So it looks like we're being prepared for children not to go back until after Easter

[choosingcrumble]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/children-face-months-at-home-as-schools-stay-shut-until-easter-wp5ltpm82?fbclid=IwAR1l0gRSzuJLIv508reRmBEojbYfoGOsWwe3_pBFmKpA4EbI1IgC5dKC2uE

I suspected it wouldn't be until then, let's just hope that it doesn't stretch into the summer.

There is a petition to vaccinate staff at special schools

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/566217

They really do need to be vaccinated soon as they get so close to the children that attend. My DD is not at her special school at present as they only can have it open for children who are not safe at home.

Please can everyone sign and pass on.

Vaccinating teachers won't do anything to stop the spread. It will make teachers feel safer and hopefully mean more staff in schools but it won't change the fact that kids mostly transmit it among themselves then bring it home.

I wasn't expecting mid-Feb but I was hoping maybe March, now that cases are falling. I'm 'lucky' that my kids have a decent online provision and are not in academically important years but they are in socially important years, where they should be spreading their wings and gaining their independence and it's horrid for them to be shut in at home all the time with only a walk round the village for entertainment.

Is no-one assessing the damage to anything except the NHS? Is the NHS really all that matters? This is getting ridiculous.

Seeing as key worker bubbles at my school keep closing I don't see how schools can open much as I would prefer to be teaching face to face.

[quote stopgap]@YardleyX, I’m in Connecticut USA and my kids have not been in school full-time since March 2020. However, we are finally preparing for a full return Feb 1st.

Since September, classes have been split into two, with cohort A attending school for three hours in the am and cohort B attending for three hours in the pm.

During the part of the day my children have been home, they’ve had about two hours of work to do, via a mixture of Zoom, online assignments and handouts. My children are 7 and 9.5. Each child was given a Chromebook for work back in September.

As for the classrooms, each child shares a desk with one other child and they have a Perspex shield in between. Children wear masks at all times, including on the bus, aside from when they go outside for mask breaks. Because of the arrangement of school hours, they’ve been having lunch at home daily.

It hasn’t been perfect, but we’ve probably only had seven or eight cases the whole time, and obviously those classrooms reverted to fully online teaching for two weeks. Blessedly, my kids weren’t in those classes and so they’ve been in school—albeit for quite a short amount of time—since the beginning of the school year.

I will say that my children have been so happy to be at school, see their friends, even if school has been a lot more rigid and they’ve had to wear masks, which, let me tell you, they haven’t complained about since week one.[/quote]
@stopgap is this all a Government initiative or local level? Who provided funding for the screens? What happens with critical worker/vulnerable children - can they attend fulltime?

I know it wouldn't work for a lot of parents working outside the home but this set-up would allow core curriculum to be taught in person in primary schools and help the children remain connected. People have suggested similar for the UK on here for months but really very few changes were made (masks in secondary corridors & staggered lunches)

@Glitterbaby17 In Australia (Melbourne) they were closed for 2-3 months in March - June, kids went back briefly, then closed for another 3 months at the beginning of Aug. It’s crap but does help slow transmission. At a high cost though

Is this a regional approach, have schools throughout Australia closed for as long? Is there any help for working parents? What's the plan going forward for children returning to school?

It's really interesting to hear other countries approaches.

Home school for 6 hours!!.. What ages are your dc!!.. That's far too much with parental involvement.

@GrumblyMumblyisnotJumbly who provides the remote learning if teachers are delivering lessons both morning and afternoon?
It sounds like a good plan.

@stopringingme

There is a petition to vaccinate staff at special schools

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/566217

They really do need to be vaccinated soon as they get so close to the children that attend. My DD is not at her special school at present as they only can have it open for children who are not safe at home.

Please can everyone sign and pass on.

Signed 🤞🏻

Kids aren’t getting out because people also have to go to work and there are limited daylight hours at the moment.

This 'link to source' instead of just googling like everyone else is the latest dickish thing on Mumsnet but here you go:

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-coronavirus-schools-teacher-covid-rates-333-above-average

That source is a nonsense. 3 councils and you need not read further. People have asked to you to link your source because there is lots of scaremongering on here with no scientific evidence to back it up. And as it turns out you have nothing proving the point.

I just feel so broken.

