Schools closing early

[Trichford]

What are your thoughts on what was spoken about albeit briefly on Friday about possibly closing schools on the 18th and returning on the 11th?
They said it's going to be discussed further this week.
I wonder if they go ahead it will be complete closure or blended learning for the extra days 🤔

I think in principle the idea makes sense.

But personally, it's going to cause me a whole lot of problems for childcare. We're we're due to finish up on 23rd so it's an extra 6 days childcare for me. Grandarents can't help, I've already been allocated my Xmas annual leave and dp works in a hospital and his shifts are set now. I'm not sure what we're going to do.

I'd hope they would only do it in level 4 areas? Surely it can't be justified in level 2 or 1.

This is the case for us in the NW of England. Just having to deal with it but it's causing major problems for working parents . They are supposed to be sending online work home but there's zero chance of most families being able to support that

Someone already pointed out that if schools open till 22 or 23rd families could get a call to self isolate on Christmas Eve.
The weeks before Christmas are hellish in primary school for bugs, norovirus etc at the best of times.
Not ideal but it might be a good idea

It's do with contact tracing as from positive test to notifying contacts to isolate takes 48 hours. So if pupils are in class on 23rd (which many local authorities are) then school staff will be potential working with public health teams on the 25th.

So you just settle in at gran's for dinner etc and you get a call telling you to isolate.

From a teacher's point of view I gain nowt. I am either delivering blended learning or off and will pay back the days later. Days where would have been doing nice Xmas activities or films with juniors or supporting seniors with revision for Jan prelims. Blended learning I will need to properly put up work.

My SLT worked all summer trying to get school ready to open and then deal with SQA fiasco.

I’m absolutely scuppered for childcare work is so so busy

I get it, I do, but on a purely selfish level I’m thinking wtf do I do

Yeah I totally understand the reasoning for it, our school is meant to finish on the 22nd and return the 6th.
I'm fortunate to be able to be at home but appreciate many other parents aren't.
It's difficult trying to do the at home learning with my 8 and 10 year old with an almost 2 year old running around!
On a plus at least it will only be for a few days this time around!
I hope they announce it as soon as possible so people can prepare if they need to.

In our area, the schools finish on 18th and return the first Monday in Jan. So it would only be an extra week off for them? 🤔

It's a no win situation.

Go to school on 22nd and 23rd and risk contact tracing taking place on Xmas day. I have said in other threads good luck trying to get information from me on Xmas day . But the worry would be a large family group of 3 households including vulnerable people are together and a call from contact tracing is received.

I know many WFH parents who plan to keep to their DC home from the 11th to reduce risk for the 25th as they have vulnerable grandparents and also want to eliminate the potential for contact tracing.

I appreciate that childcare is not something that can be suddenly magicked up. Been there myself on snow days and times when DC were sick.

I think it's a sensible idea, unlike the not-sensible-at-all idea to let people mix over Christmas.
I think online work at the end of term will be ignored, the stuff at the other end might stand a chance but maybe three days of revision because you will start on the Monday with some pupils who did the work and some who didn't, and have to go over it all anyway.
I'm not planning to answer my phone on Christmas Day and I'm guessing a lot of families won't if there's a chance it's their head telling their dc to isolate!

My DS has higher prelims due to start on the 6th January, I'd imagine most schools will be having the prelims either at the end or beginning of term.
I would really like clarification on whether the highers are going ahead, as of now they are but the teachers are telling the kids there is no way they'll be sitting exams

We'd love that too! Apparently we'll be told before Christmas .As it stands I am preparing my Higher class for prelims starting week commencing the 11th. And certainly not telling the pupils the exams are not going ahead until that is official!

I'd hope they would only do it in level 4 areas? Surely it can't be justified in level 2 or 1

According to our great leader the level 4 areas will move out of level 4 on 11th December at 6pm.

I'll be scuppered if they do introduce it. I've got time off between Christmas and New Year for the first time ever but will have to juggle it with dh and his shifts. I'm nhs and he's also a key worker. Not planning on meeting up with family at Christmas as my dad is elderly and in poor health.
Dd is 14 and can be left on her own but ds can't (autism and epilepsy). Ds will struggle anyway during the holidays as it's a big change in routine and will take a while to settle down again when school goes back - the longer he's off the harder it is.

Sorry. Just noticed this is about Scottish schools 🤦🏻‍♀️

I'm not happy about it. Kids have missed so much school and need to spend as much time as possible learning. I've had a child off nearly 4 weeks and despite being told online learning is available to those at home, they've had one piece of work from each of three subjects (s1 so lots of subjects for context). I also have another DC in an exam year who cannot study or learn independently.

Some parents and carers are in jobs where the only way to take time off is a week at a time, not allowed days off here and there. On the off chance they have holidays waiting to be booked and can take them at this time of year, thats a week in December and a week in January they have to use.

If this is to decrease the risk of spreading Covid amongst the 3-family 'bubble' at Christmas, there was an obvious, much more sensible solution to that...

I hope not. Year 11 ds goes back tomorrow after the school closed for ten days. Also, the first two weeks back he's meant to be doing mocks. As pp said the better solution would be to just stop this stupid three bubble idea. If that's not possible then it would be better to close schools on the 11th and open them as scheduled. That way people could lockdown for 14 days before Christmas and minimise risk to their bubble, if they allowed mixing from 24/25th.

Bugger. Didnt see this was Scotland. Many apologies for the intrusion on your post!

If it means dh can go back to work then I'm ok with it. Realistically they don't do much the last few days anyway and they'll be watching more YouTube if at home while I'm wfh but hey ho.

I actually think they lack of ability to manage the t & t system is a major factor in this. But then I'm a cynical bastard these days.

in our local authority schools are shut from Dec 18 to Jan 6, so not much difference tbh
think we are getting extra days off now cos we went back earlier than had been planned in August.
I'm working from home for a lot of it, so could have to deal with a fair bit of 'I'm bored' from DD

I disagree with it. For parents of younger children it's ridiculously late to introduce, most working parents don't have a spare 2 weeks of annual leave that they are able to book and take at this short notice so who is going to do the childcare? You're back to the schools being open for childcare for essential workers which just defeats the object of them closing.
Additionally pupils have prelims scheduled for December and January so schools would have to reorganise these to a later date.
Lastly pupils have missed enough teaching time this year and are under pressure to complete coursework as it is without missing a potential further 2 weeks of education.

Dancemom why do you keep saying two weeks?

I don't know how it is for secondaries, but for our primary we only lose 2 half days and 3 full days. That's not really much in terms of education. The annoying thing is that it's so short notice! They knew the term dates since August why not plan the holidays a bit more sensibly?!

Our schools are due to close on 23 December and reopen on 5th January so it would be two additional weeks for me to cover with annual leave, after having had so much down time earlier in the year.

If they did extend the break, hopefully it would add the extra days ok to the summer term, as it's a very early finish (25th June here) & 8 week summer holiday - till 18th August. A few days would help with coveting that.