If workplaces are planning on a 25% absence rate then how on earth are we all expecting schools to carry on as normal ?

[Timetobuckup]

I have just been reading in the BBC website that the gov are telling businesses to plan for a quarter of their workforce to be absent .
There is no way schools / colleges will manage with that amount of staff out.

I work in a secondary school and had a pcr this morning , my teen ds is positive and I am keeping fingers and toes crossed I am negative but not holding out much hope.
We are doing mass testing on Tues and I am really interested to see how many have to go home.

@GoldenOmber I know that's not how it worked everywhere. Public services where I am have been wfh since March 2020 and have never been back to the office, so people are well established in routines here. Most children over 7 can be safely at home while parents work during an emergency situation- even if they are on screens it is probably more beneficial than sitting colouring in supervised by a dinner lady?
If you have younger DC you will need flexible or reduced hours. Or childcare if possible, I don't see any way round it

In normal or ok times@Blubells yes, secondary age children should be in school. But if they are sitting together in their coats in the hall with three other classes trying to learn maths while covered by a supply teacher, I think they might be better at home

What I suspect would happen is that a lot more unfurloughable workers (like all of us on the public sector for a start) people would go off sick with stress, or would take unpaid leave and run up debt, or would quit. Not really compatible with society ticking over on large scale

Teachers and school staff, on the other hand should just suck up a reduction or complete removal of their PPA, accept double or even more kids in an unventilated room with no masks or vaccinations, operate without minimum safeguarding requirements, teach simultaneously online and in the classroom, do double shifts, have their own vulnerabilities or that of their family members completely ignored and who knows what else?

even if they are on screens it is probably more beneficial than sitting colouring in supervised by a dinner lady?

Not really. If the dinner lady can supervise them, that’s more than a lot of parents can do while also working; plus, the importance of getting to see and socialise with their peers was massively underestimated during previous school closures and led to sad angry miserable children.

If you have younger DC you will need flexible or reduced hours. Or childcare if possible, I don't see any way round it

That’s what we thought, too! Oh how naive we were.

You’re mapping out what you think would happen, in theory (kids over 7 will be happily getting on with life unsupervised, parents of younger children will all get reduced hours). But we have done this now twice over, so we know what it ACTUALLY looks like, and that is not it.

Teachers and school staff, on the other hand should just suck up

I’m not saying teachers ‘should just suck up’ anything. I’m saying that if the goal is to keep society ‘ticking over’, closing schools will not achieve it.

So, it’s doubled up childcare with classes of 60 in a hall with a TA, but… parents will still be threatened with fines if they don’t send their child in and Ofsted will still be inspecting.

Is it a crisis situation or not?

I don't think it's a binary choice @GoldenOmber - we have done it already and it wasn't perfect at all, but there is NO WAY that the dinner lady supervising children colouring in is better than being at home. She's also likely to catch covid and be off....

there is NO WAY that the dinner lady supervising children colouring in is better than being at home.

Being supervised by somebody is better than being supervised by nobody. Getting some peer interaction is better than getting no peer interaction.

If schools could have got those air filtration systems into every classroom (like they have at Eton), then this could all be avoided. As it's likely most staff will not catch Covid in a well ventilated room.
However this has not happened. We still have no CO2 monitors - pointless anyway as I know my room is not safe as it stinks by 3pm.
My frustration comes from knowing this chaos was avoidable. I'm angry.

getting 1 to 1 supervision from dad who is a prize winning maths teacher is probably better than drawing pictures from the dinnerlady

but then we're quite lucky that way

also not getting omicron in the middle of a pandemic surge would be preferable to getting it

especially if you live with someone who is immunosuppressed and someone else who was CEV

swings and roundabouts really

What if that peer interaction involves other pupils picking on you? Winding you up? Will the dinner lady be given the confidential notes on each child so they understand about so and so's ODD, and that this pupil can't be near that pupil as their parents used to live together and they fight when they get together? Or the child was misophonia who is being driven slowly mad by the arrangement?

