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

I reckon we'll have it till this time next year,

They better fucking not. I have a child doing Nat5s next year. Another in S6 applying to Uni.

With rates SO low and continuing to fall they aren't going to be able to justify it. Two weeks into the new term in Scotland when parents are up in arms, kids are increasingly depressed, teachers are getting bugger all teaching done, Rishi Sunak has told Nicola to sod off when she expects exceptions to be made to the furlough scheme, businesses are closing left, right and centre, they'll withdraw the plans.

But by then the country will be fucked and some children's education will be damaged forever.

What also pissed me off was a letter earlier this week about Fife school holidays which made some reference to the children still getting 190 pupil days across 2019/20.

Like they're counting 3 months at home as part of those 190 days 🤷🏻‍♀️

Am I in the twilight zone?

Hello from the other thread

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

Aberdeenshire here. Emails containing lots of buzz words but no substance. School plan coming out next week apparently. Ds is going into p1 and I just can't see what blended learning looks like for early primary because they can't do much independently.

Joining from Fife. We had our letter today stating primary kids will get either Monday-Tuesday or Thursday-Friday with Wednesday for a deep clean.

I'm not fussed really; we're both lucky enough to WFH and I've enjoyed having more time with the kids. I think they'll find it easier to homeschool with teacher contact for two days too. Think I'm in the minority though on Mumsnet now; there's been a massive shift in how people feel the last few weeks hasn't there?

Thanks for the Fife info.

@Audacity parents at my school have been very understanding actually when speaking about next term and I got a few bottles of fizz from some today. ❤

Glasgow (secondaries) are intending to have all pupils in every day, albeit for a half day, so all s4-6 pupils in the morning, all s1-3 pupils in the afternoon. Cleaning (by who???) at lunchtime. Pupils swapping over for the second week so juniors am, seniors pm. That's not every school though - I think schools have a lot of autonomy in terms of what they do.
No surprise the other day when I was in school when pretty much no aspects of the risk assessment had been put in place. I can see the entire inservice day being spent with a tape measure, moving furniture.

North Lanarkshire secondary schools are having different year groups in on different days - 2 days each Monday and Tuesday or Wednesday and Thursday.

To all the teachers on here, thanks for all you do. And for your insight into what might and might not work next year. It's easy to mouth off about what we parents think, but we don't have any knowledge about the practicalities really.

I saw on our council Facebook page that we are having 2 in-service days on 10th and 11th so presumably pupils back on 12th which is a Wednesday . Last I heard Wednesday was going to be the day off for cleaning.
It will be very difficult trying to set online learning for a new class when we don't know their abilities. My new class are coming from 3 different teachers. At least this term we'd had them for most of the year so knew where they were at.

We will be prepping the school next week and finishing it in the last week of term while we do p1/p7 transition visits too. The hub will still be open also. There is an enormous amount to be packed away as we will have a clear surface policy. A lot of furniture to be removed too.

The Friday for us (asymmetric week so half day) looks as if it’ll be the time for blended learning planning and marking. I hope (and expect) to be doing this at home as it falls completely within the description of ‘if you can work from home do’. I had expected that to be all our non contact time in a block as that is 2 1/2 hours but I don’t know if that will be the case. Cannot begin to imagine how they will manage non contact time otherwise as who can go into all the classes safely and release the teacher? A lot of the differences in models comes down to the size of the school and classrooms. There are such huge variations.

@noworrieshere thank you very much for saying that

I don't see how the friday for blended learning would work - it's taking me three days to produce that at the moment.

To those who think this blended learning will be a short time thing, I doubt that very much as there is a real possibility that the virus will resurface in winter. So one possible scenario (not at all far fetched) is to move from 2 days a week to 0 days a week, not 5.

We are still to hear from out LA. The website has not been changed in a while and doesn't even have the new starting date.

East Ayrshire haven’t fully published. Think they’re leaving it to the individual schools, but we’re returning on the 12th.

Dear god what a shambles.

We really are finding things out the same day as the parents. The only thing I know that they/you don't is the my own schools' current classification.

I think our HT might have a nervous breakdown if we go back full time. The organisation of the groups has been a job and a half.

The one thing I can offer to parents is that 10-12 in a class is going to be fantastic. I should have a P5 of 33...

Ooh, bad apostrophe! How did that sneak in? *school's.

Edinburgh here. 33% of children in at a time, for full days. No school on Fridays.
For secondaries I think they’re proposing splitting into groups A, B, C. Each go in for a day in turn. So A is in Monday, Thursday, Wednesday, Tuesday and so on.

Not been told what primaries will look like.

Wow GreyishDays, so that’s 4 days every 3 weeks??

What an utter mess.

We’ve not been told, will be week after next just before the school ‘holidays’.

I do really feel for the teachers though trying to get something organised in such a rush before the end of term. I agree that the possibility of two in service days in August aren’t going to be enough.

I'm in West Lothian. Our council have said 2 days in school and 2.5 days at home. This is for primary. My DD is going into P1. I'm taking her for a visit and an IEP meeting next week so hope to find out specifics.

Perthshire here like PPs our primary school is doing two days a week either Mon/ Tues or Thurs/Fri Siblings will be in the same days.

Ds is starting an asn high school in August and I've heard they're planning on 50% of the pupils in Mon to Thurs then off Fri and all of the next week. Haven't a clue how that will work out as I'm nhs and work mornings Mon to Fri. Dh is currently shielding but hoping to be back at work in August but works shifts in the railway. Very reluctant to put Ds in a hub (if they even exist at that point) due to his asn and epilepsy. It's really stressing me out.

Feel like I'm losing my mind. Both my best friends are like 'oh well, it's lovely having this time as a family' and gearing up to wfh on a permanent basis.

I can't do that and nor do I want to. How many men, exactly, are going to be begging their bosses for extended leave, part time work, wfh exactly?

Women will pay the price here. I'm so confused as to what working life is going to look like in August and beyond. Has the FM said anything about working parents at all?

One thing worth mentioning is that yes it's a lot of work that might not be needed - but secondary schools will all have their "normal" timetable written. So worst case we spend a few weeks working out a blended learning model that isn't used. The positive is that we will be able to return to "normal" virtually overnight.