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

The Louisa Jordan cost circa £44 million, and was built in three weeks. Figures the local authorities have been releasing today look like the cost for schools could exceed that, so why's there not a fraction of the co-ordination going into it?

Apparently Prof. Devi Sridhar has been speaking on Drivetime, and has again said that regions of Scotland with no cases could open up schools normally. This is in contrast to NS's stance, who when asked about regional relaxation has always firmly refused to commit to it, but it might give hope to parents in certain parts of the country.

I wonder if she'll get her knuckles wrapped again for not towing the party line!

That's what gets me annoyed the most @Tomorrowisanewday! Each council being left to reinvest the wheel - why wasn't a commission set up in April to start planning this and rolling it out? Yes there will be local variations but it's each council/School having to sort it out

Ds starts p1 in August. I have no idea what days he's going, which if any friends he will be with or who his teacher will be. Friends whose children are starting other primary schools are getting socially distanced physical visits or at least video chats for transition. So far we've got a seesaw account and twinkl worksheets that he rolls his eyes at (all pencil control).

He's gone from being really excited at the thought (preschool were starting to discuss transition just before lockdown) to saying he's not going and screaming whenever school comes up in conversation. He wants the proper transition he was "promised" and he wants to physically visit the building with us for support before going on his own. They sent a video but it doesn't show how what's important to him, like getting from the classroom to the toilet. He's very much an over thinker. I feel so frustrated and let down on his behalf. I loved school even though I went to 8 different ones with memorable moments including being evacuated by heavily armed soldiers due to bomb threats, the police raiding one of my exams and helicopters landing in the playground at the drop of a hat...I want him to love school too and I don't know how to turn this unknown into a positive for him. He keeps asking questions I can't answer and looking for reassurance I can't give. Yes, it's a minor issue in the grand scheme of things but for 5 year old him it might as well be the Himalayas.

Prof Sridhar said that if we were down below a level of 20 new cases a day - which as the Public Health expert in the room she clearly thinks is manageable - we should reopen schools as usual.

The current 7 day rolling average new infection rate is 21.

But as per usual, Ms Sturgeon would not make a firm commitment to stick to that policy.

Each council being left to reinvest the wheel - why wasn't a commission set up in April to start planning this and rolling it out?

Earlier. It was fairly obvious for weeks that schools would close. Any decent government should have contingency planning for all sorts of emergencies like schools burning down, terror attacks, whatetver other sort of event. DH is in a national infrastructure role and they do this all the time - he arrives in the office on a monday to be told to clear his desk, they're role playing a chemical weapons attack on Edinburgh Waverlely and he;s the duty manager. Or similar.

But with closing schools, it got to the 20th march and it was all "Oh shit, what do we do now?" Some areas and schools have done brilliantly. Other areas and schools have been appalling.

Prof Sridhar said that if we were down below a level of 20 new cases a day - which as the Public Health expert in the room she clearly thinks is manageable - we should reopen schools as usual

It is utterly, utterly ridiculous that we are planning to do anything else. 21 new cases a day in a population of 5.4 million , a sizeable number of which I am willing to bet are hospital/care hime acquired, and no full time school?

50% in care homes. Another chunk in hospitals? they don't break down the figures.

Plus end of term is next week and after another 7 weeks the cases will be even lower.

I can’t believe there’s no transition @Dinosauratemydaffodils. It’s hardly as if even in normal times p1 transition is that onerous. I think mine got 2 x 1.5 hour sessions back in the day.

Sadly given how woeful high school transition has been it’s maybe not a surprise. My son is getting one 2 hour visit instead of 2 full days. And his 5 week enhanced transition as he had autism has disappeared

I wrote separately to all the councillors in my ward earlier this week about it (am in Edinburgh). I had a reply back almost immediately from the Conservative one, but have not heard yet from the other three.

I have been raising concerns on education for some weeks now. I will keep doing this, as will my Group. In fact, we have a Motion down calling or this at next week’s Policy & Sustainability Committee.

I do expect plans will change before August. I assure you we are pushing to have as many student back in school as we possible can. That has to be a lot more than 33%. I have also been rather underwhelmed by the communication the Council has produced to inform Parents; I hope that will improve too. I’d be interested in your experience?

I agree @MrMenGoSwimming. Do they think we are all fucking daft?

There’s being “cautious” and then there’s trying to cover up your care homes fuck up by trying to make the rest of us think this is worse for the general population than it actually is. We see what you’re doing Sturgeon

I genuinely think Sturgeon thought we’d all be cheering her on when blended learning was put forward. I think the SNP have been stunned at the level of criticism that they have received. But she (very much like Donald Trump) spends far too much time arguing with people on twitter and not concentrating on her job.

I wrote to my SNP MSP on Friday afternoon and have still not received a reply. Really sums up how much they care about education.

Another government advisor is out this morning suggesting that a normal return to school is possible if infections allow:

“If infection rates are kept low over the summer, I believe that there are high hopes that we might return to near normal levels of attendance in August and I believe that is what the Scottish government wants.”

The narrative has changed very sharply, probably in response to the parental backlash. I wonder if the Scottish government is laying the groundwork for a U turn in a few weeks, so they can say that it was always only ever a contingency plan and thanks to all their decisions infections are now low enough for us to go back to normal etc. etc.

