#closetheschools is trending

[Allthestarsarecloser]

I work at a university on the front line seeing students 1-1 (I work in student support) and have continued to see students this term at a distance & with measures in place. ALL the students I have seen have been grateful for the human contact.

I also have 2 kids in primary and secondary. I want them to stay in school as my eldest had to have counselling after the last lockdown.

Aibu to say that schools need to stay open and I say that as someone on the front line.

YABU - they should shut
YANBU- they need to stay open

The home learning provided by our school during the last lock down was very poor, it was disorganised, badly explained and supported by his teacher. Teachers can not expect to be off school on full pay without providing the best level of home learning possible for the pupils. The argument that they can not provide zoom lessons when most of us know spend our entire working day in video calls is outrageous and is further widening the gap between state and private schools, who have provided online lessons since March.

Typo - *not supported by the teacher

School
School gate.
Waiting for kids at gate or in playground.

Huge section of society still mixing.
Many of us have jobs where we work with people who don't have kids.

What's the point in a circuit break if it's not a break it's just a slight reduction.

The argument that they can not provide zoom lessons when most of us know spend our entire working day in video calls is outrageous and is further widening the gap between state and private schools, who have provided online lessons since March

This has been done to death.

There were safeguarding issues about Zoom during the last lockdown, but if they have been addressed there shouldn't be a problem.

I hope you get as exercised about the fact that most UK teachers pay for their own laptops. Or that the government hasn't provided the laptops promised:

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/oct/24/englands-schools-to-receive-fewer-laptops-for-distance-learning

My dd is 18 and in college which has a massive mix of teenagers and young adults, inner city London. She takes the bus to and from college and she reports that it’s always packed; a lot of pensioners use the route too,

Whilst I want her to continue her education, this kind of contact is going to do nothing to halt the virus. There must be tens of thousands of kids like her across the country.

My sister died 10 days ago, covid related in that she couldn’t get a bed in her local hospital so was sent home where she collapsed and died. I’m devastated and unsure whether or not I’ll be allowed to travel and attend her funeral (different city).

If we keep having these bizarre scenarios whereby a teenager can be exposed like my dd is, then spread the virus so that the NHS can’t cope, more people will have a bereavement like we have suffered.

Stupid wishy washy government decisions have caused this situation. A strict 2-week lockdown 2 months ago would have prevented it. A half-arsed 4 weeks is going to do nothing at all, we might as well not bother.

Oh that's really awful. Sorry to hear that.

I agree in all the recent discussions that people have forgotten about the journey to and from school.

@fatface001

The home learning provided by our school during the last lock down was very poor, it was disorganised, badly explained and supported by his teacher. Teachers can not expect to be off school on full pay without providing the best level of home learning possible for the pupils. The argument that they can not provide zoom lessons when most of us know spend our entire working day in video calls is outrageous and is further widening the gap between state and private schools, who have provided online lessons since March.

Another poster not giving a damn about parents who can't provide the appropriate individual IT to access this at home (even though someone on this thread has posted that they can't afford the right equipment). Who cares if half the class aren't in the zoom lesson then? Because they won't have any other work sent to them if the teacher is zooming.

@TheLittleDogLaughed I'm so sorry to read about the loss of your sister. I do hope you at least get to attend her funeral - I'm not sure I'd stick to the rules for that one, and I'm a rigid rule sticker in general.

Mistresslggi I'm feeling the same way. I've been working from home since March and tried to follow every rule closely but missing this funeral is too much. I've got a formal letter from the crematorium and I'm hoping that if I flash that on the train they will let me travel.

I am though increasingly frustrated and angry about how long this is going to go on if the government keep messing about and getting all their priorities wrong.

I'm also finding, looking at previous posts, how many people are saying that university students should 'just work from home' but primary school kids need 'socialising.' I would question that entirely. Teenagers need a social life, possibly more than primary-age kids. They have also paid a load of money to be at university which includes independence, social life, love, lectures, education and a sense of how their adult lives might pan out. To suggest they can just sit in front of a computer and somehow be fine with it is insane.