@GoldenOmber

If you have younger DC you will need flexible or reduced hours. Or childcare if possible, I don't see any way round it

I don't see it happening this time. Employers are a lot less patient. They expect parents to be working normal hours.

Agree with Golden that pretty much any kind of in-school arrangement is better than kids playing Roblox for hour after hour while parents work.

There are schools with dinner ladies? We have a catering contract for actually providing meals and teachers and TA staff supervise the kids. There will be partial school closures, there will be no national organisation, individual heads will be told to use staff flexibily and only close as a last resort. I’m expecting a day a week of homeschool as best case scenario.

@Mistressiggi

What if that peer interaction involves other pupils picking on you? Winding you up? Will the dinner lady be given the confidential notes on each child so they understand about so and so's ODD, and that this pupil can't be near that pupil as their parents used to live together and they fight when they get together? Or the child was misophonia who is being driven slowly mad by the arrangement?

Ah well, never mind, let’s just leave all the children shut up in their rooms individually and ignored for 9 hours a day instead, that’ll do them the power of good. We’ll be sure to shout “Think of all the kids with misophonia!” when we lob a sandwich and a Twinkl worksheet through the door.

What I would actually support, to really prioritise education in a crisis, is for a lot of public sector work to get temporarily deprioritised and workers like me and my colleagues, all Disclosure-checked, getting sent in as extra adults in schools. Obviously most of us would not be able to teach or do a TA’s job, but if we’re going to be at the stage of “someone needs to be there and supervise otherwise the kids go home” then better us than nobody.

Won’t happen, but…

The dinner ladies are the last people I'd want to be off with Covid - all those pupils needing one hot meal a day.

What I would actually support, to really prioritise education in a crisis, is for a lot of public sector work to get temporarily deprioritised and workers like me and my colleagues, all Disclosure-checked, getting sent in as extra adults in schools.

This.

@GoldenOmber, have you heard of false dilemmas? Your assertion that being in a hall with a dinner lady is better than being at home does not mean I support sending them home to play roblux!
I'm listening to the comments about teaching larger numbers - where does that happen? I mean we have two halls - once classes are in those, where do the rest go? I'm assuming the ministers making these announcements went to a school with a couple of wings on it and a max class size of 20.

I think that sounds great on paper @GoldenOmber but who would backfill you in your job if employers expect you to be in too?
Also, there's this assumption that anyone can be a teacher and has the skills to manage supervision of large groups of mixed age/ ability children.
I do have those skills and I have done it in emergencies. It's bloody hard work and you need to be " on" in performance mode the whole time. It's exhausting and it needs experience, training and skills learned through observation of other skilled teachers.
Great if you're a natural- can I just ask why you aren't doing it for a living?

I admire the balls of those willing to volunteer to take a secondary class with no training.
Not sure many would come back in for day 2.

Perhaps OP we are not expecting all schools to carry on as normal. We all like you live in the real world.

who would backfill you in your job if employers expect you to be in too?

That’s what I’m saying - a lot of us in the public sector can get reassigned in crisis modes, and have been throughout this, and that could in theory include reassigning us to schools. It would, however, mean that the people ultimately in charge of us (local and national governments) would have to require it in full knowledge that our usual jobs wouldn’t get done. Which they don’t like doing, so…

Golden how would that work? What jobs wouldn't be done by the staff sent to do crowd control in schools?

I think that might be something actually. Allow those families to homeschool that can and make crisis childcare a thing. The "someone has to be there" childcare andactually call it what it is. We had some fab end of year 6 classes when they suspended the curriculum and allowed teachers to have fun with their (half sets) of those who wanted to go in end 2022.

Taking off all the requirements of teachers that are crazy at the best of times amd accept this is crisis schooling/childcare would actually be a start. We could free up teachers for exam groups/have those hapoy to homeschool st home and acceptance that its "warm body" childcare.

@mumsneedwine
We’ve finally received the much promised monitors at our school - the one in my classroom is over the limit, flashing red and beeping by 10.15 most days and just goes up and up. That’s with every window and door open.