To think the idea that schools won’t be back full time by September is an absolute disgrace?

[LovingLivingInLockdown]

The government and teaching unions need to pull their fingers out. There should be no excuses.

The effects of 6 months out of school is going to be damaging enough, both educationally and mentally for hundreds of thousands of children. Not to mention the unnoticed abuse and neglect.

Teachers should be wearing PPE with spit screens if they are vulnerable and this should be being organised now. Temporary classrooms should be being built in playgrounds and school fields. Random testing routines in all schools should be being devised as well as guidelines regarding children’s contact with others outside of school and home. Whatever it takes, it must be done.

Our society expects parents to work while their DC are at school and if they want to get the economy moving again, schools being back by September should be non negotiable surely?

[LastTrainEast]

"You think we should surrender our children’s education and wellbeing to keep people alive another couple of years?" fuck off

[xtinak]

I dont know what the answer is, but I agree that more money and effort should be spent on getting children back to school. I think the impact on education, mental health and also the economy are very worrying and the whole thing is just so deeply unfair because it is groups such as disadvantaged children and women who will be paying the highest price.

[Iamnotthe1]

We are currently running a part-time rota which will shortly include all pupils from all year groups. That's the only way we can have everyone in school in some capacity.

I desperately want to be able to have my full class in next year and am deeply upset that my current class have had to have their last year in primary disrupted by this virus. However, the only way to return to normal is for all social distancing to no longer be needed in our country. The Government needs to get on with taking the best actions to reduce the levels of Covid-19 in this country rather than just doing what is politically expedient.

[LolaSmiles]

primary in the main are having a right jolly at everyone's expense right now. Not my opinion - this is FACT amongst the many many primary teachers I know where we live.
I do love how many people on mumsnet seem to know what entire sectors of a profession are doing during a lockdown.

I couldn't tell you what my neighbours did today.

Or are we being a little goady here ?

[twitchypalm]

Are you for real OP. I'm a teacher who is furloughed due to being vunerable. You expect me to go back to work and risk my life just so you dont have to look after your own kids. I've been doing lessons on teams aswell as setting work for each of my classes and being at the back and call.of my email.for parents and students. Our school.is old and we can not have all the children back as it will be to dangerous. All these people saying the kids mental health will be affected. How do countries cope where due to weather they have a 3 month summer holiday.

[walker1891]

School cuts have caused this. School cuts means the bare bones staff and children crammed into every corner of the school building that were storerooms etc. My school can't afford a dinner lady or heating most of the year. Our hall is a classroom as it is and our playground is 3m wide and we have no land for any 'spare buildings'. I can fit 3 children in my classroom. We are also not allowed any PPE even if we were we haven't the money for it.

The schools were at breaking point before this happened and there was no wiggle room so when this happened there is no flexibility that can happen without investment of money, space and man power. Teachers told people time and time again yet no one listened, we were on our knees and now we can't spread ourselves any thinner than we were.

Teachers have been fighting this for a few years and the impact it was having on children's education. Have you been outraged by the cuts and the impact on education all this time and supporting teachers to push for this or have you just crawled out from under your rock abusing teachers because you have to look after and help your own children learn for a while?

If you haven't been pushing for adequate funding and supporting the fight for the past few years, then I assume you never really gave a shit and now you want to jump on the bandwagon and name call without any real solutions.

If you had supported teachers in the first instance when the cuts began, maybe we wouldn't be in so much of a pickle but then you would've had to have really cared about education to do that but now it seems people only care about it because it is free childcare. They obviously didn't give a shit when we were fighting to improve education so they can't pretend to be bothered now.

[Thetriangle]

I’m not sure why they don’t currently have much more centralised planning given we are supposed to have a national curriculum. Not to the extent of set lessons, obviously adjustments have to be made for the particular children in a class, but online school, moving school etc would be an awful lot easier if we could just decide every child does Romans in year 2, every child reads book x in year 3 etc. One set of maths resources, one nationally specified set of reading scheme books (online, free on e readers, by all means varied in type and style within that scheme).

[GreenTulips]

Yet another thread where someone who doesn’t work in education thinks they can solve all the issues around education.

Please tell us what you do for a living and we’ll come up with some ideas to get you back to work!

[DoubleDeckerBusRideLover]

I am a teacher. Throughout this pandemic I have done everything that has been asked of me by the government, despite being an elderly, overweight asthmatic.

I can tell you that the only teachers not back at our school have very legitimate reasons. Maybe the parents do not know what they are, but that does not mean they don't exist.

We are using every available staff member and every available space. Our playgrounds have ticker tape to divide them up safely. Ball games are banned as balls roll between bubbles. There is hand sanitiser everywhere and timetabled handwashing.

I am currently teaching a year group that i am not familiar with, in a larger space divided in two by shared furniture so we can fit two bubbles in the room. It is not easy to do focused work unless we timetable between us when there will be active vs quiet times, etc. It is not easy but I am doing my best.

But if bubbles are fifteen and teachers are allowed to have a lunch break, then we are at capacity. The staff for my bubble is just me and my lunch lady. I am jolly pleased when she arrives, as I can go to the loo!

I am working harder than every before (as I also have to manage my own students at home) and yet everyday when i come on social media I hear that I am lazy / workshy / don't care, etc.

Please people, target your anger where it should be, the government and the late lockdown. My nieces and nephews in New Zealand are back in normal school because they have cut corona cases to zero so it is safe. We haven't done that and the risks that has brought about is why there are restrictions still in schools and elsewhere.

[MrMorrisReturns]

Excellent post walker1891

[SionnachRua]

Not rocket science. ONE teacher needs to plan for each year group - NATIONALLY! That frees up everyone else to actually TEACH the work being set. Online. Live lessons. But no, that would actually involve teaching and doing some work wouldn't it.


