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A tentative thread on wider opening for Year 10s (let me know if I’m wrong): A secondary school that begins wider opening for year 10s on June 15th might have *5* weeks of onsite time before school breaks up for the summer holidays, working on this being July 17th.
If aim was to get whole cohort in equally, split into a maximum of 25% attending per day (in line with government guidance), each pupil would have *1.25* days on site per week (the quarter of a day can’t be used in a rota, so it’s more a notional extra onsite day every 4 weeks).
This means that every pupil would get 6.25 days of onsite learning before the summer holidays (1.25 x 5). This is out of the 25 school days over the same 5-week period. That means a pupil’s onsite time is just 25% of the available curriculum time they have before the summer.
All of which means that effective remote learning will continue to be significant for Year 10 pupils. So, whilst the wider opening is understandably going to be a focal point for schools, the work that schools are doing on their remote provision is also crucial.
This means that leaders and teachers will need to think about not just how a timetable/model might work logistically, but most importantly what is it for? ie what is the purpose of the onsite time? Eg Is it primarily about wellbeing? How will it support the remote curriculum?
It also means that the onsite time will not in a single stroke solve the curriculum challenges COVID-19 has thrown at schools and pupils over the past 10 or so weeks.
Not saying this to be defeatist or pessimistic, just hoping it will help secondary leaders to frame the important conversations they’ll be having this week about the wider opening. As ever, time is a precious commodity.
Thoughts go out to @ASCL_UK members making these plans over the coming weeks. There is no perfect solution. You’ll do what you always do: the best you can. Thinking of you.
