How will schools be able to go back in September?

meeeeh · 17-06-2020 08:15PM

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Could you list who “ they are all” are?

Germany, Denmark,Austria, Slovenija, Czech Republic, Holland, Sweden was never off for young kids and so on. Majority of central Europe with exception of Italy I think. My nieces and nephew are all back in creche or school since beginning of May.

Unhelpfully those countries don't speak English so they probably don't count.

meeeeh · 17-06-2020 08:16PM

khalessi wrote: »

well you could read the thread it has been covered many times

But smaller classes hiring extra buildings, use of masks on kids and visors, social distancing, perspex on tables, taped out areas, bubbles of small groups of students, half class in, half weeks, one child per desk, 10 students per class for example lots of different approaches.

As far as I know full classes are back in Slovenia.

kandr10 · 17-06-2020 08:16PM

meeeeh wrote: »

How do other countries manage? Most of them are back.

Mostly by social distancing their already small classes. Also by not providing a full timetable. Some only allow certain year groups back or encourage parents who are essential workers to send their kids and others to stay home. Some are not schooling as such but providing a place for children to be minded essentially.

byhookorbycrook · 17-06-2020 08:17PM

Deeec wrote: »

Most schools are finishing up for the summer holidays next week and there are no plans in place for how they are going to reopen in September. Will school Principles be working over the summer to ensure all is in order to facilitate a September opening or will they return in the last few days in August and realize it is not possible to open schools due to lack of planning ahead.

As a parent this makes me feel very anxious!

There are no official guidelines, so once again , it falls to school staff . (“Bespoke,” me granny .)
We are already planning , despite DES help and the notion that a school magically closes to the staff and the end of June and somehow reopens on the first day of term is, frankly , hilarious!
School book rentals , moving rooms , handing over a class to the new teacher and a staff meeting happen every year before schools reopen .
This year , there will be a lot more behind the scenes work than ever . People believe the media “ 3 months “ off spin .

Deeec · 17-06-2020 08:18PM

Yosef Stocky Backspace wrote: »

The notion that principals would ever, even in normal times, simply shut up shop at the end of the school year and just saunter back in September is actually hilarious!

I dont know if you are being serious or are being sarcastic! Hopefully you are being serious - I just simply don't know how much Principles work over the summer. During lockdown myself and several other parents emailed our childrens school principle to complain about the lack of engagement/help from the school. Sadly none of us received a reply!

khalessi · 17-06-2020 08:19PM

meeeeh wrote: »

As far as I know full classes are back in Slovenia.

Could be but I am part of an international educatuonal fb group and that question was asked the other day and most people of the few hundred answers indicated back with restrictions.

No one back fully without some form of restriction.

iamwhoiam · 17-06-2020 08:19PM

khalessi wrote: »

well you could read the thread it has been covered many times

But smaller classes hiring extra buildings, use of masks on kids and visors, social distancing, perspex on tables, taped out areas, bubbles of small groups of students, half class in, half weeks, one child per desk, 10 students per class for example lots of different approaches.

Schools in Dortmund have returned with no masks , no social distancing and classes as normal

meeeeh · 17-06-2020 08:20PM

kandr10 wrote: »

Mostly by social distancing their already small classes.

Do you really think Ireland is the only country with large class sizes?

meeeeh · 17-06-2020 08:22PM

khalessi wrote: »

Could be but I am part of an international educatuonal fb group and that question was asked the other day and most people of the few hundred answers indicated back with restrictions.

No one back fully without some form of restriction.

Yes they enter the school through different doors, they stay in the same classroom. You move classrooms for different subjects there normally since 5th class in primary (9 years in total) and all of secondary. Classes are not allowed to mix but that doesn't mean they are not back full time.

Deeec · 17-06-2020 08:23PM

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

There are no official guidelines, so once again , it falls to school staff . (“Bespoke,” me granny .)
We are already planning , despite DES help and the notion that a school magically closes to the staff and the end of June and somehow reopens on the first day of term is, frankly , hilarious!
School book rentals , moving rooms , handing over a class to the new teacher and a staff meeting happen every year before schools reopen .
This year , there will be a lot more behind the scenes work than ever . People believe the media “ 3 months “ off spin .

