How will they staff schools if teachers need to isolate when they get ill?

[ThereWillBeAdequateFood]

I’m not actually a teacher yet (trainee).

But I’ve been wondering, one day when schools are back in some form or other - how will the headteacher staff their school?

All the teachers I’ve worked with get cold after cold. 98% of the time they just power through (maybe change their lesson to one that will save their voice a bit).

But will Covid teachers will have to go home when they get virus symptoms. Sometimes it will be Covid, a lot of the time it will be something else.

How the hell are schools going to safely staff their schools?

I was hoping for a normal (ish) NQT year. But 2020/2021 is going to be a nightmare. Sorry to have a whine, just feeling a little worried about next year.

They won't. There will be plenty of work on supply for the foreseeable. For those who will brave it...

From the guidance it looks like the tests will be available and if anyone tests positive then the class needs to stay home for 14 days. That will mean fewer children that need teaching as well as fewer teachers.

In theory you’d only be off for a couple of days because you’d get a test and if it is negative you’d go back to work.

They are going to test us and have our results back within 24 hours, enabling our swift return to school.

cough bullshit

That is the million-dollar question. Supply teachers will be able to state their terms, some recently retired teachers may come back but it all depends upon the type of school. I reckon there will still be a lot of online stuff for secondary. So an entire mish-mash of things but everyone involved will still need to have their DBS checks.

The school hall and theatre maybe be used for lecture-type lessons.

They have said the 'small groups' can be led by TAs. Teachers no longer necessary.

Not being funny but I think Education is doomed for a while. Imagine an OFSTED inspector doing class drop-ins during inspection looking for rapid and sustained progress

From the guidance it looks like the tests will be available and if anyone tests positive then the class needs to stay home for 14 days. That will mean fewer children that need teaching as well as fewer teachers

If the testing is rolled out properly (big fucking if with this government). I guess they would test the teachers before the kids. So teachers return to work but kids still off.

I honestly don’t know how we are meant to cover the whole curriculum (I’m science) with huge chunks of the pupils absent for days on end.

I'm really hoping that they use supply, otherwise I am completely stuffed.

Hey, I'm science too and a NQT- I think it's totally normal to feel worried, and I doubt you will have a normal NQT (sorry!).

I honestly don’t know how we are meant to cover the whole curriculum (I’m science) with huge chunks of the pupils absent for days on end.

On this point, it will obviously depend on your school, but we have already pretty much accepted that we won't be able to cover the full curriculum for students who aren't doing any home learning. For the content they are covering right now, this will be it, bar, maybe some revision lessons next year if they are lucky.

It's likely that if children are off we'll have to expect them to keep covering some content at home- and if they are too ill/unable to do this then that bit just won't get covered (for the current Y10 at least). Obviously this is an awful situation to be in, but the science curriculum is very full- we usually have about a half term for revision left over, but next year I fully expect this will all be used to re-teach content people have missed.

My Y10s are aware of this, and most of them are working really hard at home.

It will be stressful, but hopefully as an NQT you'll have 1 Y11 class max, and grade boundaries will be through the floor.