Northern Ireland- what's going on at Stormont??

[PumpkinsandAutumnLeaves]

Are the executive holding a meeting tonight or what? Getting fed up being pissed around like this.

@Zeebeezee

Do you all think there would be any chance of both ROI and NI aligning in the Covid situation?

They did it before when Ian Paisley looked after the cows during the foot and mouth outbreak.

Wonder, seriously if would be too much to ask for the same to be applied to humans now.

We shall see. Don't rock the boat regarding all of us North and South. Ugh.

..... with the amount of crossborder traffic, it seems obvious to treat the island of Ireland as a whole, epidemiologically, whenever there is a human or animal epidemic

However, politics .....

Fgs.

I'm just sick of it now. People are really starting to struggle.

Does anyone know if tourist attractions have to close?

For example, titanic quarter, Ulster folk and transport museum etc?

Is there any guarantee they will end these restrictions in 4 weeks?

I hope I’m wrong but I get the feeling they will extend them beyond four weeks

That's what worries me too "Whenismum* as I feel this is how we slid into it the last time

Dad's Army approach to Covid, like Sargent asking " would you mind awfully obeying the regulations". Total bollocks.

I want to stay as safe as possible but will also be working as a childminder with 3 other families coming into my home so will stay away from my parents & my own friends but don't feel that I'll keep dc Away from the couple of families dc that live over the road. They were really affected by the last. Lockdown where we followed everything to the letter & lots of people didn't really bother. Halloween looks to be rubbish & it's going to be a grim month or two 😩

Hoping the numbers drop quickly & hospitals aren't pushed

I find it strange the school closure is described as 2 week holiday rather than homeschooling for 1 of the weeks. No excuse for kids not being able to have work home to do for 1 week.

@jessyjo2

I find it strange the school closure is described as 2 week holiday rather than homeschooling for 1 of the weeks. No excuse for kids not being able to have work home to do for 1 week.

I thought the same!

Does this mean they’ll get a week taken off them somewhere else to make up for the extra week at halloween? Maybe at Easter or summer?

My kids school sent home a note on Seesaw to say they will be sending work home with all pupils on Friday 'in case they are off longer than 2 weeks'. eldest is in P7, so feck knows what is happening.

@StillCounting123

My kids school sent home a note on Seesaw to say they will be sending work home with all pupils on Friday 'in case they are off longer than 2 weeks'. eldest is in P7, so feck knows what is happening.

Hate this so much

Don't think they take hols off elsewhere, but anything could happen in these times.
I have DS in P7 too, doing AQE so possible we get preparation work for that, hope he would get practise tests at least.

Jessy as soon as I heard the AQE was being postponed from Nov to Jan I suspected they'd do some sort of lockdown around Halloween half-term.

Has your DS school given much info about the AQE exams and what will happen if Covid rates are higher than current in January?

My DS school has said nothing about a contingency plan and are just plodding along with the hope that it will be normal in January.

Something is just not right with this picture.

They are taking the extra week as teacher training days and exceptional closures apparently. So no setting work to do at home.

Our school is talking about doing Google meets if they’re off for longer.
Does anyone think they will really only be off for two weeks?

FWIW the announcement that it is an extended “holiday” and not a week of distance learning and then half term, came as a huge shock to teachers too. None of us expected that - and many aren’t too happy about it - particularly considering pupils in exam years. To their credit, many of our pupils are equally pissed off at being out of school an extra week, and this has added to their stress about exams. I really feel for them. (And that includes one of my own DC) My school has said categorically, no work, other than what would have been set as half term homework anyway.

My older DC’s schools have made it clear that they can’t set work, but that they “strongly advise” pupils to use the extra week wisely to consolidate and revise teaching from the first half term.

My younger DC’s school has said no work, but I will do a bit with mine as they are in P6 and who knows what will happen between now and next year when they’re due to sit AQE.

I am mightily pissed off this morning at the people who have messed things up for everyone else by not abiding by the rules and guidelines.

Another with a P7 dc here. Our school were utterly shit through lockdown, not even a single phone call from them, just revision sheets to access online. I complained to the board of governors & quite a few pupils moved schools.

Feels like just because Arlene said it's an extended holiday, they've decided not to bother. Apparently the practice papers will be sent home to do.

Schools know nothing about AQE. When one parent complained about how little school were doing, our head said 'welll I think the grammar schools could be doing more' 😒

@buckeejit to be fair to schools (and I agree that it should never have been called an extended holiday), the letter from Peter Weir to schools very clearly said that remote learning was not to be done next week. Teachers hands are tied. I suspect some may set half term “homework” that wouldn’t have been set otherwise, but there will be no contact with schools so no actual teaching.

My DC will all be studying next week - not all day of course but a bit every day. My eldest is in Yr12 and my youngest in P6 - these years are too important to mess about with so we’ll be using the week to do consolidation work, past paper questions, longer extended writing practice questions - all the things that are hard to fit in to a normal school week.

I do appreciate that I am fortunate though, that it’s an extended holiday for me too so I am available to supervise/work with them and not everyone is in that position.

Teachers’ hands - sorry!!!

I'm also annoyed at the no work. However maybe teachers will use the time to plan for working at home w/c 2 Nov.

What is causing the high numbers though? Is it just people totally ignoring advice? GAA games? House parties?? What?!

DS is Year 8 and he said there was a big cheer when the form tutor said no remote learning. It's a bad idea, I think, not to keep the momentum going so early in the school year. Surely this would have been a good opportunity for schools to test their efficiency at switching between school and home learning. Because, let's face it, it'll be like the bloody Hokey Cokey for the rest of the school year.

I definitely think they should be remote learning when they’re off next week.

If they need to close schools again at any point during the year, (I hope this is the last of it), are they just going to call it an extended holiday everytime?

@XFPW thanks for that, I haven't actually seen all the news from it & just assumed our rubbish school was taking the easy way out again.

All the parent teacher interviews were arranged by telephone for next week & now they are rearranging them.

The best I can hope to do is get them reading a bit during school hours & aim to do a couple of practice papers. This transfer year seems to be lasting forever!

[quote buckeejit]@XFPW thanks for that, I haven't actually seen all the news from it & just assumed our rubbish school was taking the easy way out again.

All the parent teacher interviews were arranged by telephone for next week & now they are rearranging them.

The best I can hope to do is get them reading a bit during school hours & aim to do a couple of practice papers. This transfer year seems to be lasting forever![/quote]
Why can’t they just cancel the AQE tests and use marks based on work they’ve done during KS2? Surely that would be feasible considering they did it for gcse and a level, although they did make a big mess of that!

whenismum the AQE is a private organisation, so I think the cost implications of this would be huge. £55 per child to register to do the exam.

Plus, there is a political slant to the grammar school system... Even though people say there isn't... And I don't think the political parties will give that up easily.