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

John Swinney should be gone over this debacle. He's caused untold angst to teachers, local authorities, parents and children.

Our school has sent out an email today to say they aren't concerned, their plans are scalable either way as it was clear school attendance would be dependent on the prevalence of the virus and more likely to change than not, it is even possible plans could change over the summer again. I would have thought most schools would have planned similarly, if not they have been very naive. As a parent I think this was also reasonably clear from the daily briefs.

The daily brief that said part time schooling would be the model for the whole of next academic year?

@WeAllHaveWings a supporter?

Not really a supporter, just pragmatic. I think the snp overall have handled as well as they could in difficult circumstances.

Indeed, considering also that their record on education is unblemished. I don't think it would be right to expect more of them.

Unblemished?

In assuming you’re being sarcastic @Arkadia.

I think the SNP have broadly handled things well, I think returning to school hasn’t been well thought through though. It was easily predictable in May that infection rates etc would reduce through to August, and yet we were being told blended learning would be in place in August, and for the whole of the academic year. I would have accepted blended learning up until maybe the September weekend or October break but to suggest that would be in place indefinitely and that schools provision would amount to less than 50% of their usual entitlement was a nonsense.

I think they’ve had such a backlash from this they had no choice but to change.

I'm actually not all that happy about full time school being an option for August. Would have preferred to see a fixed 2 days per week for primary (I can't comment on secondary, my kids are too young) to start, then evaluation after 6 weeks with a decision on returning to full time at half term. It would have had to come alongside some legislation with real teeth to prevent job losses and money either via childcare or direct income support.

But I am fortunate in that my family can sustain that scenario. Others aren't, and I can accept that trade off, so will not be keeping my DC home.

One day a week as proposed for Edinburgh was outrageous. We still haven't heard anything from our school.

I think it’s obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention that blended learning only became a ‘contingency’ last week, AFTER the backlash. Before then it was presented as the plan, in the original route map, by the first minister and by John Swinney. They weren’t saying ‘we want to get back full time but here’s a contingency in case infections are high’, they were clearly stating that schools would return in August with a blended learning model, councils should aim for 50% in school (as if that is good enough) and employers should be flexible to accommodate this. If this was always a contingency as they are now trying to have us all believe, there would have been no need for pressure groups or the thousands of letters from worried parents, and their own MSP Alex Neil wouldn’t have felt the need to criticise the policy. Maybe certain supporters think that was all done for shits and giggles. The First Minister was asked about this issue on many occasions and repeatedly said it had to be in place, implying that anything else was too dangerous in terms of infection control, but consistently refused to put an end date on it or define what she meant by ‘safe’.

One of things I find particularly worrying about the handling of this is that the SNP have apparently only just noticed that infection rates fell quicker than the modelling they had done in May predicted (and are now trying to spin this as a victory for their policies). As Willie Rennie pointed out yesterday, this has been apparent for some time, all the way through their initial defence of the blended learning policy. It was clearly there in the scientific advice they themselves published that the modelling assumed 5000 infected people in Scotland in August - we dipped below this weeks ago (I even pointed this out in one of my many letters); we’re currently at estimated 2000 and this is likely to fall further. As a scientist, if it’s becomes obvious that your assumptions on which modelling (and thus policy) are wrong, you redo the modelling, but no one in the Scottish government was on top of this, and they’ve only looked again because their hand was forced. It doesn’t inspire confidence in their decision making.

Couldn't agree more, and I know this thread is about education, but what about restarting health services? That should have been in preparation weeks ago and started by now.

I agree that in the initial days, it was handled as well as it could be, however things quickly reverted to type and the love for control clicked in. I think the biggest success the SNP have had is successfully frightening elements of the population so much that they could no longer look at common sense. I got caught up in it myself.

@Y0uCann0tBeSer10us,
I think here we have the Jacinda factor followed by the need to differentiate herself from BJ.
I might be wrong, but to me this is the real science behind the decision making.
Now she/they have realized that the public is weary and cannot stand it any longer, especially when just down the road they get up to all sorts of fun and frolic, so they have decided to accelerate things.
Besides, people are out and about. Pretty much all the big shops have reopened (and this has been the case for some time... Even the bed place round the corner from me reopened about a week ago), so people WILL find a way to get on with their life one way or another.

