How full are primary schools???

[mids2019]

My partner and I have 2 primary school children and though keyworkers took the decision to keep our children out of school to limit COVID transmission.

We are now aware half the school is back in and we are worried that we have compromised our childrens education as with such high numbers in school it seems inevitable some kind of teaching will be happening there (as opposed to the first lockdown where it was childcare essentially)

How full is your school and do you think there is a difference between online learning and in school?

(I am a little frustrated by this as we envisaged schools would be used sparingly as really what was the point of shutting them)

Ours is around half the class in and half at home. We are both KW , but WFH, and have kept them home because rates are really high in our area.
School sent an email out saying that the government guidance said they had to admit any vulnerable child, or KW child with no limits on class sizes. The guidance in the first lockdown was that classes were only 20% full.
We're happy with our decision, but will reassess when rates drop because we are really struggling to both work and homeschool to Ks1 dc. Unfortunately,it's our dc education that is suffering because we need to pay our bills!

@BraeburnPlace

Many more children have died because of the school closures

Eh, really?
Reporting of child death is a huge process involving the local authority. No child deaths in my LA, a child death is rare. Have you the data @Mnusernc ... if not you are making a false claim to scaremonger.

Yes more children were killed by abuse/neglect, family annihilation and suicide than Covid.

Fortunately not supported by fact

50%

We have about a quarter of our children in. They are mostly children who are there for valid reason, but we have a couple of parents taking the piss as well.

50%.

5%

Yes more children were killed by abuse/neglect, family annihilation and suicide than Covid

Since March? Please do share the data, I work for an LA and appear unaware.

Some of it on BBC news, several cases of family annihilations and others I can't share because it's outing

18 in one class when there is usually 30
8 in another year class when usually 30

In our school you need two key worker parents to qualify and have to give evidence of such. It’s mainly doctors dentists and nurses and teachers in the class with 8 in, definitely not both key worker families in class with 18 in.
We are both critical key worker, health and social care managers/ leaders but csn work at home albeit stressfully/ horrendously busy, so kept ours at home. Less kids in the better

40% at DDs primary, with more who have been declined places.

Those in are at normal school with usual teacher and lessons.

Those at home get worksheets and a pre recorded video. They claim more work and daily guidance will come next week but I won't be able to supervise as work FT. None will be live or interactive.

Massively 2 tier system that will probably be hard to deal with when they eventually all return, academically and socially ☹️

I don't believe that the decision regarding key worker/vulnerable children should be made by individual schools and the same criteria should be used across all school settings. Both parents or a single parent should be frontline key workers to qualify and this would mean restricted numbers at school to protect the teachers/school staff/children who need to be there. It would dramatically decrease the numbers in all schools, allow the key worker children to be taught by a teacher and free up other teachers to focus on the home learning activities without being stretched trying to cover everything.

60-70% at mine. 20 out of 30 in my class, another class has 24 out of 30.

In my teacher relatives' schools the percentages are 35% and 45% of kids in.

That isn't a good thing, given the almost vertical increase in the covid rate graph among school children.
I think you're wise to keep yours at home, OP

Typo. The second school has 55% in

@Mnusernc

Some of it on BBC news, several cases of family annihilations and others I can't share because it's outing

Posters were only asking for links to data and statistics, not your personal circumstances.

The ONS Child Mortality stats for last year haven't been published yet btw.

I don't know how many but we had a school wide email sent home saying that provision was over subscribed and they felt that too many were using it where not necessary so they will be looking again at the risk assessment and adjusting and gave a list of what order places will be offered (vulnerable came first and rightfully so) and then what priority places will be given including specifying which key workers will be given places first.

@ThatDamnKrampus

I don't know how many but we had a school wide email sent home saying that provision was over subscribed and they felt that too many were using it where not necessary so they will be looking again at the risk assessment and adjusting and gave a list of what order places will be offered (vulnerable came first and rightfully so) and then what priority places will be given including specifying which key workers will be given places first.

We got one earlier today

Due to the huge numbers attending some schools the guidance has been changed slightly

These teachers teaching almost full classes still are not doing anyone any favours. A section 44 should still be cited for an unsafe working environment. It’s madness. The more people that choose to send their children in unnecessarily, the more likely that schools are going to close properly with no staff and that will ruin it for the people who really need the school to be there. The people who have no choice at all.

I really feel for teachers. They are expected to provide a level of teaching to both the children in school at the moment and the ones at home. How is that even possible?

DD's school is about 40% full. One of her close friends is attending in person. Child's dad is a tube driver and mum is a care assistant but mum is not working at the moment. However she has sent her child in so she can 'catch up with housework and life admin' and it's impossible to do that with her child around as she also has a 6 mo (her explanation).

The school closures will last a lot longer than necessary due to attitudes such as this.

My youngest primary - about 40%. One bubble has already burst.
My secondary - 10%
Primary associated with work - 60%

I dont know what the teaching is like vs homeschool at the primaries. At secondary, it is identical to being at home - infront of a computer, random adult supervising whilst also trying to deal with their own work levels. No additional interaction or availability of teachers for questions.

In my DD primary it's basically TA working with maybe 3-6 children (that's all that are in from 60) playing the parent role while teacher sorts all the tasks, marking, live chats etc.
Though of course the TA has more experience and the children have each other, in some homes (SAHM, one or two children) a child would get more attention.

In my school there are about 30 children in. These children will be expected to complete the same work as being set online by their class teachers.

All of the children will be supervised by a teacher and support staff but the teacher will be a member of management to enable the class teachers to work from home and engage with students that way. The member of management is almost there in a supervisory capacity only (but would give help if required just not direct teaching).

No difference in support given to those in or out of school and a very clear message to parents that children should only attend school as a last resort.