From this morning’s Sky News

It is still a "long, long, long way" before coronavirus cases are low enough for lockdown to be lifted, the health secretary has told Sky News.

Matt Hancock said "early evidence" shows tough restrictions around the UK are starting to bring the number of new infections down, but he warned the NHS remains under "enormous" pressure.

He also revealed "I really worry" about new COVID-19 variants not yet discovered and admitted the government is not sure whether schools in England will reopen fully by Easter.

@Macaroni46

Seeing as key worker bubbles at my school keep closing I don't see how schools can open much as I would prefer to be teaching face to face.

How big are classes?

People often say small classes SD will be ‘stable’. But not always the case.

What ages are your dc!!.. That's far too much with parental involvement

I don't homeschool my DS for that amount of time but at age 5 he still basically needs my input all day. I get maybe 2 hours (at absolute best) of independent play out of him a day, and during that time he still wants to come and talk to me every so often or show me stuff. Screen time again, maybe 2 hours in total max? Usually he would be at school and then after school club from 9am until 5pm, giving me 8 hours to work. Now I have to have him for those 8 hours, plus work for 8 hours. So that is 16 hours of my day. 8 hours for sleep. But I also have to cook, clean, shower, meal plan, shop, exercise.

It isn't sustainable long term. I actually fully support school closures but more needs to happen to support working parents.

I feel schools should remain closed. Last term at ours there were more than 50 cases. The true figure remains a secret.

It’s hugely unfair to teachers to make them work in that environment. Some have died, some are permanently disabled. Also to parents - your child brings covid home! At the end of August, we had sod all cases. Opened the schools, cases rose ridiculously, culminating in hospitals being over capacity. It’s a clear cause and effect, people have to remain home to prevent this. If your child is vulnerable, they can go in.

@Macaroni46 - where I’m a school governor, we’re on the second bubble being sent home due to a Covid case (each bubble only has a maximum of 8 children).
The school is restricted to vulnerable children and those with two key worker parents who are working outside the open. Lots of complaints from parents who want a space but there aren’t enough available teachers and TA’s regardless of parents saying they can’t work from home when their children are at home. One teacher and TA have been off ill with Covid from before Christmas.

@JKW36

I really am struggling to cope with managing everything and I cannot believe that they will have missed 3 full terms, so a whole school year. They should not have been off for so long the last time for a start. There was no need for it. This time it is needed but everyone is at rock bottom. Our school this time are providing live lessons every day 9 til 12 on Microsoft teams. I have a child in year 2 and a child in year 5. Luckily my year 5 child can do their learning mostly independently, because I have to support my year 2 child for the entire 3 hours of lessons every day. Firstly she is too young to understand how to navigate Microsoft teams. She is also a quite shy so does not speak or contribute to the lessons.

The teacher is struggling a lot with the technology of it and she is obviously nervous as well as she gets jumbled up sometimes and repeats herself a lot. The children cannot keep focused for that length of time.
Then there are constant interruptions by the children and also their parents/grandparents asking questions. It is very stressful for all involved and there is no fun in it whatsoever. My daughter has always loved school and tries very hard, but each day I'm finding it harder to get her to engage and we are having a lot of tantrums. I am very close to stopping it altogether but then she will fall behind so I'm feeling forced into partaking in this hell. When will it ever end?

I absolutely feel for you.

I homeschool my children. (As in full time. Don’t go to a school ever). I speak to my friend who has children similar ages. But has 5 boys all in junior school and under. She says the pressures you’ve got with schools. They’d been told that if they don’t partake in the 3 hrs daily of zoom calls that when their children go back to school they will be forced to keep them in during lunch and playtimes. I think this is just unreal. Since the pandemic began in so glad my children aren’t in a school. My kids love hone learning. But it took me w good 6 months to find my feet. We’re also involved heavily within the home schooling community. Which includes teachers and all sorts. So we have that back up. But I’m so cross on the pressures and stresses put into parents shoulders right now. Some of the subjects my child is learning means that I also have to recap. I hat about those parents who are dyslexic. Or have SEN themselves who couldn’t possibly teach their own child

It’s such a sad situation and one with no wins. People wanted the schools to shut and now they are they want them open.