Sadly, I think, after the backlash, NS and JS decided to take a leaf from the Johnston/Cummings playbook and ditch honesty in favour of telling people want they want to hear with a big positive spin.
I think Nicola Sturgeon has handled a lot of this really well, so different from the lying buffoons at Westminster, but as much as I wanted schools back to normal, there’s no question this issue has been handled abysmally.

@ASmallMovie,
As I was saying in my other post, I wonder if the SG was telling you the truth or simply what was more convenient for them given the looming elections.
It will be interesting to see whether this will make NS damaged goods and replaced before long, even before all hell breaks loose with the Salmond affair.

Handled well? Care homes, testing, education, health services etc etc etc

Would have been interesting to see if this complete 360 turnaround would have happened if there were no elections next year.

My worry now is that we could go back full time, and then there is a second spike in winter, and we switch back to blended learning.

I can't take all the chopping and changing.

I would have preferred, as a PP said, blended learning until October, because at least I would have known what was going to happen.

As I said above, I have booked DD some tutors anyway so we have a plan B in place. We had a zoom meet with one of them yesterday and DD was in floods of tears afterwards because she thinks we are embarrassing her and we think she's stupid and she doesn't need one, and she will do all the work the school tells her too.

I ended up having a good greet myself because I feel like a really shit mum all because John Fucking Swinney cant make his mind up what kind of education to give my DD.

Would have been interesting to see if this complete 360 turnaround would have happened if there were no elections next year.

I’m sure it wouldn’t. They know all it takes is to lose a few seats and indyref 2 is gone for at least 5 years.

The whole thing has been political as they’ve been trying to fudge the care homes mess by overegging the threat of the virus to the general population.

Fair point... corrected to... handled slightly less atrociously than Westminster.

@nextslideplease, I feel we have to work on the assumption that there will indeed be a second wave in winter, but that is still 6 months away. What is the point in staying cooped up now when the risk is much reduced? Also I doubt it will help in avoid a resurgence in cases in 6 months' time.
Say we have blended "learning" till October and everything is honky dory (sp??), but two months down the line there is a spike in cases anyway. So you have to change again and all that effort will have been for nought.

Yes, I said all along I'd have been quite happy with "blended" as a contingency. Think most people would. Definitely not 7,000 parents joining a pressure group in a week!

Yes what we need is faster responses to data to have local lockdowns in areas that are spiking, until we get a vaccine. This flat footed economy killing universal approach was fine as a crisis response but we need more nuance for the areas with significant second waves.

On the tutor thing @nextslideplease we got my dd one to boost her confidence mostly, just having individual attention from a teacher and encouragement to push ahead on areas she liked helped her confidence, sod the attainment side of it.

We often hire tutors for struggling subjects, understandable, but really, if you get then to work on their favourites it can help so much. All of our confidence, parents and kids is at a low ebb after all the juggling, new territory etc. It’s difficult, dc look to us for approval for the most part, not education in normal times.

the public is weary and cannot stand it any longer, especially when just down the road they get up to all sorts of fun and frolics
I'm not weary and couldn't care less what Boris is doing.

I think it's always been clear the part-time schooling options were contingency planning. And I assume everyone (the entire less than 1% of parents who campaigned and called for the schools to reopen fully) are aware all of this is subject to change depending on how the virus progresses.

I have tutoring lined up and will be sticking with it as have no faith in the Government to deliver on this
Has been a shambles to date
Not willing to risk my DCs future

Thank you.

I am feeling really down this morning because I'm trying to find a solution for DD in case her education is fucked up for the year, but its left me and DD arguing with each other. She is only 12 so not fully understanding what is going on in education.

I'm also worried about her mental health. She's missing her friends. Not all of them live nearby. DH is an essential worker whilst I am able to be at home, so I'm getting the brunt of DD's frustrations.

Not to mention my own mental health which I have been having problems with over the past few years (work related)

Been lots of crying in this house today and yesterday

I think it’s quite likely we’ll see more COVID19 over the winter, as Chris Whitty said yesterday in the briefing. I don’t think this will be because of any policies the SNP/Westminster put in place (or not) either. It seems likely that this virus, like other coronaviruses, is seasonal. With that in mind it makes sense to have a workable contingency in place for this time (and that would not be the buck-passing shambles we’ve seen so far but a properly constructed online curriculum with video teaching to keep in contact with students). But I also agree that until and unless that happens, while infections so low the risk is almost negligible, schools should go back in full for all the reasons mentioned upthread, and efforts put in to recover the educational opportunities lost during the home schooling term where provisions have varied massively.