The Fourth Republic Rises - solidarity comrades!

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You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

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All of them for a month! Wtf! It will be far more disruptive for everyone than if they just stayed home. Do they really think partial classes, kids in for half the week only, parents refusing to send kids in etc is going to be a beneficial educational experience for anyone?
They've now gone from saying to key workers 'you can send your kids in but the best and safest option is for them to be home ' to 'all key workers should be encouraged to send their kids in' - they do realise these kids already in aren't actually having any lessons/teaching?!
What a joke.

Sorry primary friends. Genuine for you all

When they say "all of them, for a month," they surely don't mean all at the same time? 30 in a classroom?
Or is the intent to have maybe a couple of days of 10 or 15 pupils, to be rotated?

I wouldn't start an ITT course next year, for sure! @SansaSnark why do you say that? I'm due to start in Sept (no bursary though) 😮

Say after today's advice a school ends up with 50+ key worker/vulnerable kids of all year groups in. What happens to them once year R,1and 6 come back?

@namechangedyetagain I might be wrong and it could be fine!

I'm just assuming there will be lots of disruption, at least during the autumn term and possibly for longer. I don't know if you're doing primary or secondary, but if we are only potentially getting Y10/12 in for "a few weeks" this summer, then I'm not sure it will be business as usual for the autumn term? Even if you are able to go out on placement it may not be a normal learning experience for you.

Even if it is, there will be kids with massive gaps in their education and kids who have steamed ahead, plus a lot of kids suffering from various kinds of anxiety and trauma- and this can come out as agression. I think some classes will be quite difficult to deal with, more so than normal, when we do go back to "normal" school.

Mentors etc will be stressed out and have lots of other things to deal with and this tends not to make for a good ITT experience.

So I think it'll be a less good than usual training experience, coupled with the risk of potentially catching the virus (from a kid at school, or a fellow student on uni recall days).

Sorry, I know that's a really pesimistic view- and I hope things are better for you than I'm imagining.

All of them for a month so second wave in July and everything shuts down again - would explain lack of information about families / friends / holidays / non essential shops

Say after today's advice a school ends up with 50+ key worker /vulnerable kids of all year groups in. What happens to them once year R,1and 6 come back?

I take it hubs are gone and we're all back in our own schools.

They'll need to do some sort of questionnaire to find out which parents are now keyworkers. They surely must be taking priority.

They'll also need to do a staff survey.

Once that gets sorted, then they'll need to look at numbers. Making it easy for ourselves, let's say 15/1 is the magic ratio for hygiene.

Divide up the key worker children, then fill up the spaces with the rest

How you pick.... I've not a clue.

@Cantaloupeisland I do think this is something that hasn't been properly thought through.

Even if no other teachers are used to teach YR, 1 and 6, that's still a proportion of teachers lost from the rota of those looking after the key worker children, as well as reducing the space available for everyone.

Also, if most teachers are doing something in school, that means less support for those doing home learning.

We are a "hub" school at the moment, and because we have multiple primaries + secondary on site, we are able to offer a lot of flexibility to parents of key worker children and the primary kids are able to access computer rooms, sports facilities etc- I'm not sure what will happen to this, but it seems like the provision for these kids could be less good.

At PMQ's it sounded like Bojo had no idea. Said it will be phased and ' if' guided by the Science.

I actually think the hubs might stay short term- because it's easier to cover e.g. staff absence with staff from multiple schools.

I do think there's a potential here for the offer for key workers/their children in some places to actually get worse!

I reckon the hubs will go as schools will focus on sorting out own students. I reckon now that there will be a baby sitting rota with lessons remaining on-line so I may not even get to seen my Year 10 students

#solidaritywithprimary

Longtime lurking primary admin requesting to join you please. Trying to get my head round how the heck social distancing is going to take place with the first set of year groups never mind when the rest come back!

Thanks for your reply I'm down for a primary SCITT so in school from the very first TD day of term in September. I absolutely take on board what you say about anxiety and the forms it takes, have seen lots of challenging behaviour! I am a TA and have been going into school for odd days for key worker children, and expect to be back on the 1st so I guess the govt aren't that worried about me catching anything😉

My placement will be at a different school though. I can see that it might not be the most stable year to train. I would hope that the placement schools are absolutely sure they want a student and all that involves.

