Schools Admitting More Pupils Post Reply

[Tigger]

Apologies for the mix up between an Ark school or a Q1 trust school, although that's not really the point.  I was trying to say that the school that my kids started at years ago has morphed into something completely different now.  Huge class sizes, adding extra years in the Meteor Street site that fills every nook and cranny to bursting, the take over of the Wix site etc, all seem to point to a trust that is happy to gobble up every available opportunity to grow and grow, but at what expense?  For me, it has definitely been at a huge cost to the students.

The loss of Mrs Ford as headmistress at Meteor has also been a disaster.  Out with a wonderful, sensible lady with a true sense of pastoral care, and in with two headteachers with nothing but platitudes and a one line response that they are simply following government guidelines and 'what can we do?'  I can almost see them shrugging as they write.  Their attitude towards SEN children has also been on a significant decline since the loss of Mrs Ford.  As the poster above also mentions, John Grove is now conspicuous only by his absence.  These people have guided this great school for the last decade, but since they have moved roles, the school has changed significantly.

On Friday we received a conciliatory note, offering two zoom meetings - far too little, far too late.  The two posts from Johnebe and SashaG above sum it up perfectly, and I can only begin to guess at the disaster that awaits us in September.

[Hillbilly67]

We left Wandsworth a few years ago for the Cotswolds and have no regrets. Our youngest is at a private prep and all year groups went back for the final week of term, mainly for them to experience what it might be like come September. They effectively stay in a “bubble” of 15 with staggered drop offs/lunch/games etc. It’s different but has been signed off and seems to work fine. I have no worries at all for my children going back to school but that is just my view on the situation. Fortunately there is very little CV19 in Gloucestershire.
I still miss meals in Numero Uno.

[JTwqnds]

I think it is quite mixed and very frustrating that the government has not given clearer guidance on this.

I completely agree with many of the posts that actually if you can’t have a full school- reducing the time for children in reception, year 1 and year 6 to allow the other children time back at school would have been the way to go. At this stage priority should be giving every child the opportunity to be back in the school setting.

At it happens I don’t think Belleville is the only school not to get all children back. There are quite a few schools who are just offering a few wellness days to pupils.

It does seem very unfair that some year groups have been back at school since half term and some not at all!

Broomwood have also pulled it out the bag and as soon as the government announced schools could look into getting other year groups back - got everyone back in some form (most new classes half a day every day). The provision of home learning has also been well thought through and the have managed to give back a decent rebate on fees.

[Acorns]

I have to say Alderbrook have been fantastic throughout this.

Mobilised quickly with the home learning and have been brilliant at getting children back. Anyone who wants to be back will be back in full time from next Monday. (I believe year 2 are the last to return, I think everyone else is back now).

The only bad decision so far is to close for a day next week for a telephone 'parent's evening', which is a nice to have, but I think a day at school is more valuable at the moment. Especially for the year 2s who are only back for a fortnight. We have had two face to face parent's evenings already this academic year and reports are out this week, so I think it could have been skipped.

Top marks though for the management team overall.

[cynic]

I’m a Belleville parent too.

I do not think the majority of parents are ‘tearing their hair out’, but there are fair criticisms:
1) everyone has been disappointed by the level of direct teacher interaction. While we use an app and get written feedback/encouragement on work, it’s not the same as having the teacher there. A weekly zoom class has now been arranged, but it does feel a little late.
2) while the English and Maths is well-structured (seems very like what they would be doing at school) some of the suggestions for other work seem rather “phoned in”at times.

I would caution that we all have no idea of what level of interaction the teachers may be having with other pupils really, outside of your immediate social circle. It may be that your teacher is focusing more on the pupils who need more help (as they tend to do at this time of year any way).

I’d rather the school was safer than not, because without getting political in any way, I’m not sure our government has done or is still doing a good job of keeping us safe.
A school was mentioned here that is employing a half-day rota system. Unless they are deep cleaning all areas over lunchtime this seems quite unsafe actually!

Admittedly my child is in a year group where I’m quite relaxed about his academic progress and I acknowledge other years may feel differently, for example I agree year5 should be more of a priority too.

I think the school’s communication on all this has actually been pretty good.
Guidelines from the govt on reopening were being changed several times intraday at one point (!) that’s why this is a mess and why different schools are taking different approaches.

Any comparison to private schools with their much lower class sizes is daft, but I do wonder if Belleville and the Q1e Trust could be looking at what other schools are managing to achieve.
It should also be noted Belleville has one of the highest take-up rates of pupils returning to school vs. other schools and certainly other boroughs so this compounds the problem of a heavily oversubscribed school that already added several bulge years.

[SomethingBlue]

It looks like I'm in the minority but I am satisfied with what Belleville has been doing.

The home learning was the right amount for my two children, the online instructions they added meant they could work semi-independently while my husband and I were working from home. 
Once they started using SeeSaw we had feedback on every single piece of work that was submitted (audio recorded). Plus weekly phone calls from the teacher. Plus online assemblies. Honestly, the website is full of resources, I wonder if people saying there wasn't enough have done everything! 

Not having live zoom sessions is not necessarily a bad thing. We have these for French classes (not Belleville) and it doesn't really work - I have to sit with them to keep them focused, so can't work for the full hour, and a lot of time is spent waiting for each child to take a turn in answering something, which makes all the other children disinterested in the meantime. 
Recorded sessions would be good, but Belleville did provide these for some subjects, didn't they?

Regarding the return to school I understand the guidelines the same way as they did: YR, Y1 and Y6 should be back full time, then if there is capacity add other year groups. What would have been good is for these years to finish the term a bit earlier to have the other years back for 1-2 weeks afterwards.

We'll see what happens in September!

