Sure, I'm not disputing any of that
@Simbindi, but it would be useful to understand who was advising the govt if head teachers are not being heard.
Unless we can get the people who really do know what's going on and how to organize it heard then the chaos continues.
It does seem that some schools have either had extra input or been more proactive - possibly to do with being in a bigger metropolitan area like London or just they've taken the initiative themselves. One of my husband's colleagues had to provide proof of key worker status from his employer last week.
So there are differences for whatever reason.
I think differences in schools will depend on how they are already affected, staffing numbers, parental attitudes, social and economic differences etc. I know that in my daughter's school, if they had sent out the letter asking for key worker information early (before Thursday) then they would have created a very bad situation amongst parents. They had to wait until the government made an official announcement before telling parents or students anything.
Additionally, some headteachers and school leaders are much more supportive of their staff than are others. Some heads will speak out publicly and prioritise the welfare of all their staff, sadly others don't take this approach. My daughter is lucky in this regard - she started in a new, very supportive school this September (her first job with a leadership role) but has left 2 schools because of the lack of support shown to staff by the senior leadership team (as opposed to her department head). Each time she left, she was upset at leaving her students, but had to consider her own welfare. It's very hard to explain this to people, but so much about a school depends on senior leadership and how much they listen to normal staff and support them in their teaching and classroom behaviour management. What these leaders say publicly may not reflect the feelings of the rest of the school staff. This is one of the main reasons teacher retention is so bad in the UK, even more so with the pressures of league tables and OFSTED ratings being prioritised.
My daughter's school had planned ahead, but this was on expectation they were to provide a service for normal school hours only, for a maximum of 10% of the school roll (any more and the closure of the school isn't going to help stop the virus spreading) and for most staff to be able to work from home, delivering lessons online. They were well prepared if things had gone as they had expected them to go, with all staff having filled in forms specifying health problems and caring responsibilities etc.
School systems do have the information about parental jobs and electronic means of contact on their system, but these details are often incorrect because the parents don't keep them up to date.Obviously, there was no time to audit this data and predict how many students would likely be eligible to come to school (and parents might still opt to keep their kids at home even if a key worker).
I don't think headteachers were expecting to be told that they would be forced (legislated) to keep their school open, whatever the circumstances or staffing levels, during school holidays and for greatly extended hours (way outside even normal school breakfast and after school club hours), especially as they had been warning that this would be counter-productive in terms of the need for people to practice social distancing and with so many staff needing to self-isolate.
I have been thinking more about this, and if schools are to provide a more informal childcare service (rather than a skeleton staffed educational environment) they absolutely must ensure that parents and children/young people sign a new bespoke 'behavioural contract' if they want to keep their child's place (schools have lengthy school-student contracts already, but these are obviously written to be adhered to in a structured educational setting where kids are only at school for 7-8 hours maximum). If the child or student refuses to behave, they must lose their place because their will be no support or structures in place to deal with them. Being at school in this current situation must be understood to be a privilege, not a right, by both parents and students.
I know the head teacher union was involved in the talks about closing schools and how to help key workers keep working, and the need to keep vulnerable children safe. It appears they did voice their concerns about various proposals and the draft crisis legislation. There is no way the unions would have agreed to what is now being expected of teachers and support staff, and normal teachers certainly weren't asked to contribute to the discussion. But ultimately, it was/is a government decision.
Another problem with getting the 'extended service' idea to work (even if they accept it is beyond current school staff members to manage) is the lack of sufficient formal youth services. I have a certificate with an 5 star outstanding rating from OFSTED for Somerset Youth Services, which they gave to all the youth workers at the time of the last assessment (about 13 years ago). Now that service no longer exists and most of the county's voluntary youth services have had to shut down due to not being able to raise sufficient funds. I know youth workers who tried to continue to work unpaid, but the demands of the job centre prevented them from doing so. It has been heart-breaking to watch the demise of young people's service both locally and nationally. Just this year, my council cut the funding and was closing down its 'Young Carers' service, as it wasn't a 'statutory service' (i.e the LA isn't required by law to support young carers).
From what I've seen, the discussion about keeping schools open didn't consider the potential problems of children's behaviour in a non-educational/non classroom environment, and only teachers were involved in the discussions, not youth workers who would have highlighted this. I know a few teachers who are also youth workers. but they are a rarity. Most youth workers have lost their jobs and have had to go into completely different work. But there are still experienced youth workers 'in retirement' that could be asked to come back to help. However, it may well have been that the headteachers did raise this issue of managing behaviour and maybe this will come out in public over the coming weeks.
I think the behavioural problems will only start becoming apparent to teachers once the new system starts, and as I've said, things may work out differently in different schools. Every school is unique and each has their own strengths, weaknesses and 'feel'. Even my daughter hasn't really thought about this in any depth, although she had to deal with some pretty bad behaviour from some of her Year 11 groups when they realised schools were closing (but before it was announced that teachers would be grading their GCSEs...). She is still in shock that she is now expected to be a child-minder rather than a teacher and the unrealistic expectations teachers (and other school staff) are having thrown at them, with no regard to their mental and physical health.
She says she will be going into school on Monday, the school will see who turns up, and then they will have to come up with The Plan. But obviously, the next day may very well be completely different!