I need to hand my notice in next term (end July? End August? Not sure) so I do need to be sure.

I hadn’t really thought of it like that but yes I think keyworkers children really should be the priority. Their parents have had no choice but to go out and work and to trust schools to take care of them in a really stressful time. Those kids have had to deal with actual anxieties of their parents being at risk and strangeness of not normal school and potentially being cared for by people they don’t know.

Year 6’s, or rather their parents needing closure and parents wfh wanting childcare cannot trump the needs of keyworkers and their children. Also if more kids come in that puts kw kids at higher risk and they will be going home to infect kw like nhs who we desperately need to stay well a) so they can do essential work and b) so they don’t inadvertently infect vulnerable patients.

Having thought that through (maybe I’m slow but I hadn’t thought of it that way) the demands for schools to open to people who don’t even need them are hideously selfish

If we (infant school) have year one and reception in, that is the majority of our school.

We either...
... have them all in, spread across all classrooms, but we don’t actually have enough teachers now to do that.
... have eg ten in at a time With their YR/1 teachers but they are only in a couple of of days a week. This would mean the y2 teachers are at home setting work still for their classes, but any y1s who weren’t coming in, wouldn’t have any online learning as all the y1 teachers would be teaching full time.

Are we planning/teaching or is it childcare? Would we get PPA? Would we have to do breakfast and after school clubs? Would we do first aid/changing nappies? What about children who kick, spit and run? What about those that have separation anxiety and need removing sobbing from mum. Will we work all half term?

I really want to see the DfE guidance. Someone on twitter said it would be out at 4 but it isn’t.

I think the ranking would need to be along the lines of (in order of priority)

1. Parent was a key worker from get go
2. 'New' key workers (i.e. from yesterday)
3. The next batch of workers with a physical work place to go back to
4. Those who need childcare so they can wfh.
5. Those with a parent at home.

ASN I haven't a clue how we support. Generalisation alert but these children need routine and they won't be coming back to the one they expect and know. We all know how hard returning after summer is like. This will be far worse.

Those kids have had to deal with actual anxieties of their parents being at risk and strangeness of not normal school and potentially being cared for by people they don’t know.

Hear hear. The hub I am in is mostly vulnerable children with a small group of key worker children. When I was in last week, the KW children were fed up of the vulnerable ones and bored of social distancing activities. I felt really sorry for them (as I broke up fights and placated EBD boys).

Boris massively sidestepped the schools question!

I’m sure they’d much prefer being home with mum moss. Yet apparently the children of mn’ers are traumatised by a few weeks with their parents

There's a primary near us that has 38 kids in, they're not a hub these are their own students. As pp have said, if you need say three teachers looking after them to ensure social distancing in groups then those teachers can't teach any other year groups. What a bloody palaver!

And if we’re going to work out who’s potentially vulnerable and needing checking up on perhaps those with parents who can’t bear to look after their children in a pandemic need as to check in. Tongue in cheek-ish.

Yet apparently the children of mn’ers are traumatised by a few weeks with their parents

I thought it was the parents who were traumatised by being at home with their children.

Ss to check in not as. Bloody autocorrect

Are we planning/teaching or is it childcare? Would we get PPA? Would we have to do breakfast and after school clubs? Would we do first aid/changing nappies? What about children who kick, spit and run? What about those that have separation anxiety and need removing sobbing from mum. Will we work all half term?

I'm willing to give up planning and wouldn't mind not getting PPA, extraordinary circumstances etc. But I am not, in these circumstances, willing to be put up with being hit, spat at and kicked. I'm really not, and it's not like me.

I feel terribly sorry for the ones who will cry.

I've only been in the hub a few times but my behaviour has totally changed, I do shy away from them now. I've always been the type to take a hand or put my arm around them but I'm afraid to.

It's absolutely crazy to have the whole of primary in for a month. They haven't done that in any other country yet.

Unless he means half days an hour each?

Absolutely insane.