School returning to normal. When?

[mrsnw]

Lots of positive news today regarding more easing of restrictions in may. Do you think the bubble system in schools disappear? Parents be allowed into the buildings etc.

I think it will happen when all school staff have been vaccinated. Alot haven't yet. I'm mid forties and only just had mine. There are alot of staff younger than me.

Assuming no drastic changes between now and next week when the government makes its announcement for the next stage of reopening, masks will be scrapped on the 17th May. Our school has scheduled sports day and a prize giving evening in June to which all parents are invited. Sports day is before the June reopening date but as it's outside and an organised event, presumably they will be allowed to go ahead according to the May date in the roadmap.

@TimeForLunch
Oh I do hope masks will be binned in school May 17th!!!!

@TeddingtonTrashbag me too! It is certainly the intention, although, as we know all too well, government u-turns cannot be ruled out.

Have a year 6 child so selfishly hoping the end of year show and July secondary transition days will be able to happen. The residential trip has had to be cancelled. Can't get insurance.

My year 6 DC residential trip is still going ahead AFAIK.
I've much preferred online parents eve. The secondary school ones were impossible to keep on time because they'd schedule an apt with 1 teacher finishing at 7pm for example, and start of the next apt with different teacher at 7pm in a completely different building!

I don't want to go back to being shoved in the hall like sardines watching the Christmas play. Hopefully we won't have to do that again this year. Last year was much less stressful.

I want the end of masks and I want the kids to have lessons in the appropriate classrooms so a science lesson in a science classroom etc.

I have a disabled child in year six in a special school so slightly different but the bubbles have been reduced ,my self and DH could actually physically visit the SEN high school he is moving to in September last week and they are doing some transition visits soon
We don't have a communication book anymore ,but I prefer class dojo anyway .

We’d all like an end to mask but if they are the only thing keeping unvaccinated staff safe, we should keep them. When we don’t need them in Sainsbury’s, we don’t need them in schools.

@Arrowheart

I want the end of masks and I want the kids to have lessons in the appropriate classrooms so a science lesson in a science classroom etc.

The thing I find most interesting is how differently schools have managed the restrictions. My DC have been having their lessons in the normal classrooms since schools reopened in September (only exception - PE is always outside). Can't believe some schools are still not allowing this!

Sainsbury’s is s red herring. Children need a return to normality - nothing normsl about masks.
‘Keeping safe’ is just a cringey mantra that needs to be binned along with the masks.

Ds's school won't even allow his Camhs worker in to see him. We've been told no visitors are allowed into the building, so if they want to see him at school, it has to be in the playground. No good for Ds who is autistic and has been terribly bullied in the past. He will probably only engage if the meeting is inside and private. And I have no idea when school will actually allow this.

No idea but I was surprised PGL is going ahead in next month.

Primary feels more normal, we’ve been lucky with no interruptions so far but cases are low

I'd love it if they were allowed to move round school instead of the teachers so I could go back to doing practical work in my subject (science!)

I'm surprised that some schools stopped doing hot lunches, ours continued providing them throughout.

Read today that close contacts may no longer have to isolate if they take a LFT every day for a week instead. Being trialled now. That will at least solve the issue of bubbles "popping."

Maybe when pupils can be seen as anything other than a walking viral threat.

My DD started new school this September and I don't think any teacher sees her as anything other than that. They might have known pupils who were at the school before the pandemic and thus see a bit more about those pupils. But since the pandemic a school pupil is just a walking virus to lots of people. And if they are a teenager, or god forbid, an older teenager, they are the human equivalent of a biological weapon.

Plus many older teenagers have been vaccinated. So treating them like biological hazardous waste is especially cruel.

@allshutdown

Plus many older teenagers have been vaccinated. So treating them like biological hazardous waste is especially cruel.

Have they? I thought it was only CEV 16 -19 year olds that would have been.

Teachers haven't been vaccinated and they continue to be at risk.

I hope they keep the restrictions they have until ds (10) is vaccinated, he has shielded for most of the year and is back in school now.

I’m hoping so. My ds starts secondary in September and is so nervous because we missed the evening to look round. Iv rang and asked if we can go but they said no :(

@fudgefox

Teachers haven't been vaccinated and they continue to be at risk.

40+ are being vaccinated now so I'm sure some teachers have been. 30s won't be far behind.

@echt

I'm in Melbourne so further down the covid track. My school surveyed parents and staff after the lockdown parents' evenings. The results were overwhelmingly in favour of video call meetings. Parents like the not travelling, not feeling someone in the queue is gagging for them to go, and the privacy.

As a teacher, I much prefer it. Now I think of it, for the same reasons given by parents.

I agree. Remote parents evening worked really well for us and so much better than the scrum we normally have to endure. Set times and less likely to overrun. I really hope they keep them like that.

@TeddingtonTrashbag

Sainsbury’s is s red herring. Children need a return to normality - nothing normsl about masks. ‘Keeping safe’ is just a cringey mantra that needs to be binned along with the masks.

Nonsense. Masks are fine.

@allshutdown

Maybe when pupils can be seen as anything other than a walking viral threat.

My DD started new school this September and I don't think any teacher sees her as anything other than that. They might have known pupils who were at the school before the pandemic and thus see a bit more about those pupils. But since the pandemic a school pupil is just a walking virus to lots of people. And if they are a teenager, or god forbid, an older teenager, they are the human equivalent of a biological weapon.

Nonsense