Whatever the case, it’s progress and a step towards common sense, but I would like to see a firm commitment from NS that schools WILL be back in full in August if a clearly defined threshold of infections is met. I’ve written to the only MSP who actually engaged with me on this to urge them to try and get that commitment in parliament as frankly I don’t trust the government to do it unless it’s on record.

We're making massive preparations in schools for the return being part time for students - in some areas there is one week and one day to go before the summer. I'm not sure how we would rewind that to prepare for a full return in the second week in August. I think there would need to be a week or two of part time learning to allow a new batch of risk assessments to be carried out before an increase began. Would be a lot easier for schools to be back to normal(ish) assuming it's safe.

Today is the day we are apparently getting information from the school...

This is what concerns me - that teachers (unions) are going to claim that because the plans have been made for part time learning they can't be changed now. I don't know a teacher that couldn't put stuff together to get things going in the interim.

I'm assuming that schools will go back part time with the blended learning model for the first month or so, and then they will step up towards normality as quickly as possible. And I think that's the best we can hope for really.

I think it's good that they are going to establish a model that they can revert back to if cases start to ramp up a bit in winter. Better that than hoping for the best and then needing to completely shut down again if things get worse.

I think the idea of putting a limit on it - e.g. 20 cases per day - is just daft. There probably (hopefully) won't be a big second wave, but there are going to be lots of little spikes, and it may easily jump from 20 to 50 overnight, before getting contained again. Unfortunately, this is a situation that needs nuanced judgement, not black and white rules.

What I want is consistency, and something that they can sustain over winter.

Thanks @TheMShip - I have contacted MSps, but will write to councillors too. I can't believe I am in agreement with Conservative politicians.

Unfortunately, this is a situation that needs nuanced judgement, not black and white rules

Agreed. It also needs to be regional.

50% in care homes. Another chunk in hospitals? they don't break down the figures

So probably less than 10 a day in the community? And some of those likely to be in the same household. I know I keep saying this but it really is beyond ridiculous.

I genuinely think Sturgeon thought we’d all be cheering her on when blended learning was put forward. I think the SNP have been stunned at the level of criticism that they have received

I agree. They expected us all to say how grateful we were that they were looking after us and not putting the economy firsr like evil Westminster (overlooking that without an economy there aren't incoming taxes).

^It is clear that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's "approach now is to think about elimination of this virus in Scotland", public health expert Linda Bauld suggests.

The Edinburgh University professor thinks that is the reason why the Scottish government is moving at a slower pace out of lockdown than their English and Northern Irish counterparts.

"It is highly problematic - elimination is great and absolutely I would like to see it, but the logistics of that are very difficult," she says, pointing out that countries like Faroe Islands, New Zealand and Iceland have done so well because of their isolation. "We can't cut ourselves off from England and that makes it much more challenging."

Prof Bauld suggests that, while moving slowly is good from a public health perspective, it means the impact of lockdown on factors like children's education, lack of NHS treatment and the economy "are accumulating".^

Interesting perspective from an Edinburgh professor on why things are moving so much more slowly in Scotland than elsewhere. In her opinion NS is aiming for virus eradication, but as she points out this is logistically difficult for a non-island nation like Scotland, and the harms are stacking up in the mean time. If this is the aim (and it would make sense given the change in narrative from ‘flatten the curve’ to ‘eradication’), it is surely not sustainable. I just hope NS realises this before we’re too far damaged.

The blonde lady who reports on politics for Reporting Scotland (can't remember her name) said on last night's news that she had spoken to MSPs who were shocked at how full their email boxes were on this issue.

I agree that they had totally underestimated the public mood. And I'm sure most of these emails are from people who have never emailed a MSP before, or at least who aren't the regulars who email their MSP every week about something or other.

In her opinion NS is aiming for virus eradication, but as she points out this is logistically difficult for a non-island nation like Scotland,

I have seen calls on Twitter from some hardcore nats for barricades on the border to stop those manky English types bringing their disease ridden bodies into pristine Scotland.

I’ve never emailed an MSP before. I generally don’t vote for the SNP (I’ve always been a floating voter) but what has surprised me is some of my hardcore SNP friends have been completely up in arms about this.

I've never e mailed an MSP or MP before either, and have only e mailed one councillor in relation to another issue. I have been e mailing all of them about this issue, particularly when it looks as though children in Edinburgh are being short changed and receiving less education than elsewhere.

I think mine got 2 x 1.5 hour sessions back in the day.

He should have been getting 5 x1 hour sessions plus a buddy from p.7 and a load of social events.

He's got 4 twinkl sheets of pencil control, a video of the classroom and a few videos of stories being read by different teachers. I think even if we could say "ok, it's not ideal but this is your teacher and x will be in your class" it would make a huge difference. We were told we'd be emailed the "plan" this week but so far nothing. I'm just trying to remind myself I coped fine at all those 8 schools without a transition.

What the snp perhaps didn’t understand is that the economy is people’s jobs and school time is directly relevant to that.

And as for border control - and what percentage of people resident in Scotland have family in rUK?