The argument that they can not provide zoom lessons when most of us know spend our entire working day in video calls is outrageous and is further widening the gap between state and private schools, who have provided online lessons since March.

We provided a minimum of 5 lessons a day during the last lockdown, covering core subjects daily and foundation subjects at least once a week. As we would do in school.

We did not use zoom, or live lessons. Our children are aged 4-7 and it simply wasn't the right solution for our catchment or school community. All but four of or teaching staff were also in school, as we had full bubbles from Easter, so there wasn't enough staff available to provide live lessons. Fortunately parents agreed.

We had a mix of pre recorded lessons (don't by our teaching staff), worksheets and activities, links to external sites such as bite size and oak academy, stories read by our staff, ideas for non computer based activities, etc. All,could be accessed on the learning platform or as documents to download from google drive. For those with no it options we had some activity packs dropped off at the start of the term.

We are providing similar now during any class or bubble closures. Where individuals are self isolating they receive home learning online too, but less pre recorded simply as staff are in class working so not as available; we are trying to ensure we are providing work along a similar line to what they'd be doing in school.

But, as I said in last lockdown, live lessons are not necessarily the best option for all schools. What may work we;l for an independent school isn't always going to be the right approach for a much more diverse catchment in the state sector.

Love the very early post from somebody saying ‘close secondary schools’ whilst explaining they had primary aged children.

If it were true you about educationally needs we should be prioritising exam years, and to an extent university years too.

Younger children will have the time to catch up, especially when it comes to core concepts in English, maths and phonics.

Older children and teens are at the end of their schooling.

Years 11 and 13 should be the key priority for in school face to face teaching, if it we were to focus on the most pressing needs education-wise. They only have a few months left and have missed so much.

The next groups should then be years 10 and 12.

Regards university, then final year students ought to be the priority really, again as they're close to finishing their courses.

If we really think about it young primary children will most likely be the ones who will be fine in the whole. They will have the time to catch up. And the core skills such as reading can be maintained at home through being read to and reading with parents, older siblings, etc. We have several who post videos of themselves reading to grandparents over zoom, etc.

However, the government need primary in to enable parents to work. So it's more of an economic decision than an educational one.

And as I keep saying, I teach and prefer schools open. But they need to be more covid secure. Currently they aren't. Parents ought to be fighting for that, as that's how to keep schools open.

@fatface001 - I have a DS at a GS in y12, a DD yr11 at a large comp, several friends and neighbours who are teachers (none seemed like they were busting a gut during lockdown) and another friend who does school admin at DD’s school. At Dd’s school in lockdown 1 learning was abysmal. All teachers were using different platforms to set the work (it took ages to find what work was meant to be done with links to the work in different places to where the work was set etc), uploading the work she had done took an eternity and wasn’t even marked or in some cases teachers said they hadn’t received it then suddenly they had. The work was set by teachers who don’t normally teach them (so they set work that they had already covered which annoyed the kids as they felt like they were getting further behind). Some teachers were spreading our the work they set so the kids didn’t feel overwhelmed other bombarded them with 7 pieces of work in a subject set at the same time such as maths. They were also bombarded with emails by several teachers per subject or ignored completely as in RE. The online learning didn’t even start until June was badly attended, a lot of the time the teachers just made small talk with the few that had bothered turning up (so they then didn’t bother again) etc etc. We purchased DD and DS second hand laptops on eBay as we were both working from home and needed the IT equipment we had. I know some kids don’t have IT facilities (so in that respect mine are lucky) but my friend who does admin at school was involved in printing out work for those kids who didn’t have IT facilities. So their are ways and means if kids don’t have technology at home. In some ways that might have been easier quicker and preferable.

Now it is more of a two or three tier system than ever with some kids in year 10 and 11 at Dd’s school ahead of the game and or some having tutors to allow them to try and catch up due to the fiasco with teachers/school/online learning, other kids like DD muddling along stressed out, freezing cold at school and wondering whether mock/cag grades will be used or whether GCSE’s will go ahead and feeling angry and let down by her teachers. I’m sure many kids will be much more disengaged and these are the ones wandering the streets in the rain gathering in large groups annoying neighbours damaging cars etc.

