To think schools will close soon

[hibbledibble]

We may well have as many cases by new year as we did in the first peak. In which case school closures could be a very real possibility.

My DD has tears in her eyes every time we speak of school closures - she enjoys it so much probably more so the social aspect. Especially in January she says she’ll be depressed.

To which I tell her, I’ll support her and make sure we do the best we can. Peoples lives are the priority here and she accepts that.

Interestingly, it seems fairly agreed that secondary will close except to exam years and key worker/vulnerable children. I think so much has been leaked as well. Any ideas about primary?

@Russell19 they are 7 and 10 . And actually online teaching works really well actually.

My children are motivated and keen to learn. But I cannot do two things at once.

Keyboard same, it beggars belief at what we received my primary age child didn't even get a work sheet! Not even a work sheet. Then when we had self isolation, her teacher told them stories, read stories and did no actual teaching. No explanation of the work they have set via Oak academy, no instructions on how to do it, no questions to ask the children if they could do it.
This was October and it had taken them that amount of time to get into zoom... It was almost like a wilful defiance not to teach or properly interact.

I'm wondering what some posters think some teachers are made of, because many teachers did teach on line! Successfully and properly with no issues, infact les issues due to the lack of classroom distractions.

My own setting got on line swiftly after a short induction on Google programs. Many schools around us did the same thing.
We did a mixture of teaching from live teaching via meet and teaching by Google hangouts.
Ie no face to face.

Teachers, school staff and pupils health needs to come first and if we allow ourselves to be swamped by this new variant, the NHS won't be there for us for a range of other issues.
There is a miraculous solution, the computer, the Internet, smart phones... We can use these to continue education and have like March, key worker dc in and those with exceptional circs.

Well I agree everything should stay open. Can't you see it has gotten too far? It was ok in March but now people are really suffering!!!

D f shambles bless her! It's great that she can recognise and tell you about her emotions though. A great time to practise resilience as well.

Hmmm BBC is reporting the minister Jenrick as saying schools will stay open. Its safe because of increased testing and delayed return in secondary.... 🙄

[quote KeyboardWorriers]@Russell19 they are 7 and 10 . And actually online teaching works really well actually.

My children are motivated and keen to learn. But I cannot do two things at once.[/quote]
Teachers cannot do 2 things at once either. Remember there are still children actually in school. Schools have never fully closed.

Don't believe that your child would sit still by the computer all day either.

Do some parenting.

But then the testing is being slated at not accurate enough missing about half of cases?

Also @Russell19 it is interesting you put the "vital" status of mine and DH jobs in inverted commas yet neither of us would ever try and argue that our job could be replaced by a few internet links posted once a day. Whereas so many primary teachers seem to consider that an adequate substitute.

Screenshot. Im shocked but not shocked at the sane time with this government. It's nuts.

"What’s the difference between critical worker and key worker?"

They are the same thing. Dh's workplace has always used critical worker. Critical means critical to the covid response.

@KeyboardWorriers actually if you read what I've put on this thread I think schools should stay fully open. I don't think online learning is good for anyone, children, teachers or parents.

I really hope they do stay open but I fear they will close. I have a DC in year 11, GCSE's due in 6 months. He's done mocks of some sort but as they haven't finished teaching the syllabus yet, his marks were lower than expected. I have no idea if they will finish teaching in time.

We are both NHS workers so he is able to go into school should they close but he will be seated in a lecture hall on a table with a Chromebook for 6 hours a day to be 'taught'. Its so sad, he is anxious, depressed and angry with his life.

@RememberSelfCompassion

Screenshot. Im shocked but not shocked at the sane time with this government. It's nuts.

This was said the first time round though. Our government have U turned on nearly everything!

@Russell19 - if parents are wfh, they can’t help with schooling of their DC’s because they are working at the job their employer expects them to do between 9-5. They can’t do two things at once in the same way as a teacher can’t teach f-2-f and deliver online lessons

@Russell19 "do some parenting" . What a nasty thing to say! I do plenty of parenting thank you. But I also have a full time and very demanding job.

