Schools in the UK

[pommedeterre]

Why is it so different? I feel so cross that infant kids in Wales and Scotland will be back to school first. I'm sure many will tell me I'm wrong and somehow evil and stupid but this seems so unfair.

I think waiting until 22nd Feb for confirmation is really demoralising and unfair. We need a plan and an aim now. Being responsible and wfh while teaching (rather than just sending the kids in anyway with any old excuse..) is wearing thin now and I'm starting to feel like such a mug.

Maybe the Head, Deputy, business manager and SENCO should be running all the KW classes.

The caretaker can plan the lessons for Year 6 and teach them online from home, the TAs and cleaners can plan and deliver all other lessons from home, and sort out all the assessment, SEND sessions and curriculum mapping for the rest of the academic year? Yes, that's definitely the way to use school staff most effectively.

Why 4000?when we were less than 1000 cases in July when we reopened hospitality. Non essential retail opened June.

@PracticingPerson

Reading this thread really sums up the problem and why England in particular is failing to tackle both the virus itself and it's worst impacts.

• it's not fair
• lockdown lover
• do you just like complaining

Lots of emotion and hatred, but very little discussion of the reality and the science of the virus.

-Both Scotland and Wales have overall been tougher on restrictions over the last year.
-Also the Kent variant started in, erm let's think, Kent - so the rates were extremely high down across the SE.
-The government now has hard evidence of concerning variants which could threaten the vaccination programme.

• If we open schools too fast, we will see rates rise rapidly again and more variants emerge quickly.

I have children desperate to go back to school, including one in an exam year.

And for the OP: this is an unpredictable and largely uncontrollable situation. Things like that are never going to be 'fair'.

Another big clap for this post. Honestly, OP, you need to move past the idea of "it's not fair". Nothing is. And the reason we're locked down more now, is precisely because we didn't do enough about the infection rates quickly enough, particularly in schools.

Well I was a TA until last week!

Was forced to resign due to being off for the third time (as covid repeatedly in my own children’s class). Headteacher said my husband had to stay off work and I had to go in. Explained If we just took my salary this month we wouldn’t clear bills.
She didn’t care! I had to resign.

Never felt so undervalued in a job in my whole entire life.

Now job hunting again.

@SeldomFollowedIt thats awful, what a terrible Headteacher you had. Not sure they can do that can they?

As for a plan OP, how can we plan for something that is so unpredictable. If they give definite dates out and then it goes tits up people will moan so in my eyes its better to have a rough idea and a common sense approach that it has to be flexible.

@MummaPI

Well technically I was breaking contract as I wasn’t in work due to looking after my children during their isolation period. I could understand why she had asked for my husband to step in, but he is self employed (out of the home) and we would have struggled to clear bills this month if he took time off.

The school has a very high turnover of staff and i can now see why. I will apply for another TA post and hopefully I might have a better experience. I just hope I haven’t put other schools off as I only worked at this school for a short while. The teacher text me and said she was sad to see me go, as I was in her words a great TA.

Don't forget that Wales shut schools and locked down early - whilst many in England were still in school.

Child care and schools opened here much later last time.

Swings and roundabouts.

@SeldomFollowedIt I'm a TA and my head has been fantastic, I've barely been in due to my husbands job but I've worked all day online supporting my 1-1 plus general class stuff. It sounds unlucky that you has a Headteacher who didn't sympathise, such a shame.

@MummaPI

Yes I think I got unlucky. Glad your head is understanding.

@Boredsobored

I felt like such a mug last time, especially as I believed that by doing my bit to keep kids out of school would mean they all would go back quicker. Well that backfired, all I did was get myself so far down the schools seemingly handpicked list for a school place that muggins here has been working full time for a year with two kids (7 and 5 at home) who are now so uninterested by any notion of home school that I now look like a really shit parent for them not doing it.

I'm angry about it. There's never been one case of covid in our school of 400 kids. It's a modern building with doors opening onto the playground but most of the time the teachers chose to keep them shut anyway. They've had 100-200 kids in through various lockdowns, but like I say no transparent policies about who gets a place. You don't get one as a vulnerable family or key worker family, the head seems to do it based on wellbeing but I'm not sure how she knows who is well or not.

The place I live had always had under average covid, and the neighborhood itself far lower than that.

