When are your secondary DC going back? (England)

[MNnicknameforCVthreads]

Due the mass testing required, we've already been told ours won't be back in on 8th. More details to follow from school.

I'm annoyed!

I imagine schools (particularly independents) will be seeking clarification on this. Possibly DfE will agree to earlier testing as long as children aren't actually educated in school until the 8th? There do seem to be surprising caveats in the rules (eg schools were allowed to go ahead with entrance exams in January in person if they wanted, although most didn't). If it's done in a distanced manner, then perhaps they'll say it's OK?

@MNnicknameforCVthreads I doubt that any parent on my DC’s would object. My DC’s school took back year 5 children ahead of the Government giving the go ahead last summer without any parent objecting. As long as they have done their risk assessment and got the approval of their insurers, they are good to go. Although, I appreciate that it is different for independent schools.

@noblegiraffe but there is nothing in there that says that they cannot test earlier. That’s the point I am making. If there was, that would be a different matter.

I've just read the guidance for parents (had obviously read the schools one already) and it's absolutely clear that testing will be "from 8th March" and a "phased return within the week of 8th March to allow for testing."

I think schools that are planning early tests are going to have to retract.

8th but not sure if school will stagger start of years due to testing

@BunsyGirl

I think @RandomGrammarPun probably has a point about lockdown rules and the guidance issued to parents. But if not, good luck, crack on.

I would question though, if parents at your school are happy for it to ignore government guidance on this, what other government guidance are they happy for the school to ignore?

@MNnicknameforCVthreads I think that parents will be very appreciative that staff will be working over a weekend to get their children back to school on 8
March. If you are implying that the school would cut corners and put the safety of their students at risk, you are very wrong. Parents would engage lawyers to sue the school’s arse off if anything went wrong. In fact, there are many lawyer parents, like myself.

The guidance is just that, guidance. To have the force of law, guidance or advice needs statutory authority, such as provisions set out in the Coronavirus Act 2020 or the underlying Regulations. I am not aware of this guidance having any statutory authority, but maybe you can point me in the right direction if there is. The school does, of course, have to comply with health and safety law and take into account relevant Government guidance when doing so. However, given that one of the aims of testing is to provide a safe working and learning environment, I can’t see a Court having an issue with a school opening to carry out Covid testing.

I can’t see why people are making a big issue of this. It’s ridiculous. What harm is it doing? What extra risk is it creating? It’s all about reducing risk and getting children back to school.

We have testing 8th and 9th and all back in on 10th.

@WombatChocolate

Did you really think that schools with 2000+ students would all return on exactly the same day at the same time after being in national lockdown for over 2 months?

I guess the reality is, people just hadn’t thought about it and the practicalities, but as can be seen from this thread, when most people consider it, they can see why it will take a day or 2 to happen.

The thing is, Boris’s announcement could only be broad brush strokes couldn’t it. He had to address loads of different areas in a relatively short period. The finer detail always has to come after as all questions/details cannot be covered....if they were we would be listening to him for multiple hours.

The government has not specified a staggered start. If a school is physically able to have all back on 8th, they can. They have specified a testing regime which must be implemented and which will take longer for some schools and hardly my time for others. Some might test everyone on Monday and get everyone in on Tuesday...that’s not staggered. They might test everyone on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and have all in on Thursday. It is the schools discretion to work out the practicalities of the testing and have everyone back quickly.

Not sure really what there is to feel annoyed about with it all. Perhaps instead imagine the hours of planning that will go into making this happen in every school, rather than it might be Tuesday and not Monday for your child.

Exactly this. You’ve got to be a bit naive or simple not to understand this. Schools CAN go back on the 8th of March. Bet a couple manage it. However, for the vast majority it’s common sense really isn’t it that testing 1500 students and 150 staff in secondary schools will take time. If the slt and school is generally shit may take even longer! During the announcement Boris did mention that students and staff would need to be tested first though. He couldn’t really go into the precise details during the briefing could he? The finer details emerged after and aren’t a massive shock for the most of us. What is the big deal anyway? As long as DC gonna into school in the safest way possible. Surely a day or 2 isn’t going to make a huge difference is it?

We've been told staggered between 8th and 19th.

Bunsy thanks for the smile - you have epitomised the “I’m-always-right-I’m-a-lawyer-don’t-you-know” attitude that I see so frequently in my line of work, we have a good old chuckle and eye roll about your type!

You don't think there's an extra risk in 10 million people being out and about and in contact with one another and many of them using public transport up to two weeks before the govt has accounted for it?

My y13 is going back on Tuesday 9th after being tested on Monday 8th. Her sibling in y10 is going back Thursday 11th after being tested on Wednesday 10th.

