Massive school catch up scheme

[Muminlockdown2020]

So after watching Boris last night, he mentioned that there will be a massive school catch up scheme over the summer.

He didn't go into any details but are any teachers aware of this? What it would entail?
Does it mean they plan for schools to be open through the summer?

It means Boris realises he’s screwed up and needs to announce something that sounds like he’s Doing Something. But he has no actual plans and has not consulted anyone in education about it in any meaningful way.

That’s be my assumption.

He has no idea what he is doing!

If there is, I'll eat my hat

That means he has zero plans, he is waiting until the schools close for summer then he can say ‘oh dear the schools are closed now we will review the situation in September’ while snidely pointing the blame at schools and teachers instead of his own inept government.

I would imagine no schools have been consulted. BJ probably only knew he was going to say it about ten minutes before he opened his mouth. Now it will be up to the DfE to try ad make it look like it was a plan all along. This will mean the inclusion of lots of caveats. I imagine it will be for vulnerable children, those in care etc.

I imagine the work will be offered to supply teachers.

What a refreshing bunch of comments :) yes, no plan at all and no consultation with schools just a hastily blurted out idea

Well considering teachers aren't paid for the six weeks of summer holiday and can't be directed to work without additional pay I would assume it won't be school based learning.

Unless he has a magic money tree.

I wonder who he is expecting to staff the schools during summer.

So when exactly are the kids supposed to get a break? My dd has had loads of work through lockdown and has been very disciplined about getting through it. Is she now going to have to work through her sunmer holiday too?

None of this has been thought through. Schools have not been consulted. It's just the government making it up as they go along again.

Teachers will find out as soon as everyone else does. The first they would have heard of it would be when Boris mentioned it yesterday!

Well, according to my fb news from my cousin when I woke up this morning, I assure you that teachers are aware of Boris Johnson.

DH is a headteacher and was told several weeks ago to expect some kind of summer school childcare provision, but nothing along the lines of a ‘catch up’ for all.

Well it’s not just Boris who is clearly inept and has no plans - beyond trying to counter legitimate criticism from the opposition.

Gavin Williamson is education secretary. WTF has he been doing all this time? Surely it’s his job to have ensured the relevant people were consulted so the DfE can make viable plans for his boss to announce.

At no point in any of this has there been any hint that anyone in government is willing to think any of it through.

Insisting that we just need a ‘can do’ attitude is utterly pathetic. What we needs is leadership and properly thought through plans. Doesn’t look like england is getting that any time soon.

Uptake will be low, because those offered the catch-up will be those who have not engaged with remote learning anyway, for a whole host of complex reasons. The ones who will want it will not be offered it.

He's talking out of his arse again. Makes it up as he goes along.

Teachers are only paid to work 10(ish) months of the year, but their wages are equally spread through the year, so that they still get a wage over the summer holiday.

However, the summer holiday is not "directed time", so the government have no leg to stand on in terms of "forcing" teachers to work during that 6 weeks.

That being said, there is a huge workforce of supply teachers and the like, who would likely snap the arm off someone to get some work over the summer in terms of teaching, having done no work for 3 months.

It was suggested earlier on gmtv or Lorraine or whatever its now called that retired teachers and volunteers use community centres and suchlike to educate kids over the holidays. They all seemed to agree that was a good idea! Ridiculous.

I think this would be good for kids like my. dS ,year 9 who has not wanted to engage in work at home and is a low level learner. The kids who HAVE been working need a break

I’m a teacher, the announcement was the first I’d heard about it. All announcements have been made without warning schools first, which is why so many schools have struggled to follow guidance - with the best will in the world, it takes time to make plans and we are constantly feeling wrong-footed at the moment (not complaining, everyone is in this situation).

I suspect this will either mean asking schools to voluntarily run schemes for a small number of pupils (in a similar way to how we asked staff to volunteer to keep sessions running for key workers during the Easter holidays), but I can’t see how these could be done on any kind of scale if they want us to keep social distancing in action. So perhaps just for pupils identified as being most at risk?

Otherwise I suspect it will be through online resources - Oak Academy, the resources the BBC have been putting together. But that really wouldn’t be a thorough catch-up program.

There are lots of private tutors/supply teachers who are very keen to get back to work as they are self employed and only paid for the hours they work. But I doubt if there would be enough of these to have an actual thorough programme, and they would obviously need to be paid so that would be an enormous cost.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Boris knows what he meant.....

Trouble is, unless whatever it is, is compulsory for all and the same for all children across the whole UK then there will still be large gaps between the kids who have been home schooled strictly every day and those who have not.

I would take no notice of anything that comes out of his mouth OP. As pps have said, he probably just needed something to say on the spot. Now the D of E will have to come up with something, but it will probably be, “log on to GCSE Bitesize.” Utterly clueless shitshow, the lot of them.

If there is I will help @formerbabe eat her hat.

Schools round here have been talking to me about the chance of the playscheme holiday club I run providing childcare for keyworkers through the summer so they certainly had no knowledge of any summer school plans.

I voted for this government snd even I can tell this is absolute bullshit!

No teachers are aware of this as I doubt a plan has been been written.

It will not be what any parent is wishing for, it really won’t.

I suspect...

It won’t be your child’s teacher
It won’t be wraparound care
It won’t be every day
It won’t fill in any gaps