This government don’t give a shit about schools or your kids

[noblegiraffe]

AIBU to think that the government have fucked up literally everything to do with schools and education this year?

Evidence:

Chaotic school closures and keyworker provision (couldn’t decide what a keyworker was until the very last minute)

Forgot that kids on free school meals would go hungry so heads had to go round delivering sandwiches while the DfE put together an utterly shambolic voucher system that crashed and was pretty unusable.

Issued no guidelines for minimum education requirements during lockdown leading to vastly different provision between schools. Even Ofsted said they couldn’t judge schools on lockdown provision as there were no standards to judge them against.

Had to be shamed into u-turning on their insistence that free school meal children should go hungry during the holidays by a celebrity footballer (well done Marcus Rashford you absolute star)

Fed stories to friendly newspapers about schools re-opening in May to judge public reaction, leading to anxiety and uncertainty among parents and school staff

Announced that primary schools would open to all pupils before the summer holidays, an announcement that had surely not been run past anyone who worked in schools given that under the government’s own guidelines for schools for bubbles of 15 and no rotas, this would require double the classrooms and double the teachers available. Then backtracked on this a few weeks later (getting the friendly press to blame the unions) again creating uncertainty, anxiety and disappointment for parents and pupils.

Ignored education select committee questions about Ofqual’s algorithm when they raised issues in July

Lied and said they didn’t have early access to the data from Ofqual’s algorithm

When Scotland u-turned on their use of an algorithm, instead of making a considered response, came out with the bizarre notion that kids could use their mock grades - a suggestion that had obviously never been put past anyone who worked in schools. Again.

Took 5 days to realise that their mock suggestion created more problems than it solved, then u-turned on awarding CAGs creating problems for Y12 next year.

Fed stories to the friendly press that the unions are blocking the re-opening of schools in September so if it goes tits-up, they can blame them again (unions are asking for a ‘plan B’ in the case of local lockdowns, and for working conditions comparable to those of all other workers, no strike action has been proposed or balloted for so they couldn’t block re-opening even if they wanted to)

Blamed Ofqual for the algorithm they were told to create (prioritising statistics over teacher assessment)

Branded a teacher payrise that was agreed back in January a ‘reward for work during lockdown’, knowing this was incorrect, and deliberately fuelling outrage that they themselves had caused by having no minimum requirements for education in lockdown leading to vastly different provision.

Not funding this payrise so teachers probably won’t get it as otherwise it will lead to redundancies for other staff members due to having to fund it from already dire staffing budgets.

Issued guidelines that said that schools should reopen with increased cleaning schedules, increased handwashing, hand sanitising but providing no extra funding for this.

Instructed heads not to take any measures that would improve safety but would require more space (e.g. use of village halls) or not have pupils in full time (rotas, staggered timetables).

Didn’t realise that kids wouldn’t be able to get to school on public transport under current social distancing requirements as there aren’t enough buses until three weeks before schools reopened, and decided to throw £40 million to LAs to sort this (what? buy more buses?) so that they could blame the LAs when it inevitably goes wrong and kids can’t get to school.

And these are the people currently running a campaign to convince parents that they are capable of re-opening schools safely.

YABU: I have full confidence in the government and am perfectly happy with how things have gone so far

YANBU: It is mind-boggling how incompetent they have been, and how little thought they have given to the education of the nation’s children.

[quote Clavinova]when can after school and breakfast clubs reopen?

Updated guidance published today;

www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-for-parents-and-carers-of-children-attending-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak/guidance-for-parents-and-carers-of-children-attending-out-of-school-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak[/quote]
And your point is?

But it will be down to those that normally run them as to whether they are prepared to run them or not.

Yep all that.
Plus was the voucher scheme given wuthout tender to one of their business donors with a premium rate helpline number. Sure I read that somewhere.

Updated list. In true DfE style, I have reissued the entire list and will not be telling you where the changes are.