I hope you are right. My sister in law is a primary school teacher and she usually goes back to school for meetings/settin up classroom the day before the children start back - this is why I am very sceptical that schools will have plans in place in time for September.

khalessi · 17-06-2020 08:28PM

meeeeh wrote: »

Yes they enter the school through different doors, they stay in the same classroom. You move classrooms for different subjects there normally since 5th class in primary (9 years in total) and all of secondary. Classes are not allowed to mix but that doesn't mean they are not back full time.

So as I said they have implemented changes that werent there previously. No school has reopened without health and safety paramount except Ireland as we will see

iamwhoiam · 17-06-2020 08:32PM

I just watched a Nationwide programme on Waterford University Hospital and its response to Covid . The staff stepped up and re trained and pulled together . The went out of their comfort zones ( ie orthopaedic surgeons training to look after ventilated patients )
I really hope that teachers are given the opportunity and the training to step up and re think and get schools ready
Then who better to know their school, their pupils and their own abilities .
Kids and parents are relying on them but they need to be given the opportunity to do that and use their skills as best they can

meeeeh · 17-06-2020 08:38PM

khalessi wrote: »

So as I said they have implemented changes that werent there previously. No school has reopened without health and safety paramount except Ireland as we will see

I'm not defending Department because they were dreadful but if you are looking for the gradual reopening others did schools should reopen in June. Ireland bought itself 3-4 extra months with not reopening as early as other countries (May probably would be too early in my opinion but June wouldbe ok). Department and schools have 2 months to come up with the plan but you are complaining about having to go back in September which is two and a half months away and not having enough time to prepare.

Many countries went into lock down around middle of March and were back to school in May. They were out in total about 2 months and tgey managed to sort out what to do and how to do things. Are you saying more than 5 months isn't enough time in Ireland?

khalessi · 17-06-2020 08:39PM

iamwhoiam wrote: »

I just watched a Nationwide programme on Waterford University Hospital and its response to Covid . The staff stepped up and re trained and pulled together . The went out of their comfort zones ( ie orthopaedic surgeons training to look after ventilated patients )
I really hope that teachers are given the opportunity and the training to step up and re think and get schools ready
Then who better to know their school, their pupils and their own abilities .
Kids and parents are relying on them but they need to be given the opportunity to do that and use their skills as best they can

Seriously cant wait to step up have been sitting arse getting bedsores for last three months. I do think it lovely that the staff of said hospital stepped up and did their country proud in extra PPE and following training.

I have had no training and kept my end of things going.

When will parents step up and realise the farce so far schools have had to go through just to get hand sanitizer. These are your kids, children that you love and going by what is on here ye are quite happy to dump them in buildings not cleaned properly, some not fit for purpose pre covid because somebody said it was ok.

Yes I get the fact that schools are regarded as babysitter Ive accepted that grudingly but come on. These are your children do you not want them to be safe?

khalessi · 17-06-2020 08:42PM

meeeeh wrote: »

I'm not defending Department because they were dreadful but if you are looking for the gradual reopening others did schools should reopen in June. Ireland bought itself 3-4 extra months with not reopening as early as other countries (May probably would be too early in my opinion but June wouldbe ok). Department and schools have 2 months to come up with the plan but you are complaining about having to go back in September which is two and a half months away.

I am not complaining I am pointing out tha tyes we have had time and the Department has done nothing with it. Education is a beaucratic machine and in a time where they should act the Department is sitting on its ass while parents blame teachers.

I think it is awful that in the best of times parents have to pay for toilet roll and heating in schools and now in a pandemic they dont seem to care. It is sad that I want the best for my children going back to school, a different one to where I teach and others just say meh

iamwhoiam · 17-06-2020 08:45PM

khalessi wrote: »

Seriously cant wait to step have been sitting arse getting bedsores for last three months. I don think it lovely that the staff of said hospital stepped up and did their country proud in extra PPE and following training.

I have had no training and kept my end of things going.

When will parents step up and realise the farce so far schools have had to go through just to get hand sanitizer. These are your kids, children that you love and going by what is on here ye are quite happy to dump them in buildings not cleaned properly, some not fit for purpose pre covid because somebody said it was ok.

