Kids actually prefer learning in huts...

[noblegiraffe]

...says the Minister for Collapsing School Buildings Gillian Keegan

She was saying this to try to make the claim that the huts are really very good indeed, but we all know what a hut is like and really this is a damning indictment of the state of the school buildings that the kids were forced to learn in previously.

As we head into the winter it's going from 'the kids are too hot to learn anything properly' to 'the kids are too cold to learn anything properly' season in my classroom. If anyone calculated the amount of learning lost due to unsuitable school buildings, and not just the ones that have been forced to close because they are actively dangerous, then we might start wondering whether this was the best way to produce a future workforce.

Incidentally, anyone still wondering why schools were closed on 31st August right before they were due to re-open, the advice to close schools was actually given to Gillian Keegan on 21st August....who then went on holiday.

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/gillian-keegan-raac-crisis-temporary-classrooms

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/raac-8-things-we-learned-from-baroness-barran/

My entire primary school was huts, including the toilets. About half of my high school was. I didn't know any different.

I actually find it really strange at DCs primary that his classroom is upstairs, and in the same building as the gym hall. It feels very exotic.

So now it's 'exotic' to actually be taught in a building?

The school I worked in had 'temporary' classrooms that were much better than the permanent block that was either freezing or boiling.

Kids probably do find it exciting, doesn’t mean it is a good move though! They find things exiting that are bad for them all the time!

my upper primary classes where all in Portakabins. In hindsight they where cramped, they where cold, one of the didn’t have its own toilets so we had to go over to the main building in all weathers for the toilet - let alone for assemblies and just generally being part of the school.

thankfully about 5 years after I left the school was rebuilt to have it so everyone was taught in a permanent classroom.

It's just astonishing how much shit she manages to talk!

So now it's 'exotic' to actually be taught in a building?

It was just a semi-lighthearted response because I was taught in huts. My kids would probably find a hut exotic.

It's not a new issue, it's not any one single person in government's fault and it's not something I can get that worked up about.

it's not something I can get that worked up about.

That schools are literally falling to pieces and kids are being shunted into temporary classrooms (not just huts, random other buildings are being used) and the sec state for education is trying to pretend that's a good thing?

I suppose at least they actually have a classroom. Some poor sods are having to do remote learning.

I was taught in huts in both infants and juniors. It was seen as a rite of passage when you got to top infants and we're taught in the huts. I think I then had about 18months in them when in juniors.

It certainly isn't the worst thing in education at the moment, though I do have memories of doing star jumps in the mornings to warm up. They're getting F2F education which is the most important thing at present.

Ha ha me too. Was that south london by any chance?

They're getting F2F education which is the most important thing at present.

Well, we'll not get into whether they actually have a teacher in front of them but how low are expectations of education right now?

Yeah all education is shit. Whatever.

I too went to a school that had to use a lot of portakabins. Ours were put up at short notice when school buildings were found to be dangerous (similar to the current situation). At first it seemed quite exciting. But they were freezing cold in the winter (to the extent that school had to be closed occasionally) and uncomfortably hot in warm weather. There was no way to move between classrooms, or to the dining hall or toilets, without going outside each time so on wet days we were constantly soaked. They had very thin walls so lessons were constantly disturbed by noise form other classes or from people outside (this was worst on the rooms near the sports field). Not to mention the fact that the space they were site on was previously a playground so we ended up with no outside space other than a football field (so nowhere to play without getting covered in mud if the ground was wet, or when there were football practise sessions on etc).

All a bit of a laugh for the first week or so- not so much 4 years later when we were still awaiting our new buildings.

Gillian Keegan & Co clearly think the electorate are stupid. Everything they say is an insult to us, our children, and the staff in our schools

Kids having to be taught in huts or barns or at home because there was a likely chance that their school would fall on their head and injure or kill them is certainly shit.

I spent 1 year of infant and 50% of high school in terrapin classrooms. They were alway freezing, leaky and noisy as youe footsteps echoed.

I used to prefer the terrapin classrooms to the ones in the main school buildings 🤷‍♀️ felt much quieter

I can verify that huts are surprisingly good. I taught in the one furthest from the school buildings and which backed on to a field. There were only two classrooms in use most of the time and it was astonishing how that improved children s behaviour - no corridor crush, no pushing and shoving or aggression
or shrieks and screams and the pulsing noise which is what you get in a big comprehensive when classes are changing in corridors which are too narrow. Children are noisy and hyped up when they have battled their way through crowds. In the huts they stroll along chatting and laughing.and settle down quickly. We loved the more relaxed atmosphere.

I can verify that huts are surprisingly good.

I can verify that huts are totally shit. 🤷‍♀️

I remember at age 5 or 6 they rearranged the three classes in my year. Called out all the names to say what your new class was. 2 were hut-based and 1 was in a classroom. I sobbed when my name was read out for the classroom one and refused to go as I was so desperate to be in the huts which yes, absolutely seemed more exotic!

My daughter seems perfectly happy in the temporary classrooms. She was pleased that they had lockers in situ instead of way down the corridor.
@noblegiraffe are you a teacher or just trying to make a political point?

1975 and all my class rooms were portacabins, they were lovely especially the fire with the guard, we used to dry our gloves on it.

Both.

Fucking furious that the Sec State for Education fucked off on holiday as this was all kicking off, and fucked off that she is brushing off kids having their schools closed at short notice and being shunted into huts (or worse) with fucking lines about how some of them like the huts better than the shitty dangerous school they were previously in. Like that means she's done a good job that she should be patted on the fucking back for.

Clearer?

Ha ha me too. Was that south london by any chance?

Semi-rural town in Scotland! 1989 - 1996.

Honestly we have much bigger fish to fry up here than school huts.

We had a French hut and a maths hut, for a while. I have quite fond memories of them, it was nice walking out in the fresh air to those lessons, and I don't recall them being any less comfortable than the normal buildings.

And fucking furious that your post isn't going too well?

The government handled this badly, no argument, and she is being quite ridiculous, especially if itrls true action was delayed due to a holiday. Not saying otherwise.

But. Kids can learn in lots of ways. They don't
need perfectly temperature controlled, newly built classrooms with a tablet each and digital whiteboards etc, or they'll all fail GCSEs and then life. I learned in draughty victorian classrooms and portakabins and honestly never remember it being a problem. Apart from one time a teacher slammed his hands on his desk in anger and a shitty window shattered 😂In fact I'm sure no small number of those up in arms sent their kids to outdoor forest school nurseries.

Our expectations for what is needed in classrooms, especially levels of technology, might be part of the reason everyone moans and there's no money. Things don't have to be 100% optimum lest the sky crashes down. It's worth remembering the conditions in which millions of kids learn across the world, as well as the millions who can't even access an education.

Obviously can't leave them in a classroom that might fall down on them, I'm just saying portakabins are hardly the end of the world either.

Teaching appears to be like social work. No one is ever happy or believes there's been a good idea in the service, ever. Competitive cynicism and martyrdom abounds.