So when are we going back to school?

[RaraRachael]

I was under the impression that NS had announced that all schools in Scotland would start back on August 11th. I have had surveys from my local authority asking when we would like the week's holiday in lieu and if we want 1 or 2 in-service days before we start back in August.

Last night a colleague posted a piece showing all the start dates from the different authorities - some were 10th August, !1th, 12th up to the 18th and 19th.

I am totally confused

For me, the thing about Nicola Sturgeon’s speeches is that she’s a great orator and sounds very reassuring, but there’s often a disconnect between what she says and what actually happens, and it’s often lacking in details.

Yesterday she sounded very reasonable, but when you drill down into it she passed the buck onto councils, saying they should think outside the box to find solutions, and only gave a broad statement about government support if necessary. When asked what would happen if the councils and government disagreed on whether they’d done enough, she avoided the question, saying something about everyone being on the same side. There’s no specific plan, no details. We’ll have to wait and see if the 50% even happens (although personally I don’t think that’s good enough either). It’s only on the agenda in the first place because of the parental backlash.

Similarly there was no practical advice of how working parents are supposed to cope, and no actual definition of what ‘safe to do so’ actually means. Is there a specific background infection level or R they’re aiming for? Since infection rates are essentially zero in many areas already, what on earth is the hold up? If they expect a second wave in the winter they should be honest about that, publish the evidence for it, and consult on what the best way forward is.

Personally, the impression I got yesterday is that NS is absolutely terrified of another disaster, perhaps after the care homes debacle, with all the talk about what would happen if there were outbreaks in schools and children died. There is no evidence from anywhere in the world that this would happen; it’s pure fear-mongering. One thing that is absolutely clear is that children are not severely affected, and there’s already a lot of evidence that they aren’t major spreaders either (maybe because they are generally asymptomatic, and symptomatic people are the main spreaders). She needs to find the courage to move forward rather than prolonging lockdown beyond where it’s necessary, given the huge amount of damage it’s doing.

Yes all talk and no trousers.

Has always been this way.

Salmond was the same. Statesmanlike qualities but it is mere performance. The SNP has delivered little in the way of positive change during their tenure. In fact many aspects of life in Scotland have deteriorated in the last decade.

However they have the Scottish media in their pockets and the English media doesn’t care enough so they go unchallenged.

Plus I think she is more terrified of an election disaster in 12 months than she is of anything to do with the people of Scotland.

She’s already shown many times that Scottish people’s lives are low on her agenda.

I agree with what you've said about her speeches. I also think she felt she had to have something more positive to say yesterday to deflect from the report on the QE hospital being released.

I've had a lot of people saying how marvellous NS is in this crisis, even though they're not SNP supporters blah blah but I totally agree that it's all talk and no substance. Typical buck-passing on to authorities to find solutions in August. Then we had her droning on about using other buildings to solve the distancing problems. Is she under the impression that an army of retired teachers is going to come out of the woodwork to teach these groups in church halls, libraries etc?

I've just seen our list of what's not allowed in August - no reading books, text books, nothing allowed to come from home to school and vice versa. I'm just wondering what on earth we are going to do with the pupils all day. We don't have any outside space to speak of and if we went to the local park, that would involve wearing hi-viz vests which wouldn't be allowed.....
I pity any infant classes that are play based as there won't be any play equipment allowed. The nightmare goes on and on

What about water bottles Rachael ?

I wonder how a mixture of home and school learning is supposed to work if nothing physical is going back and forth. I mean, my DS has a laptop and we have a printer but the cost of the ink will soon mount up between the DC work and my work, and not all children will have that.

I am sorry for the teachers who need to make this work.

Let's just hope they decide to drop it all down to 1m. August is TWO MONTHS away! Do the part time thing for a month, make sure infection rates don't go up, ease the kids back into learning, get back to normal, done I do feel for the teachers, ours have been really trying their best!