I'm glad that cases have fallen so much but in most cases that would still have happened with primary schools opened.

Hopefully not long now. It's already been 7 weeks...more than half way I hope.

Am I reading this right? You have wfh with your children at home for a year? Because the children allowed in have been handpicked? Why were they not back from September to December? Did your head just decide to reduce capacity? You have got a very real legal case here, all schools were fully open in September (earlier in Scotland I think). The head couldn't not have your children in from September. Have you spoken to governors, LA, Ofsted, your MP?

No... it's not a TAs job to work for weeks on end without the direct supervision of a teacher. Plenty of schools have it set up so there are some teachers teaching in school with TAs supporting and some WFH running remote learning.

So? They have a job, they are being asked to do it. Same as I have a job that I'm being asked to do. Lots of people busy telling teachers that they should just get back to school, why are TAs any different? I was totally 'willing' to do what they are being asked to do, and did pretty much from March until July last year.

You seem to have a low opinion of the TAs. I'm hoping it's just the written word which makes it seem that way rather than how you feel.

A TAs role is NOT supposed to be whole class supervision with no teacher in the room. As an emergency one off perhaps, but not all the time. That is not their job and it is not what they're paid to do.

As said before our teachers and TAs work as a team. Both are in work almost all the time. We don't do live lessons so both are in classes, which have at least 40-50% children in most days. The teachers are currently getting additional PPA time to account for them needing to prepare pre-recorded remote lesson videos and worksheets/activities to be sent to the remote learning coordinator to format and schedule on the learning platform. Some of our TAs also get PPA For smaller group intervention via remote learning or to prepare materials needed in the classroom - such as printing activities as we don't have enough iPads for children in school to work on one.

It would appear that in your school the teachers aren't taking the covid risk, with that all placed in the TAs. I'd hope at least any more vulnerable of those staff are being protected.

Our authority is at less than 50/100000 and has been this or lower bar the end of December/Jan

I can understand the frustration but things in schools across the UK have been different from the very beginning of covid. e.g. we didn't have any children (except hubs) in before the summer, but we break up earlier anyway, and we moved the term forwards so we started back on 11 Aug with everyone in. I'm glad I'm getting some of my class back on the 22nd (multi-stage composite). The rules on the children that have been in since Christmas are very strict.

@Yellow85 most Scottish authorities broke up for Christmas on the 18th. Some not until the 23rd. I don't know of any that finished any earlier than that, although admittedly attendance was down the last week of term.

@Chienloup apologies you read properly but I didn't explain correctly. We've been wfh for a year but yes the kids were in school from September to December. The handpicking comes from their approach to vulnerable kids and key workers. I haven't complained, the head has threatened me and because of my job could make things difficult so I'm just sucking up the fact that many parents in school have their kids there when they're not working, but many vulnerable kids or households with full time keyworkers can't have a place in school. Other parents have complained and nothing has changed.

Oh I feel that. I'm also a keyworker and have been very clearly told that they have enough kw children in already. I work full time in mental health and run sessions at home, juggling homeschooling of three primary aged children, two with special needs. I'm not angry with the school, I'm bloody angry with the parents who are sending kids in when they don't need to, whose bosses have claimed kw status when they simply aren't.
It's relentless and exhausting. I've got three days off next week and I am looking forwards to not having to juggle.

The infection and death rates are still ridiculous. A low infection area can very quickly turn into a high infection area
Look at the Isle of Wight or swathes of the South East before Christmas.

I haven't complained, the head has threatened me and because of my job could make things difficult

Just so you know - schools have no powers to handpick pupils and if children can legally attend (because they have keyworker parents) schools can't keep them out on an ad-hoc basis. It would be unlawful exclusion, even under the coronavirus regs.

If the headteacher has been threatening parents, I would certainly have some questions.

@HalfPastThree I have concerns too - but my situation aside they have been handpicking and it certainly is wrong. But all appeals complaints have fallen on deaf ears. The governors have said the head has the final say. It's been going on a year so I think for most of us how long would it take to change things. By that time the kids will hopefully be back in.

We’re in Wales and haven’t been in school since 11th December, which I think is longer than England? I also think Wales is probably premature in reopening to foundation phase and I wish they were being more cautious. I’m not entirely convinced it will actually happen. Our county is already saying ‘subject to cases continuing to fall’.