Fury as secondary school pupils go back for ‘one hour appointments’ only
THE decision for Year 10 and Year 12 pupils to return to school today for 'one hour appointments' has been met with fury.
The Government wants students who will be sitting their GCSE and A-level exams next year to have "face-to-face" support before they take them.
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The amount of contact time they will have though will vary considerably across the UK.
Some schools have launched "weekly contact sessions" for teens or kids who have "struggled" during remote lessons.
Some have expressed their fury at how the appointment only last one hour.
Sonja Halsey, a nursery school teacher in Baskingstoke, tweeted: "Ours have been invited in for scheduled one hour appointments.
"Just one hour before the summer holidays. That's not back to school!!"
She added: "One day a week is looking like a luxury. Our Year 10s are getting one x one hour face to face session between now and September.
"Apparently an opportunity to discuss how home schooling is going."
Only a quarter of Year 10 and Year 12 pupils are allowed at school at a time because of social distancing rules.
About one in eight schools are set to remain closed.
Guidance from the Department for Education said: "Secondary school pupils and college students... are more likely to have higher numbers of contacts outside of school/college.
"For now, we are asking secondary schools and colleges from June 15 to online provide some limited face-to-face support for year 10 and 12 pupils... to supplement their remote education."
Schools will split kids up into two separate groups - one which attends Monday - Wednesday and another which attends Wednesday -Friday.
But lessons probably won't look the same.
Guidance tells teachers that for the 3 days a week year 10 kids are in, they should be a focus on one-to-one meetings with staff the children are familiar with to help ease them back to school.
If teachers do plan on carrying out formal lesson, older students should be kept 2 metres apart from each other "where possible".
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Classes shouldn't be any bigger than half their usual size to help students stay apart from each other.
For many schools, this means they will need to stagger break times and putting one way systems into corridors.
