The lack of what we consider normal hours in school isn't because of Mrs TTobe but because of a pandemic which requires social distancing and means it's just not possible to give normal schooling to the vast numbers of children. It is as simple as that.
People hear schools are returning and picture some kind of normal. But it can't be. Government doesn't tell parents that but let's schools work out the practicalities and leaves it to schools to disappoint families and look like they as an individual school are someone slacking or not trying hard enough.
Lots of people have described how many rooms and adults they have on staff and how many they need to accommodate just 1 or 2 year groups whilst being socially distanced. But people want to probe whether lots of teachers are staying off and saying they are vulnerable, suggesting they ar skippering the plan to return by being delicate and overly cautious.
There just aren't enough rooms and adults. If all the teachers were in, in many schools there wouldn't be. Add in some absences (and they will be more once the track and trace starts tomorrow as people are forced to isolate for 14 days just becaue they have had some time in the staffroomm with someone who then turned out to have Covid) and you can actually manage a tiny number of children.
On some threads, school are accused of being kamikaze and risking children's lives and here there's not enough returning.
It isn't normal school. It won't be normal school for those who do go in. It won't be normal school in Septmeber. The pandemic means it can't happen however much people want it. Government cannot say this clearly and loudly without morale going through the floor, but when you think sensibly about it , you can see that even those limited year groups can't be accommodated in lots of the school buildings by the no of teachers those schools have......plus all the kids innthebyears at home also be taught too!
I just think some people are desperate for their kids to go back - I get it - and have had this 1 June as some kind of lifeline that was thrown out a couple of weeks ago, without any sense of what it couldn't be, and ar now disappointed for themselves and their kids.
Kids education is being impacted. Theres no getting away from it. It will be further through this term and next term too. And parents want more but don't seem to realise that school cannot be fully replicated at home, even by very good teachers with all the resources. It just isn't the same. We have to accept it. We have to accept it and I think we have to take more responsibility on ourselves as parents even if it's hard. With little ones we need to spend more time on reading and numbers and writing even when they don't want to. With older ones we need to get them into working habbits even if they want to lie in bed.
After this is over eventually, we will be able to point the finger at government or at schools or at MrsTtobe (because people love to target someone as an example of the bad teachers they just know are in their school, because it can't be possible to have a good time with your own kids AND deliver a good education to other children too) or other teachers and blame them for our kids being behind. But the government has never said schools can replicate school - they haven't pretended that is possible. Pointing the finger won't help our children who could be months behind, but taking more responsibility if what's provided doesn't feel good enough can. It's hard when working and when not being a teacher and when the kids miss friend so and when they aren't motivated, but the blame game doesn't really help progress happen. Waiting for schools to sort out something they can't really sort out as we'd like won't deliver satisfaction, but our own actions can help take back a little bit of control in this scenario which is just so so different to normal, that every normal needs forgetting and new plans need making. And we as parents care most about our children and so have to deliver more of it, even if we think it's usually the schools job.
Things are more different than we think amd still further from normal than we think and adapting our mindset to that I think is pretty important because otherwise there will be a long string of these disappointments as the months pass and schools are not delivering what we consider normal service.