Does a rota make sense?

[DoubleAction]

Now the dust is settling it seems most schools will be operating on a skeleton staff on some sort of rota basis. Probably with vulnerable staff and parents of young children not included?

Whilst that seems the fairest way to do it does it make sense from a disease control pov? We're exposing all staff when we could just expose a few? Maybe it should be the same group of staff for 14 days at a time (for as long as they are well) or something else?

Yes I thought that. Why potentially expose all your staff at once?

I've thought this. Something like 14 days on 14 days off with vulnerable staff (or vulnerable people at home) and those with young DC excluded. It would help to break transmission. Whatever the SLT and governors decide, I'm not vulnerable and I don't have young DC and have offered to be rostered as needed.

This is an unprecedented situation and we all need to work together.

What I will object to will be those parents who take the piss...!

We've had no account taken of having young children at home. The only ones not coming in are people who have elderly neighbours or relatives who they shop for.

I have thought the same too. Just incase one of the children has it.

Yes if an asymptomatic child is in for a week, you potentially lose the entire staff at once.

I'm also wondering if certain key staff, the ones who are probably keenest to be there, should stay away completely, so that there are always good people to run things remotely.

We're exposing all staff when we could just expose a few? Maybe it should be the same group of staff for 14 days at a time (for as long as they are well) or something else?

Are you going to volunteer as ine if the '14' OP?

It's all about limiting contact.

one of

My school has a rota but you work for two weeks then you're off. Like a two week shift .

Yes. I am SLT and planning to be in everyday (which may or may not be sensible)

But there would still be a rota, it would just be in blocks of 7/14 days rather than a couple of days every week.

I work for a really sensible head! We are having one skeleton staff do 14 days then will swap over. We have a number of people on standby in case we lose any staff to isolation. We have excluded any vulnerable staff, anyone living with anyone vulnerable and anyone who would need to put their children in childcare in order to work. This may need to change as time goes on but I'm really happy with at arrangements so far.

Yes, that makes much more sense cece.

We are doing week on/ week off. But I do think 2 weeks on/ 2 weeks off would be more sensible.

Problem is, we just didn't have any time to think anything through.

I do have a child with EHCP so waiting to hear from his school about having him. They're currently closed though due to staff shortage.

Luckily I'm not on the first two week shift.

I am also going in every day- but trying to make sure 2 or 3 other people know what I do so they can take over if/ when I can't.

Yes I think we need to go back to the drawing board. In the last 3 days we have planned for a complete shutdown whilst trying to protect vulnerable children and teach remotely, then an expectation that almost all students (and therefore staff) would be in and then a much more paired down offering.

We've been so busy trying to meet the needs of our vulnerable children, we've lost sight of the social distancing requirement. We also have a lovely staff who all want to do their bit!

Can I just say thank you to you all.

I’m absolutely terrified about sending my children in but dual key workers here. I’m hoping to limit to 2 days. All the primary and secondary children are going to one secondary school. I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m going to go in and see arrangements for myself on Monday.

The secondary school I work for are expecting low numbers of pupils to attend from Monday so have set a rota. I've been told to bring my 3 year old with me as his nursery is closed. He is not good at social distancing!

The Military I work with have organised themselves into 3 Teams. Individuals are in for 1 week out for 2. This reduces their risk of infection while giving them 2 weeks to self isolate if required.
It's a good idea.

We have been put onto a rota, those with young children (like me) are on the rota. We have paired with a nearby school and are only expecting 10% or less to attend.

@DoubleAction yes I think you’re exactly right that in trying to best meet the needs of our children, we’ve lost sight of social distancing. Also we’ve been in a bubble of carrying on as normal in schools so perhaps haven’t been as aware of social distancing in the school environment.

Last night it really hit home to me that our plans for next week aren’t right. But no idea what to do.

Most of us have young children and we’re a small school anyway. The only staff who don’t aren’t particularly willing to step up more and I can understand that tbh.

But on a personal level I’m desperate not to have to put my own dc in school - on a 14 day rota system I could never manage that.

But we do also need to meet the children’s emotional needs. It’s unrealistic to think you can sit children as young as 4 2m apart and expect them to maintain that for 6+ hours. The real truth is we can’t effectively practice social distancing in schools, certainly not without making things very bleak for our children.

I am glad others are thinking as I am. I have said things like this at my workplace and been ignored. Also, many teachers are being told they can't bring their own child in with them. In families where both parents are teachers that means we are exposing our families to 3 germ pools and also risking infecting many more keyworker families ourselves. Unnecessary additional risks for us and the whole country. We need advice from infectious diseases specialists on this.

I'm thinking 7 days on 14 days off, as suggested above. But it will depend how many staff a school needs to be in.

And that will change as time goes on.

We can't exclude vulnerable staff as a small school. Only one teacher is not on the at risk list or has someone at home who is on the at risk list. The Government says we have to stay open though, so we're stuffed
We're on a rota and we'll try to have the most vulnerable staff away from the children, but it means the main care of the children will be by TAs, which is really unfair.
Our authority isn't organising hubs - it's leaving it up to individual schools to organise

So many questions.
It is sort of like we are now soldiers in the war against this virus. We need advice. How to reduce staff stress to avoid mental break downs that will render people unable to work. How to reduce infection in schools and keep us and the children physically healthy. How to work with the children to reduce the impact on their mental health and safeguard their future.