Educated guesses when schools will reopen

[frasersmummy]

Just that really

What do you think might be a realistic re-opening date.
Am I being optimistic thinking after the February break
I know no one has a crystal ball just looking for people's thoughts

P4, We had no live or recorded lessons. But we did have 3 tasks per day, some linked to Bitesize like counting coins and a worksheet to go with it.
But the format seemed to be literacy, maths and something else (art, history, science, sort of thing) I thought I was doing well if we managed the literacy and maths.

I notice English schools are being asked to provide 3 hours of work per day. No demands on Scottish schools.

I'm hoping for some flag waving "we've managed it better and got the schools back first" that might be wishful thinking.

I'd say end of Feb, or mid match

I think they need to start vaccinating everyone who works in schools ASAP to get schools open again

Vaccinating school staff helps, gives them reassurance but if kids are spreading it and carting it home then that doesn't reduce hospital cases.

Of the 3 families that I know have had it they've been picked up either in school or kids activities.

@ssd

I think they need to start vaccinating everyone who works in schools ASAP to get schools open again

I think I did hear them say last week that school staff would be on a priority list but i may have imagined that.

I’m more optimistic about this, given we’re in a better position with cases than England are. And they have said that schools/nurseries will be the first things to reopen, which doesn’t give us a date of course but hopefully means whenever the current restrictions do start loosening we’ll see movement with education.

I think end Feb for all back in person, possibly before then as blended learning, or blended learning for secondary from early Feb and primary/nursery all back.

(I also think they got burned by the public reaction to the ‘blended learning for the next school year’ mess and have been pretty loud on prioritising schools since then, so they won’t want a repeat of that in the months before an election.)

They did say teachers would be prioritised for vaccine but I don't think that really helps get schools back other than making staff feel more protected.

I can't see blended learning ever being used, too many issues with it, teachers can't teach half the class , give time online and look after KW kids at the same time P4 Maths 3 into 1 doesn't go!

Beginning of March. A good amount of the population will be vaccinated by then, and the economy will need to get people back to work (shops, gyms and hospitality will open same time or shortly after). I think we will see the r number reduced by then (mind you this lockdown is nothing like first one there still seems to be so many people out and about).

Fingers crossed you’re right @GoldenOmber

No that was always my issue with "blended learning". Teachers cannot split themselves in half. So if they're teaching 50% of the class one week, they cannot be teaching the other 50% who are at home. Or even marking work and answering questions from children at home. Impossible.

It was a proposal for part-time schooling, in my area we were being offered 2 days a week.

We were the same 2 days.

But then they still had KW kids on the other day when the classrooms were meant to be deep cleaned.

While I've No doubt SG will try to delay the election, 16yos so a chunk of 4th, all of 5th and 6th years have a right to vote. That could make for a bit of pressure not to mess them about too much.

My dd had zero live lessons last time, it was all work posted on teams to be completed and submitted within a week.

Her language class are massively behind due to both the first lockdown and her language teacher being off with Covid for over 2 months with no substitute teacher for the entire time. They have never caught up and while her predicted grade is an A it means nothing if she goes into highers after the summer with 1/3 of the knowledge she needs for the higher course.

In December when schools had just closed I thought May (after Easter break) and I still do. They really need to come up with a plan for S4-6 re exam awards and draw a line. Then they need to get a head start on undoing some of the damage. If they were to wait till August they risk ending up in the same position this time next year and they will have done nothing to address the huge issues already in play.

Went to bed throwing bricks at the telly last night after 10 minutes of Prof Winston waxing lyrical on remote learning based on his Uni's piecemeal engagement with highly motivated high achievers in late secondary. Worst of it is I actually agree with him that all education is likely to be mainly home based within the next decade. However that needs a massive sea change in societal expectations of parents and children plus huge engagement in community based group activities (like home schooling communities already work).

Home based mainly for the next decade

I think that home-based learning could work in households where parents work part time or there is a stay at home parent. But only if said parents are the sort to engage with education and have small enough families so that one person can manage it all. It would create an even bigger attainment gap. And it seems massively unfair.

I doubt we'll have home based learning in a decade. That doesn't work for working parents or del with the many other things schools do including social skills, not every child lives in an area where they can go out to play with other children. It certainly doesn't encourage independence.

However I do think teaching will be more IT based, e-books, easily updated, tap into online lessons. But as an addition to schools / teachers.

No ssd. He thinks long term trend is towards home based or at least much less whole school one size fits all and that the current crisis will / ought to accelerate this. His position was "somewhat" incoherent because at the same time as arguing the inevitability of this he was also suggesting massive investment in schools.

He was giving me the rage and only had a 10 minute slot so perhaps he does have a coherent strategy.

The other bad part of the home schooling last time, was that none of the DCs work was marked or commented on. This did not help their motivation to complete the work.

Agree Lockdownbear. That's what I was driving at. Just because the education content moves on-line it doesn't mean that you can get rid of the community aspect. Whether a 500 pupil + school or smaller community hubs work better for this is a different issue. The answer is probably different for different age groups.

Lemon not hopeful this will be better this time round where I am. Got the text this morning telling me I could pick up a jotter and workbook if I needed one. That doesn't really imply teacher engagement on a day to day basis.

Commented yesterday I will probably disengage from much of the school offer because it is much easier for me to keep an eye on what my DD is working on around my timetable and based on my knowledge of where her skills are. I am aware that I am extremely fortunate to have the time and resource to do this and to have a highly teachable child. Otoh it is partly driven out of necessity as there is no way our broadband / house privacy / my sanity can cope with her learning on-line at the same time as her Uni sister and homeworking father.

I wish DS would engage with anything other than what school set.
He has a couple of areas that he could do extra work on bringing him up to scratch and he just wasn't interested.

Fingers crossed this doesn't go on to long.

After the Easter holidays and that's being optimistic 😫

As soon as it was announced I said it would be extended. But my gut feeling was Feb holiday at best or Easter Holidays at worse.

We are thinking late March. Don’t think it’ll be before Feb break. I will be in school full time from Monday. Someone else will be running my online learning. I can’t do both. I don’t know how that will all pan out.