To ask how you would feel if the decision was made to adopt blended learning to allow for social distancing in schools

[livevomitlaugh]

just that really?
Yabu- I would be fine with that
Yanbu- I very much wouldn’t be fine with that

Apologies

@TheKeatingFive

I believe short term closures are just as disruptive as longer term measures.

There are no guarantees that part time school would eliminate isolation periods. And plenty of bubbles haven’t burst. As a parent, I’d always chose to take my chances over guaranteed reduced schooling thanks very much.

Here it is incase you need it:

I don't want schools close. I want mass testing in schools as a start and therefore those who are found to be asymptomatic are isolated so help control the spread.

@TheKeatingFive

Apologies

No problem.

I have no real idea what the answer is. Children learn best in school with someone who knows what they are doing. Some things are best left to the professionals, my teaching skills are worse than my barbering skills, I'm no Jack-of-all-trades

Homeschooling, blending learning, part-time school is a disaster for the majority of families. IT, childcare, focus, distractions or work, younger children, crap teachers and sometimes kids just need mum to be mum.

Couple of things that could make life easier for teachers and for children who need to self isolate, is a return to the use of old fashioned, expensive text books.
It seems bonkers to me that teachers up and down the country are spending loads of time tracking down twinkl worksheets, to suit the curriculum. Just about every school is trying to deliver the same curriculum why on earth not follow a book using twinkl to supplement if necessary.

The arguments against text books is cost and going out of date too quickly. Why does primary school Maths and English change so quickly? Even secondary subjects shouldn't change that quickly.

Should the UK adopt an Irish approach get the parents to buy the books either new or on the 2nd hand market?

No. Not effective way for our children to learn in the long term.

crap teachers and sometimes kids just need mum to be mum.

I should clarify my sarcasm before people jump on me. I mean the unqualified parents, not the teacher doing their best at the other end of Google Classroom.

@Bikingbear

I have no real idea what the answer is. Children learn best in school with someone who knows what they are doing. Some things are best left to the professionals, my teaching skills are worse than my barbering skills, I'm no Jack-of-all-trades

Homeschooling, blending learning, part-time school is a disaster for the majority of families. IT, childcare, focus, distractions or work, younger children, crap teachers and sometimes kids just need mum to be mum.

Couple of things that could make life easier for teachers and for children who need to self isolate, is a return to the use of old fashioned, expensive text books.
It seems bonkers to me that teachers up and down the country are spending loads of time tracking down twinkl worksheets, to suit the curriculum. Just about every school is trying to deliver the same curriculum why on earth not follow a book using twinkl to supplement if necessary.

The arguments against text books is cost and going out of date too quickly. Why does primary school Maths and English change so quickly? Even secondary subjects shouldn't change that quickly.

Should the UK adopt an Irish approach get the parents to buy the books either new or on the 2nd hand market?

When I taught (a while ago now!) the idea was to teach lessons that are closely matched to children’s abilities and to really differentiate each lesson to allow all abilities needs to be met. Using a textbook wouldn’t really allow for this. Of course things might be different now but I hope not!

@BertNErnie

Yes, there’s a mass exodus from the teaching profession at the moment. I don’t know a single school that’s not struggling with teacher retention. Low pay, excessive demands, zero resources, ever changing curriculum, constant teacher bashing and all that after 6 yrs of study. Covid has just made the profession even less attractive. And it’s set to get much worse post brexit unfortunately.
In any case, a recruitment programme wouldn’t solve the covid situation issue right now.

Short closures in areas with high numbers and low staff numbers has got to be the way.

@TheKeatingFive
It was never my suggestion that schools go part time. I’d prefer short sharp whole school closures. It’s awful teaching in class and online simultaneously. Schools are going to have to close but at least that way parents have periods with no kids.

Yr7 DS got the most "education" of the 3 DC (age 12+) who were in full time education on 15 March '20.
This was basically worksheets to keep him ticking over. He didn't learn anything new (he tells me).
Thus, ime, home learning = no learning.
I would not be happy to go back to that. YANBU.

This is what is happening in most sixth form colleges in the north west - it seems to be very effective at my daughter's college where infections are way lower than nearby secondary schools

Our primary school have sent out workbooks (the cps ones) for all the classes just incase they have to go off so everyone has access to the work. Along with basic stationary they will need.

@gwenneh

I'm not in the UK and we've been doing this since September. We are in a well-funded district -- meaning school breakfasts and dinners, a laptop, and internet access has been provided to everyone across the school. The state has also provided child care credit for families who need to work outside of the home and there is a paid provision for time off due to caring for children in virtual schooling written into the unemployment here. It's not much, but it's something. It works here due to the small scale; I don't think it could scale up effectively, which means no, I don't think it would work in the UK.

Blended learning is not ideal, but it has limited community spread and avoided the school-wide shutdowns we've seen in other towns when cases rise. Other towns have lost staff to covid or had to close down due to the number of staff who have become ill; we've had a small number of isolated cases which could be quickly traced and quarantined, along with the limited number of contacts in the school each week. Far easier to tell ten people they need to isolate than the whole class.

It is not easy to balance as a parent; my DC are 10 and 7 and my younger child needs supervision through the day, but DH and I take it in turns and we both have jobs that are being incredibly understanding about the need to be flexible.

