#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

I don't think there's any one right answer but I think they need to look at ways of reducing transmission in secondary schools and universities and this may mean partial closures.

I believe this will be the eventual outcome in those settings, particularly secondary schools : it's not realistic to expect sufficient social distancing in classes of 30 and then have over 1,000 students in corridors at other times, however well organised it is. Not to mention when the students arrive and leave school on buses - not a chance.😟

On a selfish level school closing is the last thing I want. But I'm not sure how useful lockdown will be without schools closing at the same time. I guess we'll see.
They could have done a circuit break at half term. I'm thinking they might shut early for Christmas break but that would also seem to have limited point if lockdown is lifted by then.

Having lived in Sweden I can see why they wouldn't necessarily need a firm lookdown - they are very conservative, law abiding and straight-laced...very unlike any other place I have lived (Thankfully!)

Dd is 11 and autistic, she needs the structure of school, home schooling wasn't the same.

I'm a full time university student, i attend 4 hours a week, the rest online. I struggle to learn from home and would feel even more depressed if they also closed.

I am a teacher (Year 5 and 6), with no children. I like where I live, have plenty of socially distanced hobbies I can get on with at home, and get on with my partner.
If schools close I remain on full pay but my workload is halved.

I AM STRONGLY IN FAVOUR OF SCHOOLS REMAINING OPEN.
The children need us, and each other.
Even though my pupils' parents did a pretty incredible job of home schooling, school does a better job of education, in nearly all cases. Too many children have lost momentum / lost confidence / picked up misconceptions / regressed - and this is in a school with remarkably few welfare concerns or children living in poverty. Our pupils must be some of the most privileged in the country (none are living in cramped flats, for example, and we are not aware of any families who would have struggled to feed their children during lockdown) so if this lot are better off at school, I'm very certain that the rest of the country are too.

Plus, selfishly, I'm enjoying being around the children and my colleagues, and work is a pleasant distraction from pandemic boredom. I've never worked so hard in my life - because there's nothing else to do.

Why is your workload halved? Mine wouldn't be. It would be increased.

@Piggywaspushed

How would your workload be increased?

Unless teaching live lessons all day I can’t see how this is possible.

My workload was decreased by about 60% during lockdown. I have most my lessons prepared and just need tweaking, which I then put onto our online systems. I usually phone vulnerable families most weeks in my PPA time so I could do that during my usual lesson time. I normally Mark in my evenings; I could do that in the normal
Lesson time. I was in teaching vulnerable kids on a Rotation so not full time. No lunch duties, no break Duties,no open days, no parents eve, no trips , no detention duties , no emergency cover etc

If your workload increased then I think you weren’t Using your time efficiently.

Lots of teachers I know did absolutely nothing during lockdown.
Fact.

Lots did some work,

A few worked hard

Non worked harder

Everyone I know did . Our last lockdown (13-18 school) feel during gained time so we had slightly fewer lessons anyway.

We will be expected in this lockdown to teach full live lessons to a full timetable. these need replanning in my subject to be streamable, and one of my subjects includes me having to figure out how to teach with content that is copyrighted and illegal to upload!..we have to set a written tasks every lesson to which we give feedback. We don't just sit back and post something and let them get on. A LOT of school don't have your approach of just putting something online for students to work on independently. Most secondaries ahve gone to live learning , or plan to.

If we close fully and are expected to teach vulnerable and keyworker kids , we can't also do full live lessons...

I am an extremely efficient and effective teachers so could do without the sly digs. Decent live lessons need completely different strategies and complete replanning.

Teachers perpetutating the myth of dossing teachers is one fo the most damaging things on MN.

DH is a teacher, too. He also had to work harder.

@OverTheRainbow88 why would you not be doing live lessons all day if the school closed? Thats what I would be doing and did do over lockdown. It was the hardest I've ever worked. Just because you didn't do much doesn't mean all teachers didn't. I cant belive you did 60% of your normal workload and got paid in full and dont feel guilty about that. This is where the lazy reputation comes from when in fact every teacher I know worked harder in lockdown than ever before and if schools closed would do the same again.

No teachers I know did nothing during lockdown. FACT.

None worked harder : you cannot state that as fact. various surveys show this not be true. None is such an exaggeration and distortion.

I wonder if this is a primary/secondary difference?

I don't know what age group the previous two posters are but perhaps.

The debate largely focuses on closing/part closing secondaries outside of MN. But MN always turns it back to primary!

