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Re-opening Schools?

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back on the other side
From bits I've picked up today i hear there is a plan to open Primary schools on 1st June? Is that correct?

Trade unions are against it
www.bbc.co.uk

'Not safe to reopen schools,' warn teachers' unions

Department for Education's own scientist suggests virus might not spread less among children.
www.bbc.co.uk

I hear that parts of the right are attacking teachers for not wanting to go back - I havent see this with my own eyes.

I saw this in a Reel News email:

"Angry and frightened parents are planning to boycott plans to reopen schools in the UK on June 1. Concern is growing over the jaw-dropping announcement from the government, with teachers and parents pointing out the impossibility of social distancing in schools. On top of that, 43 teachers have already died up to April 20th from teaching children of key workers in much emptier schools.

There is clearly no plan whatsoever - and no answer to the "Five tests" that the National Education Union has put forward. Healthworkers have also joined the outcry against this deeply irresponsible decision, saying it will be "disastrous" to end the lockdown this early.

So now parents are refusing to send their children back to school, and have called a zoom meeting tomorrow (Thursday May 14th) at 8:15pm to get organised. Everyone welcome, whether you're a parent, a member of staff in a school or a member of the community - schools reopening will directly endanger everyone's health.

Join the Facebook event here:

Register here: Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: No going back before its safe. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
And sign the NEU petition here: Open schools only when it is safe


---

Ive also heard that its voluntary for parents to send their kids back?

Sorry lots of half heard things, can anyone add more? Curious what teachers and parents have heard.
 
Parents won't be fined for keeping kids off, and schools won't be sanctioned for low attendance figures.

ETA source: letter home from daughter's Academy Trust, plus education grapevine - me and Mrs SI both in FE
 
It'll be years one and six back at primary schools, with classes of 15 each isolated from the rest of the school.
 
Seems reasonably bonkers to me. Currently there's no question of us going back until september (uni). Although children don't seem to suffer as badly with COVID, there is no doubt that they can transmit it.
 
It's about 50/50 sending back and waiting from chat on class parents group. But, lots of the ones who want to wait are SAHM so obviously a lot easier.

I know a lot of key worker parents whose children have been attending throughout too.
 
Yup, entirely voluntary.

Mrs K - junior school SENCO - reckons she'll be in two days a week or so. Take up at the kids school (via the FB messenger group) looks to be about 35% at absolute maximum.
 
The place where I'm based is making plans to bring Y10 and 12 back on a very part time basis - 6ish hours a week, in small cohorts.

On the face of it there's not much we can provide on 6 hours a week that we can't do via Zoom or edmodo. But a number of our kids don't have access to a computer at home, lots are vulnerable in different ways, and if we can do it safely I think the contact with peers and their teachers will be so valuable.

Safety is a big thing though, and it remains to be seen whether the trust can satisfy staff that the plans will work. I also don't know how many students will likely attend. I suspect the ones we want to see are the ones less likely to come :(

My job can be done from home so I'm not worried in that respect myself.
 
The planning guidance released today for primary schools says that daily or weekly rotas for attendance shouldn't be used - which seems odd, as this is how many other countries are managing it.

Just in practical terms, my children's infant school has 6 classrooms, a nursery, library, club room, nurture room and a meeting room (so probably more 'spare' rooms than most schools!). On 1st June they're going to need two nursery classrooms, three reception classrooms and four Year 1 classrooms, plus a room for key worker kids, so will just fit. In July they'll need 4 more rooms for Year 2, and in September possibly another reception classroom and a 2 year old room. There aren't even rooms in the building for every class of max 15 children to have a classroom.
 
weepiper said:
Noise in Scotland is that our kids won't be going back til the start of the new school year at the earliest.
Click to expand...

When does the Scottish new year start, I understand it is not quite the same as the English & Welsh?

Follow up question, why is there a difference?
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
When does the Scottish new year start, I understand it is not quite the same as the English & Welsh?

Follow up question, why is there a difference?
Click to expand...

middle of august - usually break up late june.

interestingly, well - kind of - its different in northern England as well. they break up a bit (week or so?) earlier than us filthy southerners, and go back a bit earlier - but not as early as in Scotlandshire.
 
First big trade union fight here....RMT are in negotiations supposedly, see what the outcome is there next week
www.theguardian.com

Teachers can legally refuse to return over health risk, says union

Exclusive: NASUWT threatens legal action to defend teachers against forced restart on 1 June
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Teachers can legally refuse to return when schools reopen unless they get the same protections against coronavirus as other frontline staff, one of the UK’s leading teaching unions has warned.

In a letter to local authorities seen by the Guardian, the 300,000-strong NASUWT threatens to invoke legal action to defend teachers against being forced back into schools on 1 June because of the risk to their health.

The union’s letter marks a significant hardening against the government’s push to reopen primary schools in England from 1 June. It comes as one academy chain says it is aiming to invite pupils back on that date.

Signed by the NASUWT’s general secretary, Patrick Roach, the union threatens to delay that start date by forcing the government and local authorities to consider their legal obligations as a new obstacle to reopening.