[Tigger]

It should also be noted Belleville has one of the highest take-up rates of pupils returning to school vs. other schools and certainly other boroughs so this compounds the problem of a heavily oversubscribed school that already added several bulge years.

I agree with much of what you say, and I'm no mathematician, but with a take up rate of 76%, and the class sizes at half the norm, that still leaves a fair amount of empty wriggle room for the school.  Why didn't they focus the empty parts with a proper home learning provision?  I'm sorry but I do feel that the home learning has been extremely poor, especially when compared to what other both state and non-state schools are offering.

Regarding 'bulge' years, this is exactly the reason why many parents showed concerns regarding 'bulge' years - it just seems like the trust is more interested in quantity of pupils over quality of education.

Whilst I think that the years up to year four will not suffer any long term hardship over the school's approach, I think that year 5's will now be at a significant disadvantage to many students who have come through other, better prepared schools.
 

[SomethingBlue]

with a take up rate of 76%, and the class sizes at half the norm, that still leaves a fair amount of empty wriggle room for the school

Bubbles of 15 students means two classrooms/teachers/TAs needed per class. Even if the take up was as low as 51% they would still need two bubbles per class.
So if YR/Y1/Y6 need double the classrooms/teachers + resources are also needed for the key-worker's children.... not much left for other year groups. 

[cynic]

Tigger I’m sorry but I really don’t think you have understood the provision required.
If 3 of the 7 years have returned at above 75% attendance then because bubbles are limited (by the government) to 15 these means that the typical year, 4 classes of 120 pupils has over 90 returning which becomes at least 7 bubbles (and quite possibly 8) so very close to double the number of classes.
And this doesn’t include the key worker provision.

Also is anyone actually advocating that a bubble of 15 children be left unattended at any point during the day? which is what would result if there were less than two adults present. You cannot have any longer, for example, staff members hopping between bubbles. So if you think about it the staffing requirement may even increase above the norm.

Also if you are a large school with lots of classes per year then you have to manage a much larger number of bubbles into drop-off, pick-up, lunch, break times and any movement around the school than at a smaller school. It is not a linear problem.
This is why many private schools with class sizes of about 15 have been able to return entirely.


I’m sorry but imho there’s quite a few people shouting at the rain on this thread, without thinking through the decisions their school is having to make.

I do hope that something can be found to help Year5 as I do agree they should have some priority.

[Tigger]

Cynic, thus the caveat of 'I'm no mathematician...!!!'  Good point on class sizes - I guess that even if only 7 out of the 15 children in a class return, they still need one teacher.

My frustration however lies in the fact that:

a). There has been no extra provision whatsoever for year five, for whom next year (and actually the end of the current school year) is the most important in their primary school years so far.
b). The amount of support those children have had during the period of lockdown has been extremely poor in comparison to what other state and non-state schools appear to have managed.
c). The trust, whilst having created a brilliant school over the years, now just seem to be more interested in taking over more schools more schools, and cramming in more pupils under their roofs.  The change over the last three or four years in particular has been really noticeable, and IMHO not the direction I think will benefit this community going forwards.

I happen to think that Belleville is a wonderful school, and has served us incredibly well over the years, I just feel that their response to Covid has shown that they have grown too fast and they no longer feel the need to listen to parents.  It's a view shared by many at the school gates.

[Mumofjust1]

My daughter attends Wandsworth Prep School and we have been so incredibly luckily with their offering from the minute school closures were even mentioned.

They have already welcomed back all year groups, into the building, and supported the families who have chosen to keep their children at home. We have had the most amazing online offering from day one.

I know we are all hoping for ‘back to normal’ come September, but in the mean time we are so grateful, for the care and attention the teachers are providing for our kids.

[SashaG]

Oh, Cynic & Something Blue... the disappointed parents of Belleville have never attempted to dispute the 77%, number of classrooms and other arithmetics ... we are bothered with quality, not quantity. In other words, it is the attitude to learning and our children.

Why not offer 2 weeks during summer holiday to Y2,3,4,5, like Swaffield?

There may be plenty of material placed on the Belleville's website, but the quality of it, including the home learning material, leaves much to be desired. The questions re explanations of new material and tasks for the children are not answered by the teachers (?!), parents need to send questions to 'enquiries' email address (I am pleased, Cynic, that your children can learn independently - it probably means, that you have not looked at what they learn).

The questions and letters are never answered by Belleville school. There is a radio silence. They are not culpable. Did you try to raise any questions with them?

The zoom lesson earlier today was not a lesson - it was 23 minutes of reading by the headteacher to 58 pupils, who joined (62 did not). Disaster ...

[betsyboop]

The no-return to school would not be a problem if the home learning was of quality but the huge wealth of resources is difficult to sift through and frustratingly littered with mistakes and errors ! in the last 8 school days there hasn't been a single day with anything missing, typos, broken link etc 

To add insult to injury, most teachers do not provide constructive feedback, do not mark the work etc there are only so many "likes" and "keep it up" that a child can get without losing motivation (and parents for losing the will to make them work !) 

The reduced marking unfortunately started last September19 (following the introduction of a revised feedback policy) and has had devastating effects. I have heard children mocking and giggling because their have realised their teachers just stamp the school books without checking the work !!! 

Children know that this is not teaching ! teaching is an iterative process where information is shared both ways... it's not just asking the children to go through one worksheet after another until exhaustion. The lack of constructive feedback has badly impacted the school's results, especially in English writing and reading. 

Teaching needs to be engaging and motivating, it's never a one way process, it's a VIRTUOUS CYCLE.

The school has a lot of wonderful teachers and teaching assistants, however if the instructions from the top are failing the children, their hands are tied and there is only so much teachers can do in classrooms.

it's equally sad and frustrating to watch.