Pregnancy And Parenting

[Bairnardo]

Havent heard about primary school.uet but Falkirk council sent out a preference vote for nursery for whether you want the start or end of the week, for 2.5 days.

Has anyone had word from their child’s school about how they plan to work things in August? A friend of mine has been told that her son will be in 2 days/week. I’m guessing that’ll be quite standard, although I’m kind of hoping we might get more as the class sizes in my daughter’s school are pretty small.
My partner and I both work full time. Not sure how we’ll work it if childcare facilities remain out of action.

[Honest Saints Fan]

This is from our local school today.

 

Dear Parents and Carers, I am writing to give you an outline of what our return to school in August might look like. Many of you will have some idea of what to expect through the media, but I thought I would give you an idea of what this means for us in and how we will meet the requirements of the Scottish Government guidance. The following ideas mainly apply to Primary 1-7, we are still awaiting some of the major details for nurseries. Like me, I am sure that you are looking forward to our return, but at the same time have uncertainties and anxieties about the way ahead. I would like to reassure you that we will continue to educate, care for and nurture your children, while at the same time working within the Government’s safety guidelines. As you would expect, we are required to put into place 2 metre social distancing. This has enormous implications for the running of the school. This means that it is not physically possible to have everyone in the building together and so children will be attending school part time. The Scottish Government refer to this mix of school and home learning as “blended” learning. My aim is to have all children in school for a minimum of 2 days a week. In order to make this happen we are going to need to be creative in our approach. It may be that some of our larger classes are taught in the gym hall and that other classes may have some children based at desks in secluded areas outwith the classroom. While this is not ideal, if we were to set up a system where all children are only taught in their “normal” classroom, this would mean that children in some classes only attending one day in three or four. I do not think that is an acceptable situation for our school. The school we return to will be the same, but also different. There will be a one way system around the school, it may be that we do not use the canteen for eating in, it may be that our normal entrance and exit systems change. Once we have managed to work our way through planning for these challenges, we will of course explain the details to you. You will all be keen to know which days your children will come to school and who their teacher will be. I am not yet in a position to tell you this and I will try to explain why. When making decisions about which children will be coming to school on which day, these are some of the factors which I have taken into account:

• all brothers and sisters should be in school on the same day

• the new primary one children should be in a group with at least one other person from their own nursery

• the complications that may be involved with those children using school transport

• consideration of how best to maximise support for children with Additional Support Needs.

Two weeks ago when it became apparent that we were going to be returning to school with this blended approach I had every intention of consulting with parents about which would be your ideal days for your children attending school. I now realise that with the best will in the world, this is simply not possible. I have split each class in the school into two groups and I can honestly say that it is the most difficult and complex task which I have done in 11 years as a head teacher! At one point I had 24 spreadsheets open on my laptop at the same time in order to coordinate between multiple classes. It is possible that your child is not in the same group as their best friend, and while the happiness of all children is something which I value very highly, it is likely that I will not be in a position to change it. As an example when I finished the set up on Friday evening, I realised that I had made a mistake for one child and that they should be changed into the other group. It took 1 hour and 45 minutes for me to juggle around children in all 14 classes in order to accommodate that one change. That is how complex the process is. To make matters even more complex, I do not yet have confirmation whether we have 14 or 15 English medium classes next session, and this affects the organisation of every single year group in the school. The timing of this decision is not in my control, and so I have carried out the process for both possible class options. This means that as soon as I know how many classes we have, I will be able to inform you of days and teachers. Parents of new Primary 1 children may well be feeling especially anxious at this time. With schools being closed we have not been able to put in place all our usual transition and visits to the school. We are in the process of developing transition video clips and welcomes from your new teachers, but of course all the uncertainty around classes is delaying this. We will get something to you as soon as we are able. Many of you who are classed as key workers will have questions about whether provision for your children extends into August. The Council are currently working on this and I will give further information to you as soon as I am able. We are able to access the building for the first time this week and this will enable us to problem solve and come up with strategies to take us forward in this challenging time. I hope this has given you some reassurance, and thank you for your continued support

 

[FifeArab]

Has anyone had word from their child’s school about how they plan to work things in August? A friend of mine has been told that her son will be in 2 days/week. I’m guessing that’ll be quite standard, although I’m kind of hoping we might get more as the class sizes in my daughter’s school are pretty small.
My partner and I both work full time. Not sure how we’ll work it if childcare facilities remain out of action.

My sister In law’s a teaching assistant and the word they’ve had just now Is:

Primary 1-4 will be Monday and Tuesday.

Deep clean on Wednesday.

Primary 5-7 Thursday and Friday.

Deep clean Friday evening.

Of course anything can change between now and August.

[Bairnardo]

2 year old continuing her learnings in ripping the pish out me. She watches Daniel Tiger who constantly sings wee songs about things he has learned.

Today she was watching me toiling to get the end of the sellotape and burst into "Keep trying, and you'll get be-e-tter"

[Sergeant Wilson]

8 hours ago, Bairnardo said:

2 year old continuing her learnings in ripping the pish out me. She watches Daniel Tiger who constantly sings wee songs about things he has learned.

