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.

YANBU

This government gave failed and entire population through their wilful incompetence, greed and disregard for human life.
I'm ashamed of them

Another thing that’s annoyed me is, in their desperation to get schools open, they have been pretending how it’s all for the poor disadvantaged children-‘think of the poor children-their education is so important, they can’t miss a single second!’ has been the message.

Yet, the exam fiasco has shown that actually, they don’t give a toss about the disadvantaged children!

Had it not been for social media, teenager protests, parental outrage and mounting legal challenges, I’m quite sure they would have just plodded along with the plans and just fed the media some diversion story in order to change the subject.

Thank you so much for putting this so bluntly, especially about unions only asking for COMPARABLE conditions and the funding issues.

Sadly all the public will remember is ‘ah but the teachers got a pay rise’ - 90% of us WON’T, because schools (rightly) won’t choose to make support staff redundant in order to fund this, as those support staff are relied upon by many lower ability and vulnerable children.

Can I ask though why the u turn has messed things up for next years Y13?

Nails it’s partly because of what you said about students missing out on rightful uni places. A lot of those who should have got a place this year and now have the grades to do so have been told that they will have a place for next year - reducing the places available for current Y12. Some will also take a gap year and reapply with their CAGs which we know are better as a cohort than if they took exams, and current Y12 will be competing against them, but (presumably) will have grades/predictions more in line with previous years.

No one knows yet whether Y12 will be penalised with lower grades for having missed course time and therefore presumably performing worse than they would have.

The Government's contempt for schools existed long before COVID. Funding formulas that represent losses in real terms, appalling levels of negligence towards children with SEND...

Yabu

Completely agree the wrong children were targeted to go back in summer term. My Y6 son did not need to be in- he was perfectly happy at home, had loads to do and all his work was done by then in any case. My neighbour's Y2 DS was climbing the walls, he's a sporty livewire and needed the space to run around that we just don't have in our homes. Plus he needed to continue with his lessons. Ridiculous decision.

I remember my Dad telling me he'd never vote Labour after policing the winter of discontent in the 70s, and I remember being a bit that a government could do something you felt SO strongly about that you'd never consider voting for them again.

Then I've gone through the past six months with a 3yo and an 8yo and I'm so fucking furious at how children and young adults have been forced to bear the brunt of this shit show and I know Labour and the Lib Dems would have to say they're bringing back the death penalty or amalgamating the country with the US to ever have me considering voting Tory.

Their next experiment is with school children's lives. Good luck with that. Everything just seems like a statistic or mission for these guys.

@cyclingmad

Yabu

Again, please could you explain why you think this.

A skeptic would think UFT were popping in to once again skew the vote...

Completely, utterly and totally agree. What a mess.

@noblegiraffe, thank you. Unfortunately, that makes sense.

AIBU to think that the government have fucked up literally everything

You could have stopped there, tbh.

@felineflutter

YABU.

Why?

Yanbu, I agree with others about the government totally forgetting sen children. We are having a difficult enough time getting an education for my son who is autistic due to lack of special needs places, now with pandemic we have already been told he cant go back as school can't manage risk with him having pica. He is happy at home but he certainly did not have appropriate support from school in lockdown due to work not diffientriated and the school were in guidelines. Luckily I can teach him. This government is absolutly awful. They throw anyone under the bus without taking responsibility for their own mess up. The fact Boris Johnson took a holiday when a levels and GCSE results came out just show his priorities. The poor students getting a levels and GCSEs. I suspect conservatives will not be popular with these age groups

Yes to all of this.
It is an utter fuck up and the fury I feel is only matched by the fury over all the other fuck ups from this government from the very start.

The way children with complex needs and those with medical vulnerabilities have been treated is also appalling...

EHCPs 'paused', so that children's needs are not met, parents being told annual reviews and transition meetings would not happen, shielding children consistently not considered in shielding announcements, children removed from the shielding list (imo) to facilitate a full return to schools, threats of fines for medically vulnerable children if parents decide to keep them home.

YADNBU

I think you are right. However this isn't limited to just schools, there have been found wanting in a number of different areas well before COVID.

Definitely not bu. I was just thinking today how much children have suffered through all of this. I know the head at our school has literally been regarding guidance late at night as soon as it was released. They were given very little time or resources to prepare for any of the changes that were introduced.

YANBU. I had a feeling that this virus was going to be terrible for children and young people at the start of this. I remember joining in on a thread saying how awful it was for them and we were in the minority. Most saying 'oh yes, poor snowflakes have to miss piano and tennis' and other flippant comments.
Its astonishing people couldn't see this coming, although I must admit even I didn't think it would be as poorly managed as this.
I'm furious about it.

Self-serving clowns in every way. Why did they make that half-hearted attempt to let the schools back in June? So they can say later "well, we tried to let the schools back in June, but the public and unions stymied us." Consequences of their own brainwashing people into fear.

@GameSetMatch

The only reason Gavin is still in a job after the grades fiasco is so they can sack him when schools open and rates of infections in schools rise.

Absolutely what I think too. There was a Daily Mail article on this yesterday but it got pulled when I went to check it again.

The government have shown nothing but contempt for education and all those involved for years. What's shown them up this time is that they seem to have lost track of their own lies.

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.

Seeing it written down like that it does seem like a bigger shit show than I thought.
Our children deserve so much better.
Those poor children who's results have been messed around with too.
Then they DEMAND all children are back in school. I DEMAND a competent government