Yes I get the fact that schools are regarded as babysitter Ive accepted that grudingly but come on. These are your children do you not want them to be safe?

Why are you replying to me and referring to “ dumping children in schools “ ?
I am not a parent of school going children but I do object to your put down of parents actually as I know most parents far from dump their children and run . You seem to be very critical of parents for some reason
?
The

Do you ever read anything positive or usefull from any of my posts ? Or just nit pick and find fault . ?

meeeeh · 17-06-2020 08:46PM

khalessi wrote: »

Yes I get the fact that schools are regarded as babysitter Ive accepted that grudingly but come on. These are your children do you not want them to be safe?

Our children will be fine. All the statistics show they are vby far least affected by Corona yet they seem to be disproportionately isolated from the rest of the world. Do we have to sacrifice their social development because some think reopening the schools would be too hard.

khalessi · 17-06-2020 08:49PM

meeeeh wrote: »

Our children will be fine. All the statistics show they are vby far least affected by Corona yet they seem to be disproportionately isolated from the rest of the world. Do we have to sacrifice their social development because some think reopening the schools would be too hard.

Well everybody is thinking of the children and yes schools will reoopen at the end of August. It interesting that a couple of weeks after social restrictions were dropped 30 children under 14 not a grand amount ended up in hospital with covid19 and 2 in ICU.

So statistically yes indeed they might but having a cleaner school as other countries have found and are doing will help more.

khalessi · 17-06-2020 08:52PM

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Why are you replying to me and referring to “ dumping children in schools “ ?
I am not a parent of school going children but I do object to your put down of parents actually as I know most parents far from dump their children and run . You seem to be very critical of parents for some reason
?
The

Do you ever read anything positive or usefull from any of my posts ? Or just nit pick and find fault . ?

I responded to your comment on training and basically as I have said the comments on various threads boards including this one over the last few months, I totally understand where people are coming from re education and social deprevation as I have children and have seen it. But schools are also workplaces that legally have to be safe.

firemansam4 · 17-06-2020 08:53PM

meeeeh wrote:

Our children will be fine. All the statistics show they are vby far least affected by Corona yet they seem to be disproportionately isolated from the rest of the world. Do we have to sacrifice their social development because some think reopening the schools would be too hard.

Very low risk to children, you are probably putting your child in more danger by driving them down the road in a car.

Yet you actually have some parents who say they will refuse to send there kids to school in September because its too dangerous...

Having said that there should be more commitments made by the department for things like providing extra sanitiser and cleaning ect.

Deeec · 17-06-2020 08:54PM

I think parents need to stop blaming teachers and teachers need to stop blaming parents. We all need to work together on this. It is the Department of Educations responsibility. It is a given ( except in another lockdown scenario) that teachers will be going back to school in September 5 days per week. Children however may not be returning 5 days per week.

This poses problems for parents and for teachers on how to best homeschool. During lockdown some schools have been great on this - some schools have not done well on this. As a parent I would love a plan ( standard across every school) to be put in place sooner rather than later so I can plan ahead to facilitate this.

iamwhoiam · 17-06-2020 08:56PM

khalessi wrote: »

I responded to your comment on training and basically as I have said the comments on various threads boards including this one over the last few months, I totally understand where people are coming from re education and social deprevation as I have children and have seen it. But schools are also workplaces that legally have to be safe.

My comment that hoped all teachers would be given opportunities to train and given help to manage ? That brought a reply that parents dump their kids ? An odd reply to my post that was hoping teachers could get training on how to deal with things ?

Mrsmum · 17-06-2020 09:10PM

I think remote learning, which in lots of cases meant no learning, was something we could tolerate from March to May/June because well everyone was thrown in at the deep end and it was enough to just keep afloat considering all the individual difficulties people were dealing with. We're alot further down the road now & we know we have to live alongside this virus and that means workers who need to be physically present to do their jobs need to go back working and that our children need a proper full time education.
Being very blunt about it, for all hospital staff, from doctors to cleaners, our starting point was patients must be cared for, for grocery stores & haulage companies our starting point was food (& toilet paper)needed to be available to buy, for gardai, that we needed them out there, for bus drivers, that transport was essential and so forth. And from that starting point, whatever was required to the best of our ability was provided for the employees. We even sent a call out for medical personnel to come home from abroad and converted hotels into hospitals. We had huge plane loads of PPE flown in from China.
So now I think the time is nigh to be getting real about education. We need to be approaching the school issue that all students, except the vulnerable, need to go back full time in Sept. That this is as necessary as carers in nursing homes and food in the shops. Our children's education should not be way down the priority line. The Government and D of Ed need a kick up the backside. They need to stop tinkering around with this and start spending money doing whatever it takes. Because this remote/blended learning is codology and utterly failing our children.