Whatever the answer. We need to eradicate as much stress at home as possible. That’s what I feel. Because happy children will have happy homes and will feel confident to learn than those who have got stressed parents who feel suicidal that their kids will become so far behind. That won’t Instil any good learning techniques at all. Sending hugs to you all

*so no solution to size issue beyond double school and staff resource ok let’s wait for that. All for it.

While we’re waiting masks great, ventilation fab. Anything else?

Are you up for all students back in with masks and ventilation?*

Masks and ventilation? Yes Marsha
Hence me saying “mitigations” plural

Tax that’s great. Honestly I’m a keen in class person and I wonder about masks and ventilation being enough.

I wouldn’t say no though! Not yet as cases too high.

Bubbles in my school are bursting every week. Although we have too many children in. It's completely unsafe.

@Rachellow

I do worry about the ks1 children I teach especially those with no siblings and would love to have them in once a week for a socially distanced hour in the playground. As much as I try to give them some chatty time it does not work to have 25 speaking over eachother on TEAMs.

I have a KS2 child and I would love them to have a socially distanced hour a week outside with their classmates/teacher or ta - just something for them to look forward to & a bit of exercise on the spot to keep them warm / fit. Doing times tables with someone other than a parent or a computer or talking about a topic / the outdoors / weather or just playing a game to make them happy.

Or if offical policy allowed for 1 parent with an under 11 child to meet up with another parent and their under 11 outdoors (or just one of those parents be there to supervise the children one on one ) as primary school children are mostly too young to meet a friend independently outside.

I'm devastated by this. And by all the "key workers" (v loose definition) children that will now get to be in school for so many more weeks compared to us "non-key" workers, who are nevertheless meant to work full time, from home, with 4 and 5 and 7 year olds homeschooling and (more importantly!) mental health to look after. It's a f**ing joke. Also, why are reception aged children not classed as early years, as nursery /pre-school?

What a shame you don’t like baking with your children Kokeshi123. I bet your children enjoy it though.

What about other things? A board game? Painting? Cutting and pasting? Or are you adverse to all of those things too?

As for the summer holidays, as I’m not paid to work that time, I won’t be going in.

I have a vacation booked...I might not be able to take it, but I might! Either way, I can tell you what I won’t be doing in the summer holiday in my unpaid time and that’s teaching :)

Sorry to sound sarcastic but I can't help myself. If the kids go back after Easter they will then be off again in May and then for another 6/7 weeks in summer. Feels like constant holidays

Well, I'm going to be starting to explore some options as of tomorrow. Will ring the school and see if they can let him have a place. I can't accept that my decision to send DS to a school attached preschool rather than a nursery means that he can't go. How can it be fair that some early years provision is open and some isn't? I cannot accept my DS going for over a year without being able to play with others. And if it is May what then? He has a few weeks to settle in and then is off for the summer? How is he going to cope with that? I can't do this to my child.

@Frozenintime

Sorry to sound sarcastic but I can't help myself. If the kids go back after Easter they will then be off again in May and then for another 6/7 weeks in summer. Feels like constant holidays

Not to me (a teacher) it doesn’t. It feels like working longer, harder and I’m in front of a screen for over 12 hours a day.

If it feels like a holiday, I’d question what you are doing?

@Xenia

thebabe, I agree and I suspect a lot of parents will be requiring schools to treat people equally under the rules eg if a critical worker or if poor wifi or no laptops at home etc. If necessary groups of parents who qualify for a school place may have to send a legal letter to the head.

A legal letter will do nothing if the school risk assessment doesn't allow the number of pupils to go above a certain number.

Health and safety would trump a letter from a parent in my school. We spent WEEKS working on our risk assessments taking into account the size of the classroom, access to ventilation etc.

We share risk assessments with parents and carers as they have a right to see how our decisions are made and what they are based off, so I guess those needing a space but being denied one can ask to see these but you simply can't demand your child attends if there is no space.

I honestly don't understand why the government won't make funds available to schools to allow us to put extra mitigation in place. It doesn't have to be a blanket amount as every school is different but surely it HAS to be better than what we currently have. We know our local area, we know the school grounds, we know the staff and we know the community. We could make it work, even if it was part time in some capacity but no, this government is not interested.

I just want to go back to work. Safeguarding is through the roof with community referrals coming in and some parents and carers reaching out to say they are suicidal.

A school close to me were closed yesterday for 2 weeks by public health due to a covid outbreak and they only had approximately 30% pupils in.