Here is my open blog to the government, and in particular Mr Hancock and Mr Williamson.
Using the words "I think..." is not good enough when talking about the safety of our children and our school staff. During a conversation with Holly and Phil on This Morning, Mr Hancock said the following:
1. "We wouldn't be proposing this if we didn't think children were going to be safe"
Didn't think? I want to see actual proof that you know children will be safe.
2. We think that so long as the rate of new cases keeps coming down, we think that it's OK to make this small change in the first place"
Again - you think this is OK? How do you know? Please share the proof.
I would also like to remind you, that you are also the government that said it was very unlikely that people in care homes would be affected by the virus. I am sorry if I am little wary of your science.
This was followed up by the Chief Scientific Adviser to the DfE, Osama Rahman, saying that he agrees that we are possibly putting together lots of children who can potentially spread the disease and that he has not assessed how effectively school reopening plans can be implemented. This was later clarified (or corrected after a telling off) by a letter saying he did not mean what he said. This is extremely concerning and this evidence should be made publicly available before schools open their doors for even more children.
This moves me onto the advice and guidance (and I use those words in the loosest sense of their meaning) which is nothing but shoddy and contradictory. Let's see what the government expect us to do.
1. Open schools for Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 6. There has been no justification for the selection of these year groups. Social distancing will be impossible with these year groups, and this has been admitted in the guidance. These are also the year groups that like to pick their noses, put their hands in their mouths, lick their teacher, eat play dough and need additional care when toileting. Sounds sensible to me; what on earth can go wrong?
2. We have to remove all soft furnishing and resources that cannot be cleaned easily. Well that makes bringing the Early Years and Year 1 children back to school a sensible idea. The whole curriculum is based on play, interactions and sharing resources. Do the government think that we sit primary children behind desks all day and they will be fine? I am worried that this will have an extremely detrimental impact upon the children - it will turn them off school, it will scare them, and will make them worry about school in the future.
3. We do not need PPE. See point one. Children are well know germ spreaders because of a number of reasons, but particularly poor personal hygiene. Good luck adults in school!
4. Limit class sizes to 15. Ok Einstein, great idea. I have 4 classrooms in my school. In each of these rooms I can fit a maximum of 8 within the 2 meter guidelines. If I split my children into classes of 15 (which isn't safe, so I would have to do 8s), I would need 16 classrooms . How does that work? Oh, the simple maths also shows if you halve class sizes, you need double the number of staff. Where can I find these?
5. We have an ambition to bring all primary children back for a month. Are you kidding me? That means we will have two weeks of the smaller numbers then you expect us to double it? That is not what I would call a gradual re-opening of schools. You are deluded!
6. Your first point in the guidance - make a risk assessment. Thank you for that, I would never of thought of doing that without your superb guidance.
The fact that your guidance left me with a list of 20 unanswered questions shows that it wasn't really well thought through. I asked my three year old to type the next set of DfE guidance, and to honest, I think this is just about as useful as your first attempt.
My next gripe comes to you Mr Williamson. How dare you accuse school unions, leaders and teachers of scaremongering. Our unions are speaking for us based on surveys of their members. We are not scaremongering, we have real and significant concerns about our children, staff and families. That was a despicable comment, and was clearly used to make newspaper headlines against us. We have noticed the steady stream of negative headlines about us, from calling us the blob, to cowards, to work shy. This is not good enough. Your job as the Secretary of State is to protect us, support us, encourage us and yes, praise us for the job we are doing. I do not feel any of that from you.
The teaching profession in this country have stepped up the plate magnificently. We have turned around our education provision within 48 hours to provide online learning, communications with parents, providing Free School Meals to the most needy (despite your pathetic efforts to hinder us), provide a safe space for key worker children, helped to keep our communities safe, made PPE for hospitals, continued to safeguard children, and plan for the next phase. This is what should be in the news, not you trying to set us up to take the fall when people cannot get back to work because "schools are being unreasonable". I tell what is unreasonable - me and many other dedicated teachers socially isolating from their own families to keep them safe. Would you do this? I have not cuddled my toddler or my wife for 10 weeks and it breaks my heart!
You also made a comment about some form of summer school. What planet are you on? Schools will not open for the summer, we will not be able to bring back "an army of retired teacher" and you should stop promising things which will not happen. All it does is heap more pressure on schools to provide the impossible and build parental expectations.
I would also like you to call wider school opening for what it is. For you say that it is about education is farcical; it is about the economy and getting people back to work. We will not be educating the children who come back through our doors in the traditional sense. We will be working on their emotional and mental health, we will be reconnecting with them, we will be supporting them to make social connections. Unfortunately, this will be against a backdrop of a building and system that will not allow this to happen. Children will be excited to come back, but will pretty soon be terrified and worried when they are not allowed to play with their friends, not allowed to hug their teacher, stay 2 meters apart from everybody, have their skin on their hands removed from over washing and placed into isolation if they cough.
We know we have to do our bit, and I know you take us for granted because we do always step up to the plate. You know we raise our concerns in a professional and courteous way, we get ignored then make the best of a bad situation because we have a core moral purpose of supporting and caring for children. I do not think this will happen this time. There is too much at stake, and you had better be prepared to step up and say sorry to anybody that loses a member of their family because of your decisions, and don't you dare even try to blame the school for not doing enough.
I implore you both to engage in discussions with the unions, listen to our concerns and work with us, not against us. I know you won't change your minds, it is not what your government do, but please just slow down for everybody's sake.
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