Re-opening schools and narrowing the disadvantage gap

[noblegiraffe]

I know I know I know it’s a thread about re-opening schools but THIS ONE IS A PROFESSIONAL DISCUSSION ABOUT PRACTICALITIES and it’s IN THE STAFFROOM.

The Children’s Commissioner has just released a report about how to go about re-opening schools with the aim of narrowing the disadvantage gap.

The suggestion is that when they reopen, they start with the most disadvantaged kids and the lessons are focused on catch-up tuition, not new content. So Monday the most disadvantaged 20% of Y7 come in, Tuesday the most disadvantaged 20% of Y8 come in etc. This will enable social distancing measures to be implemented.

Disadvantage isn’t just based around FSM, but around the kids most likely to fall behind in general. As it’s compulsory, it might get more of the vulnerable kids in who aren’t currently attending.

www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cco-tackling-the-disadvantage-gap-during-the-covid-19-crisis.pdf

I thought it was an interesting suggestion, but I’m not sure how it would be received by the people who think that the point of reopening schools is so that they can work from home more effectively.

Yes, a few of us go so several transition points and huge year groups in year 9 - 11.

My year 12 classes regularly top 20.

I doubt DfE will factor in three tier areas though.

Then we’ve got this to consider:

Interesting that Peston spun it as ‘over a third of parents would send kids back to school immediately’ instead of ‘the majority of parents not happy to send kids back to school’ or ‘a third of parents are not intending to send their kids back for several months even if schools reopen’.

Given the government is now backing the online lessons provision, which is actually well received, I am not convinced that they are planning for a quick ret2.

That's one hell of a spin on a survey finding!

I'm writing as a parent, I hope you will have me here?

If I understand correctly, teachers would be required to add yet another string to their bow?
So, not only will they be supporting their own child home teaching, plus setting work remotely for 80% of the pupils, they will be supporting key worker kids. Just like they have been doing since lockdown started - including over the Easter holidays. Now teachers are also going to have to teach catch up lessons to the struggling.
How many hours are there in a day?? Have we suddenly got 50hrs a day to fill? Sounds impractical to me.

Indeed, the time issue is massive and it’s a really problem if we stagger cohorts or split classes. You’d only really be able to do it if you basically acknowledged teachers can’t be both in school teaching classes and setting and marking work remotely. Which just ends up widening the gap between those who can/will go into school and those who can’t/won’t.

In a big school with large departments you could deal with this by having some teachers in school and some dealing with online provision. This helps get round the problem of teachers still having children at home. But in a small department that doesn’t help at all. Nobody else teaches one of my Year 12 subjects. It’s time consuming to mark and definitely not something I could set lessons for someone else to teach and a non-specialist wouldn’t be happy covering it. I have 20 students and a small room so can’t social distance. There aren’t spare large spaces to teach in so basically whatever happens I’m going to have to cover the same content at least twice, and be chasing up attendance in college and online so students don’t fall through the cracks (this is already proving to be a huge burden while teaching remotely). I just don’t know how we’d do it! Unless we just say fuck it and open fully and expect all students in and those who can’t come in for whatever reason just have to catch up when they’re back.

I heard a grapevine hint that there will be an announcement on schools tomorrow.

Really? I would love to hear what their great plan is.

We've settled into online schooling but I'm high risk and so dont want to send kids in. I have a yr 6 desperate to go back and "finish" though. Academically I can't see why yr6 is important to return- they spend most of the year gearing for sats and doing revision, then final term is fun here! I haven't a clue about how transition will work. Ho hum.

Ive been really impressed with the national academy and bitesize. As well as the mymaths etc offered by school.

Ah apparently announcement might just be that they are providing funding for schools to set up MS Teams or Google Classroom. Which schools have already done, or chosen not to do with an alternative. Whether that means they expect us to be out longer I have no idea.

I just want it all to be normal now, which I know is impossible.

In my head, if schools don’t go back till September, they’ll go back as normal. Not sure whether that’s actually a reasonable assumption.

I really don’t want to go back to some part-time phased messy social distancing attempt at a return. What kind of education will come out of that? If they do decide to do that, they’ll have to explain what the benefits are. It won’t be getting people back to work. It won’t be an end to home schooling. It won’t be allowing the children to socialise.

