UK schools could, and should, begin to reopen as soon as practicable after the initial wave of cases has passed through

[Otherrooms]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52180783

What do you make of this?

Schools could go back even whilst social distancing rules are still in place?

Have these people ever been in a school? School corridors/classrooms anyone?!

My one son gets a public bus to school. These services have been reduced so not sure how that would work.

Another takes a taxi, so again, not sure if taxis are even operating.

Is this the collective mind of stressed parents wishing their kids could go back to school?

A manifestation of sorts?

🔮🙏🏻

I'm really hoping the DFE are spending time thinking about how schools can open safely and manage to observe the social distancing rules. Maybe part time hours, smaller classes, temperature monitoring, different way of structuring classes, the curruculum. Everything needs to change and schools and society need to look very differently.

I'd be up for going back BUT I cannot see how social distancing can occur on corridors and in rooms.

There would have to be a huge step up in testing and cleaning daily for me to feel it was safe.

It's all well and good that kids are not as affected, it doesn't seem to impact them etc but they forget there's a huge number of adults in schools too, some potentially very vulnerable.

This is the Lancet report

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30095-X/fulltext

It does make it very clear that he is not advocating a headlong charge back to normal schooling. The BBC article doesn't really summarise it very effectively!

I find the organisation of schools chaotic at the best of times here. I have no faith in many schools effectively implementing a phased return.

And, also, the whole research is actually predicated on whole school closure ,assuming essential workers then can't get childcare.

We know that the DfE have provided zero leadership and been behind the curve on all the organisation, relying on teachers and schools to mop up their messes. FSM. Keyworkers. Homeschooling. Dealing with Y11 and 13.

So can well imagine them saying ‘there will be a phased return to school with social distancing measures’ and then leaving it up to us to work out the details.

Another takes a taxi, so again, not sure if taxis are even operating.
For children who take a taxi provided by the LEA, that's the LEA's problem - they can commission them and if drivers are available they can provide them.

Yes, I do think the report overlooks the fact that education is uniform and centralised in many other countries.

I dont understand why teachers aren't more worried about "letting the BBC" take over and the (mixed, tbf) success of remote teaching.

As teacher pay increases, which it has at a startling rate and continues to do so over the next two years and school budgets dont keep pace, these alternative methods will be used in schools too. Some people are hoping that more wfh will become the norm after this. I think remote teaching (as part of an overall delivery package) could do the same.

Yes LEA taxis are still operating. They're still bringing our vulnerable kids in.

‘As teacher pay increases which it has at a startling rate’

Did l miss something? I’m a teacher- ‘startling rate’🤔

As teacher pay increases, which it has at a startling rate

You mean the real terms pay cuts year on year since 2010? Yes, that is startling.

This sees somehow relevant:

schoolsweek.co.uk/school-staff-dont-need-protective-equipment-new-government-guidance-states/

Yes piggy we don’t need PPE because we will be 2m away from the kids (and them from each other) at all times. Obvs.

Maybe we could get those plastic screens like they have at supermarket checkouts now.

MS teachers have had above inflation rises for the last 2 years and will get c.6% this year and more next, if the STRB written recommendations are followed (which they will be). It doesn't matter if you don't think it's enough, it can't be paid for and that's not going to improve during the recession that follows this, so schools will have to fund alternative ways to deliver education. If the BBC and remote teaching cam be called a success, that's a good place to start. I dont understand why teachers haven't spotted that as a cause for concern is all.

A UPS3 teacher costs the school £60000, £2000 per student before any other costs are included. The numbers can't carry on increasing on one side and not on the other forever.

There are some very interesting threads on Twitter on this.

Most of which point out that the research is based on flu outbreaks, has to acknowledge they don't really know anything because the studies all come from countries with school closures, and that the recommendation is not 'open schools' but 'do more research urgently'

It is actually irresponsible journalism to so garble the report.

This thread isn't about pay make!

But id don't get where you get £60000 from.

I think what this whole thing shows is not that remote teaching is a practical model for the future, but that it is only good for emergency situations, that face to face teaching is non-replicable online and that schools and colleges do an amazing job of closing gaps that remote teaching widens immensely.

Piggy I think that article is trying to justify the reasons which are effectively due to lack of supplies overall. Laying the foundation to send children back to school with minimal protections. If I were a teacher I would refuse to go back solely on this report alone.

There must be a national decree that says all schools must have x y z in place before opening so that cavalier heads and lax LEAs can not get away with bare minimum precautions.

Your children would form a national experiment, the results of which can not be predicted.

I think my main concern is that fully opening schools (vanishingly few schools, IME, are actually closed at the moment - all are offering the key worker / vulnerable children childcare) would make all other social distancing / self-isolation measures impossible to enforce.

Children who are mixing freely in school each day will not then be kept in strictly single-family units at weekends, nor will teenagers who have seen each other in school or travelled on school buses maintain full social distancing when going to the park / into town. Parents who travel each day to take their children into school will see no reason why they shouldn't take their dog to walk in a local beauty spot, or invite the friend they just saw at the school gate to coffee.

I also think that if current self-isolation guidelines remain, schools will be dramatically short-staffed for much of the time, as teachers themselves, or their dependents, develop new symptoms as a result of mixing with new large groups.

Wonder who wrote that schoolsweek thing. Someone with a vested interest l reckon.

Remote teaching isn’t a success. It’s going pretty bad even for people who are putting 100% tome and effort into it. It’s better than nothing, is all. I’m working more hours and putting more work into it and probably getting 50% less from students than I would have done with much less time and effort from me if we were in the classroom.

£ 60000 is exactly what a UPS3 teacher costs the school, including on costs and the 23.68% pension contributions.

I dont understand why teachers haven't spotted that as a cause for concern is all.

Posted about it yesterday in fact. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_staffroom/a3871931-Are-school-budgets-going-to-be-even-more-fucked-after-this#95367596

Can you now explain how MS teachers (but not experienced ones) getting an above inflation payrise for two years after 8 years of pay cuts is ‘startling’?