Today she was watching me toiling to get the end of the sellotape and burst into "Keep trying, and you'll get be-e-tter"

Maybe she'll sing, I saw Daddy killing langoustines.

[Bairnardo]

20 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Maybe she'll sing, I saw Daddy killing langoustines.

Underneath the Christmas tree lastniiiiiight

[Andy Dufresne]

Safe to say Ben is in trouble,it was his 5th birthday last week and he has already broken his new TV he was given.

[Honest Saints Fan]

Click

Shamelessly plugging a fundraising page I'm doing for 2 charities that have helped @Rugster and I over the last 20 or so months! He absolutely hates my singing(yeah, it's terrible) so maybe if you do decide to donate do it on his behalf more than mine 

 

[Ross.]

Getting the claim in early, just in case he doesn’t take after his father and can actually play a bit.

[Jacksgranda]

Looks like a future centre back to me.

[Ross.]

1 hour ago, Jacksgranda said:

Looks like a future centre back to me.

Political way of saying he is a fat b*stard.

[Billy Jean King]

Getting the claim in early, just in case he doesn’t take after his father and can actually play a bit.

Isn't that just a picture of Garry O'Connor as a bairn ?

[Jacksgranda]

7 minutes ago, Ross. said:

Political way of saying he is a fat b*stard.

"solid"

[Ross.]

36 minutes ago, Billy Jean King said:

2 hours ago, Ross. said:

Getting the claim in early, just in case he doesn’t take after his father and can actually play a bit.

Isn't that just a picture of Garry O'Connor as a bairn ?

I was tempted to post the O’Connor at Morton picture underneath my original post.

33 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

I'd say he is on the verge of switching over to being a tighthead prop

Not much of a scene for the egg chasing here, fortunately. I’m going to have to show him videos of the likes of Dalglish, Viduka and Stevie Fulton  just to make sure he knows his fat arse won’t mean he can’t have a successful football career.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Ross.

[pandarilla]

Has anyone had word from their child’s school about how they plan to work things in August? A friend of mine has been told that her son will be in 2 days/week. I’m guessing that’ll be quite standard, although I’m kind of hoping we might get more as the class sizes in my daughter’s school are pretty small.
My partner and I both work full time. Not sure how we’ll work it if childcare facilities remain out of action.

I think this is a powder keg waiting to go off.

We've had very low infection and hospitalization numbers for a while. If that continues for the next 6-8 weeks without any major second spike, then schools will be hounded for only accepting kids 2 days a week (1 day a week for early secondary pupils).

It's mental. Huge amount of planning and i reckon it'll be chucked in the bin within a few weeks.

Add to that the fact that teachers kids, along with other key worker status kids, will have to be looked after the whole time - and folk won't stand for it. We are educators but we also providing basic childcare, and that matters to people (obviously).

A big second spike changes things, but that's not on the cards fortunately. But the scramble to get on the key worker status will be ugly - and i can see the whole thing crashing very quickly. I certainly hope so, as the blended plans are really, really mental to envisage for any length of time.

[Bairnardo]

I think this is a powder keg waiting to go off.

We've had very low infection and hospitalization numbers for a while. If that continues for the next 6-8 weeks without any major second spike, then schools will be hounded for only accepting kids 2 days a week (1 day a week for early secondary pupils).

It's mental. Huge amount of planning and i reckon it'll be chucked in the bin within a few weeks.

Add to that the fact that teachers kids, along with other key worker status kids, will have to be looked after the whole time - and folk won't stand for it. We are educators but we also providing basic childcare, and that matters to people (obviously).

A big second spike changes things, but that's not on the cards fortunately. But the scramble to get on the key worker status will be ugly - and i can see the whole thing crashing very quickly. I certainly hope so, as the blended plans are really, really mental to envisage for any length of time.

A big second spike has to be dealt with in a different way IMO. Test and trace is up and going, that's what it's for. If a second wave arrives to the extent schools etc have to be disrupted again it's because of an utter failure in terms of what's been learned and put in place.

There wont be another go at furlough and lockdown IMO.

[steelmen]

Great work on the list JG (haven’t been in this thread in a bit, the restructuring thread takes all my reading time). Lot of kids for one football forum site.

It’s seems crazy to me that they are talking about kids having to be in blended learning all the way through this whole school year. August seems so long away, granted lockdown feeling like it’s been going on for a year!

Julia’s school, ESMS, have announced they will not reopen until 26th August as planned and they will know more this week how it will look. St. George’s have announced they will be opening as normal, 5 days a week but with special measures in place to separate the kids. Guess it’s easier with only 15 kids in a class.

[RH33]

ESMS?

[steelmen]

ESMS?

Erskine Stewart Melville school, although being a girl she is in the Mary Erskine school.

[RH33]

1 minute ago, steelmen said:

 

Erskine Stewart Melville school, although being a girl she is in the Mary Erskine school.

 

Posh c**t