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.

11% though noble

I mean, I’ll defer to the maths department’s greater knowledge but to English, that’s a worrying amount. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Smile I checked who voted YABU and the accounts were Clav1, Clav2, Clav3.... oh and Us4ThemRoolz 🤷‍♀️

I must confess that toddler DGD pressed YABU on my tablet. She was sitting on my lap at the time and I wasn’t giving her my full attention..

Smile I checked who voted YABU and the accounts were Clav1, Clav2, Clav3.... oh and Us4ThemRoolz 🤷‍♀️

😂😂😂

@noblegiraffe

Smile I checked who voted YABU and the accounts were Clav1, Clav2, Clav3.... oh and Us4ThemRoolz 🤷‍♀️

a very poor attempt at vote-rigging lol

@noblegiraffe

It really is an awful tweet. Gavin, mate, education is your job. You could have gone to Scarborough before results day.

After all HoDs have to plan their holidays around results days - the expectation is that we are in and supporting students....

He has gone from being a joke to a national embarrassment - the man has no shame. He really irritates me now with a lack of empathy for schools, students, colleges, universities.

I feel Gavin Williamson had reached the correct level when he was a fireplace salesman. The state of politics is very dispiriting.

I feel Gavin Williamson had reached the correct level when he was a fireplace salesman

I wouldn’t buy a fireplace off him.

Things still up in the air for exam results...lots of shambles still to come on that front.

Starmer seems to understand that schools still need a clear plan for what to do if there’s an outbreak and a plan B for further closures so while I’m not a fan of Labour I think Starmer would do a better job at sorting the return to school

Schools all have a number of 'just in case' plans as we cant rely upon Big Gav and the DfE to do anything as they are reactionary.

Clearly schools are expected to have a plan B;

Section 5 Contingency plans for outbreaks -
"For individuals or groups of self-isolating pupils, remote education plans should be in place.These should meet the same expectations as those for any pupils who cannot yet attend school at all due to coronavirus (COVID-19). See section on remote education support."

"In the event of a local outbreak, the PHE health protection team or local authority may advise a school or number of schools to close temporarily to help control transmission. Schools will also need a contingency plan for this eventuality.This may involve a return to remaining open only for vulnerable children and the children of critical workers, and providing remote education for all other pupils."

Remote education support
"Where a class, group or small number of pupils need to self-isolate, or there is a local lockdown requiring pupils to remain at home, we expect schools to have the capacity to offer immediate remote education. Schools are expected to consider how to continue to improve the quality of their existing offer and have a strong contingency plan in place for remote education provision by the end of September.This planning will be particularly important to support a scenario in which the logistical challenges of remote provision are greatest, for example where large numbers of pupils are required to remain at home."

In developing these contingency plans, we expect schools to:

*use a curriculum sequence that allows access to high-quality online and offline resources and teaching videos, and that is linked to the school’s curriculum expectations.
*give access to high quality remote education resources.
*select the online tools that will be consistently used across the school in order to allow interaction, assessment and feedback, and make sure staff are trained in their use.
*provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, for pupils who do not have suitable online access.
*recognise that younger pupils and some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support, and so schools should work with families to deliver a broad and ambitious curriculum.
When teaching pupils remotely, we expect schools to:

*set assignments so that pupils have meaningful and ambitious work each day in a number of different subjects.
*teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject.
*provide frequent, clear explanations of new content, delivered by a teacher in the school or through high quality curriculum resources and/or videos.
*gauge how well pupils are progressing through the curriculum, using questions and other suitable tasks and set a clear expectation on how regularly teachers will check work.
*enable teachers to adjust the pace or difficulty of what is being taught in response to questions or assessments, including, where necessary, revising material or simplifying explanations to ensure pupils’ understanding.
*plan a programme that is of equivalent length to the core teaching pupils would receive in school, ideally including daily contact with teachers.
"We expect schools to consider these expectations in relation to the pupils’ age, stage of development and/or special educational needs, for example where this would place significant demands on parents’ help or support. We expect schools to avoid an over-reliance on long-term projects or internet research activities."

"The government will also explore making a temporary continuity direction in the autumn term, to give additional clarity to schools, pupils and parents as to what remote education should be provided. DfE will engage with the sector before a final decision is made on this."

A range of resources to support schools in delivering remote education is available:

*curriculum maps for key subjects for year groups from Reception to year 9 will be published in July.They aim to provide support to schools in developing the ability to switch from classroom teaching to remote provision immediately in case of local lockdowns or self-isolation. A number of education resource providers intend to align their resources to these maps, to further support schools.These maps are designed as a support for schools and are entirely non-mandatory, for use at the discretion of the school.
*DfE has produced a quality assured list of remote education resources which are available to schools and parents for free over the summer term. Where pricing models have changed, schools may consider using some of their catch-up funding on remote resources in line with the access to technology section of the EEF’s COVID-19 support guide for schools.
*from that start of the autumn term, Oak National Academy will make available video lessons covering the entire national curriculum, available to any school for free.These are being in developed in partnership with a wide group of teachers and school leaders to develop lessons in the popular topics.The resources will be as flexible as possible, allowing schools to reorder topics and lessons, to match their own plans and curriculum.
*Oak National Academy specialist content for pupils with SEND.This covers communication and language, numeracy, creative arts, independent living, occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech and language therapy.Their provision for next academic year will include an expanded range of content for the specialist sector.
*government-funded access to one of two free-to-use digital education platforms: Google for Education or Microsoft Office 365 Education. Schools can apply through The Key for School Leaders. The Key also provides feature comparison and case studies on how schools are making the most of these platforms.
*a network of schools and colleges for help and support on effective use of tech for remote education that can be accessed through the EdTech Demonstrator Programme.
*laptops, tablets and 4G wireless routers were made available to local authorities and academy trusts to support vulnerable and disadvantaged children (specifically, care leavers, children and young people with a social worker, and disadvantaged year 10 pupils) between May to July 2020. Local authorities and academy trusts will continue to own these devices.
*following pupils returning to school in the autumn term, laptops and tablets will be distributed directly to schools affected by a local coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.These will be available for disadvantaged pupils in years 3 to 11 and clinically extremely vulnerable children from all year groups unable to attend school. These devices will be owned by the school and provided to children and young people who would otherwise be unable to access remote education.
*In addition to 4G routers provided to local authorities and academy trusts, the Department for Education is working in partnership with BT to offer free access to BT WiFi hotspots for disadvantaged pupils. We are also working with the major telecommunications companies to expand this offer and provide access to free additional data to families who rely on a mobile internet connection while the response to coronavirus (COVID-19) requires pupils to learn from home and access social care services online. More information on increasing internet access for vulnerable and disadvantaged children is available.
Further support is available from:

*The National Cyber Security Centre, on which video conference service is right for you and using video conferencing services securely.
*annex C of the guidance on Safeguarding and remote education during coronavirus (COVID-19), as well as statutory guidance on online safety in Annex C of keeping children safe in education.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak/guidance-for-full-opening-schools

"Guidance for local authorities, academy trusts and schools on devices and support available to provide remote education and access to children’s social care."

www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-technology-for-remote-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19

"How schools can access digital devices for children requiring access to remote education due to shielding or local coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions."

www.gov.uk/guidance/get-laptops-and-tablets-for-children-who-cannot-attend-school-due-to-coronavirus-covid-19

Anyone who voted in this shower of shite are just as bad IMO.
Just because some business owners were frightened of paying a little bit more tax (refer to threads before the election!!) they voted for this.
Boils my blood. They have sold us down the river!!😡😡

They could fling those nightingales up in a fortnight but education absolutely thrown in the bin. Homeschooling was a fucking joke who the hells meant to organise that and work full time? Zero creative thinking, zero coherence. A magic money tree for everything else. Working women the brunt bearers. This generation absolute sacrificial lambs and I dont care if the grades were inflated in the end. They deserved it and a fucking apology to boot, which they won't get. Damage has been done. It makes me rage.

@noblegiraffe

Smile I checked who voted YABU and the accounts were Clav1, Clav2, Clav3.... oh and Us4ThemRoolz 🤷‍♀️

👏 👏 👏

Clav

The laptops.

There were supposed to be laptops ages ago.

I believe In the localised lockdown laptops as much as I believe in unicorns.

50% of my school - actually slightly less now because we’ve give Y10 into 11 devices from our budget - don’t have a device or internet access. This worries me massively when the plan is schools moving seamlessly to remote learning.

You could have gone to Scarborough before results day.

He did?
"The trip to the North Yorkshire seaside resort of Scarborough, reported to have taken place the week beginning 3 August as Scottish results were published to widespread uproar among disappointed pupils, was to visit members of his family that he had not seen since lockdown began."

That so called guidance shows complete bypass of understanding that actually one off isolating children or small groups is actually far more difficult logistically than whole groups.

That so called guidance shows complete bypass of understanding that actually one off isolating children or small groups is actually far more difficult logistically than whole groups.

My dcs' school managed it before lockdown - a few pupils self-isolating (family ski trips) accessed lessons from home - via a webcam I think.

@Piggywaspushed

That so called guidance shows complete bypass of understanding that actually one off isolating children or small groups is actually far more difficult logistically than whole groups.

It also assumes that teachers have available laptops that are good enough to use to teach remotely.

We have class-based desktops at work which are dreadful-they are v v old.

During lockdown, my youngest and I had to share my home laptop to do School work. She did lots during the day, and I set work during the evenings. If the government want certain things provided, they’ll have to find me a decent laptop.

My dcs' school managed it before lockdown - a few pupils self-isolating (family ski trips) accessed lessons from home - via a webcam I think

Via a web cam “you think”.

Are you saying the teachers streamed the lessons via a webcam?

Really?

How are teachers meant to stream live lessons as well as teach an actual class, simultaneously?

Skype?? I don't know the technical details. Like this;

www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51824199

Clav

I’m sorry but I don’t believe that your child’s primary was doing live lessons via video to a handful of pupils before lockdown happened.

I’m sorry but I don’t believe that your child’s primary was doing live lessons via video to a handful of pupils before lockdown happened.

Private secondary school - although the school in the link is a state school.

Private secondary school - although the school in the link is a state school

Apologies.

In which case I don’t believe that your child’s private secondary school was doing live lessons via video to a handful of pupils before lockdown happened.

Did we neglect yo notice the schools minister with responsibility for post 16 on holiday in France during all thus? Laughing about quarantine and goodness knows how she has insurance!

Headreachers and many teachers plan holidays around results. I expect the same of our leaders.