What, if any, 'face to face support' will your school be offering for years 10 and 12?

[Pumpkintopf]

I have one child in year 10, one in year 12. Both schools have said they will offer them one day each, in total, before the summer.

Other local schools are talking about running full school days tues-fri.

Just interested in what everyone else is experiencing?

DS's school back in session for year 10 and 12 after the half term. They have been having a fell on-line schedule prior to this.

Two lines of guidance for secondary is in the overall guidance. It states whole year groups not in at once so full teaching days for all at once are not permitted

Although of course the guidance is not legally binding so school could go against it at their own risk

I don't think it gives anything like that detail! It just says 'begin to prepare fro some face to face support to supplement online learning'

Unless I have missed something?

We've heard nothing (private school) Had an email about primary return but not senior or 6th form.
Dd yr 12 is getting full lessons via teams every day. But the most she has in any of her classes is 7 so would be very easy for them to social distance if needed. I hope we hear something soon though!

Interesting that two posters have schools running rotas when that's about the only clear guidance that they've been told not to do any form of rota(presumably due to impact on workers arranging their returns to work rather than the children)

This was published by Dept. for Education:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-educational-and-childcare-settings-to-prepare-for-wider-opening-from-1-june-2020

This part seems to have a lot of the rules in:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings/coronavirus-covid-19-implementing-protective-measures-in-education-and-childcare-settings

Though don't know if there will be more guidance.

Woby- The guidance that says no rotas is for primary schools. For secondary it says “From 1 June 2020, we expect that secondary schools and colleges will be able to offer some face to face contact with year 10 and year 12 pupils. This will not be a return to full timetables or pupils back in school or college full time, rather some support to supplement pupils’ remote education. In line with implementing protective measures and reducing contacts, schools and colleges should limit the attendance of the year 10 and 12 cohort in the setting at any one time and to keep students in small groups as set out in our guidance.”

What really is the point of sending year 10/12 in full time if they are unable to sit their option choices? Surely it's just wasting time when they could be doing work for their option choices at home? I fully support the odd welfare/keeping in touch day, but can only see having full time as detrimental as students will be losing time they can focus on their options, as if classes cant move around and mix with multiple teachers, it will be impossible for them to have teaching in the correct subjects

Littlefox I agree if they can't have proper teaching with their actual teachers I'd rather the school actually offer a proper full timetable online with online lessons as it's hard to see how they can achieve both.

This current system of just setting stuff on SMHW and hoping the kids can teach it to themselves though is worrying me and I really would like some online teaching/live teacher contact.

Geoff Barton of ASCL issued advice today saying he thought (after meeting with scientists ) that years 10 and 12 should not be in school at all until September and certainly not in large numbers.

My year 12 is due in for 2hours per a level each week so for them it will be 3 afternoons plus 1 morning for further maths. They are in a really small sixth form though so all his classes are less then 15 people anyway. The year 10s are to be split in to 2 groups and come in for 2 hours each morning on alternate weeks. I think that means there will be a maximum of 90 kids in the mornings and less then 60 in the afternoons so hopefully lots of space to spread them out in a school that normally has around 1000 pupils.

lostinlego Will they be in classes with different students for their different subjects?I don’t see how that’s possible of the school are sticking to the guidance, which says:
“ensure that children and young people are in the same small groups at all times each day, and different groups are not mixed during the day, or on subsequent days”

*if not of

The school I work at is offering 1 half day a week for Y10/12. It'll be supervised study/support for Y10 with a focus on core subjects, and Y12 hopefully face to face with at least 1 subject specialist per week (but this may not be workable). We don't think we'll have everything ready in school for 1st June (repurposing some non-teaching rooms for social distancing) though. I don't think this level of detail has gone out to parents yet, and the LA have said they can't provide all the usual transport, so not really sure how it will work in practice.

This current system of just setting stuff on SMHW and hoping the kids can teach it to themselves though is worrying me and I really would like some online teaching/live teacher contact.

This is what we are currently doing- most kids are managing really well with some support via email if needed. We can't offer live teaching as a significant minority of our students have indicated that their internet wouldn't cope with long zoom calls AND it's a safeguarding risk.

If your children are struggling in general, I'd suggest contacting their form tutor for some help and advice, or individual subject teachers if it's individual subjects that are causing the problem.

I know it's not the same as real face to face teaching in school, but I don't think it's worth hoping for something that is pretty unlikely to happen.

@MadameMinimes I think schools that are planning that kind of A-level provision are doing one subject per day, which IMO sticks to the letter but not the spirit of the guidance. It's clearly dangerous from a disease spread PoV.

But the the guidelines state that they mustn’t mix in other groups even on “subsequent days”. It neither within the letter or the spirit of the the guidelines. I’d be curious to know what their insurers would say.

Those guidelines are all for years R, 1 and 6. It is considered more risky to mix older children, expect for the belief they have that they will miraculously socially distance.

They apply to all education and childcare settings piggy. That’s why it says “and young people” rather than just children as it applies in colleges and sixth forms too where some students are over 18. There is a separate document that is specific to primary with more detailed guidance. The point I quoted definitely applies to secondary as the very next bullet point refers to them having the same teacher at all times, except in secondary where the teacher is allowed to rotate based on specialism. That’s why some schools are planning for year 10 to do taught lessons for core subjects. It’s the options and A Levels that are problematic.

@MadameMinimes, yes there would be a few different children in each subject class but a lot of them do the same groups of subjects, so all of them doing further maths are doing maths, and physics , and all of them doing physics do maths, dt is the only one with a few different students, but I don't think any class is bigger then 12 for his subjects so fairly easy to distance them. It may well change they did say in the letter that this is there current plan based on the latest info they had received but that the government may change it with very short notice. I was surprised they were aiming for June 1st I thought it would be more like the end of June.

But it also says further guidance to follow Madame. There has been none. No one knows what the face to face means.

We can't offer live teaching as a significant minority of our students have indicated that their internet wouldn't cope with long zoom calls AND it's a safeguarding risk.

I understand the internet issue. I don't understand why online teaching is a safeguarding risk when private schools are all doing it and a local secondary modern near us in a very deprived area are offering a full time online timetable via Microsoft teams. If they can do it, why can't others? I think it's the disparity that's causing me to worry tbh.

Y10 here. Our school have decided against any face to face teaching at present. They sent out a questionnaire to,parents and their feedback intimated that more parents didn't want to send their kids back than did. Every child will have a one to one virtual meeting with their tutor and they are ramping up the online teaching provision.

It isn't a safeguarding risk if managed appropriately. Unions were opposed to it and put this idea into some teachers' heads. The DfE safeguarding update supports video teaching and no organisations working in the field of child protection have come out against it. Of course there is a whole load of work, set up, rules and training to ensure safeguards are in place.