Email from DfE to Headteachers. Schools prepped to shut again?

[AntiMaskersAreTwats]

Do you think this means it likely schools will shut again?

Here we go, round in circles again. The fact of the matter is, that as many pupils are unvaccinated, many staff haven't yet had boosters and Omicron is, as yet, a largely unknown quantity, we don't know if it will be possible to keep schools open.

My health and wellbeing has been of no interest whatsoever to anyone. If I become ill, I will not return until I am fully better. It won't be my problem if cover can't be found.

@toomuchlaundry

Is the bill as useful as the CO2 monitors?

Very similar, isn't it? It's the 'And now what?' - it appears to do something but it doesn't change anything in practise, because it doesn't address the underlying issue at all.

'There isn't enough ventilation' / 'Schools are closing'

'Let's spend money monitoring how little ventilation there is' / 'Let's spend Parliamentary time on legislation to say schools can't close'

'But there is not enough ventilation' / 'But schools are still closing through lack of staff'

'Oh. What do we do now?'

I think if the definition meant we could just have empty buildings and that’s it - for power / hospital / food there might be an issue for society there.

Sorry - 'in practice'

So, Marsha, how do power stations ensure that they are absolutely fully staffed at all times, even during a Covid outbreak?

The bill saying schools must stay open is just posturing, it satisfies those who don't bother to think things through but in reality changes nothing.

If there are insufficient teachers, the school will close.
If there is a major outbreak in a school, the school will close.

What is actually being done to keep schools open? Absolutely fuck all.

And if necessary, they will override the bill with emergency legislation any way .

We’ve had two terms out

Dc both had Covid and isolated for ten days

No other disruption or lack of learning

The two terms was too much though - as we are seeing from what is known re harms

[quote Oakdene]@LumosSolem - my circumstances??

I'm a senior adviser with an LA who is trying to make sure that all children receive a quality of education so they catch up.
I'm supporting schools to find staff, including following safeguarding procedures to make sure all of these different and unknown adults are safe to be in sole charge of your child.

(And a single parent, working 12 hours per day, with minimal leave since March 2020).
In fact, I worked all of my leave in 2020 to make sure that key worker hubs were open and that we staffed them with 'safe' volunteers. [/quote]
I said @Oakdene - I don't know what your circumstances are. But the suggestion that none of give a fuck about the standard of education our kids are getting when we are all just trying our best to get by in bloody horrible times, with some horrific personal circumstances to deal with, is offensive tbh.

It really doesn’t matter. The bill doesn’t actually rule out school closures. It says how to go about them. For example, vote, justify, require extension. It doesn’t actually mean they won’t.

The term “essential infrastructure” is a red herring. Of course schools are. It’s what people and the press have latched on to. What they haven’t read is the fact the legislation is aimed at how to close schools and the procedures which should be followed not how to keep them open.

It’s actually doing nothing whilst being seen to do something. Look at the posts on here, people have convinced themselves the legislation is to keep schools from ever closing. It isn’t.

My DD is currently adopting two children who were in foster care during lockdown so the school-aged child (Reception) did attend school for most of the time with other vulnerable and key workers' children.
It was a complete waste of time. I don't know what they were doing, whether they had insufficient teachers, mixed ages classes, or just played all the time but when DC started at new school they were at least a year behind classmates in the 3Rs. These new classmates had been out of school for the whole time - online learning works if properly organised.

@toomuchlaundry to be civil, all I can say is I hope you haven't had to deal with some of the shit I've had to deal with over the past three years. If my kids are happy and we'll, and in school to learn and be with their friends, it's good enough right now.

My son was in reception when the pandemic started. Right at the building block stage of education. He may have time to catch up but it has been bloody hard too.

At least the parents of y11s weren't wondering what the hell they were going to do about childcare whilst trying to work.

Online learning works IF:

There is a parent or carer to help deliver the content
The parent or carer has time to familiarise themselves with the content to provide necessary guidance where needed
The parent/carer has an understanding of technology and can fix hardware or software issues when needed
One parent/carer doesn't work, so they can dedicate the time to help support the child ("off you go and don't disturb me for the next hour" doesn't work with primary school children)
The school can deliver at least two interactive sessions per day to maintain interest (some did, others sent worksheets as we know from previous threads)
The child is happy being isolated from other children their age, and enjoys working for the most part in solitude

Online learning is impossible for some children.

