Returning in September- everyone?!

[NCTDN]

Really? So Gav has just said they will all be in full time from Sep by 'increasing the bubbles'. But if they are all in full time then surely there won't be any bubbles? Certainly none with any distancing.

Primary: what about playtime, eating lunch, arrival and departure, wraparound care, assembly, school play etc etc OP? What it must mean is chdn from different bubbles kept separate (or those things don't happen at all).

Secondary: impossible anyway because of GCSE and A level options!

I'm not a teacher. I am concered about how this would work in secondary schools. Surely the children carnt stay in class bubbles. My son mixes with at least 3 different groups of children during a normal school day.

The only way bubbles can work in primary is if they stay as a class of 30 with no meeting for assemblies. Staggered playtimes and lunchtimes. Surely staggered drop off and pick up otherwise lots of parents mixing in the playground?!

Secondary - I have no idea! I think they're hoping the schools/local authorities will come up with the ideas and the government will be off the hook

Why do I feel this announcement was all about keeping parents quiet and not at all about schools being able to plan ahead?!

Obviously no social distancing inside the classroom either as there isn't space.

All I heard during his speech was blah blah blah billions blah blah blah investment blah blah blah billions.

Did he actually say anything of any practical use to help the teaching profession plan for the summer or September ?

Intention to is a subtle but important word.

Boris said it was his ambition to.

It's so the parents have a glimmer of hope over the summer.

As I’ve said on other threads, this is going to be v difficult to staff. What about the extremely vulnerable/clinically extremely vulnerable? Will they need to return? If not, will the government be funding schools their salaries so heads can find replacements? If so, that needs to happen NOW, so we can advertise.

If neither of those things happen, we don’t have enough staff. We will only be able to open on a part time rota system.

What about breakfast/after school clubs as well. That’s a separate, ever changing bubble. Ours are also usually run by a couple of TAs and they are both currently shielding!

Did he actually say "all children, full-time?" I didn't think he did.

@callme

Interesting-I didn’t think he said that either but my mum was so adamant that he had, that she’d convinced me!

When I start thinking it though in my head, it's not going to be as normal and I can't see all in full time.

In our buildings, all staff and kids have to be off site by 3 I think for cleaning. Only Kw children are staying till then, the other yr groups go earlier. So longer days aren't going to happen.

Yes he said all year groups will be back full time in September.

I don't think it was "will be." My Dh picked up on that!

His exact words were:

"School is vital for every one of our children, that is why we will bring all children in all year groups back to school in September."

And

"Having opened schools to more pupils and set out our intention for a full return in September"

And

"Over the coming weeks we’ll publish further information and guidance to help schools prepare for a full return in September"

"we’ve already been very clear that we want to see all children in all classes returning full time to school in September, that’s what we’re working towards"

And

"absolutely signed up to the fact that we want to bring every child back in every year group in every school."

This was interesting:

"while we move to the position of making sure that every school is ready to be welcoming back children of all ages right across the spectrum into the classroom, we always have to make sure that we have proper, thoughtful and careful consideration for every single eventuality and I think that’s the right and proper way of doing it."

I think he was quite clever and didn't actually agree to anything at all. It's all about the intention without actually committing to anything and it's really frustrating as we are having to make lots of plans based on scenarios including no social distancing, social distancing to some extent and also reduced timetables but 5 days a week.

If we knew now, and not in 2 weeks it would be really helpful so we can actually get on with drawing up these plans.

As it is, we will prob have to work over the summer, adapting these as no doubt there will be changes to the guidance.

It's really really frustrating.

He was directly asked by a journalist if he meant full time. He replied 'yes, full time'. There may, of course , have been an aide screaming off set somewhere at him at that point...

Thanks @BertNErnie that's really helpful.

What do we think he meant by "every single eventuality"? Did he actually mean "every single scenario"?

we have proper, thoughtful and careful consideration for every single eventuality

Wondered if they've given careful consideration to teachers striking.

Wondered if they've given careful consideration to teachers striking

I can’t see this happening. Whilst the unions have been very vocal throughout, there’s been no talk about striking and no ballot.

Thanks @BertNErnie, that's helpful.

The thing is in a pandemic you can't make promises and you have to keep a balance or you shoot it yourself in the foot.

I'll await this guidance with anticipation, I'm sure we could all do with a laugh. (Black joke.)

The prep needs to be now not in two weeks.

Nothing useful to add, but my head's staff briefing made it clear this has come as a real surprise to him- the closest he's come to criticizing the government so far!

I do think that the DfE needs to be aware that teacher goodwill is starting to wear really, really thin and more surprise announcements + u-turns will just push more people towards leaving.

Given there's potentially going to be a shortage of NQTs coming through next year, and I can't really see people rushing to return to the profession right now, that's going to be a real problem!

That's interesting Sansa.