He always said that the return would be "no earlier than the 8th March"

There is nothing to be gained by schools choosing to start the mass testing before 8th and everything to lose by doing it.

I suspect schools who suggested they would do it earlier are smaller independents who haven’t carefully read the guidance or taken legal advice. Most will retract their dates if they were before. The bigger independents such as those in HMC absolutely know to stick rigidly to the government guidance, even if they’d quite like to test next week, so they can brag that all their kids are back in on 8th, ahead of most schools.

Insurers won’t sign off on having students in before the government advice...to do so would be folly.

In 2 weeks time, lots of children will be back in school. It’s far better than most imagined in terms of timescale. There is zero need to stretch or break the guidance and look to test before 8th.

Back on 15th to allow for testing. Still part time on a rota ( sixth form).

According to the BBC news feed, Gav said on the radio this morning, "If they [schools] think they've got capacity to get all pupils through by 8 March they can have them there." Clear as mud, as usual from Gav, on whether that means testing is allowed before the 8th - does he mean it's allowed, or that a school might be able to test everyone in the morning of the 8th and then have them in school for the rest of that day? (To be fair, I didn't actually listen to the interview.)

Rezoom, yes I just saw that too.
I suspect there might soon be one of those ‘the minister mis-spoke’ comments, if anyone actually picks up on it.

The 67 page guidance to schools about operational issues returning from 8th clearly states stealing from 8th, so what he said this morning doesn’t quite fit and will no doubt cause further stress to some schools before it’s clarified. Those who have set a timetable already will no doubt just go ahead. It will just be the very keen schools who would like to say everyone is back in lessons on 8th who will find this throws their plans a bit, if they now feel they must offer testing next week..... it it will most likely turn out he ‘ mis-spoke’ do you think. Love that phrases....can’t ever say ‘made a mistake’!

The Times are reporting on this, I'm not a subscriber so can't read the whole article, but it seems Heads agree that the communication should have managed expectations better:

"Head teachers say that very few secondary schools in England will fully reopen classrooms on March 8 as they criticised the government for failing to introduce rotas or prioritise exam-year groups.

Parents believe that all pupils are going back a week on Monday but hardly any secondary schools will start face-to-face lessons for every child on that date, school leaders have said. Boris Johnson should have been more explicit that many pupils would not start in-person lessons for up to two weeks after that date, they said."

If anyone has a share token I'd like to read the whole article. I think the article has it wrong about not prioritising exam groups. I haven't double checked but I'm sure it singles out years 10-13.

It will probably be independents who are keenest to get students in sooner (pressure from parents, plus more likely to be able to organise the testing at short notice next week without recruiting volunteers). However, some schools have also got mock exams scheduled over this period, so it's not just about being keen to get back in the classroom - testing could also be disruptive to exam plans depending on what a school's put in place.

And yes, I'm also expecting a 'misspoke'.

DS's school are holding back on mocks until they know what the position is in respect of assessed grades. That information is supposedly out shortly.

I assume many schools are using the halls that they would normally use for exams as testing stations at the moment.

My DS goes to a private school. The remote provision they have provided is excellent, they don't need to rush back on my account

Yes, the 67 page government document does ask yr 10-13 to be prioritised if schools cannot have all back in the same day. So you’d expect those year groups to be tested on Monday and possibly Tuesday and their lessons to resume on Tuesday onwards and everyone else to be in by Friday at the latest.

But the point is, situations do differ in terms of size of school etc, so there is no point saying they all have to be in on X date, when testing isn’t supposed to actually begin before 8 March. If it turns out testing can be done sooner (not what give document says...but implied by Gav this morning.....it will have to be clarified...give document most likely to the right) then some schools will manage everyone back in for Mon 8th. Some won’t manage that, because it is 7 working days away and some will need a day or two extra to manage the organisation and actually carrying it out...if it takes 4 days to do a whole school, they’d need to be testing by Tuesday next week, which means letting parents know today and in some cases, changing what has already been emailed out to parents...so that’s not really giving schools 2 weeks notice from 22nd is it?

I suspect it will quickly be clarified that 8th is the day to begin testing, which is what most schools have spent the last 36 hours working towards. Moving the goalposts or suggesting they are more flexible doesn’t really help. It will cause even more confusion for the school mentioned upthread that wanted to vaccinate next week.

No idea no communication at all from senior school this week.
Mines year 10.
Takes 2 public buses and we Bristol so weird Bristol varient.
I would rather no return until after Easter holidays.

Confused about testing

Is it done in school before hand so they can return.
If its optional then some postive children may return.
The bubbles I assume stay but are huge and year groups and staff are cross bubbling and changing zones.