firemansam4 · 17-06-2020 09:18PM

Mrsmum wrote:

I think remote learning, which in lots of cases meant no learning, was something we could tolerate from March to May/June because well everyone was thrown in at the deep end and it was enough to just keep afloat considering all the individual difficulties people were dealing with. We're alot further down the road now & we know we have to live alongside this virus and that means workers who need to be physically present to do their jobs need to go back working and that our children need a proper full time education. Being very blunt about it, for all hospital staff, from doctors to cleaners, our starting point was patients must be cared for, for grocery stores & haulage companies our starting point was food (& toilet paper)needed to be available to buy, for gardai, that we needed them out there, for bus drivers, that transport was essential and so forth. And from that starting point, whatever was required to the best of our ability was provided for the employees. We even sent a call out for medical personnel to come home from abroad and converted hotels into hospitals. We had huge plane loads of PPE flown in from China. So now I think the time is nigh to be getting real about education. We need to be approaching the school issue that all students, except the vulnerable, need to go back full time in Sept. That this is as necessary as carers in nursing homes and food in the shops. Our children's education should not be way down the priority line. The Government and D of Ed need a kick up the backside. They need to stop tinkering around with this and start spending money doing whatever it takes. Because this remote/blended learning is codology and utterly failing our children.

Exactly, well said...

Murple · 17-06-2020 09:41PM

iamwhoiam wrote: »

My comment that hoped all teachers would be given opportunities to train and given help to manage ? That brought a reply that parents dump their kids ? An odd reply to my post that was hoping teachers could get training on how to deal with things ?

Can I ask you what training you think should be given on ‘how to deal with things’?

byhookorbycrook · 17-06-2020 09:43PM

khalessi wrote: »

well you could read the thread it has been covered many times

But smaller classes hiring extra buildings, use of masks on kids and visors, social distancing, perspex on tables, taped out areas, bubbles of small groups of students, half class in, half weeks, one child per desk, 10 students per class for example lots of different approaches.

Except none of those will apply here .

byhookorbycrook · 17-06-2020 09:45PM

Deeec wrote: »

I dont know if you are being serious or are being sarcastic! Hopefully you are being serious - I just simply don't know how much Principles work over the summer. During lockdown myself and several other parents emailed our childrens school principle to complain about the lack of engagement/help from the school. Sadly none of us received a reply!

There is a process in place for this ( it was sent out by the DES ten weeks in .) I’d suggest you follow this as it’s certainly not the norm in most schools and those schools drag the rest of us down.

jrosen · 17-06-2020 09:48PM

What training do you feel you need? Im aware of some businesses who are offering a return to work covid training, but I also know others are not. I have not had any formal training either.

Im actually not worried about my children, they are strong healthy children with no underlying conditions. I have no more reason to be worried about them retuning to school this year than any other year.

iamwhoiam · 17-06-2020 09:48PM

Murple wrote: »

Can I ask you what training you think should be given on ‘how to deal with things’?

Training in how to cope with stressed children . Training in how to deal with anxiety in childen . Training in recognising symptoms or how to deal with a suspected case of Covid . Training in teaching children to cope with a different school experience if need be .
Etc etc

byhookorbycrook · 17-06-2020 09:49PM

meeeeh wrote: »

Our children will be fine. All the statistics show they are vby far least affected by Corona yet they seem to be disproportionately isolated from the rest of the world. Do we have to sacrifice their social development because some think reopening the schools would be too hard.

Children with underlying conditions need to be thought about . Children spread Covid as well as adults do, we need to be thinking in terms of the children with health issues , the school staff and the wider school community such as parents and grandparents .
Socially , children can now visit playgrounds and also interact with their peers , so that’s a start

How will schools be able to go back in September?

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