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.

Good post op.
Hard to argue with.

Especially the gov not giving minimum standards to educate over lock down so schools could get away with exactly what they liked. The disparity in my own town was enormous.

Some schools went on line immediately, easily and very successfully. Others didn't. Some gave out weekly worksheets and topics some didn't even do that.

The fsm was a fiasco. Etc etc ect.

noblegiraffe
Good to know that’s the only bit of my OP you could pick at though!

I just picked a random point that mentioned funding - I had posted one of the two links in a previous thread.

Poll I read today said 2 point lead.
But election in 4 years, so.....

@Khadernawazkhan

What utter drivel. Look at the unions who have shown just how much they despise children and use any crisis to hold the country to ransom. They are wicked.

Are you INSANE??!!! (Or on a wind up?) I am a teacher. Everything OP has written is true and evidenced repeatedly.

How are the unions wicked? For asking for safe working conditions? Cos actually it's all happening and opening up regardless of union being so outrageous.

@Khadernawazkhan

What utter drivel. Look at the unions who have shown just how much they despise children and use any crisis to hold the country to ransom. They are wicked.

Yes, they despise children. In fact, the teaching unions are a front organisation for Dahl's Witches. They believe all children smell of dog poo. They want the schools shut because they can't stand the smell.

Wicked. Deeply, deeply wicked.

@Clavinova the local secondary schools to me all use cover supervisors who are on yearly contracts rather than supply teachers so no cost saving there. My school uses HLTAs for cover not supply teachers so no savings there as TAs were not furloughed (they were working with teachers to care for KW children then back in class bubbles in June 1st.)

American school funding is entirely different. Some schools in some parts of America are bankrupt; some are very wealthy. Theirs system is even more broken and inequitable than ours so probably not the best example to cite.

Oh, yes, and schools being open over Easter and half term (and providing food for FSM pupils throughout those holidays, too) totally adds up.

If the teachers care so much why are they so reluctant to re open schools ? Why have some schools refused to do teach via zoom ?

American schools were able to save money because they did not open at all to students during the lockdown.

It's worth mentioning that per pupil spending is astonishingly high in American schools vs the UK. In my mediocre hometown school district, the yearly pp budget is $11,000(!) Some of the wealthier ones budget upwards of $25-30k per pupil. It's insane.

@Clavinova schools in the US were closed. Closed closed. Buildings locked up and nobody allowed in. Schools here were open to some children. So all the usual bills continued. You can't compare them.

@noblegiraffe

Clavin Williamson

That is the funniest thing I've seen today! Even with the heaps of 💩 you can find a

Because teachers deserve a safe working environment just like everyone else.

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. We won't be seeing that back.

No good deed goes unpunished...

schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-assumed-schools-had-280-devices-each-before-deciding-free-laptop-allocations/

@Northernparent68

If the teachers care so much why are they so reluctant to re open schools ? Why have some schools refused to do teach via zoom ?

We want the same protection as other places which are indoor with many bodies, poor ventilation, no PPE and no social distancing... remind me where this happens for other workers?

Yes, Clavinova, the US school system is exactly the same as the UKs. So of course, if one school in the US manages to save money all of ours must. You don't appear to realise for a start that where children are entitled to school transport it's the Local Authority which pays. Otherwise where they are not entitled, it's the parents who stump up.

⬆️*@Northernparent68*

How do 11% think YABU? Are the cabinet on MN?

(I’ll go read the thread now to see the arguments against noble)

The laptop farce. Williamson has the gall to brag about this scheme then delivered a fraction of the promised machines... at the start of the summer holidays.

M

Blamed Ofqual for the algorithm they were told to create.

Just glanced at Ofqual's executive summary;

"To understand the impact of potential advantage or disadvantage across different demographic and socio-economic groups we have also performed an equalities analysis of calculated grades.The analyses show no evidence that this year’s process of awarding grades has introduced bias."

There are no decent arguments against, @SmileEachDay.

@dannydyerismydad

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. We won't be seeing that back.

No good deed goes unpunished...

A lot of schools donated lab goggles to the NHS too. I wonder if there will be any science practicals?

@Northernparent68

If the teachers care so much why are they so reluctant to re open schools ? Why have some schools refused to do teach via zoom ?

This thread isn’t about schools reopening it’s about the handling of it.

For the record I don’t know a single teacher that doesn’t want schools to open. They just want it handled well and done safely but this shit show of a government have made that so difficult it is ridiculous.

There are hundreds of threads discussing why schools didn’t offer live remote lessons. Again not the point of this thread but a very quick search will give you the answer to your question.