I am not asking teachers to parent, I am just asking them to teach.

This pandemic and the impact on education has really shown parents how random and inadequate a very large proportion of schools' provision is. There are many and varied reasons for this; I taught secondary for 28 years before taking early retirement last year. I am not surprised that huge numbers of parents are disappointed, frustrated and disgusted at the lack of work set and/or the low and inconsistent standard of it. The grim reality of education in England (I'm not going to speak for the other parts of the UK as I have no experience of them) is that it is largely unfit for purpose. IMO the reasons for this are: unfair distribution of responsibility and workload with far too many highly-paid 'managers' spending all day holed up in offices doing admin. work, leading to huge, unmanageable class sizes for frontline teachers, a culture of back-covering in which the frontline teacher is blamed for everything and given no or inadequate support, high staff turnover leading to inconsistency within subject areas (secondary), low standards of subject knowledge in teachers (secondary) caused by dilution of HE standards going back decades to the Blair years, totally inadequate leadership of schools even though many have huge 'SLTs', and increasing expectations that frontline teachers must take responsibility for the impact of all of society's ills on children, without adequate or consistent pastoral support systems within schools and/or external agencies such as the woeful CAHMS provision. The majority of parents would be absolutely horrified to see what their children experience hour after hour, day after day, at school. Patchy provision of home learning is just the tip of the iceberg of the problems IME and IMO. I hope that an outcome of this pandemic will be a sharper focus on the systemic reasons for the general inadequacy of educational provision in England, with a no-holds-barred review of teacher workload, integrity and quality of 'management' (including at LA level), SEN/SEMH provision and value for taxpayers' money. I can understand hard-working parents' frustration with poor-quality home learning resources and provision, they work hard in their jobs and perceive teachers as not trying their best in theirs. The problems are, however, far more complex and deep-seated than they appear, a simplistic attitude towards this issue will not help to resolve them.

I would say one if the most important duties of A parent is to provide for their child.
Working and earning money is essential parenting.

This pandemic and the impact on education has really shown parents how random and inadequate a very large proportion of schools' provision is

Yes - I have a friend whose oldest is at a private secondary and whose youngest is at a state primary. She showed me the difference in what they got from their respective schools during the first lockdown.

State - one Zoom call with their teacher in early May. Private - full time online learning from the day after lockdown started.

I’m sure there are many and varied reasons for that, but it’s convinced me to start saving for private education immediately.

Buddytheelf85 To me, there is no excuse for the fact that successive governments have spent the same as, or more than, the cost of a place at a good and high-achieving private school per capita for decades now, yet standards in the state sector remain ridiculously low. We need to be ruthless now, for the sake of children and the economy, however I'm not holding my breath. IMO the only thing which might lead to radical change is parental demand, based on the evidence of inadequacy which they have seen during this pandemic.

Mine are at prep school. Full online video timetable. They had to or no one would have paid the fees, even with the 20% discount we got.

However I disagree that the government pays the same. It's around £7k per pupil per year for state school. We pay nearly £20k

I would argue that even a 7 year old with a full online timetable of teaching would need some form of parental engagement at home? You can't expect to carry on working from home as if your children weren't there....it's just not realistic.

To be honest, teachers can't win. We have families complaining they don't have online access or laptops for 2 or 3 children...then we have ones which complain about worksheets or paper work packs because they have to actually help them then. Nobody will be happy.

@unchienandalusia - I think it's a lot less than that per child at a state school (nearer £3.5k and primary and £5k at secondary, but more for SEN pupils, so it might average out at £7K - but state schools are pretty much running in fresh air atm) Most schools do have the technology in school to teach remotely, whether the students have the appropriate technology at home is a different matter.

Work was really sporadic last time and never marked or feedback given so I'm hoping they have had time to plan the work this time. Not sure when they would have had the time but just hoping.
Eldest is supposed to be doing a mock exam in February and they haven't finished the teaching for it yet. And doubtless they'll be off for another six months so their education, mental health and social skills will be shot to pieces.