Not all kids had the same experience of lockdown learning but they have all been let down in one way or another but just because some kids don’t have IT it doesn’t let the teachers off the hook for providing something for the ones that do.

Aragog I agree.

Keep them open. Funny how Sweden had no lockdown, just people being sensible and using common sense and all is ok there...

Keep them open. Funny how Sweden had no lockdown, just people being sensible and using common sense and all is ok there

Which bit of OK are you referring to?

just because some kids don’t have IT it doesn’t let the teachers off the hook for providing something for the ones that do
You are missing the point. I, like many schools, provided work for all year groups and assessed whatever came in. This was on google classrooms. Not live, classwork written or adapted to be used at home. Nothing live. More young people can access online work than online lessons (I'm sure you can work out why). BUT if I spent my time on live online lessons I could not also have made other online work for those who couldn't do live. So the privileged ones would get the live lessons and the others nothing. That is not better for children.

I don't want the schools to close, but I can't see how this lockdown will be of any value unless we do. A circuit breaker during half term was the ideal solution, but the Tories missed the boat out of pure insolence.

@Pinkfluff76

Keep them open. Funny how Sweden had no lockdown, just people being sensible and using common sense and all is ok there...

😂🤣😂

@echt

Keep them open. Funny how Sweden had no lockdown, just people being sensible and using common sense and all is ok there

Which bit of OK are you referring to?

Yes, and they did close schools for the older children demonstrating that they weren't actually worried about children's education but were just using schools as childcare.

Sweden is NOT okay ...

Malmo in Sweden has just gone into 'voluntary lockdown' as it goes.

Might want to check your facts.

Funny how Sweden had no lockdown, just people being sensible and using common sense and all is ok there

Yet Sweden isn't actually okay from what I hear. Their numbers and other stats don't tell a fabulous story tbh.

Dh has family in Sweden and all is not lovely and rosy, life as normal, at all. They are not going about like as normal.

Schools and colleges did not operate 'as normal', and certainly not in the way our schools are working.
In addition there were restrictions for most people in place and there are new 'voluntary' restrictions taking place too in bigger cities.

I was reading on here the other day about a 12 year old who was hospitalised so covid can and does affect children badly

That aside it would still halt the spread massively. At least give parents the choice ! No threat of fines etc
We are just keeping our dc off and saying we are ‘self isolating‘ to avoid fines

@FelicisNox

There is no right or wrong.

The pandemic has spread since the kids went back to school, it is literally that simple so I can't grasp a lockdown yet keeping schools open... it just doesn't make sense.

It's also pointless.

I'm also front line and this is my take: whether we lock down for 1 month or 6 we will keep coming back to this situation until the whole planet has been infected, much like influenza. It's inevitable and unavoidable.

As the apex predator on this planet disease is one of our only natural predators, it's natures way of population control. We not supposed to survive every illness, we're supposed to die to make room for others. That's the unpalatable truth and that is what will happen here. It's just a question of numbers. It's all maths I.e in approx 200 years we will run out of room and resources on this planet so what is to be done regarding population control if we want to survive as a species?

This is the 1st pandemic, it won't be the last or the most deadly, this is just a practice run so everyone needs to stop whining, look at the bigger picture and ask that question: do we accept this natural selection, do we look for another resolution to survive this pandemic to avoid a natural large scale cull or do we bitch about how bitterly unfair our lives are whilst stockpiling toilet rolls?

Bigger picture people.

This made me laugh.

It's true, while also being incredibly unhelpful.

@Aragog

Funny how Sweden had no lockdown, just people being sensible and using common sense and all is ok there

Yet Sweden isn't actually okay from what I hear. Their numbers and other stats don't tell a fabulous story tbh.

Dh has family in Sweden and all is not lovely and rosy, life as normal, at all. They are not going about like as normal.

Schools and colleges did not operate 'as normal', and certainly not in the way our schools are working.
In addition there were restrictions for most people in place and there are new 'voluntary' restrictions taking place too in bigger cities.

Yep. People keep quoting Sweden yet there evidence isn’t convincing.