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

Not sure that’s Falkirk’s fault. Taking the report at face value, it’s the Scottish Government that’s blocking the plan rather than the local authority.

Well, at the very least they should have waited for the guidance at the end of the month. To come up with that plan was quite premature (and even at the time seemed to go against what national guidance might be).

Arkadia no. But the Scottish Government's failures leave them with little choice.

Is this not essentially a power grab by ScotGov over councils? It made sense to have a consistent start back date when the plan was blended learning as presumably there was going to be something delivered centrally to all pupils. I know that probably would have been a fuck up but still, we'll go with them needing this for the "big plan".

However, now the plan is for back as somewhat normal, then we can no doubt guarantee that nothing is happening centrally, so therefore why aren't councils able to do what they always do and set their own dates etc within the overall parameters? I don't think it'll get back to councils having staggered summer holidays again.

Councils have also been moved to the same date so the impact of having the schools open ( on Covid infections/ chains of transmissions etc) are clear.

This wouldn't be the case if some councils had two weeks differencen from others as is normally the case. If they all return at the same time, the initial impact of having thousands of households mix across Scotland (whether it be 15 or 30 plus in a room at a time) should become clear a couple of weeks after.

@MumofHunter, that would make almost sense. If that was the reason, shame it wasn't communicated, AFAIK, to anyone. I always thought that it was JS being capricious.
The same should apply to the October holidays, though.

I hope we don't all move to having the same holidays across the whole country. We voted years ago to have 2 weeks in October and I don't want to go back to having only one.

I can't see it happening. Schools will have been back for two months by then, plenty time to see any impact.

East Ayrshire Council has changed the dates on it on its school holiday calendar now, stating additional says agreed due to covid.

They have an extra days holiday Thu 17th September before the September weekend, then they are closing earlier for Xmas on Friday 18th December.

says = days 🤦‍♀️

is there to be an announcement this week from JS or NS on schools? I can vaguely recall NS saying something about information from JS to come?

Tomorrow 1230 update from NS

For schools on the 23rd

@MumofHunter. That explanation of going with a Big Bang start date to see the effects makes no sense whatsoever.

Cases can and should be tracked at local level and it actually makes much better epidemiological sense to slowly release so you can track case variations across the different areas by using certain areas as “controls”.

Don’t know why they’ve decided to align the dates but it certainly isn’t for tracking purposes.

Link to new thread (hopefully)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/scotsnet/3968995-When-are-we-going-back-to-school-2?watched=1

@Holyrivolli, well, before today I was never given that reason, so maybe it isn't. ;)