So how does shutting early for Christmas work?

[RiddledWithLaughter]

Just that really. Don't know a single school that is doing it. Mine certainly isn't.

I've heard that if we take it as an inset day now, we will lose one of the inset days later in the year, so it's just shuffling inset days round.

Is this right? Is so, why the fudge are they making out that it's something schools suddenly have the option of doing? Surely a school can change its own inset days anyway? Why is it even news? Other opinions seem to be that it's an extra inset day, in order to support us for Covid.

Anyone know which it is?

It's just shuffling. Inset previously had to be planned and calendared in advance so moving a day to 18th wasn't a possibility. Now government have made it a possibility by allowing schools to move inset at short notice.

It's not extra.

Thank you, that clarifies it.

This leads me onto my next question: what exactly is the benefit of shutting on Friday? It doesn't mean we will be clear of Covid by Christmas as self isolating is 10days. What am I not getting here?

It means HTs and SLT don't have to work Xmas eve as contact tracers. Which they would if the a phonecall from a positive test came in from the 18th.

Its a BS publicity exercise from the DfE.

DD’s school is doing it, mine are not. At least, they haven’t decided to yet. At the moment SLT are locked in offices telling everybody that there are to be no Christmas fun activities and that children must be kept focussed on their learning until the last day. I honestly don’t think some of SLT have actually seen a child this term as they are not taking assemblies.

I’m grateful as it means I won’t need to be tracking and tracing on Christmas Eve! The thought of making those calls to families to tell people to isolate on the 24th fills me with horror. The 23rd is almost as bad though.

Ahhhhh so it only benefits SLT? Gotcha. So if my school has decided to stay open, it doesn't affect me, as a teacher, in any way. I see now.

The newspaper headlines are ridiculous then! Thanks for clarifying!

It does affect teachers too but not to the same extent. At the school I'm at a positive in your class would mean a phone call for you to assist with contact tracing as you know what happened in your lesson.

My school aren't moving inset though, our insets are planned already and so moving would make things harder for teachers.