@CircusMistress

I don't think schools would be closed lightly. While the thought doesn't excite me, I want my children to safe and well first, education comes second. And teachers have a right to be so too. I'm sure many of the moaners would not be prepared to take thisr place under the same conditions and pay.

I would if I was clever enough but I'm not. I work in a factory on minumum wage, never had any Covid mitigations and we have been open throughout, we aren't even classed as key workers so we've been largely ignored. Non key workers who cannot work from home don't exist apparently.

I teach in a secondary school and the impact of lockdown on these students has been very hard to see. So much anxiety, depression, self harm and just lack of socialisation and development. We had a number of our students develop severe tics which has been very upsetting. I was all for the first lockdown (March 2020) when we weren’t vax etc but if schools close again the effect on children will be devastating. There is a mental health crisis going on and school feels like triage at times - we get pupils telling us their GP told them to speak to the school to get counselling when we advised them to see the GP as per safeguarding procedure. Schools are at breaking point and teachers are not trained to deal with major mental health issues. It’s really scary and really sad.

@AntiMaskersAreTwats

Do you think this means it likely schools will shut again?

i will be highly surprised if the kids return back in january, just had this conversation with my daughter about an hr ago, she is of the same opinion as me too, we wherent wrong on any of the other lockdowns either

@Dinosaurhearmeroar

I teach in a secondary school and the impact of lockdown on these students has been very hard to see. So much anxiety, depression, self harm and just lack of socialisation and development. We had a number of our students develop severe tics which has been very upsetting. I was all for the first lockdown (March 2020) when we weren’t vax etc but if schools close again the effect on children will be devastating. There is a mental health crisis going on and school feels like triage at times - we get pupils telling us their GP told them to speak to the school to get counselling when we advised them to see the GP as per safeguarding procedure. Schools are at breaking point and teachers are not trained to deal with major mental health issues. It’s really scary and really sad.

This is so sad to read.

@Itsnotover

The government has done nothing to prevent it spreading rapidly in school, the absolute fucking cunts.

I'm no fan of this government and yes they are cunts but at least they've offered the vaccine to those who are 12+

Does nothing for our primary school where cases are just slowly marching through our classes, students and staff alike, and families.

What sort of company is that @Waxonwaxoff0? No covid mitigations in the workplace during the pandemic would have been illegal surely?

I work with women n the inner city who are learning English. Home schooling has been the subject they've talked about more than any other this year, it was incredibly difficult for them. They typically have large families, husband working outside the home, not enough language to support their children adequately, possibly not enough tech equipment either. These are good, well meaning parents but they weren't able to get key worker places and would not able to stop their children falling behind if schools closed again.

I think as a PP said, an extended holiday 2/ 3 weeks would be better than a return to homeschooling. Primary schools in particular should revert to online as a very, very last resort.

Probably not . All schools were told ( under DfE guidance ) to have a contingency framework . These set out what will happen Eg if X number cases in a year group, school etc what steps will be taken Eg suspension of assemblies and outside visitors . I think it is just telling schools to revisit these plans in light of omicron . They have pledged to keep schools open and I think it will be a last resort to close them . The Ed Sec and the Chair of Ed select committee are very pro keeping schools open and UsForThem have their ear. And if we get to that “last resort” then I think it means things will be or will be expected to get pretty bad - and “marching” really won’t help that. None of us likes what is happening right now.

Schools shouid never be allowed to close and I doubt they will. If no staff they can remain open being taught by TAs and it's generally back to normal in a couple of weeks. May not get great teaching but the interaction with peers is crucial for mental health.

This happened in my case anyway when there was a outbreak.

If there’s no staff there’s no staff surely. I’d love to know what magical paper towel the TAs are applying to themselves which means that they avoid having to isolate/ become ill. Who will supply the work for these TAs to deliver? In Scotland so thankfully this won’t be an issue as TAs cannot cover classes. Online learning was brutal for teachers too you know. I was still in school full time while also providing full time online learning. Oh, and trying to help my own child. Schools don’t want to close but there have got to be some kind of mitigations and protection too.

We uave been advised to make sure all students know how to log on to teams. So yes, we are preparing just in case.

I’m a supply TA, I can assure you it’s not on my agenda to deliver classes. Not for 65 pounds a day. 😂