School staffing numbers

Many schools will require additional Teaching and support staff to cope with smaller class sizes and online leaning at the same time for those at home. Furthermore a number of support staff in my school who meet children’s personal care and medical needs are In the shielding category. If they are to continue shielding then there will be insufficient staff to meet these children’s vital needs.
Local authorities have drastically cutback on cleaning over the years and this must be addressed. Many cleaners have day jobs as well so there may not be enough of them to clean and desanitise schools if there are groups of learners in the morning and other groups in the afternoon.
Primary 7 transition is an important requirement and so is Nursery to Primary 1. Thought needs to go into how first aid can be administered given the social distancing rules. It will also be very difficult to console upset children whilst maintaining the 2 metre rule.
IMO schools cannot go back until there is a test, trace, isolate system that is proven to work to ensure the safety of everyone .
I suspect that a lot of parents will not send their children to school should they open before the summer break. What will happen to children whose parents refuse to send them until there is a vaccine?
There also needs to be sufficient staff available In the event of a number of staff having to isolate at short notice

Why the contribution is important

These points need to be taken cognisance of for the safety of all in schools and to ensure that the health and wellbeing of all. There must be adequate staffing for the school to be able to operate should a number of staff be forced to isolate at short notice

by JSP10 on May 09, 2020 at 02:00PM

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Average rating: 4.6
Based on: 13 votes

Comments

  • Posted by Jones17 May 09, 2020 at 14:13

    I totally agree. Support staff are much needed in schools and provide an invaluable service not only in supporting the teachers but in being there for pupils. To cut back on them when they are often familiar faces who provide practical and emotional support would be fundamentally wrong.

  • Posted by Balderdash May 09, 2020 at 15:42

    There cannot be social distancing in schools - it is completely impractical on so many levels - especially in already overcrowded City schools. It is not fair on young children to expect this to be OK. Neither is the wearing of face masks, especially for children who already wear glasses - masks cause glasses to fog up constantly and often result in glasses not fitting properly or children's ears hurting.

  • Posted by Jarob24 May 10, 2020 at 07:53

    I totally agree. Schools are manky by the end of the school year. Most teachers clean the class for the beginning of the school year. However, due to lack of time to clean areas such as, keyboards, monitors, shelving units etc, by the end of the year it is disgusting! Cleaning has been decimated due to lack of government funding and teachers cannot possibly do everything.
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