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Original poster

When are your secondary DC going back? (England)

132 replies

MNnicknameforCVthreads · 23/02/2021 11:09

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!

OP posts:
WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants · 24/02/2021 12:41

@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!

Haven't heard yet, they've been testing a lot anyway (private school) so I expect they'll ask us to take them for testing next week, as they did when they all went back last time.

My friend works in a (state) senior school. All back in on the 8th. Testing them through the week ... it's fallen on deaf ears that they'll be mixing in the meantime 🙇🏻‍♀️

Local senior school is looking like one year per day, queuing outside. Hope it's not raining!!

I expect there will be many variations!

Why are you annoyed? What would you like them to do? Have you offered to help?

Original poster
MNnicknameforCVthreads · 24/02/2021 12:58

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants have you RTFT? Most of the responses to your post have already been discussed and the thread has moved on a bit - most recently to question of whether schools should be testing before 8th (answer: No). Whether private schools ignore the guidance is up to them and their insurers.

And, no, I haven't offered to help because the staff at my DC's school are very capable of organising all of this with the people they had already recruited when testing was going to take place in January. I also already have a job (that I am behind with due to home schooling) and a voluntary role so I do not currently have spare capacity at the moment to take on any more.

OP posts:
WhatHaveIFound · 24/02/2021 13:00

My DS goes back on the 8th March with (optional) lateral flow testing the week before.

rezoom · 24/02/2021 14:39

DfE have now confirmed that schools are allowed to start testing before 8th March if they want.

FourTeaFallOut · 24/02/2021 14:45

Oh that's good, hope my dc's school do that.

Original poster
MNnicknameforCVthreads · 24/02/2021 14:54

@rezoom

DfE have now confirmed that schools are allowed to start testing before 8th March if they want.
Typical DfE : issue guidance and then render it out of date less than 48 hours later. Never mind that SLTs have been working on a plan based on the original guidance. Fucking useless.
OP posts:
Madcats · 24/02/2021 14:57

DD's school are expecting all kids to be tested by period 3 on the Tuesday.

Ideally they would have as many as possible in to be tested over the weekend but I don't think that early testing is allowed for some reason.

Covid cases round here have plummeted, and only a handful of kids use public buses or trains to get to school, so we aren't at all worried.

Madcats · 24/02/2021 14:59

I've just seen the post about pre-March 8 testing - excellent news (and a chance for DC to bump into some of her classmates a bit earlier).

WombatChocolate · 24/02/2021 15:44

Astonishing....the deadline schools had to work to has been made obsolete within 48 hours and effectively brought forward, in that some will now feel under pressure to test next week and start all their plans from scratch.

What a prat Gav is...there is no other word for him!

Zandathepanda · 24/02/2021 16:13

(and a chance for DC to bump into some of her classmates a bit earlier)

With masks on or 2m apart. Smile

Zandathepanda · 24/02/2021 16:15

Rates are 1 in 300 round here so I expect some to be picked up in testing of approx 1800 people.

LockdownCheeseToastie · 24/02/2021 16:17

Both back on 8th, one been asked to pop in for a test on 5th. Other year groups starting on 9th.

ineedaholidaynow · 24/02/2021 16:20

@WombatChocolate not surprising though is it, it's like the DfE don't think it through or indeed think

ineedaholidaynow · 24/02/2021 16:23

DS's school are planning that pupils will go into lessons after doing their test on the 8th, so I assume they won't change their plans now

rezoom · 24/02/2021 16:29

Gav's doing the briefing at 5pm. Tune in for a bit of backtracking and squirming.

ineedaholidaynow · 24/02/2021 16:33

What he says today will probably be different to what happens tomorrow!

superram · 24/02/2021 16:35

Tested one day, in the next. Tue 9th 11,13 wed 10th 10, thu 11th 7, fri 12th 8&9. Remote learning for those not in school. Reasonable I think?

yomellamoHelly · 24/02/2021 16:41

Don't know yet - for the school I'm in or the schools my dc are in. Feel for public health. Even with lots of "volunteers" (and by that I mean all the support staff) manning the decks there are only so many of them to go around and there are lots and lots of schools in each borough. Then there's the juggle while some kids are in and some are out. Not sure it's worth it for 3 weeks 2 days of school tbh. Think lots of people will be unhappy that their kids miss out even more.

WombatChocolate · 24/02/2021 16:44

I’m sure Gav won’t squirm. He ought to, but he’s had plenty of experience of backtracking and changing the story and never being willing to say the communication was unclear, or mistakes have been made.
I guess all politicians are trained to answer a different question when asked one they don’t want to answer, or to smile and say loudly ‘that’s a very important question you’ve asked there...’ and then not to answer it. They then cheerily say ‘Thanks Tracy’ and just hope that that reporter has been muted, so they can’t follow them up in their lack of answer. I’ve laughed at the few times when Matt Hancock has been chased with a follow up question where the reporter hadn’t been muted to stop them doing it.

Pastanred · 24/02/2021 16:49

Ours are doing a year group per day on a rolling admission so by Friday 12th March all years are in

Starting with year 11 then down the years

Pastanred · 24/02/2021 16:49

Ours are tested in first period then straight to lessons

BunsyGirl · 24/02/2021 16:57

@MNnicknameforCVthreads What a delightful person you are, rolling your eyes at “my type”! I was absolutely right in this case, which is why the DfE have updated the guidance to reflect my interpretation. If they genuinely didn’t want testing to take place prior to the 8th, that would have been the update! Also, were you not complaining about your DC’s school not being ready to open on 8th? If so, why would you have an issue with my DC’s school taking action so that it could be opened?

Original poster
MNnicknameforCVthreads · 24/02/2021 17:20

@BunsyGirl I didn't mean to be deliberately unkind but yes I'm afraid there is some eye rolling in my industry about lawyers who always think they know better (and often don't). I'm also very sure there is eye rolling from lawyers about people in my profession or other painful clients - come on, we all have them! Anyway, we digress.

At least now DfE have clarified on the testing situation so everyone knows where they stand.... until the next mixed message/U-turn/general fuck up.

As for my issue with schools ignoring the guidance (as was), my issue was that it was yet another (albeit incremental) way in which the gap between the haves and have nots is widened. I don't feel it's fair on children.

OP posts:
babyyodaxmas · 24/02/2021 17:25

Dd yr 9 in Kent online on the 8th, into school for a test on the 9th, back in class for the 10th.

SpringisSpinning · 24/02/2021 17:34

Nothing here yet but I can't see how they would manage over 1000 pupils on site all waiting for tests and mixing whilst they wait