Evidence

1. Chaotic school closures and keyworker provision (couldn’t decide what a keyworker was until the very last minute)

2. Forgot that kids on free school meals would go hungry so heads had to go round delivering sandwiches while the DfE put together an utterly shambolic voucher system that crashed and was pretty unusable.

3. Issued no guidelines for minimum education requirements during lockdown leading to vastly different provision between schools. Even Ofsted said they couldn’t judge schools on lockdown provision as there were no standards to judge them against.

4. Claimed responsibility for setting up an online school that had actually been set-up by teachers, merely because they chucked some money their way. Forgot to tell schools about the online school so many had no idea that it existed. Forgot to advertise it to parents even though it was exactly the sort of thing many parents were asking for.

5. Had to be shamed into u-turning on their insistence that free school meal children should go hungry during the holidays by a celebrity footballer (well done Marcus Rashford you absolute star)

6. Said that they would provide free laptops to disadvantaged kids so that they could access schoolwork, then only provided a tiny proportion of the laptops required because they incorrectly assumed that each school already had 280(!) laptops of their own. The woefully inadequate amount of laptops provided didn’t arrive until the end of the summer term rendering them pointless.

7. Fed stories to friendly newspapers about schools re-opening in May to judge public reaction, leading to anxiety and uncertainty among parents and school staff

8. Announced that primaries would reopen to 3 year groups only, as getting parents of those year groups back to work was more important than the education, mental health and wellbeing of the other 4 year groups. Announced that Y10 and 12 would have ‘some face to face support’ without clarifying what that meant

9. Took ages to release the guidance for reopening pushing back Y10 and Y12 opening.

10. Released guidance at the last minute meant that carefully laid plans by schools had to be scrapped and restarted. Guidance was repeatedly updated but with full versions released each time and no tracking of changes so time was wasted trying to find out what was new.

11. Announced that primary schools would open to all pupils before the summer holidays, an announcement that had surely not been run past anyone who worked in schools given that under the government’s own guidelines for schools for bubbles of 15 and no rotas, this would require double the classrooms and double the teachers available. Then backtracked on this a few weeks later (getting the friendly press to blame the unions) again creating uncertainty, anxiety and disappointment for parents and pupils.

12. Neglected responsibility towards children with SEN and disabilities, EHCPs weren’t to be followed, update/transition meetings were cancelled and parents were left without respite.

13. Issued guidance for childcare settings very late and only for some types of provider

14. As lockdown eased, completely forgot about re-opening baby groups for new mothers so guidance wasn’t issued and they had to stay closed

15. Promised massive funding for a GREAT SUMMER CATCH-UP which hasn’t happened. Now pencilled in for November, but they don’t appear to be organising it.

16. Promised an army of retired teachers to tutor kids as part of the GREAT SUMMER CATCH-UP now downgraded to recent graduates hired through govt approved agencies, with schools having to pay 25% of the costs.

17. Ignored education select committee questions about Ofqual’s algorithm when they raised issues in July

18. Lied and said they didn’t have early access to the data from Ofqual’s algorithm

19. When Scotland u-turned on their use of an algorithm, instead of making a considered response, came out with the bizarre notion that kids could use their mock grades - a suggestion that had obviously never been put past anyone who worked in schools. Again.

20. Took 5 days to realise that their mock suggestion created more problems than it solved, then u-turned on awarding CAGs creating problems for Y12 next year. Many students who now qualified for their university places had lost them due to the delay

21. Delayed Level 2 BTEC results the day before they were due to be released

22. Fed stories to the friendly press that the unions are blocking the re-opening of schools in September so if it goes tits-up, they can blame them again (unions are asking for a ‘plan B’ in the case of local lockdowns, and for working conditions comparable to those of all other workers, no strike action has been proposed or balloted for so they couldn’t block re-opening even if they wanted to)

23. Blamed Ofqual for the algorithm they were told to create (prioritising statistics over teacher assessment)

24. Branded a teacher payrise that was agreed back in January a ‘reward for work during lockdown’, knowing this was incorrect, and deliberately fuelling outrage that they themselves had caused by having no minimum requirements for education in lockdown leading to vastly different provision.

