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

We have one part time Janny. He couldn’t sort the whole school out by himself even if he tried. I guess they had to pick a date and as there is not a set pattern for return what seems pointless in one place is not in another.
We won’t be able to physically set up our school. The hub are in until the last day of term. Also we have p1 and p7 transition to man in the last well as well as staffing the hub so the last two weeks won’t be available to sort everything out. In infants the physical organisation of resources is going to be huge with individual sets of everything for the children. Not that we have 25 sets of numicon for each class but that’s a whole other issue...
I think the deep clean may be different to what people imagine. Our HT has said there will be a spray used across everything so a whole day isn’t needed for a deep clean.

We're due back on 19th and haven't heard otherwise.

The school is a 1970s building with open plan 'pods' and no sinks in the classrooms, only in toilets and one central art room (handwashing?), one male and female staff toilet and not enough pupil toilets at the best of times. School roll is at capacity, 400 pupils. I have no idea how they are going to manage this?

I also hope they will make an effort to get siblings in school on the same days and some decent home learning set up. I can't continue to try to work from home whilst home schooling and looking after 2 children. Dp is nhs worker so not at home much. It is not sustainable.

I also hope they will make an effort to get siblings in school on the same days and some decent home learning set up. I can't continue to try to work from home whilst home schooling and looking after 2 children. Dp is nhs worker so not at home much. It is not sustainable.

If DP is a NHS worker you should look into the hub provision. Do this ASAP as I know my council are sorting numbers.

We have also been told it is a priority to keep families in school on the same days. Shielded teachers will be taking over the online learning.

Hth.

East Ayrshire by any chance @RaraRachael?
I’m really quite disgruntled by them and their inactions at the moment. My DD is going into P1 and thank goodness the school has a great headmaster!

@Invisimamma you will definitely be back by the 12th as it’s a SG decision, not the local authority. I doubt anyone has heard groupings etc as that’s all still being worked on. Shielded teachers will support online learning. However as there will be up to 50% of the school population learning at home at one time there will need to be more people involved to cover this.

FelicityPike I'm not East Ayrshire but my authority is giving us virtually no information apart from a weekly briefing that tells us nothing of any importance.
We get told something one day then they change their mind. Absolutely useless.

We were told we can't use the hub provision as I'm working from home.

I'm Edinburgh and have heard Mon/Tues then Wed/Thurs which actually would work well for job shares as most run that way taking the Friday alternatively. Then Friday being deep clean days.

Most of the schools being used for hubs are the PPP schools so they have a team of cleaners cleaning everything behind us when I am in there. There's only one school that's not but not sure how the cleaning happens there.

Edinburgh seem to be advertising for quite a few roles in nursery too.

Ive no idea why they are rushing to make plans when it is two months away. What if we have zero virus?? Will they change it?

Our schools go back 12th with the aim of them all getting back during the first week

We are Renfrewshire. My 2 will be in high school. 10 x 2.5 hour sessions a fortnight, don’t know how this will look yet.

Have any teachers heard any more info that what's been given to parents? Although I appreciate that will be quite school-specific

Link to the fb group for people unhappy with the blended learning proposals.

www.facebook.com/groups/205702040479534/

@Noworrieshere No, I haven’t really been given any more information as a teacher than I got as a parent. Other than Fridays will be given over to preparation.

We really are hearing the same day as parents. I think local authorities and headteachers are really keen to get info out to parents, so they're not sitting on anything.
We were told we'd know actual days for our children in the last week of term.

Loopy what happens if you don't work on Fridays?

@Mistressiggi That is a question I have yet to have answered as I am in that exact position. I will be asking for either prep time on one of my working days or to be paid FT and do the prep time flexibly at home over the weekend!

You'll be owed some time from your school. For example if you work two days it's 3 hours NCCT.

I love the way we’ve got a jazzy name ‘blended learning’ as if it wasn’t a last sandwich in the shop kind of strategy.

Feel for you all. I'm an ex Geography teacher and it sounds crazy for secondaries.

Never been so glad that my last 2 dc left school this session (one at the end of S5 and one in S6). Yep, college etc is up in the air but nothing like as bad as schools.

I wish you all well with it.

I guess the best case is that blended learning (god I hate using that term as if I accept it) is a short term thing, but I'd be pretty pissed off as a teacher if I had to put lots of effort into setting it up just for a short time.

I reckon we'll have it till this time next year, by October we'll be heading towards flu season and they'll keep it going even longer.

Why did they send this out on a Friday afternoon? Now I'm stressing about it all weekend. Could they not have kept it till Monday morning?

Mumofhunter true, it won't just be regular NCT we'll need as in addition to the in-school teaching we will need to prepare for the home learning that still needs to happen. I can't imagine it really.

Have all areas published their info? I've friends in Fife who don't know the structure yet.

Not only do parents not realise (until now) that blended learning most likely means more time at home than at school but the time in school will be vastly different - in secondary anyway. 9 or 10 kids sitting apart in one room for most of the day, teachers of different subjects come to their room so the kids are in the same place all day. No touching of any resources and little to no practical subjects. No catering and no leaving the school grounds at lunchtime etc.

Fife published today. 2 days for primary school children. Think secondary is 1 day building to 50%......shite basically