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

Good luck getting that past the unions.

I disagree with children being educated during the school holidays. It's just bad timing.

No money to pay teachers for the six week summer break and more importantly the teachers need their break. Can’t imagine many parents would send their DC’s - we may still be on lockdown and certainly without a vaccine.

I feel like I'm on the outside of an in joke? What's the flowers for?

Everybody likes flowers

If it is still kicking off I can't see why key worker childcare couldn't be on a rota like over Easter. So not school per se, but childcare. We are doing one week on, two off at the moment. One of those weeks off is 'on call' so helping with admin from home, if someone is off sick we might get called on, helping lesson plan etc.

This is primary level.

If children don’t need to Social distance in the summer then they should be allowed to have fun with friends and go for family days out, holidays etc - they’ve been cooped up for weeks. This includes children of teachers who have also had a crap few weeks.

What about staff members and parents/pupils who have a holiday booked?

And what about the key worker children who have been going to school all this time?

If we are still in the midst of this shit then that is what will have to happen 🤷‍♀️ I hope not obviously, and I suspect we will be easing up for a period by then but who knows. If key workers are still as under pressure as they are their kids need to be somewhere.

This would work fine for bigger schools or academy trusts who could pool the work.

Based on my DC school where there are 5 classes per year you could put 1 teacher per 2 years for the key worker kids, 1 to lesson prep for a couple of weeks then furlough everyone else.

If they'd thought it through and done it from the start the money saved (difference between £2,500 and normal salary per month) would almost fund a month of extra pay over summer.

I know it would be harder for smaller schools but maybe they could coordinate locally?

We are a single form entry village primary, so if we all start getting ill it might get tight I guess.

My friends in the US - in Utah, have been told this week that their schools won’t open again this school year.

Do their school years run from September as well?

I don’t know if it’s the same State wide but my friends DC’s start the school year the third week in August and (normally) finish the year the first week of June.

Utah has had 23 deaths so far so way lower than the UK and places in the US like New Orleans and New York.

I think it's optimistic to think we will be unlocked to that degree by July.

Why haven’t they suggested teachers stop working now so they get a break and kids do the same and then everything goes back to normal throughout summer holidays?

Teachers are complaining about either doing too much or not having anything to do, parents are complaining about having no work set or being unable to work and homeschool. I don’t think much productive schooling or teaching is going to get done during lockdown and everyone is stressing about it.

Why not halt education for now and then kids and staff work through the holidays? I don’t think many people are going to be financially able to take a holiday this year even if they do make it legal, most people are struggling hugely financially at the moment and fear if they’ll even have a job left at the end of this.

Teachers are on Rota’s For key worker children but the amount in is not much at most schools, I doubt there’s many teachers in more than a few days a week.

I think a shorter summer holiday and extended half term & Christmas is realistic.
So many children are missing out on education, missing their friends and routine.
As for booked holidays, I can't see many going ahead if social distancing is to stay in place.

Some teachers will be working a lot at the moment in order to work out the grades to give to year 11 and year 13 students. They can’t really just stop now.

The Education Minister said at today’s daily conference that there we’re currently no plans for schools to be open over the summer holidays.