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.

Children are developing illnesses related to covid . Children have died from covid over the last 7 weeks of lockdown. Put them all back into a school with hundreds of other children/ families and you put them at risk . I hope I am wrong but I’d rather not take the risk to find out .

@BirdieFriendReturns

It is hard balancing it, but 'online schools' like national oak academy help because they have videos explaining each topic so let the dc become more independent

Not sure where this no work no pay has come from! My local authority have already said anyone not in the most severe shielding group who doesn't return to work won't be paid, not sure why anyone would think differently!

Smilethoyourheartisbreaking

I have 2 DC with very very different needs.

I am appalled by our experiences in education so far I really am.

One has flown but by her own merit and us supporting her.
I dread to think what would have happened had we not been here for her to support her, eg with providing books to her actual reading level - free reading.
The other has barely learned anything in 3 years and yet we know she has ability because a tutor we had to pay for who simply has the brains to put things in a different way has engaged her and un locked her but we are on catch up!

Let's close all state schools then if the teacher's line is that parents are (exclusively) responsible for the education of their children.

Good luck to all those redundant teachers trying to find jobs in a recession.

Perhaps the future of education is children staying at home and learning online whilst a parent works from home.

Well said MusicMan65 - agree with most of this, but unfortunately it's not the 70s anymore. Young people need technology to communicate with schools and friends etc, and once they have it it is designed to be very difficult for parents to regulate (for children over age 11 or so). Staying home for a few weeks is very different from staying home for over six months (by early Sept) and perhaps beyond.

60 hours a week is far more than normal

Hold on. Haven't we teachers been hanging on about working these hours too. I'd say it's standard in many, many professions.

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

Huh? I don’t at all. I’ve been told on here though that there’s loads online. So I’m wondering what’s the point of highly paid teachers.

One is the law, the other one of the means.

Ok then, the ‘means’ aren’t doing their job very well at the minute. So as it’s my responsibility to educate, I’m going to be pretty militant in calling them out on that.

music You don't know much about the coronavirus do you, the second wave is guaranteed anyway!!
Going back to school will not change that, unless you keep them closed indefinitely. It could take twenty years to discover a vaccine or even longer, so shall we just close all schools now and be done with Teachers can get another job, probably with more risk, as a carer or some such thing and then they will have more reason to complain than before.

The woe is me I am a teacher is nauseating for those of us in medicine, that do actually have a great deal of risk to contend with every single day.

Let's close all state schools then if the teacher's line is that parents are (exclusively) responsible for the education of their children

But it's a fact. Parents have to ensure their children are educated, at school or at home.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_England

HTH.

As for academic education, since they are all in the same boat

The problem is they aren't all in the same boat.

No budgets for extra cleaning or hand wash etc

I'm not sure that's true - extra funding for cleaning is available for schools looking after key worker children.

sounds like a parenting problem maybe you take responsibility for ensuring he gets an education while we have our little inconvenient pandemic. Your his parent if you have so little control over his behaviour it's a you problem not a school problem

What if a parent really is lazy, can’t be bothered, abdicating responsibility? Does that mean we should forget about those children? That as a society we have no responsibility towards them? Or do you think a 6 year old somehow deserves to be left uneducated because of his parents?

Ok then, the ‘means’ aren’t doing their job very well at the minute

How so?

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

I am aware of several resignations at my school already. At least one was going to happen before this kicked off, but 2 others are as a direct result of knowing what is coming and the fact that vulnerable people in the household will struggle if they contract the virus. I am personally 50/50 about resigning - I can afford to - and am just hanging on to see how things pan out over the next week or so. I don't know if that is typical, but if every school sees resignations (and there was a thread yesterday about it and several TAs said they had resigned), it is going to be even more difficult to manage the situation in schools which means it's more likely to result in deaths and the increase of R. Thinking you are threatening teachers by saying 'we won't pay them then' isn't useful. We all have choices we can make and some of us would rather poverty than have our children grow up with out a parent. That's the reality we feel we are facing.

Seriously there is no point to even having schools anymore if the logic is to wait until there is a 'safe' solution. Utterly futile to pay teachers to sit at home for 20 years or more.

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?

At the risk of unfairly targeting one poster when there's lots of them about with similar views, it's impossible to fully express my indignation at these moronic views expressed by posters entirely lacking both in empathy and in the imagination required to conceive that others might be trying to cope in different circumstances.

Would be interested to hear from those who agree with the above post and are:
(i) trying simultaneously to wfh and entertain/educate pre school and school age children;
(ii) living in overcrowded accommodation without access to a garden;
(iii) facing financial difficulties/possible redundancy (including due to childcare issues); and/or
(iv) single parents, so no adult company and no one to spread the burden.
Suspect they're few and far between...

Would also be interested to know how many of the posters who think we should just 'suck it up' and 'care for our own children' are financially secure, have adequate housing with outside space, are SAHM/furloughed so actually have the time to home educate effectively and have the support of another adult to do so effectively and to mitigate the appalling loneliness of having no adult interaction for days on end.

Seriously there is no point to even having schools anymore if the logic is to wait until there is a 'safe' solution. Utterly futile to pay teachers to sit at home for 20 years or more

Oh, look- a windmill.

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 look forward to hearing about all the LEAs and Ofsted complaints from parents about poor teachers during lockdown and how they haven't engaged and set work.

If there is a poor standard of teaching and teaching support going on, then it needs to be properly flagged so those teachers are given the proper support and training to improve. As it stands the LEAs and Ofsted have no way of knowing who is doing well and who is underperforming (and equally who is doing really well) because its not being monitored in anyway. There are no set standards on this. Teachers are winging it, without guidance.

Again this comes down to leadership and planning from central government and to parents taking that responsibility and arguing about the right to an education in a productive way.

Instead the response is 'send them all back' without thought to the need for health and safety of school staff rather than focusing on accountability of standards and how things can be improved.

When it comes down to it, people want quick fixes and someone to blame. And right than looking to the top and the person whose responsibility this ultimately is (thats Gavin Williamson) its the easy 'teachers are shit' argument in much the same way as the 'immigrants are coming over here taking all our jobs saving lives in the NHS' argument.

How so?

My son’s teacher has provided a worksheet or two a week. The odd video. That’s it.

It’s not untypical. Plenty of similar stories on here.

Hardly providing a stellar education.

some of us would rather poverty than have our children grow up with out a parent

There speaks someone who has never experienced poverty. By which I mean REAL poverty, not the kind envisaged by the middle classes where you have to swap shopping at Waitrose for Aldi

If you'd ever been really poor, you'd do anything you can to avoid it. Why are those in the lowest socio-economic groups still working? Because they fear being poor more than they fear the virus.