I ahve no desire to close schools (and not just because of my anxieties about 5 hours of screen time a day for both me and my students) but I would welcome a solution which made schools safer and , therefore, helped to decrease the spread in the community, avoiding longer lockdown- which are more damaging to the economy!

None worked harder... that I know I said.

We don’t do live lessons that wouldn’t work for most our kids.

So Over the rainbow, because you got away with sending parents a "pack" or powerpoint links.... you didn't realise that teachers all over were working like crazy to reproduce content online and were actually teacjinv their pupils?? Did you read any mumsnet? To make out no teacher worked hard isnreally doing the profession down.

TEACHER THAT I KNEW!!!

I worked hard, but normal person hard but term time teacher hard!!!! So yes I worked less hard than I usually work.

How would your workload be increased?
Marking. I would not normally read and feedback on every piece of work submitted as there would be no need, the pupil would be in front of me and I would have other ways of assessing their progress.
I remember the pleasure of no 6am commutes, but also the feeling of never really being "off" as evenings were spent marking work on google classrooms.

Sorry, How would your workload be increased? was meant to be a quote from pp

If your workload increased then I think you weren’t Using your time efficiently

Plenty of teachers taught live online every day you know!

I say, keep them open. But for goodness sake, send the vulnerable kids home. My children are vulnerable with more than one condition and I have been informed by the head we will be fined. So I have no choice but to send them in. Which is disgusting and appalling.

We need schools open. Education is key to the future if our country as well as our children. It's not clear where transmission is taking place, and even if it were to be higher in schools than pubs it still worth closing pubs to keep schools open! I know it has an impact but no where near the impact of a generation with damaged educational outcomes.

But over teachers in England have the longest working hours of teachers in Europe and North America.

If, during lockdown, some teacher hours come closer to a working week of 35-45 hours, that seems reasonable. I don't know why that should be decried. We give blood too often and -now look - we are expected to give more.

We will still have parents'' evening and meetings by the way.

Your original post fell right into the lazy teacher trope and you only clarified 'teachers that I personally know' once challenged. national surveys do not reflect that picture, certainly at secondary.

What one survey showed was that private schools teachers worked more hours than previously (from a lower starting point), secondary classroom teachers worked slightly more hours, primary SLT worked slightly more hours, primary classroom teachers substantially fewer hours (but had the highest benchmark to begin with), and that secondary SLTs worked fewest hours, especially headteachers (although their stress levels increased).

In secondary, they are the ones that are delegating the work and setting the expectations!

If your workload increased then I think you weren’t Using your time efficiently.

Were you also working in school at the same time as providing home learning?
We had full bubbles of key work and vulnerable children so all but 4 staff were in class full time throughout. On top of this many were also recording voice overs and videos for the home learning, producing flip charts for home learning etc. . So yes, their work load was higher, not due to time management but simply as they had to provide both in class support and home learning resources.

My job increased too. My role is a bit different as I oversee all the home learning, so I was doing that for long hours each day for that, including weekends and the holidays. Again, not time management issues, just the nature of the new role. It improved as time went on as systems got smoother, I had templates from previous sessions, etc. I also got better at not replying to remote learning messages etc early morning and late at night,

At present we have bubble closures and children self isolating. Live lessons aren't suitable for us here so many things needs doing more than once - for those in class and for those at home. The lesson things that work well in person don't work so well remotely, especially for little ones.

I'm currently off sick recovering from covid, but still doing some home learning stuff. Although shattered still, I can at least sit up and do re ore learning to take the pressure off those in school.

So yes, some staff did work longer hours and had increased work loads during lock down.

I can imagine if you didn't have many children in school itself then it might have been easier.

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@Piggywaspushed

How would your workload be increased?

Unless teaching live lessons all day I can’t see how this is possible.

My workload was decreased by about 60% during lockdown. I have most my lessons prepared and just need tweaking, which I then put onto our online systems. I usually phone vulnerable families most weeks in my PPA time so I could do that during my usual lesson time. I normally Mark in my evenings; I could do that in the normal
Lesson time. I was in teaching vulnerable kids on a Rotation so not full time. No lunch duties, no break Duties,no open days, no parents eve, no trips , no detention duties , no emergency cover etc

If your workload increased then I think you weren’t Using your time efficiently.

Lots of teachers I know did absolutely nothing during lockdown.
Fact.

Lots did some work,

A few worked hard

Non worked harder[/quote]
Refreshing honesty

I have most my lessons prepared and just need tweaking, which I then put onto our online systems

What's your subject and age range?