Yes, you're right cupcake. Every class in the country is the same ability wise. Every class has covered the same topics.
You are such a bright little button, I'm sure no one in the Dept of Ed has thought of doing what you're suggesting. Maybe you should contact them.

[LolaSmiles]

I’m not sure why they don’t currently have much more centralised planning given we are supposed to have a national curriculum
Academies and free schools don't have to follow the National Curriculum.
Even within the National Curriculum schools have flexibility to select topics and materials that best match their students and their cohorts.

[SallyLovesCheese]

@StarUtopia

I'm just fuming that teachers aren't actually bloody teaching. Busy doing 'crap' for the government, but actually teaching?! NO.

Not rocket science. ONE teacher needs to plan for each year group - NATIONALLY! That frees up everyone else to actually TEACH the work being set. Online. Live lessons. But no, that would actually involve teaching and doing some work wouldn't it.

I'm only talking about primary teachers btw, can't comment on secondary ( I think they're doing a lot more) but primary in the main are having a right jolly at everyone's expense right now. Not my opinion - this is FACT amongst the many many primary teachers I know where we live.

First paragraph - the curriculum has been suspended so no, we're not supposed to be teaching right now (although many are).

Well, your second paragraph just proves that you don't actually know what teaching involves.

Your third paragraph is just goady. I'm afraid I don't believe you know "many many" primary teachers where you live well enough to know what they're up to every single minute of every single day.

[NameChange84]

ONE teacher cannot plan for an entire year group nationally FFS

What about differentiation? EAL? SEN and Learning Support Plans? You need to adapt everything to the children you actually know and teach on a regular basis.

Have you ever actually seen a lesson plan? Schemes of work? The National Curriculum?

Do you go about telling other people how to do their jobs?

Do you know anything about the safety risks re teaching live online?

I’m not a schoolteacher btw.

[DoubleDeckerBusRideLover]

Oh, and in our borough, the PPE sent for schools has largely gone to special schools who will need it more. We have enough that we could use it if we had a suspected covid case to be with before we sent them home, no more. I am supplying and using my own wipes.

[Iamnotthe1]

but online school, moving school etc would be an awful lot easier if we could just decide every child does Romans in year 2, every child reads book x in year 3 etc. One set of maths resources, one nationally specified set of reading scheme books (online, free on e readers, by all means varied in type and style within that scheme).

Because children and communities vary wildly and schools are judged on how well they tailor everything they do to the needs of their specific children and communities (which is needed really). In addition, the National Curriculum is a minimum, not the complete list of what is studied.

[SallyLovesCheese]

@Thetriangle

I’m not sure why they don’t currently have much more centralised planning given we are supposed to have a national curriculum. Not to the extent of set lessons, obviously adjustments have to be made for the particular children in a class, but online school, moving school etc would be an awful lot easier if we could just decide every child does Romans in year 2, every child reads book x in year 3 etc. One set of maths resources, one nationally specified set of reading scheme books (online, free on e readers, by all means varied in type and style within that scheme).

The Government have handed more power to more schools (free schools, academies, not to mention private schools already) so that they don't have to follow the National Curriculum. The remaining state schools just have a set of skills and facts that need to be taught and they can choose what's appropriate, although many still follow the old QCA themes eg. a lot of KS1 classes will all study The Great Fire of London and lots of KS2 classes do WW2.

[FrippEnos]

Same shit, different day.

[DoubleDeckerBusRideLover]

I planned all the home learning for my year group before half term (mostly at weekends). The planning for the two year groups in my bubble has been done by a shielding teacher but still needs updating / adapting in terms of the particular children in my group (special needs, etc) and the resources I actually have as I am in a non-classroom. This also happens at weekends, The planning I would actually like to be doing at this point in the year is getting ready for 20/21. Our four-person teacher team is currently split across two sites and four year groups and all of our statutory PPA time has disappeared in to managing bubbles. One of us is an NQT and that ou of class time has been lost too, although the appropriate body that will sign off their NQT year has actually added extra (very onerous) tasks for them to complete as they cannot be observed - as they would usually be - because it would mean an extra adult in a bubble.

[echt]

I love the way that the mental health of children is the new black.

Welcome to MN, LovingLivingIn Lockdown

Here's the PM getting his finger out:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/13/schools-and-councils-in-england-not-consulted-over-summer-catch-up

Here are teachers:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jun/12/headteachers-berate-non-stop-guidance-changes-for-englands-schools

And here's the government again:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/12/chief-nurse-dropped-from-no-10-briefing-for-not-backing-cummings

Who can work with a government like this? They can't be trusted to sit on a toilet the right way round.

[Womencanlift]

I have no idea how the logistics of setting up a school works so don’t shoot me but I wonder if utilising other space such as community centres/church halls/event spaces could be done temporarily to help with classroom space shortages.

I get that it doesn’t help with teacher shortages but maybe final year students or recent retirees could come in similar to what was done in the NHS at the start of this.

I also know budget is an issue but money and resources were found quickly to build the Nightingale hospitals which in hindsight was potentially not needed although they were not to know that at the time.

Maybe a force like what was seen in the NHS is needed, albeit on a smaller scale, to get the education system back on track

[DoubleDeckerBusRideLover]

The National curriculum is not fit for this purpose.

I am currently helping our school devise our geography coverage across the school. It is insane but we are having to do it right down to deciding how to define a biome, what biomes to teach, etc. A lot of this could be provided centrally which would save a lot of time in individual schools - even if they then tailored it.

Sadly it is not, which again is not the fault of teachers but a failure of how the system is set up. And a failure which does not make dealing with the current situation easier.