Our children have the right to an education.

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So many posts about whether schools will be safe when they reopen but I’m not seeing this point made. Lots of discussion around the childcare that schools provide and the importance on children socially.

My 11 year old has lost all interest and I can’t get him to do anything significant. We’ve had one zoom social with his teacher and classmates. So pretty much zero learning going on.

We know children are less susceptible and there is some discussion around whether they’re transmitting less. The children of key workers (i.e. the ones more likely to catch and spread it) have been at school the whole time and as far as I know there haven’t been massive outbreaks in schools.

So I think I just want to loudly shout: our children have the right to an education.

I just cant understand why some teachers and schools have managed to "seamlessly" continue education on line and others have not even tried? And have hidden behind all sorts of reasons.

This.

It just wouldn’t fly in other industries. Yet no comeback at all for teachers for some reason.

Educate your child then. Why should teachers lives be put at risk.

Millions home educate their children around the world and many do a great job of it. What’s stopping you?

Some teachers at primary are still marking their classes work from little learning packs - others are moaning about having to make a bi weekly phone call?

Some parents are complaining that there is too much work and being expected to hand it in on time so the teacher can mark it is unacceptable. Other parents are moaning about teachers phoning to see if the children are OK and if there is anything they can do. What do you want?!

Well if people are vulnerable or don't want their children in school, then they should isolate themselves
Lots of teachers, school workers, nurses, doctors, supermarket workers....are vulnerable. They can't isolate themselves.

I think the damage to education, mental health and socialization is worse than the risk of covid for healthy children

So you're a psychologist with a specialism in pandemic induced trauma? Lots of healthy children are spreading covid to lots of unhealthy children and adults.

Schools will be the new care homes if children are rushed back to school. Impossible to socially distance . No budgets for extra cleaning or hand wash etc . 15 in a class so extra rooms / staff needed. A logistical nightmare before you even start to consider the safety aspect. The government are experimenting with herd immunity using schools. The science is confusing, children may get a mild version but unfortunately we also have heard of young children with no underlying health conditions dying from covid . No way would I send children to school in June .

Educate your child then ... Millions home educate their children around the world and many do a great job of it. What’s stopping you?

If that’s the route you want to go, why are we paying teachers salaries?

It is the legal responsibility of parents to ensure their child is educated.

Schools will be the new care homes if children are rushed back to school.

That’s utter rubbish. Two totally different cohorts, affected by the disease to vastly varying degrees.

My homeschooling had OFSTED rating ‘piss poor’ due to me just downloading worksheets From school that were neither differentiated to my child’s ability, nor adequate to keep her going fir more than an hour a day.

After being put in special measures, I found links to other websites that have been helpful, and we are now on the rise to ‘satisfactory with good features’ (the latter due mainly to the quality of sandwiches).

One thing I would have asked school to do differently would have been to have pointed us in the direction of the websites abc resources that they use. As I’m not a teacher, I don’t know what these resources are, and it takes time to find them. I think it would have been a simple, cheap and efficient step to have taken two months ago.

It is the legal responsibility of parents to ensure their child is educated.

And teachers are for what then?

My mum teaches in Glasgow. Many of these kids have disappeared from the radar. They aren’t in the hubs. They are young Carers. Social services don’t have the resources to deal with it.

Obviously the teachers fault.

Not wider government policy.

We are throwing money at the furlough scheme (not without good reason). But the solution to poor social care is to pin it all on teachers isn't it? Well isn't it?

No money can be found to help social workers who deal with vulnerable children right now?

Right?

We are all looking forward to the headlines about this and lobbying government to help with this, rather than bashing teachers for being shit aren't we?

Aren't we?

Nope.

Cos no one gives a shit about those kids. They are just a good excuse now for getting the schools open so that the professionals can have their childcare back.

Who should technically BE in school atm as they will almost certainly be known to social services.

But we know that very few at risk children are in school.

Cue the complaints from parents who can't go on a nice holiday because their child has been asked to come into school during the holidays for catch up classes. (Who is going to be doing this teaching during the holidays at the expense of their own holidays and probably at no extra pay?).

The point I am trying to make is that this is a long term societal problem, not a teacher vs. parent problem. If we as a society don't provide resources through government to ensure that children don't fall through the gaps caused by the current crisis, we will all face the consequences.

This is not a problem that can be solved by hustling a few children into school now or assuming that people who have lost their jobs can fill empty teaching positions or by assuming that all parents can bridge the gap, when quite clearly they can't. This will be a long, slow process and it will cost money.

Millions home educate their children around the world and many do a great job of it. What’s stopping you?

They do. But they enrol them in clubs, they take them out to places, they meet up with others. The idea that this is ‘home ed’ is far fetched.

So educate your child then. There are loads of resources such as BBC bite size. He’s lost interest because you can’t be bothered.

hi all

Lots of stress out there, I can feel it.

Ex teacher here, not sure if any of this will help but here goes.