The union says it has “fundamental concerns” about guidance issued by the government this week, saying it was inconsistent with guidance given to other workplaces, including care homes and the NHS.

“Stringent guidance has been issued for the NHS, for care homes and for employers across the UK. It is unacceptable that this has not been the case for schools,” it says.

“The NASUWT believes that teachers and other school staff have the right to the same consideration and protections, and to be confident that their health and welfare, as well as that of pupils, is at the heart of any planning for wider opening.”

The union said it had to warn local authorities as employers, and the government, that they risked legal action for “breach of duty of care and personal injury due to foreseeable risk, and any other legal recourse available” if efforts were made to force teachers into classrooms during the epidemic.

“The NASUWT recognises that schools and employers have been placed in a situation where the wrong decision will result in people becoming seriously ill and dying, and will therefore appreciate that there can be no compromise on health and safety.

“If this means that schools are unable to open safely before September, because they are unable to make arrangements to safeguard their staff and pupils, then that position must be accepted,” Roach said.
 
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kebabking said:
middle of august - usually break up late june.

interestingly, well - kind of - its different in northern England as well. they break up a bit (week or so?) earlier than us filthy southerners, and go back a bit earlier - but not as early as in Scotlandshire.
Click to expand...

Savages.
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
When does the Scottish new year start, I understand it is not quite the same as the English & Welsh?

Follow up question, why is there a difference?
Click to expand...
kebabking said:
middle of august - usually break up late june.

interestingly, well - kind of - its different in northern England as well. they break up a bit (week or so?) earlier than us filthy southerners, and go back a bit earlier - but not as early as in Scotlandshire.
Click to expand...
Generally break up for the summer last Friday in June and go back around the 18th of August.
I don't know why they're different tbh. Some sort of agricultural reason probably. But June/July generally have much nicer weather in Scotland than August does, as anyone who's been to the Edinburgh Festival will attest.
 
I work in a primary school for students with social, emotional and mental health issues.
Students have a wide range of behaviour issues including violence and spitting.

I am currently working in a local park with one of our kids to support him and his family and another in a school where we borrowed a class room.

There are sound reasons to try and get some children into school but there are an awful lot of questions that need asking and answering and a lot of staff, children and families who need reassuring.

  • Social distancing in schools is going to be a near impossibility.
  • In primary schools most children are brought and collected by adults so how will that work?
  • What about school staff with vulnerable family members?
  • What about school staff who sre vulnerable themselves.
  • How do you sterilise the equipment every day?
  • What do you do about children who display violent or aggressive behaviour to others?
  • Can you work with children while wearing face masks?
  • What about children who need to see facial expressions or need to lip read to understand things?
These are only some issues.

I do not think any one has all the answers so dialogue is needed but from the ratcheting up of the anti union rhetoric the media snd some politicians are desperate to simply csll school staff lazy.

There are demands that we should work through the summer holidays which ignores the fact that the summer holiday for many school staff is unpaid leave. Many of us are paid for 38 teaching weeks, 1 inset week (spread out over the year), and approx 7 weeks of annual leave and bank holidays which totals 46 weeks. Our pay for this 46 weeks is divided 12 so we get paid the same amount each month.
As an example, I am contracted for 32.5 hrs per week for 46 weeks a year but get paid for 28.75 hrs per week.

The working over the summer holidays also ignores that lots if not all staff have worked in one way or another over the past 7 weeks.

Sorry for such a rambling post but the bollocks being chatted about us in the media is really out of line ... to be expected but irritating non the less!
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Follow up question, why is there a difference?
Click to expand...
kebabking said:
interestingly, well - kind of - its different in northern England as well. they break up a bit (week or so?) earlier than us filthy southerners, and go back a bit earlier - but not as early as in Scotlandshire.
Click to expand...
weepiper said:
Some sort of agricultural reason probably.
Click to expand...

my understanding is that the long summer holiday was arranged to coincide with the hay-making season and in the end the authorities decided it would be easier to have it as the official holiday because so many kids buggered off anyway.

would that traditionally have happened a bit earlier in the summer further north?

don't remember hay-making being an opportunity in the summer holidays in 1970s lewisham
 
bimble said:
Ffs . This is crazy now, a notion from proper cult loonyland .
View attachment 212660
Click to expand...


C19 over the next year is going to throw up massive fights between unions and back to work governments - public probably have a lot of sympathy with workers in these circumstances ... people signing up to unions left right and centre... biggest unions battle since the miners strike coming?
Right wing press have a got a serious job to do here to undermine that movement
 
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Oh well never mind, vote Labour
David Blunkett Lambasts Teaching Unions Over Opposition To Schools Reopening
Some Labour MPs such as Barry Sheerman have also criticised unions for their stance in recent days, and Blunkett let rip at shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey.

“It’s about an attitude of mind... about whether we can work together to do it or whether we can work against it. I advise both teachers and their representatives and my front bench to work together to actually find a way of gradually from June 1 getting children back into school,” he said.
Click to expand...
 
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