPoints/worksheets with no teacher support. Last time less than 15% of children engaged with the work. It's unacceptable to let the disadvantaged continue to fall further behind.

@Audacity7

I agree that the numbers won’t go down enough for schools to be ‘safe’ to fully open. There are too many children physically in school meaning they are still not safe. Some parents needs to understand that we are in a pandemic and not send their children in when there isn’t a critical need !! So selfish.

No @Audacity7 it’s not selfish. I’m tired of this word being bandied about every other post on here.

There’s a large number of people who have absolutely no other choice but to send their kids in. What do you propose they do?

@Tyranttoddler

Completely agree it widens the gap. My current school is teaching live online lessons every day. Children have resources and computers and printers. My old school is sending out PowerPoints/worksheets with no teacher support. Last time less than 15% of children engaged with the work. It's unacceptable to let the disadvantaged continue to fall further behind.

@Tyranttoddler completely agree.

In the case when there is no other choice then I would agree with you that it’s critical. However I know of some stay at home non-working parents who are finding loopholes - that’s what I class as selfish. Sorry for not being clear. I agree it’s very hard for some.

Oh god I can’t bear to have another year of hearing “not til September”, “it’ll be alright everyone back in September”. September September September.

Also don’t understand it when people say “schools are OPEN”. If your child is not eligible to attend then surely the physical school premises is “closed to YOU”?

From everything I've seen, heard and read in between, it won't be until March at the very earliest and realistically not looking at any real reopening until Easter or later. If the schools fully reopening earlier, there will be consequences again re the virus.

starrynight19

With more than half of children in schools they are certainly not closed.

Are you a teacher, starry night? If so, do you feel that schools are now safer for pupils and staff, with half of the children working remotely?

The unions have the government over a barrel now so I fully suspect children will remain at home for most of this year as every time a demand is met, another will be made.

Are you on glue?

The unions have no impact on this, the government won't engage with them any more than it will with other parts of education. We all find out at the same time as you.

The government was adamant schools were opening to all pupils. Then on the last day of term it changed it's mind and said phased return over 2 weeks (so we worked our arses off planning for that). Then after one day it changed it's mind (so at 8pm we all started trying to sort a new plan for the next day).

In that 2.5 weeks the only thing that one union did was provide it's primary staff with a letter to use if they decided not to attend school during the phased return period because the school's risk assessment wasn't sufficient. That isn't why secondaries shut and it wasn't decisive for the vast bulk of primaries.

Unions don't want this chaos, it's awful. They just want some level of long term planning.

That isn't why secondaries shut

(Yes we aren't actually shut either).

For what it's worth, I am a teacher.

IMO schools ARE closed for learning. They are open as childcare only with no teaching.

In my school, spaces have been given very strictly. Even if you are a key worker, you are not given a space. If a parent is at home, working or not, you are refused a place. Rightly so IMO.

TVDFan: will you feel safer in work now?

I will be working from home doing remote learning. A mix of live lessons and tasks/projects to complete.

I am secondary working with SEN children and my husband is primary.

We have not felt safe in schools. Masks are not allowed to be worn in classes and visors offer no protection. There is no physical way of social distancing in classrooms and we need to be able to get close to pupils to be able to best support them.

I work with children who have ADHD and ASD, personal space is not a luxury I am granted, let alone social distancing 😅

To be able to cope I’ve told myself DD isn’t going to see school this side of the year. It’s pessimistic but the government have ballsed this up so badly, my lack of trust and now even hope means I can’t fathom a reality where she’s actually able to return this academic year.

@Overtherainbow2020

Schools aren’t closed! We are expecting 60% of pupils in tomorrow that fall in the “key worker” classification.

Perhaps you'd like to pop round and convince my 8 year old of that since he's crying g over his breakfast for a second d day in a row.

Schools may be open to some but they are absolutely definitely closed to others. Please don't minimise the situation ir if you must please do it accurately

Schools are closed to the major of children. This has caused massive upheaval in the lives of many parents.

I recognise the reason they are closed but having people like you coming along telling us they are open when they are not open to our children is deeply unhelpful.

Well Boris is hoping to have them back in some form by summer. So not a fucking hope for Half term or even Easter!

I want to believe Easter, but I think on balance it will be September.

Ideally we would open up for schooling over the summer months, but teachers have contractual holidays (and will also be exhausted by then).

@Londonmummy66

Frankly if they are worried about opening schools at the end of February then they need to tell everyone in the top 4 categories who haven't had 2 doses of the vaccine to shield. If the vaccine is given purely on mortality stats then reopening needs to be on the same basis in which case schools should open before anything else.

I think it would be unethical to prioritise vaccinations on any grounds other than risk.

The decisions about what to close/reopen and when should be based on risk and problems caused by closing them. So food shops have to stay open, as the fallout from closing them would be massive.

The increase in transmission following the reopening of schools in September was significant and the scientists believe that they are a significant vector of infection, not least because children are often asymptomatic and preventative measures are hard to put in place.

With nearly 61k new cases yesterday, over 800 deaths, an R rate well in excess of 1, and very little in the way of effective infection prevention in schools, reopening needs to be handled very carefully to prevent the rate shooting up again like it did last year.

But there really needs to be a lot more in the way of support for home learning and financial support for parents in jobs that can't be done from home.