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

[AntiMaskersAreTwats]

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

@Mybalconyiscracking

I will March this time, enough is enough! What is the bloody end game here?

A virus won't care if you march or not and the "bloody end game" is the virus' drive for survival, as it does with all life.

We have already been issued our staggered start dates and times with testing and that the online Learning is already to go for those who won’t be back straight away and for further usage if needed.

@Mybalconyiscracking if enough staff are off ill, schools close anyway.

@milly74

We are definitely joining any freedom marches, this has to stop. We cannot keep doing this.

We're going to have to. It's what living with the virus means.

We will always need to flatten the curve of new variants that escape immunity

The current year 13s are the Ines to worry about.

They had covid GCSEs, plus lost a lot of in-school teaching time last year (main closures plus very variable amounts, depending on how many times the need to isolate arose) plus any adaptations to exams won't be announced until February.

And they will be trying for university places alongside those who has assessed grade Alevels this year and who decided to have a gap year (or were bribed by the university into deferring)

Any further disruption could cause havoc to that group, unless they have exams 'lite' plus assessed grades. But frankly they've been guinea pigs once for a new system (with their GCSEs) and I don't think it's terribly fair to shove them in to the unknown again

Our school has just shut a year group due to a pupil testing positive for the new variant. They are reverting to remote learning for the last week.

I think DS's school are expecting a closure again, students have had to fill in questionnaires about internet access, access to a laptop etc.

I really do think schools will only close as a last resort. I do wonder if I'll be going back to uni in January though.

They may close but honestly a lot of kids were in on “key worker provision” well over half in some primary schools. Not sure about secondary.

I was thinking about finding a new role but for now I think I’ll stick with my key worker status so my kids can actually be in the school.

was said that schools were the first to reopen on 5th April, yet almost all schools were on holiday for two weeks

Schools opened on the 8th March

@HariboMaroon

They may close but honestly a lot of kids were in on “key worker provision” well over half in some primary schools. Not sure about secondary.

I was thinking about finding a new role but for now I think I’ll stick with my key worker status so my kids can actually be in the school.

I had to send my DS in based on the fact that his dad (my ex husband) is a key worker. Half the class were in.

@Waxonwaxoff0

Same at my kids school. Also the school that I was working at had 60 percent of kids in, so I’m not sure that closing schools is going to be enough, whatever “enough” might be I don’t know.

[quote HariboMaroon]@Waxonwaxoff0

Same at my kids school. Also the school that I was working at had 60 percent of kids in, so I’m not sure that closing schools is going to be enough, whatever “enough” might be I don’t know.[/quote]
It’s also ridiculously bad for the 40% each time

It's funny as well, because there were so many people bellowing for school closures this time last year but then there were a large amount wanting to send in their children on KW places. Seems like people wanted schools closed, but not to their children.

@MarshaBradyo

Agreed. Even though they got the “same education on paper” it absolutely wasn’t. The key worker kids were far more advantaged in that they were able to stay on task, and focus for longer periods with teachers and teaching assistants at their disposal. They got to participate in PE lessons and obviously still had their break times/social times. In no way was their experience comparable.

[quote HariboMaroon]@MarshaBradyo

Agreed. Even though they got the “same education on paper” it absolutely wasn’t. The key worker kids were far more advantaged in that they were able to stay on task, and focus for longer periods with teachers and teaching assistants at their disposal. They got to participate in PE lessons and obviously still had their break times/social times. In no way was their experience comparable.[/quote]
True and the reality for non KW was in front of a screen isolated from friends

I don’t blame anyone who got their dc in, in any way possible, but I agree with Wax too that all the close the schools! was more for other people to be home

@MarshaBradyo absolutely, I sent my DS in but I've never supported school closures. I was against it in March 2020, against it in December 2020, and I'm against it now.

The email is referring to on site testing, bubbles and contact tracing. Schools will not shut again.

@MarshaBradyo

Agreed, and provision was totally different depending on the schools. The one I worked at, the head brought many children in who didn’t have laptops even though their parents perhaps didn’t work. My childrens school also situated in a deprived demographic didn’t do that for kids who didn’t have laptops. It was strictly KW provision only, which was still quite high but not as high as the school I worked at.

There was a tokenistic morning teams meeting so the class could say hello to the kids at home, but many of the kids at home gave up attending as the weeks went by. It must have been difficult for some of the kids to see their friends at school on their desks with their friends.

I hope to Goodness not. I can’t bear going through homeschooling while trying to
Work for a third time

I don't think schools were ever closed when pubs were open? They were fully open to all in the Autumn lockdown last year and all the tier closure and reopened before everything bar essential shops last spring. March 8th, 2 weeks after Feb half term.

Well our setting seems to have little compliance from staff or students in that many teachers say they are too cold to open windows and few students wear masks at all.

I can't see how any measures in place (pretty much zero) could stop omicron.

My dd new school has said in the extreme event of school closures but only due to safety and staff shortages, they will work on a rota system into school, on line learning, and give priority to exam years.
Sounds good to me but this school got in line within days of the very first lock down.
Her old school just gave us excuses for months.

I don't feel as panicky as I have done because both dc now had covid recently and teen also has had a jab.
We are now boosted as adults.

I read that as meaning that schools should have plans in place for isolating students, a week's closure due to being short-staffed... Not a plan for full-scale closures again.

There hasn't been a whisper and I doubt there is appetite for it either. Many teachers are also opposed. My DH is a primary teacher in a reasonably middle-class and affluent school and said it is extremely noticeable how badly kids' learning capacity and socialisation went backwards.

They won't close schools in the same way again. I expect there to be lots of partial closures due to staffing and outbreaks though, same as there is at the moment. In those cases however, there won't be KW provision.