Government not covering themselves with glory at all. Seems chaotic and plans poorly communicated, lots of last minute decisions. Not an edifying spectacle at all. However, I think that some schools/teachers haven’t done so well either TBH. I have been fairly horrified by some of the hyperbole from the teaching unions, for example.
There was a stark issue in the variance in quality of provision between schools during lockdown. Many schools and teachers failed their pupils miserably, whilst others went above and beyond. For example, my friends eldest is in a composite class- teacher sent home approx 10 sheets of work which were all at the stage for the youngest children in the class. When my friend questioned it- thinking her DC must have picked up the wrong pack- was told “no, that’s it- too hard to differentiate”. Those worksheets were to last nearly 4 weeks. Work thereafter took max 1 hour daily. Teacher virtually uncontactable and school utterly disinterested. My friend was astounded to find the sheets had been downloaded from Twinkl. So not even like the teacher had been required to put in effort to identify resources, so differentiated work should have been a doddle. That was one of the worst examples, but locally there have been many, That is not down to government- that is down to the school and the individual teacher. I know it wasn’t easy for any of us, many had our work lives turned upside down. By contrast, DC’s school had a plan up and running within days, comprehensive provision and regular tutor time. I was really impressed.
My colleagues DC’s school spends half the week doing extra outdoor gym lessons (which seem loosely supervised, at best), extra “golden time” and watching a film every other afternoon- total teaching time is 2.5 hours per day by the time breaks (which have been extended) and lunch taken into account. They have not caught up, education seems to have taken a back seat, but neither class teacher or headmistress are concerned. They have not had significant numbers of pupils or staff off due to being infected/isolating, or any such mitigating circumstances. I think that school has let it’s pupils down. Our DC’s schools have, by contrast, been operating almost normally in terms of education. I think this highlights that some schools and teachers have pulled out all the stops and put children first, whilst others have been far less industrious and competent.
As I said earlier, I do think there has been a lot of hyperbole re risks to teachers- they aren’t even close to being at the highest risk by occupation (as per our local date, maybe it is different elsewhere)- they are lower middle- and our data suggests majority are not infected by children but by other adult contacts (whether at work or in the wider community) or by home contact (again accept there may be regional variation). Yet the way the unions, and some teachers, are acting you’d think they were the most at risk group out there.
If an individual teacher is higher risk, e.g. due to an underlying condition, then appropriate steps should be taken. Which might mean not teaching in person for some- and fair enough. However, blended learning is not as good as being in a classroom. We have seen that. Children being isolated from peers is also not good for their well-being at all. So, if it is true that their is harm to children’s education and well-being by months of home schooling whilst teachers are not out at “extreme risk’ (some risk, very hard to be no risk) then they should be in school if at all possible.