Any one else’s school

[User5827372728]

Starting the term tomorrow with all staff ( about 250) in the school hall for INSET?

Some of those scenarios would be fascinating to run virtually. In real life bloody horrifying

Dh's school had all the staff in the lecture theatre LAST SEPTEMBER for INSET. Absolute madness.

My friend is school admin, they're in today ALL school staff in the school hall (so approximately the same number as op circa250). Masks heavily discouraged, windows won't be open. It's madness!!

Kids senior school - kids doing LFT in the days before returning. A few areas they're still expected to wear masks (lunch lines/on site Café in queue/uniform shop & tuck shop) but not in hallways/class
Etc etc it look as though the 2 LFT pw will continue for now.

So basically it's ok to use the common rooms & sit next to each other in class, but queuing up for food is some how much more risky 💁🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

@squiddybear

Oohh I can join in!

Our CEO has decided that she will do face to face talks at every site (including visiting multiple sites on the same day). Everyone in the same room sat in rows with no distancing, no ventilation and no masks! This is all staff as well down to catering, facilities etc!

I don't know what could possibly go wrong!

Wonder what she will think when people start mentioning their child or partner is at home with Covid halfway through their chat.

Yep, all in the hall followed by different groups to make sure we mixed.

No mention of any measures for the kids, so I assume back to normal. Assemblies first day back too.

Yes we were all in the hall together this morning. Not 250 though more like 60. And school is going pretty much back to normal on Monday.

Got to be honest we were all there saying how nice it was to all be together, to see each other’s faces etc etc So we obviously felt quite differently to a lot of posters on here 🤷🏼‍♀️

So we are have been told to keep distancing from kids, stay in our box, LSAs wearing face masks and a visor, kids and staff can choose to wear a mask, all testing twice a week, no bubbles, canteen and staff rooms re opening.

@AntiMaskersAreTwats

I honestly can’t believe that we have gone from having to fill in a health and safety form to go up a ladder to basically letting a virus that has killed so many people let rip.

You only filled in a form?

We get trained yearly on how to stand on a step still and step ladder.

It riveting

All in the windowless hall for us on Monday (around 200) followed by various large groups and lunch in the canteen.

If it's ok for me to get Covid it's also very much ok for me not to return to work until I'm fully recovered.

@User5827372728

It’s really mad! Why risk us all getting covid in our hall with no bloody windows that open when realistically I wouldn’t need to be around 240 of those people on a day to day basis.

Whoever arranged such a shit show will be fucked if suddenly lots of their staff have covid and can’t come in for 10 days.

Did you raise it with anyone at school, you can't have been the only one thinking this?

@Getawaywithit

Yep. It was clear to me yesterday that a significant number of staff, myself included, were very uncomfortable. It is a huge shift from July. And if one of us had covid, we’ll be closed by next Friday!

Out of interest can I ask if you have a view on how things should be at this time in schools? Keeping with the same bubbles from before July perhaps?

Don't work in a school but our MD wants me to organise a conference for our SLT so approx 100 people for next month.

He thinks it's about time we all meet face to face but thankfully I can't find any conference venues that will accommodate us all plus when my colleagues found out about it there was such uproar many have refused to attend.

I know we're keen to 'get back to some normality' but it's total madness. Our organisation will have real difficulty if even 10% of staff are off sick so I honestly don't know what he's thinking.

All staff in today in the smallest hall in the school.

Tomorrow all staff + parents and pupils for a coffee morning.

Nope, ours are staggering lft tests, then staggering start times (which is a total bastard when you've got two children starting half an hour apart, plus one to drop off at primary in the middle), bubbles, and masks in communal areas. I'd rather it went back to normal.

@Window1

Out of interest can I ask if you have a view on how things should be at this time in schools? Keeping with the same bubbles from before July perhaps?

I think masks should be worn by all that can, and today our meetings could have easily be done over teams in our own rooms or at least in our departments.

I was around 180 people today that I wouldn’t need anything to do with usually! Or if I did I would email them! So such unnecessary contact!

DD came home from her first day back and told me that all of years 3-6 had assembly together this morning. It’s just a matter of time before she tests positive now, isn’t it?

DS had 2 fellow 6th formers test +ve at school today.

We had this at the start of term. All in the gym hall. However we were all SD by a metre. Roll on staff meeting and we requested a virtual meeting and it was fine no problem. No idea why you cannot attend virtually in your own class.

dd1 goes into sixth form on Monday.
They begin with a whole sixth form assembly. Then tutor time and timetables etc.
Then, just before they go home, they all do LFT.
Talk about back to front!

dd2 (same school) goes in for LFT on Tues, and then starts properly on Wed. Last year they were very good at all doing 2x per week LFT, so hopefully that will help.

And to the PP who said why are they allowed to be mask free in class but have to wear them in lunch queue?

The answer is that in the lunch queue they mixed with kids from other classes, so if someone tested +ve, only their class went down, not the whole year group/ lunch queue.

Do we think this is due to the government being the dictator as to what the restrictions are and now they have relaxed the restrictions the schools have not been able to take their own risk based approach and blindly followed the government guidance?

That’s similar to what they’ve done at my school - staggered yr group start but doing assembly’s, form time and timetables etc in the morning, then in the afternoon lft. We had 3 positives today. 3 students who had been in all day mixing and no one else sent to self isolate. It will be interesting to see how many more positives turn up next week in their second tests. But hey, it was on the news today that schools are not covid infection hubs so it’s all fine really. Nothing to worry about

@Window1

Do we think this is due to the government being the dictator as to what the restrictions are and now they have relaxed the restrictions the schools have not been able to take their own risk based approach and blindly followed the government guidance?

My school follows the government guidance exactly because of legal threats from parents.

I’ve been doing the LFD testing in school this week. I’d say less than a 1/4 of pupils showed up. Inset on Monday and will have 150 in the hall. I will be wearing a mask 😷- hope everyone else will too but doubt it.

Parents are not allowed in my child’s primary school and they have been advised to keep the bubbles in place. No assemblies. This is city wide advice from our LA.