Screen time in excess is still bad for kids. The younger they are and the more time they have and the more edits per minute in the content the worse it gets. Their ability to focus and be educated in future is at risk. Books or any other activity are always better. If there must be screen content then the older and more static the better. Old movies and wildlife shows, even reality house hunting shows etc, are better than so called 'action' stuff, newer USA cartoons etc because of the ultra fast editing. Adverts are very bad, not because of the content, I'm not being snobby here, but again because of the fast editing. Ditto pop videos, sorry about that. If I were parenting I would make a game of 'count the number of edits in a minute', get them to make a chart comparing different programmes, and then 'impose' (by consent, after explaining the above to them) an upper limit, above which the programme would be ruled unsuitable. I suggest that anything above 10-12 edits (or scene changes involving a sudden 'jump cut' between locations) per minute should be treated with caution, and above 20 edits per minute (that's an edit every 3 seconds, very fast!) I personally would just say no and that's that, watch something else.

An aphorism of mine that I used to use with students - "In being bored, we discover who we are". Boredom is not the enemy, it's a necessary part of life. No child has the divine right to be endlessly distracted/entertained by the adults around it, and it doesn't make you a bad parent to gently point that out, or to ask them to sort themselves out for a while. You are parents not entertainers or educators, give yourself a break and don't be hard on yourself. A child who has been endlessly entertained will usually be less resilient later in life.

This crisis will teach them things in itself. I was at school during the mid 1970s blackouts and power cuts. We didn't go to school for what seemed like a long time, and when we were at home it was no TV (no electricity!) and candlelit bodged together meals. They will learn to value things of which they have temporarily been deprived that they used to take for granted. They will grow as people.

As for academic education, since they are all in the same boat the system will make allowances as they get older. Catch up schemes of work are being prepared even now, next years exams will be different to allow for the loss of school time for Y10 & Y12, and teachers will already know which parts of the curriculum they will need to focus on in order to minimise the damage. Universities will adjust their admissions procedures for the current Y10 & Y12 in future years and have already done so for the Y11 & Y13 this year.

A second wave of Covid 19 caused by allowing schools to reopen before it's safe to do so would cause more deaths and more damage than the current situation. Some Covid 19 deaths have been young people with no other health issues. Education is very important, but the right to life is more so I believe. Right now, we don't know who those future casualties might be, so for now there's no choice but to restrict everyone and keep schools closed.

All the best to everyone out there, and maybe in future people will be a bit less critical of educators generally now that they realise just how much skill is actually involved. There's a reason why, in order to teach, you need a degree in your subject plus a very intensive 1 year PGCE course that's actually very tough to pass!

Teaching is, by and large, a risk-averse profession. This is compounded by years of filling in risk assessments etc. Teachers, as a group (there are many exceptions of course), are never going to be clamouring to go back to school. But the government cannot pay them to stay home forever (and no, not all teachers are 'working harder than ever' now - some are; many are doing almost nothing). Cut pay for teachers who are unwilling to go back (in the phased manner currently laid out) and that will soon get things back to some normalcy.

How can parents home educate children indefinitely when they will need to return to work soon?

Where there is a will, there is a way.

Some teachers - SLT Heads want to be obstinate because its a Tory government.
Children will face numerous levels of dis advantage learning from home etc. Carry on for the ones that can and simply sweep up those who have other needs.

That’s utter rubbish. Two totally different cohorts, affected by the disease to vastly varying degrees

Older people and children, yes, very different. Spread of the disease in an enclosed environment. Not so different. That school staff are not children and are people with vulnerablilities including age and underlying illness seems to pass most of you by....

If that’s the route you want to go, why are we paying teachers salaries

You're the one who thinks online is the shizzle. What teacher thinks it?

Clue? Not one.

It is the legal responsibility of parents to ensure their child is educated. And teachers are for what then?

Are you thick? The two aren't related. One is the law, the other one of the means.

They do. But they enrol them in clubs, they take them out to places, they meet up with others.

And usually only one parents has a full time job.

Red the point I was making was that it’s an absolute fallacy that “everyone can do something”. If you genuinely believe that then you are completely blinkered.

Those of you dissatisfied with the amount of work - have you contacted the teacher to ask for more? I won't lie, I'm working far less than my normal hours. I'm setting "suggested tasks" each day because every parent I've spoken to is happy with this and doesn't want more, because more work set = more pressure on them.

I've repeatedly asked if there is anything that I can do to help with their children's education and they've said no, or if they've asked for something, I've provided it.

Have you asked for what you need? As teachers, we are not in your homes and we don't know what it is like there. Rather than sitting feeling furious and venting on a public forum, talk to your actual children's teachers. Every school is different and every family is different. Teachers are not mind readers.

I feel lucky that my cohort have such lovely parents, and would be very frustrated to find that they were sitting seething that I haven't provided work, when I have reached out to ask them what they need from me.

I also feel very lucky that I'm on full pay and only working a small fraction of my previous hours. But furloughing teachers would save the country very little money and mean that we weren't available for the work that we are doing (sorry to other teachers who are doing far more, because that's what's needed in their contexts).

Perfectly happy not to pay teachers who are not or refuse to work. Solved it

They have a good legal case to argue about H&S of staff and pupils under the proposals on the table. They are allowed to challenge unfair working conditions.

Maybe we should solve the problem and remove all the rules about safety for everyone and forget key workers and PPE and just let Covid-19 run uncontrolled?

Solved it.