Some children have clearly taken to it and some have not. The schools have struggled with the provision of services for SEN, OT, etc. and no one as far as I can see has hit on a real, workable solution for that. The calibre of work expected is no less than a normal year, and the teachers in our district spent the entire summer training to deliver remote instruction they have had to become masters of student engagement and curriculum structure (I think DS's Y1 teacher deserves a medal, honestly) to keep students focused and making measurable progress. The teachers are expected to work with the students attending in-person on that day first, then work with the remote students the district assumes a parent will assist on those days. The ability to work in small groups with the teacher has actually been incredibly beneficial; my DS has improved remarkably in some of the subjects he struggled with earlier.

So from the trenches, no, it's not great, but our community spread didn't jump upwards when schools opened like some other towns, and the staff is safe. I'll take it.

Pretty much exactly the same in our town.

My kids are 15 and 17 and blended learning has been fine (better in fact) for them.

They are still taking their SATs and APs as usual.

Very few kids out either with Covid or isolating. Limited community spread.

I've found it easier because you know when your kids will be home, and you can either plan to be there, or plan childcare, rather than having to make sudden last minute plans (I've watched my sister really struggling with this in the UK).

But I would like to see younger students in school at least 4 days a week - it's so much harder to engage them remotely.

Our teachers are amazing - they've risen to a very tough challenge. I'd expect them to be completely exhausted by now. I will be giving them very grateful thanks and gifts at year end.

As a single mum, I'd lose my job if I had to stay at home with dc every other week, or a few day each week. My full time job can not be done from home, so I'd just have to leave.
Then I'd not be able to pay the mortgage, so I'd lose the house.
Not a great prospect.

On top of that ds has sen and will not work at home, he needs separation between school and home, and as much as I tried, there is no way he would learn at home.

And in the first lockdown he was provided with a huge wad of photocopies worksheets, most way above his ability. We did them with him, but he didn't learn a thing. That was it, no other work, just welfare calls from the teacher, but no teaching.

So I'd be totally against blended learning

I don’t know a single school that’s not struggling with teacher retention.

Well my kids school must be the only one bucking that trend - in the 4 years I’ve been there the staff has remained stable other than two mat leaves and one teacher relocating across the country. The staff have been there for many years and new staff replacing retirees tend to stay.

There are some schools managing well both in normal times and in this crisis - I don’t want my kids school closed and the teachers I know there actively want the kids in school.

I think it action going forward needs to be localised right down to individual schools.

Those areas with high levels of infection and schools with increased reported cases need to be made a priority for mass testing. Those who are positive need to isolate as per the guidelines. If this means whole bubbles close for 10/14 days then that's what needs to happen to reduce the spread of the virus.

Schools in the surrounding areas then need to be prioritised as many pupils love out of borough and then those schools without any reported cases can be tested.

You can't have a blanket policy as I can completely see why parents/carers and school staff would be unhappy with their school closing if there have been no reported cases and their rates of infection in the local area are very low.

Why this can't be put in place I have no idea.

There also needs to be funding to ensure there is adequate ventilation in schools as well as providing schools with the funding to ensure cleaning is up to scratch.

*Live out of borough

@BertNErnie

I think it action going forward needs to be localised right down to individual schools.

Those areas with high levels of infection and schools with increased reported cases need to be made a priority for mass testing. Those who are positive need to isolate as per the guidelines. If this means whole bubbles close for 10/14 days then that's what needs to happen to reduce the spread of the virus.

Schools in the surrounding areas then need to be prioritised as many pupils love out of borough and then those schools without any reported cases can be tested.

You can't have a blanket policy as I can completely see why parents/carers and school staff would be unhappy with their school closing if there have been no reported cases and their rates of infection in the local area are very low.

Why this can't be put in place I have no idea.

There also needs to be funding to ensure there is adequate ventilation in schools as well as providing schools with the funding to ensure cleaning is up to scratch.

This sounds pretty close to what I’d go for.

@Jellycatspyjamas
Lucky you. I’d be interested to know where you are. Every school I’ve worked in has had around 5-10 teachers leave every term, mostly teachers in their first five years.

And just to clarify, most teachers want to be in school teaching. Teaching online is awful. It’s exhausting, v difficult to plan for, confusing for the kids, difficult to maintain any type of progress, full of IT problems and so on.

My kid is unable to do home learning without my full hands on support, I’m a single parent with a full time job and no childcare. She’d get no education on the non-school weeks just as happened during lock down.

[quote Suzeyshoes]@Jellycatspyjamas
Lucky you. I’d be interested to know where you are. Every school I’ve worked in has had around 5-10 teachers leave every term, mostly teachers in their first five years.

And just to clarify, most teachers want to be in school teaching. Teaching online is awful. It’s exhausting, v difficult to plan for, confusing for the kids, difficult to maintain any type of progress, full of IT problems and so on.[/quote]
I’m chair of governors at a school in the Midlands. We lost two teachers last year, one to retirement and one moved abroad. The year before one went on maternity leave. We have one retiring at the end of this year. That’s the sum of our teacher losses in the past three years.

So OP - you haven't clarified, are you a teacher?

Or do you have any children?

Or are you not going to bother?

And three of the teachers at the school taught me there 30 years ago!

Well my kids school must be the only one bucking that trend - in the 4 years I’ve been there the staff has remained stable other than two mat leaves and one teacher relocating across the country. The staff have been there for many years and new staff replacing retirees tend to stay.

Sounds like my sons school. Staff retention and morale is high and teachers and TAs have worked at the school for most of their career.

Every school I’ve worked in has had around 5-10 teachers leave every term, mostly teachers in their first five years.

Of course, your experience must reflect the whole of the U.K. or maybe not.

There's teachers at my DD's school who have been teaching there longer than I as her mum have been alive. The 3 reception teachers have taught for a combined 87 years at this school. They lost one teacher last year.