25. Not funding this payrise so teachers probably won’t get it as otherwise it will lead to redundancies for other staff members due to having to fund it from already dire staffing budgets.

26. Issued guidelines that said that schools should reopen with increased cleaning schedules, increased handwashing, hand sanitising but providing no extra funding for this.

27. Instructed heads not to take any measures that would improve safety but would require more space (e.g. use of village halls) or not have pupils in full time (rotas, staggered timetables).

28. Didn’t realise that kids wouldn’t be able to get to school on public transport under current social distancing requirements as there aren’t enough buses until three weeks before schools reopened, and decided to throw £40 million to LAs to sort this (what? buy more buses?) so that they could blame the LAs when it inevitably goes wrong and kids can’t get to school. Withdrew free bus travel for kids in London.

29. Reintroduced fines for not sending your kids to school, even if your kid is clinically vulnerable and knowing that schools aren’t Covid-secure.

Have you seen that after school clubs will only be safe if groups of no more than 15 and from their school ‘bubble’? DfE seems to think that Covid is more dangerous after 3pm and that after school staff could catch it (unlike teachers who are immune apparently).

So wrap around can't take siblings from the same family? Madness

Can I just say that primaries were only opened to one year group with the aim of two other year groups going back before the end of term.

The laptops that arrived were locked so couldn't be used.

Blocking the use of libraries, church halls etc. for use as classrooms. even though there was no extra staff.

And missed the update on the 11th for schools guidance.

@noblegiraffe

Updated list. In true DfE style, I have reissued the entire list and will not be telling you where the changes are.

Evidence

1. Chaotic school closures and keyworker provision (couldn’t decide what a keyworker was until the very last minute)

2. Forgot that kids on free school meals would go hungry so heads had to go round delivering sandwiches while the DfE put together an utterly shambolic voucher system that crashed and was pretty unusable.

3. Issued no guidelines for minimum education requirements during lockdown leading to vastly different provision between schools. Even Ofsted said they couldn’t judge schools on lockdown provision as there were no standards to judge them against.

4. Claimed responsibility for setting up an online school that had actually been set-up by teachers, merely because they chucked some money their way. Forgot to tell schools about the online school so many had no idea that it existed. Forgot to advertise it to parents even though it was exactly the sort of thing many parents were asking for.

5. Had to be shamed into u-turning on their insistence that free school meal children should go hungry during the holidays by a celebrity footballer (well done Marcus Rashford you absolute star)

6. Said that they would provide free laptops to disadvantaged kids so that they could access schoolwork, then only provided a tiny proportion of the laptops required because they incorrectly assumed that each school already had 280(!) laptops of their own. The woefully inadequate amount of laptops provided didn’t arrive until the end of the summer term rendering them pointless.

7. Fed stories to friendly newspapers about schools re-opening in May to judge public reaction, leading to anxiety and uncertainty among parents and school staff

8. Announced that primaries would reopen to 3 year groups only, as getting parents of those year groups back to work was more important than the education, mental health and wellbeing of the other 4 year groups. Announced that Y10 and 12 would have ‘some face to face support’ without clarifying what that meant

9. Took ages to release the guidance for reopening pushing back Y10 and Y12 opening.

10. Released guidance at the last minute meant that carefully laid plans by schools had to be scrapped and restarted. Guidance was repeatedly updated but with full versions released each time and no tracking of changes so time was wasted trying to find out what was new.

11. Announced that primary schools would open to all pupils before the summer holidays, an announcement that had surely not been run past anyone who worked in schools given that under the government’s own guidelines for schools for bubbles of 15 and no rotas, this would require double the classrooms and double the teachers available. Then backtracked on this a few weeks later (getting the friendly press to blame the unions) again creating uncertainty, anxiety and disappointment for parents and pupils.