At the point at which teachers are in school teaching full time, the provision of home learning has to stop. So even if a child is only in school once a week, the home learning will have to be left to the online platforms for the other 4. We can't do both.

It does annoy me that bbc Bitesize is there, Oak Academy is there but teachers wouldn’t be allowed to hand over the reins to them as they aren’t perfectly individualised to whatever that kid should be doing right now.

Countries which have a centralised curriculum (and textbooks!) must be finding things far easier than us.

They definitely are on that score.

noblegiraffe Can you also imagine what a nightmare that would be at the beginning of the school year? This is normally the best part of the school year, when you've put in all the hard work establishing routines and you now know your class well. They also know you well and know how you work.

I cannot even imagine the chaos for year 7 if we can't go back as per normal in September.

I'm in France and we're phasing back in from the 11th of May. The government has announced some half baked scheme and nor SLT are meeting on Monday (currently school hols here) to see how we're going to manage the return in our school.

I really hope that Y7 can start in a normal way in September, not least because I’ve got a DS in Y6 and transition is going to be hard enough as it is without a totally unsettled start.

Another thread asking if we can start with a cap of pupil numbers per class of 10.

Our students are mostly in the same class for subjects except maths where they are setted. It’s going to be a major headache for us to figure out maths classes if they decide to e.g. split their normal class into 3 and have them in on a rota.

noblegiraffe One of the big problems here, to which the government has offered no practical solution, is the fact that we are meant to have classes of no more than 15 students in this phrased return. In the senior high school, we currently have classes of 40 and almost all our classes have at least 30 students... And we are far from the only school in this situation.

Also, teachers and students who are in a shield group or who live with someone in a shield group, won't be required to come in. Whilst this isn't the majority, I believe it will be a significant minority... How exactly we are going to start back up without full staff, I don't know... Of course, it is only right that we protect those who are more vulnerable, but for me it shows just how out of touch the government is with the reality that teachers face.

I'm now waiting for the magical unicorn to show up and double the number of staff and classrooms so that we can follow the government's plan...

I work in a special school so things are quite different.

At the start a small group of students were offered different hours/number of days based on their needs and the needs of their parents. Staff with no health concerns or childcare issues work in two teams. This continued over Easter. Social distancing an impossibility due to nature of students needs.

After Easter we have increased our provision. More students are being offered one day a week. However they are kept completely separate from original students. There are only 3 students on each day with 3 staff. Again social distancing an impossibility.

I am struggling to imagine how we can increase provision further whilst minimising social contact.

I watched a video on how a school is returning in Germany. Only eight students in a class. This is a tiny proportion of students in most U.K. classes so part time would really be very part time.

I really don’t want to go back to some part-time phased messy social distancing attempt at a return. What kind of education will come out of that? If they do decide to do that, they’ll have to explain what the benefits are.

presumably the benefits would be lower infection rates in schools via asymptomatic carriers and therefore lower risk to society.

Yes, I think we all get that. But then let's not kid ourselves that when they do get back we can test, examine and even teach them in anything approaching a normal fashion.
Interestingly in a district if Japan, schools went back, and closed again almost immediately. This is very unreported amongst all the kids don't get it / spread it chat.

presumably the benefits would be lower infection rates in schools

I meant the benefits over not re-opening schools.

Re-opening schools will increase the spread. So what’s the payoff? Kids breaking their home routine to be put in schools on random days with a random selection of kids to have a selection of one-off lessons potentially with supply teachers? And teachers now not available for home learning on top of that.

The transport might be an issue too. Almost all of our kids are bussed I'm, some on double deckers. Especially if they are part time and only in for part of a day maybe?? Bus drivers might not be happy either. Or bus companies if the buses aren't at capacity and they make a loss but can't furlough staff as they still need them....

I'm just ploughing through the thread; I think this was the case for opening schools in France especially rural areas. Teachers were having no contact from many pupils.

Unfortunately all this depends on how the government are viewing schools as a part of the huge picture; youngest classes may return sooner to allow parents to work and also to protect the older children. Based on very small class sizes, part time education. It may be across the board.

It's hard as there are so many conflicting aspects to consider.