The pledge
Vital Reserves Team
I see a lot of friends with children posting on facebook about whether they should send their children back to school, so as a Primary School Headteacher I thought it might be worth sharing my thoughts.
First of all teachers and Headteachers will do everything they can to make their schools as safe as possible. No one goes into teaching for the pay, the work life balance or the holidays, if they did they wouldn't still be in the job. Teachers go into the profession because they care about children, your children. But as much as they care about your children they cannot make it 100% safe. The government guidelines sent to us at 8:17pm on Monday evening are lengthy, at times contradictory and in many places impractical.
To give one simple example of their impracticality, I have 20 classes in my School and 20 classrooms. I could repurpose two other rooms as classrooms, possibly three. At the beginning of June I am supposed to take in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, so 50% of children plus vulnerable and Key worker children in other year groups. They have to be in classes of no more than 15 children, so each class is split in half. I therefore need 20 classrooms plus one additional one for vulnerable and key worker children. 21 classrooms needed 23 available, so that's doable. By July I'm supposed to have all year groups back but taught in groups of 15, therefore I need 40 classrooms. So come July either all the children won't be back, or they will be taught in classes of 30 or I will have to build 17 new classrooms in less than 2 months. That's just the practical building problem, I've not even started on trying to staff it! So, schools will do everything possible to try to make things as safe as possible, but it wont be 'safe', and they won't be able to follow all the Government guidelines,
How safe will it be then? The simple answer is I don't know, I'm not a health professional or even a virologist, I was trained to teach children how to read, write, add up and take away! But I have been to Tesco once a week over the last 7 weeks. I've queued patiently outside, had my trolley wiped before I went in, followed the arrows on the floor and kept 2m away from anyone else . Yet I still try to spend as little time there as possible. That level of calm and social distancing is something I will aspire to in school, but is something I don't think it is possible to attain, or to be perfectly honest, get anywhere near. Children will not social distance, they will hug each other, they will play with each other, they will touch each other, and everything in the classroom, corridors, toilets, playgrounds etc. So ask yourself this question. If you could take your children to the supermarket with you at the moment would you do it? And if you would, would you be happy to stay in there several hours with them? If the answer is yes to both of those questions think about sending your child into school (but do genuinely think about it, school will not be as safe as the supermarket). If the answer is no to either question, don't even think about it.
Finally, trust the teachers and the Headteacher at your child's school. They care about your child and have their best interests at heart. If they say something is not possible, even if the school down the road is doing it, it's not possible. They will have thought through all options and there will be genuine reasons why they have taken the decisions they have, and they may not be able to share those reasons with you. Trust them, back them and support them, they will be doing the best they possibly can for your child.
again taken from a virus support group
First of all teachers and Headteachers will do everything they can to make their schools as safe as possible. No one goes into teaching for the pay, the work life balance or the holidays, if they did they wouldn't still be in the job. Teachers go into the profession because they care about children, your children. But as much as they care about your children they cannot make it 100% safe. The government guidelines sent to us at 8:17pm on Monday evening are lengthy, at times contradictory and in many places impractical.
To give one simple example of their impracticality, I have 20 classes in my School and 20 classrooms. I could repurpose two other rooms as classrooms, possibly three. At the beginning of June I am supposed to take in Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6, so 50% of children plus vulnerable and Key worker children in other year groups. They have to be in classes of no more than 15 children, so each class is split in half. I therefore need 20 classrooms plus one additional one for vulnerable and key worker children. 21 classrooms needed 23 available, so that's doable. By July I'm supposed to have all year groups back but taught in groups of 15, therefore I need 40 classrooms. So come July either all the children won't be back, or they will be taught in classes of 30 or I will have to build 17 new classrooms in less than 2 months. That's just the practical building problem, I've not even started on trying to staff it! So, schools will do everything possible to try to make things as safe as possible, but it wont be 'safe', and they won't be able to follow all the Government guidelines,
How safe will it be then? The simple answer is I don't know, I'm not a health professional or even a virologist, I was trained to teach children how to read, write, add up and take away! But I have been to Tesco once a week over the last 7 weeks. I've queued patiently outside, had my trolley wiped before I went in, followed the arrows on the floor and kept 2m away from anyone else . Yet I still try to spend as little time there as possible. That level of calm and social distancing is something I will aspire to in school, but is something I don't think it is possible to attain, or to be perfectly honest, get anywhere near. Children will not social distance, they will hug each other, they will play with each other, they will touch each other, and everything in the classroom, corridors, toilets, playgrounds etc. So ask yourself this question. If you could take your children to the supermarket with you at the moment would you do it? And if you would, would you be happy to stay in there several hours with them? If the answer is yes to both of those questions think about sending your child into school (but do genuinely think about it, school will not be as safe as the supermarket). If the answer is no to either question, don't even think about it.
Finally, trust the teachers and the Headteacher at your child's school. They care about your child and have their best interests at heart. If they say something is not possible, even if the school down the road is doing it, it's not possible. They will have thought through all options and there will be genuine reasons why they have taken the decisions they have, and they may not be able to share those reasons with you. Trust them, back them and support them, they will be doing the best they possibly can for your child.
again taken from a virus support group