12. Neglected responsibility towards children with SEN and disabilities, EHCPs weren’t to be followed, update/transition meetings were cancelled and parents were left without respite.

13. Issued guidance for childcare settings very late and only for some types of provider

14. As lockdown eased, completely forgot about re-opening baby groups for new mothers so guidance wasn’t issued and they had to stay closed

15. Promised massive funding for a GREAT SUMMER CATCH-UP which hasn’t happened. Now pencilled in for November, but they don’t appear to be organising it.

16. Promised an army of retired teachers to tutor kids as part of the GREAT SUMMER CATCH-UP now downgraded to recent graduates hired through govt approved agencies, with schools having to pay 25% of the costs.

17. Ignored education select committee questions about Ofqual’s algorithm when they raised issues in July

18. Lied and said they didn’t have early access to the data from Ofqual’s algorithm

19. When Scotland u-turned on their use of an algorithm, instead of making a considered response, came out with the bizarre notion that kids could use their mock grades - a suggestion that had obviously never been put past anyone who worked in schools. Again.

20. Took 5 days to realise that their mock suggestion created more problems than it solved, then u-turned on awarding CAGs creating problems for Y12 next year. Many students who now qualified for their university places had lost them due to the delay

21. Delayed Level 2 BTEC results the day before they were due to be released

22. Fed stories to the friendly press that the unions are blocking the re-opening of schools in September so if it goes tits-up, they can blame them again (unions are asking for a ‘plan B’ in the case of local lockdowns, and for working conditions comparable to those of all other workers, no strike action has been proposed or balloted for so they couldn’t block re-opening even if they wanted to)

23. Blamed Ofqual for the algorithm they were told to create (prioritising statistics over teacher assessment)

24. Branded a teacher payrise that was agreed back in January a ‘reward for work during lockdown’, knowing this was incorrect, and deliberately fuelling outrage that they themselves had caused by having no minimum requirements for education in lockdown leading to vastly different provision.

25. Not funding this payrise so teachers probably won’t get it as otherwise it will lead to redundancies for other staff members due to having to fund it from already dire staffing budgets.

26. Issued guidelines that said that schools should reopen with increased cleaning schedules, increased handwashing, hand sanitising but providing no extra funding for this.

27. Instructed heads not to take any measures that would improve safety but would require more space (e.g. use of village halls) or not have pupils in full time (rotas, staggered timetables).

28. Didn’t realise that kids wouldn’t be able to get to school on public transport under current social distancing requirements as there aren’t enough buses until three weeks before schools reopened, and decided to throw £40 million to LAs to sort this (what? buy more buses?) so that they could blame the LAs when it inevitably goes wrong and kids can’t get to school. Withdrew free bus travel for kids in London.

29. Reintroduced fines for not sending your kids to school, even if your kid is clinically vulnerable and knowing that schools aren’t Covid-secure.

👏

And missed the update on the 11th for schools guidance.

@FrippEnos Has this update just not happened - is it expected to come before term in England?

@noblegiraffe
Great updated list
You should get that sent to www.ledbydonkeys.org.

Oh and if anyone hasn't seen this
timeline-of-failure.com
...for how the govt has dealt with the pandemic from the start, it's quite a stunning thing.

Great work noble

It's depressing to read people still blaming the unions for things they neither said nor did.

Can't fix stupid, I guess.

The NEU is being particularly forward thinking and sensible

I've said Yanbu but I do think they care, think they are arrogant incompetents, who don't listen to people who know better than them because they are so full of themselves.

I dread to think what a mess they are making of Brexit. Poor UK, we are so screwed.

