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/

noblegiraffe
”schools closed without warning 31st August”

Clearly not - considering the Daily Mirror 'exclusive' on the 29th August

I meant your statement was clearly not correct.

That' ridiculous. There are hundreds of Chat threads started every day.

FWIW our huts had all their heaters condemned because of carbon monoxide, were replaced with ones thta never come on, have doors that don't shut , have interconnecting classrooms so you can hear next door's geography video and the roof fell in on one. And - oh - enormous rats. Peachy.

Those 'temporary' classrooms may well become Permanent. Ours are older than my tenure at the school (28 years and counting)

On the news last night, a HT commented on the fact that there seemed to ebb absolutely no long term plan.

My DH is in a RAAC school - Keegan has you believing all these children are all in shiny new portakabins. DH taches in a corridor, a dining room , a science lab, and a library. And a tent.

Piggywaspushed
My DH is in a RAAC school - Keegan has you believing all these children are all in shiny new portakabins. DH teaches in a corridor, a dining room, a science lab, and a library. And a tent.

Your DH teaches at an independent school.

We had portahut things when I was as school over 40 yrs ago and they were great fun . Out school was cavernous , cold and drafts . We much preferred out huts .

This is what the government is relying on. The belief that teachers are such mythical, devoted creatures that they can raise standards whist teaching in huts all oevr the reducing playing fields, marquees, corridors, dining halls , in understaffed schools with fewer TAs and larger class sizes.

If we all continue to perpetuate this, they will never fund education anything near properly.

And?

Did your teachers come in on the holidays to lug al the equipment to them? Did you suddenly have to occupy a different classroom? Did you have to learn eg science in a hut, or drama in a corridor?

It is lovely to see that you are completely unfamiliar with the terms and conditions of those on the leadership payscale in state schools.

@Clavinova is what you are saying that you think it right that the government prioritised leading news to the newspapers over telling Headteachers or actually doing anything to solve the problem?

These sort of things build character.

Gillian Keegan is inept, that's why she tries to find stupid excuses to cover up her incompetence. She has got to go.

It is the qualities that you describe that are the reasons Sunak appointed her.

Would government ministers accept this for their own children?

jgw1
@ Clavinova is what you are saying that you think it right that the government prioritised [leaking] news to the newspapers over telling Headteachers or actually doing anything to solve the problem?

My quote from the Daily Mirror clearly states;
Scores of schools that could be at risk of collapse have been warned to be ready...

Further -
Civil servants have been ordered to phone schools to find out if they have "mitigation" - or safety measures - in place in all areas of the school affected by RAAC...
If asked, "Why are you contacting on a bank holiday weekend? Does that suggest urgency?", they should respond: "We are aware that some schools do not have substantial enough contingency plans. We want to make sure that all schools have plans in place as we continue to work with them to manage this situation".

The bank holiday weekend ended on the 28th August - the Mirror's article was published on the 29th;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dozens-uk-school-buildings-at-30817333

Ready for what?

The Education Secretary to finish her holiday?

jgw1
Ready for what?

The longer quote was in my earlier post;
"Scores of schools that could be at risk of collapse have been warned to be ready for the possibility that they could have to close part or all of their buildings within days, the Mirror can reveal"

Especially here in the Lake District.

And schools were wanted of this on what 31st August?

Certainly gives them plenty of time to plan for the start of term in September.

Current government policy on all fucking issues, not just this one, involves waiting until a situation reaches crisis point and then wailing "how could we have possibly prevented this entirely preventable situation!?"

jgw1
And schools were wanted of this on what 31st August?

No - a few days earlier than that. I suggest you go over some of the posts again - I have last minute packing to do - back Sunday/Monday.

How do you know they were told a few days before?

Please tell me you are not taking the government's word for it and have some other evidence?

Do remember that the government is led by someone who doesn't know when he is at a party, didn't know that said party was illegal at the time and then happily sat next to his then boss while everyone knew said boss was lying about the parties.

Do remember that this is the same government that last month was campaigning on Stopping the Boats, only to announce yesterday they had stopped that policy in favour of mass migration and Stopping net zero.

Surely no one believes what such a government says?

@Clavinova just this very morning the Prime Minister was on the radio talking about his Stopping Net Zero campaign.

He couldn't help himself lying though, even though he was also keen to tell us that he was honest and wants to do politics differently, which he them demonstrated was another lie.

According to the Prime Minister he has scrapped proposals to put a tax on meat and dairy products and has scrapped proposals to have enforced car sharing. Other posters may be surprised to learn that these proposals that the Prime Minister has scrapped unlike some of his other u-turns don't come from the government, in fact there is zero evidence that anyone with any influence on UK laws was proposing these things.

But of course Rishi is doing things differently and not just out to grab the next headline.

I am beginning to doubt he is any less of a liar than Boris, the only discernable difference being that Rishi gets very upset when his lies are pointed out to him.

A few days is proper splitting hairs.

I assume Clav thinks they shouldn't have been but teachers were on holiday . School switchboards and mail collections were off.

Meh half my high school lessons were in huts as half the school was burnt down by an ex pupil with a grudge over the summer holidays.

we loved it, it was quieter and warmer too.

I do get the point that the Op is trying to make but being taught in portakabins isn’t the end of the world