Call for schools to open in the summer after lockdown

[Sajal]

Children’s commissioner says schools will play an important role, but teachers and parents may oppose loss of six-week break

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/11/call-for-schools-to-open-in-the-summer-after-lockdown

How are the country going to afford to pay everybody?
We've already had teachers working for no pay this week.

Lots of families will have two weeks of holiday booked in that time anyway

Simply don't believe this will be done. Would be way too disruptive, for parents who have booked holidays as well as schools. Loads of crap being spouted about schools atm

I have holiday booked.
If there's no lockdown I will go. Because holiday company will not refund it.

So no, I won't be going in unpaid in summer. Nope

I fail to see how they could force teachers to work in the summer holidays when they don't get paid for it.

Teachers are working. It would be wrong to take the school holiday away.

Kids need a break anyway.

It is just the opinion of one woman.

Hmm well if they open throughout the summer it just sets the precedence that schools shouldn't need to close for 6/7 weeks in the following years.

Theyre going to have to pay people to staff the schools.

Maybe all those who think teachers do fuck all can have a go and show us hows its done?

There's something wrong with the system if they need kids to 'catch up' after a few weeks off/ homeschool....Quite aside from the practicalities

I don't think attendance would be good enough to make it worthwhile. Why open if everything would have to be repeated?

And then when would half term be? I’m already working unpaid for this holiday with no thought of my safety or that of my children.

Schools open in some form isn’t a wholly bad idea. I’m a teacher BTW. My school has a holiday provision with a private nursery running that. Parents pay fees for it. That can run just fine in the summer without school staff needing to work unpaid!

The moment schools stayed open and teachers volunteered to work for no pay and became childcare, this was inevitable.

Teachers have been poorly supported by their union, as well as shooting themselves in the foot by working unpaid. I'm well aware that teachers work way over their hours, but to have broken their own 1265 contact hours has set an unfortunate precedent.

Well if they want to do this then they need to plan time off early. I know they’re trying to minimise disruption but I really wish they’d just gone up with a sensible plan now and end the uncertainty.

Nope. Not happening. They would need to pay teachers and that wont happen. I would refuse. I'm still working. My primary aged daughter is still doing school work. Neither of us will be going to school over the summer holiday.

At an extra £4.5k per teacher with accrued annual leave I assume. No, thought not.

And to any parent who wants to take a swipe I'll be suggesting that they give up their own AL entitlement. The problem is there are employers who will make life very difficult for parents and they need to be managed.

The long winter term is a nightmare at the best of times, they really don't want to make it longer.

No teacher should be working unpaid during the holiday. My union has been particularly strong on this and has ensured that as many staff as possible are kept safe at home. Guidance for HTs and LAs has been crystal clear.

Any staff working over the Easter break should only be there if they have been offered overtime pay or TOIL and staffing for the holidays should only be conducted on a volunteer basis. Staff cannot be compelled into working. This would be the same for the summer holidays.

As a PP said, this is only one person's opinion and I highly doubt it would happen. Either the schools will reopen in early June or, more likely, for the new academic year in September.

I’ve got a 4 week holiday booked over the summer. All paid for. Assuming we can travel, I will not be missing it. I wouldn’t get a refund if I didn’t go. How could it work?

Lots of families will have two weeks of holiday booked in that time anyway

They may have it booked, but they won't be going. There's no way that holidays will go ahead this Summer. There will continue to be restrictions until a vaccine is available.

I can imagine plenty of families will have holidays booked for those weeks. They're not going to want to give them up, and potentially lose the money, to send their child back to school.

We're all going to need something nice to look forward to after this is over. This is not a holiday.

This will never happen.

Awful
UK schools are becoming child care centers instead of education centers.

UK schools are becoming child care centres instead of education centres

I don’t think that’s a huge problem (in the short term). We need key workers to be able to do their jobs. At my school, most people are working from home with a few on a rota to be in the building with the tiny number of kids that are there. I don’t have any problem with that.

That’s not to say that they should be open for all children through the summer holidays but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for us to do our part (paid or TOIL) to facilitate people being able to do key jobs while the situation is like this. Who knows how long this will go on for?