@lifeafter50

At our school all the cleaning consumables (loo roll, paper towels, disposable gloves, plastic aprons etc) were donated to the NHS. We had pre purchased enough for several months. Well that was a ridiculous thing to do. The NHS is a service e, not a charity. And schools have no business to reallocate their resources elsewhere. Appalling lack of judgement.

All our science goggles and other stuff was donated and our school made visors for the hospitals using our 3D printing machine. I am appalled that you think that was a lack of judgement. The hospitals asked for help because they were unable to get them from anywhere else. As a school we did it because we wanted to support our community. I know @lifeafter50 you like to make outrageous statements then never post again on school threads but that is a low comment even for you.

I think (29) is somehow the worst. We the govt can fine or imprison parents who don’t make their children go to school because every single day of school is vital. But we the govt can shut schools for months and provide wholly inadequate home schooling and that is ok. BUT when we the govt say that everyone should go back to school the we can start prosecuting parents for their children missing school. When WE do it it’s fine but when you do it it’s illegal. That is so bad.

I agree, Comtesse. It's actually appalling that clinically vulnerable children are being forced back into school against parents' wishes (and what Sweden did/is doing) is even more shocking).

I completely agree. I also don't understand all the people saying :'Corbyn would have been worse'. I do not believe in a million years that any labour government would have treated the education of our children as an ' afterthought' in the same way.

. The contempt this government has for education professionals and the lack of interest in the well being and the future of young people is absolutely unforgivable.

@Comtesse

I think (29) is somehow the worst. We the govt can fine or imprison parents who don’t make their children go to school because every single day of school is vital. But we the govt can shut schools for months and provide wholly inadequate home schooling and that is ok. BUT when we the govt say that everyone should go back to school the we can start prosecuting parents for their children missing school. When WE do it it’s fine but when you do it it’s illegal. That is so bad.

This. It's so callous. And hypocritical.

@Northernparent68 Many, many children cannot access zoom lessons, they do not have the equipment needed. Some of the children I teach were sharing an ipad or laptop between three. Some had just a phone. Some had no wifi. Some lived in households where there was little supervision or where there was no quiet space to follow a lesson. Zoom is not the answer to everyone's problem with remote education.

Also changing all of the grades after UCAS started, leaving admission processes in Universities in meltdown! I feel totally defeated and exhausted to think our students could now go elsewhere after we have spent the week tirelessly recruiting and meeting them.

It's all about England isn't it. Schools are back in Scotland without all this moaning and whining. And the Scottish teaching unions have more of a voice usually.
I think it's more accurate to say that pupils have been badly let down by everybody- governments, teachers and all the other highly paid stuffed shirts involved in education. All of whom I might add get paid a guaranteed wage despite their appalling behaviour.

It is a total shit show.

How about we campaign to use the autumn term as a rerun of the term the kids missed, then start the new school year in January. It’d have to stay that way forever more but I’ve always loathed the fact that such important exams take place in summer (also hay fever season!).

This is semi-lighthearted as I’m not a teacher or expert.

Schools are back in Scotland without all this moaning and whining.

The same schools that couldn't possibly manage a part time return in June like England did, with far fewer cases?

Digging away is divisive and deflects from the real issue that without extra money, cases in both countries will rise unacceptably in the community.

@killerofmen

Totally agree. Thankfully in Wales the government has only messed up some of these things. And I believe they are trying their best and are not led by an idiot.

All children who wanted to could go back to school before the summer and, although it was on a very limited basis, it was so beneficial.

Unfortunately, @killerofmen, that didn't apply to keyworkers using childcare (in my case, to teach) in some LAs. Instead, many KW children had to go to the local leisure centre and didn't see their friends or teachers at all. It was an appalling way to treat them. Not only were they in an unfamiliar setting with people they didn't know, but there was no information about infection control and in our case we only found out on the day school groupings were allocated. I pulled mine out and DH had to take more time off, but we can't do that from here on because he has no AL left.

Brilliant post noble 👏👏