So Gav says schools could stay shut beyond half term.....

[Coldwinterahead1]

I'm guessing after Easter. What does everyone else think?

The Head should have a rota for teaching and prep of online work. It should not be double the work. The guidance was provided in October and planning started then.
It depends on the amount of children in that school. Our SEND children did really well last lockdown but those with parents working from home fared the worse.
All parents can do is their best.

@Doris86

My sons school claims that those in school are at no advantage, as they are being taught the same things as the ones at home.

Complete nonsense. Yes they learn the same things for a few hours. Then the ones in school also get the attention of the teacher and TA for the rest of the day. I’m a KW and my son has been getting LOADS of one on one time with the teacher and TA, due to reduced class size. He has progressed more at school in the past week than he did in the previous 2 months. Really unfair on those children at home.

Presumably he’ll then stall, while the teacher spends a fair amount of time catching up the homeschooled kids when they return? Must be swings and roundabouts.

Complete nonsense. Yes they learn the same things for a few hours. Then the ones in school also get the attention of the teacher and TA for the rest of the day

This isn't happening at my kids school. In school kids get lessons before lunch, then after lunch they are sat using educational apps independently while the teacher and TA sort online learning (of which some is provided in the morning and some in the afternoon).

Too early to tell. The last thing they want to do now is give a promise like they did at Christmas then take it away last minute.

People keep pushing for timelines that the government literally can't give.

Even if they have a ballpark, it goes out the window when a new strain is identified.

@cabbageking how can you have a rota for teachers when all classes are in, and there are too many children in to merge year groups?

After Spring bank would be my bet

I work for the NHS in schools, our work stopped with this lockdown; we were due in school Feb onwards. The first week wfh on other projects do not attend work. This week back in work to prep for going into schools after Feb half term. Not saying this is definite but it’s obvious schools and the NHS don’t know when schools will return and are preparing for every eventuality. So no need for us to try and guess, when they are in far better position and don’t know.

I'd predict Easter at the earliest.

My guess is that it that schools are very unlikely to open until after Easter.
If we have very cold weather in the Spring, which seems to make the spread of covid worse, this may prolong the reopening of schools until May possibly.🙄

It's quite staggering how much attention can bring a child on.
My dd made enormous strides last time with very short time in put from me.
I hope we can throw money at school after this, so many tweaks that would make massive difference to people's life chances

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@cabbageking how can you have a rota for teachers when all classes are in, and there are too many children in to merge year groups?[/quote]
Because the Head Teachers have been told by the DofE to keep staff numbers in school to a minimum.

The fact is they have never said a firm date for when they are going back. So easter or September? It’s always been an unknown. So announcements like this shouldn’t be a surprise. They are reviewing restrictions in Feb. Not ending.
Personally I think after Easter earliest.

My Dad is over 85 and vulnerable. His final vaccine date is the end of April. So the date of mid February has already slipped.

I think mid Feb is for the first four groups to all have the first vaccine

It's the mid Feb for dose one isn't it? Which provides a high level of protection.

More than 1,500 deaths today, and last week 8 teachers died. Plus more children needing hospital treatment.
Rather than looking at dates, we need to look at safety and only go back when it is actually safe for school staff and children and their parents. So if that means 3 weeks after Easter, or if it means mid-October, we have to go with that.

In the meantime, it'd help if there were plans for schools to do rotas perhaps, and it'd help if there was proper financial support for parents staying at home to care, and proper financial support for people to stay off work if they're able to. It's not like it's forever. We have vaccines, so to make cases fall quicker and to save thousands more lives we need actual planning.

After Easter would mean end April - surely by then the majority of over 50s will have had jabs? It’s over 200k a day at the moment which is good going. So seems very cautious? Might take til then for hospital cases to fall but not sure where new cases will come from?

Then what do you think motivates the unions and their members, Doris?

We, in an SEN school (fully open, a few parents opting to keep at home), were preparing last week to be sending remote learning out till Easter.

There's been a number of other changes to limit contacts across school too, changes to how ppa is done etc.

It seemed to come from the LA to be prepared to do so.

This is all governed by hospital case loads.

And possibly seasonal, though the new variant could be different.

Over rainbow - end April seems strange perhaps look into that. By next week all over 90s will be done in Herts and over 80s by end Jan.

I drew the conclusion they'd be shut all this term since September and the government should have planned for it and put the infrastructure in place. Honestly, medics must have been telling them there would never be any way things would be just fine in peak flu season.

I told my kids before Christmas they probably wouldn't be going back to school this term and they've been very good about it.

I think/hope they will be back after Easter, possibly a couple of weeks late, but I'm optimistic kids will finish this academic year actually in school

I work for an LA. The consensus is Easter. I don't know of any school planning a February return.

I fully expect an all out assault on the sector from the redtops and the Conservative Party.