Covid: So does your primary school have assemblies?

[white55]

Our daughter's primary school hasnt had assemblies or other whole school events for almost two years now - due to Covid and I wondered if this was standard practice. Also no singing at all. Is this just our school or is it standard?

To my mind it seems such a shame that they dont as they gain no concept of the whole school and have no connection with pupils in other years. I understand the initial concerns about Covid etc but surely now that everyone is intereacting as normal they should move back to whole school events?

That's nuts OP. Mine are both at secondary and have had full school assemblies with choirs in all but Autumn term 2020 and summer term 2021.

They have done choir practice throughout and out on a full winter musical to packed audiences in Dec 2021

They had assemblies Sept to October but not since. Year group bubbles.

However my Yr6 is allowed to go the lower school dinner hall to do lunch duty (as do loads of others, not just her!)

Nope - nothing here. We're only just going back to external school trips. No gatherings even allowed outside, which is just ridiculous as far as I'm concerned now. Minimal afterschool clubs.

I'm a bit sick of it now tbh. I haven't set foot inside the school building in nearly two years and communication and engagement with the school has really suffered as a result - right up to the point that I am seriously considering moving the DC.

Assemblies in September in year groups only and we can sing in class since September, but no other gatherings or parental visits.

They did for a bit, but are now back to assemblies through teams, as they are mid outbreak.

. Y son's primary school did go back to normal assemblies, singing assemblies and choir practise on September. But whenever they hit the "Covid threshold" (iirc 10% of pupils off with Covid) they have had to cancel then or do remote assemblies instead (they join online from the classroom). I'd estimate they've been over the covid threshold for about 80% of the time since September, so very few in person assemblies at all.

Now’s not the time to change things. The Covid situation in many primary schools (including ours) is the worst it has been through the whole pandemic in terms of both staff and child absences. We just about have enough staff to keep the place open (by TAs stepping up to cover whole classes), but that may not last.

At times when cases are low they've moved back to whole school assemblies. We were also able to go into classes and look at displays of the children's work and their school books in October.

At the moment Covid cases are very high (in some classes half of the children are home with Covid). They are back in class bubbles and assemblies in classes or whole school ones by Zoom.

My DD primary has whole school assembles with singing. They also all eat lunch in the school hall. Everything seems fairly normal.

At times when cases are low they've moved back to whole school assemblies. We were also able to go into classes and look at displays of the children's work and their school books in October.

This is the type of thing I wish our school had done. I know everyone has been on a steep learning curve with covid, but imo our SLT didn't take advantage of times when covid cases were very low to do things like this.

Whole school celebration assembly once a week with 1 parent invited per child for whichever class is doing its thing that week. Key stage assemblies the rest of the time.

We managed both Carol concert (ks2) and Nativity (Ks1) with 1 parent invited to each and they were indoors.

Parents evening next week with both f2f and zoom times to suit everyone.

Breaktimes are Ks1 then ks2 and everyone mixes on the playground and field now. Year 6 buddy reception children and that has been back working since September.

Our covid rates are no worse and no better than anyone else locally.

Ours is doing an assembly for Reception and KS1 together and a separate one for KS2. This makes sense as these groups are broadly segregated anyway (they have separate yards by key stage). They did whole school before Covid.

The reception class spend a couple of hours a week indoors reading with their Y6 buddies each week, so they’re not really letting Covid get in the way of too much now.

I almost wonder if the split assemblies is a practical thing, as the younger kids will sit still less long than the older ones….

Yes, we are doing KS1 & KS2 assemblies 3x a week. Last term, we did whole school but that’s been dropped since January & omicron. To be honest, the split key stage assemblies are far better. You can tailor the content & make the KS2 ones longer & KS1 shorter. I think we’ll keep them. We also have singing assemblies once a week.

We are pretty much back to normal to be honest. We are a one form entry school & the older ones often do lessons with the younger ones to support them. We have a very popular on site after school club with mixed ages obviously. We have parent helpers in to read every day of the week. We had face to face parents evening last term & parents allowed in to watch the nativities etc. The only thing the heads stopped are the school discos & school movie nights (PTA arranged stuff) 🤷🏼‍♀️

Hearing about other schools still acting like it’s March 2020 is a whole other world..

We've had whole school assemblies since September, except when our school cases have been very high. Singing in all but ridiculous circumstances (kids standing back to back outside, I think it was) was officially banned in the schools' guidance for a long time though. That is also when bubbles were mandated, so I don't think you can really blame the school for those restrictions - it's only changed relatively recently.