Any reception teachers here?

[howlongisitnow]

Hi everyone. My eldest is meant to be starting reception in September. It will be a full, big London primary school.

Any ideas how it might work in practice - do you envisage children going part time to space them out? Or some other approach?

I know it’s all conjecture but I’m really interested to hear your thoughts.

Thanks - from a soon-to-be school parent your hard work is very much appreciated

It's all new territory and guess-work at the moment! Teachers don't know what will happen, anymore than any other member of the public.

No one knows how this is going to pan out. Teachers will probably find out the same time as everyone else, maybe the day before if they are lucky. Lots of ideas floating around on social media, but no one has any idea how schools will return back in.

Thanks. We currently live abroad and they plan to open some primary school classes next month with a maximum of 10 children in a class (and only if the room is big enough to allow for a minimum square footage between single desks). Teachers to wear masks all day.

Having seen a fair number of classrooms when we looked around London schools I struggle to see how that could work there.

It then everything is so unbelievable maybe I guess anything is possible!

And no mention at all of reception classes - those haven’t been included in the opening.

A big problem before the schools shut was keeping enough staff in to keep the children safe. Dd1s secondary school shut before everywhere else because staff were dropping like flies.

A lot of school staff will have been putting on the shielding list, so wouldn’t be in school if they open and there is still deemed to be a risk to them, which takes a proportion of staff out. If staff are ill, (with the illness or with something else) that also takes out a proportion. This gives head teachers a massive headache to cover classes and keep everyone safe.

I am a reception teacher and in all honesty, have no idea how this will work. The vast majority of reception children learn through play and it would be impossible to teach them effectively sat at a desk all day. I actually think if we implement this (and this is the only way we could comply with social distancing in my view) this would be damaging for the children’s education. Four year olds should not learn sat at a desk. Sorry OP, not very helpful.

We know nothing. We are assuming get all transition activities may well be moved to September though (instead of June/July) and perhaps a delayed staggered start.

Thanks all, really helpful to hear your thoughts. I guess I may be ‘homeschooling’ for quite some time yet. I’m just very lucky that my job is flexible enough to allow me to do this for the foreseeable