There's another thread on here where someone's ten year old daughter started her period and had to get special dispensation to bring pads. God knows how it's all meant to work

It can't be "back to normal" though not really even if in without SD - we will still have shielding pupils at home, shielding staff at home, and a cough or a temperature - in adults or children - requiring time at home which would have a big impact when it's staff off.
We could get more-like-normal, but until there's no worries about outbreaks it won't look the way it has done.

I'm a bit worried about the impact on my current P1, going into P2. They didn't even have desks in his P1 class, it was all learning through play and small group work. The plan was to start introducing slightly more formal teaching at the end of P1, I think.

Do any teachers know what it's going to look like now? Is he going to be sitting at a desk all day?

@iggi999 I can absolutely appreciate that, we do need to restore as much normality as we can for our children though.

@Iggi999 I agree, we can't really expect normal in August. It's all too new and unknown. But I think a month or two of blended learning and then see if we can move it on assuming no second wave/outbreaks etc. Tbh what NS said yesterday is true...everyone would be down on the government like a ton of bricks and rightly so if going back full time with no SD caused an outbreak. What has or hasn't happened in other countries is only partly relevant as we know all populations and demographics see different outcomes.

Yes, I agree that 'normal' isn't really in the range of options. With the track and trace system any of us could be told to quarantine on a moment's notice; whole households have to quarantine for two weeks at a time; any kid with a temp (*and that's a lot in school) will have to quarantine no matter what's actually wrong with them.

Politicians can't fix that. Looking to them to restore normality is far too simplistic.

@Iggi999 but prior to COVID were people who are now shielding as worried about other serious communicable diseases such as flu, meningitis, norovirus? If you are vulnerable surely this applies to more than just coronavirus so why bring the rest of the population to its knees?

I got some good news from my union. They are pushing for working from home to continue for longer whilst schools are on blended learning timetables. We are public sector so we are lucky in that sense. Plus the majority of our staff are female so they know they need to be flexible.

IMO most of our jobs can easily be done from home anyway plus I believe we have more staff than we need so I fully expect voluntary redundancies down the line which is what happened in the financial crisis.

I feel for those other working women (and it will be women) who will inevitably lose their jobs.

Themurk I don't think that's necessarily true - for some conditions but not all. People with conditions like RA are at more risk from COVID due to their medication but wouldn't ordinarily be off work. Pregnant women have concerns that they wouldn't normally, and over a certain number of weeks have been asked to stay at home. People with asthma normally come to work. BAME people are of particular risk, and people still of working age but older.
The net is spread more widely with this one.

I'm with you @TheMurk

Ds has an s1 transition tour on Thursday and I'm allowed to go with him. 4 pupils with 1 parent/carer meeting with the head teacher and another teacher. It's an asn high school so class sizes are very low anyway.
Will be interesting to see what they've got planned for August.

Disappointed but not surprised that asn education is not really being mentioned in the press.

BBC link with info on what each LA are doing. Nice of them to tell the BBC before they tell us

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53049048?fbclid=IwAR1d-NVYBxzTHuoDfgZ30CPNCdn13aktMDKg-rmuO2BKmRxcR5cCnMIf7M0

Looks like private schools will pretty much back to normal too

Ah Stirling Council staying true to form and still trying to work out details. We will probably find out on the 10 August

Looks like most local authorities still haven’t finalised plans.

Article on the Times today shows that parents that can afford it are turning to private schools, which in the current uncertain economic environment is probably not something that private schools expected - it will be interesting to see how the attainment gap will be addressed.

Hopefully the share token will work

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-in-scotland-parents-rush-to-private-schools-hbnd2hdmb

Forget the care homes

Forget the schools

Forget the hospital

It's all THEIR fault. Big bad westminster.

two can play that game though - boris and nicola

If in November unemployment remains worse up here and improving in England, Nicola is in trouble and Boris wins.

If there's another outbreak, then Nicola could see herself as the winner.

So we will see!

Stoorie I was in school setting up for one model and the jannies tipped us off that we should maybe not do too much... Typical Stirling

Aye @Lidlfix that sounds about right