March 8th for schools - who will go back?

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It seems very likely that schools will reopen in some form on 8th March but how do people think it might work? Staggered or full return? Opinion seems so divided on this. I'm starting to think primaries will open in full (as it would be difficult to have cherry picked year groups alongside keyworker bubbles) with a slower, staggered return for secondaries. Would be interested to hear what others think, especially those of you working in schools.

Our school had reception / year 1 / year 6 back last year

I think it will be a longer lockdown and it will be sold/ presented as it’s the last time we will have to do it.

Teacher vax would make hardly any difference to the number of infections.
There are 0.5m teachers. 8+m students. Say at least 4m parents then to spread it to. So thats 12m.
The r of schools is 0.4 and virtually noone associated with them would be vaxxed just care home or hcp parents. But we probably have 0.1 in already.
The r is maybe 0.7 or 0.8 so even putting the schools back it will start going over 1 again. Without the shops too.

Our school managed all nursery, reception, Yr1 and Yr6 back last time... But by using every available classroom and teacher. There were also keyworker bubbles for years 2-5.

Those teachers are teaching their own classes now... Some in school, some at home. So if only certain year groups go back, it can only be on a rota including KW children, all 30+ in at once, or only KW children.

@stilllovingmysleep

I find it upsetting this whole idea of prioritising year groups based on exams

Should we not rethink our whole focus on exams? If not now when?

Would rotas / blended learning not work better?

As for exact dates who knows... I worry they'll just reopen widely with no plan, only to close quickly again which is a disaster for all involved and mainly for kids

I assume your dc aren’t in exam years? Mine are in Yr’s 11 & 13 and I absolutely do believe that they should be prioritised, and if they were younger, particularly primary, I would be breathing a big sigh of relief that educationally they have time to catch up!

But which schools? Primary, some of primary, secondary? I have literally no idea

I think all of primary will be back on 8th March. Half the children are in now (yes, 50%) and they've had no years sent home at all since Christmas (and only one year for a week before Christmas). I cannot see how it is justified to continue with a two tier system. I understood last year when only a handful were in, but 50% having normal school and the other half left to it at home is appalling. Cases have dropped so much already I don't accept the trade off for children's education and well being against the increased risks should result in longer school closures.

If they don't reopen as normal we'll be sending our DC back in.

I hope they open fully as me and DC are not coping well at all. However, sadly I can see it only being KS1, yr 6 and exam years again with the rest returning after Easter. Really don’t want a situation like last year when most children were not in school but everything else was opening up. My two dc could go to ikea but not school

Juniors if they’ve infant siblings maybe?

I know someone who has an only child, junior aged who would be very upset about that I can see why.
She’s already upset at the perceived unfairness of so many kids being in school (doesn’t want hers in but doesn’t want others there).
But I think the above would be unfair actually , as some only children have suffered more in terms of not having company

Wales so my DS is going back on 22nd February. Can't wait!

Hopefully nobody before Easter.

Personally I think it will be infant years for a couple of weeks before Easter though.

I think primaries will be back maybe some years at secondary but not all. Not sure if that is sensible. Numbers were extremely low before September and look what happened.

We will have to see what happens with the South African variant. Hopefully it won’t spread.

My guess is all of primary and years 11 and 13 on 8th March. Years 7-10 and 12 I hope before Easter, maybe on a Rota system. But that is just based on my optimism that the numbers will have come down so far and so many people will be vaccinated that it would be hard to justify anything more cautious.

All of them hopefully.

As a primary teacher I think and hope it will be all primary as partial opening where I am teaching all day and trying to do all my lives and home learning as well would either make me very ill or dilute teaching and learning which would not be good for anyone. We have had a large bubble throughout lock down so a reopening would just be 4 more children in my classroom!

I think Reception, Y1, y11, y13 first then everybody after Easter.

I’ve decided I won’t send my dc back til after Easter holidays at the earliest

I thought it was 2 weeks notice for schools from March 8th,

Next review is 22 Feb so 2 weeks from then imo

I think primaries will defo open on the 8th. They will do what they did last time, to avoid too many parents at once, staggered during school drop off and pick up.
To be honest I want them to open. So far since The beginning of the pandemic last year to now, in our school there has only been 2 cases of corona. Kids are missing out and I hate hate this remote learning, I hate the teachers calling every other day to see how we are doing. I have to act all positive when really I just want to scream and rip my hair out. How do they expect us to work and then also do home learning where we have to physically be a teacher to them?? On top of that do all the household chores, shopping, cooking and feeding, sorry no. I really hope schools open.

@stayingaliveisawayoflife As a primary teacher I think and hope it will be all primary as partial opening where I am teaching all day and trying to do all my lives and home learning as well would either make me very ill or dilute teaching and learning which would not be good for anyone. We have had a large bubble throughout lock down so a reopening would just be 4 more children in my classroom!

Is the bubble in your classroom your normal year group class? It does seem crazy that other children are homeschooling as parents are struggling to wfh when there’s a keyworker bubble of 26children (??) in their classroom.

*I find it upsetting this whole idea of prioritising year groups based on exams

Should we not rethink our whole focus on exams? If not now when?*

There's not enough time to change the exams for people taking them this summer. The government won't even admit that the summer 2022 exams need adjusting.

There's no details on how y11/13 grades will be calculated so the teachers will be desperate to get back so that they can get data on each child. Johnson said "exams are cancelled" but if rumours are true they will set tests at school instead which means practice papers, revision etc It's a scandal that it's been cobbled together this late.

Vaccinating school staff would help with transmission as they have contact with every child. Also, you know, what's wrong with vaccinating school staff to keep them safe as a first step?

Am lobbying for full scale return March8th.
Absolutely no rationale for anything else given that the whole excuse for lockdown was to save the NHS. Since the vaccination programme will by then have prevented it from being overrun -time to ho back to normal. Yes people will still catch it and some will be hospitalised but the hospitals will be able to cope.

I think they’ll probably watch what happens in Scotland for the 3 weeks. Decide based on what happens to their infection rates