Extra 2 weeks added to summer term - crazy idea?

[Dazedandconfused123]

So I read in the Daily Fail yesterday that the govt might add an extra 2 weeks to the summer term as there is more ventilation and classrooms can keep windows open. I’ve got to be honest - this filled me with horror! Children are working now, hunched over screens for hours a day. They need time to reconnect with family, be outside, play with friends and do al the things they cannot do at the moment. It also strikes me that this highlights the fact that schools are not, in fact, safe, and the govt is trying to prepare a cushion for a potential lockdown next winter instead of investing properly in genuine covid safe measures that might actually help. AIBU?

@Flipflops85

I thought it was the whole 6 weeks of 16 hour days? And some kids staying over night, so teachers could stand at the front of the school hall and send them to sleep with gentle lullabies incorporating the multiplication tables?

😂

Definitely this! And they will jail any parents who do not comply. And it is already government policy, not just an idea that a think tank has come up with and the Daily Fail has sensationalised.

secondary teachers can get away with little depending on subject,
Please tell me which subject I need to switch to so I can doss about on my hobbies.

I think also the worry worry worry for all my pupils is so draining. Worrying about how they are, are the working hard enough, am I doing enough. It’s harder to be a good teacher remotely.

Definitely secondary English, MrsHamlet. All we do is a bit of gentle reading & then watch the film, right?

Anyway sorry to derail, just a bit stressed and took the lazy teacher comments to heart!

@helpmabobby

Anyway sorry to derail, just a bit stressed and took the lazy teacher comments to heart!

No need to apologise.

The (culpable) ignorance about teaching is strong.

What we actually need to do is get back to a normal teaching routine, with normal holidays and normal amounts of extra curricular and seeing parents and so on. Yes, some children will be behind.

I think this is an excellent idea. My kids returned two weeks prior to the start of term in September. It was online school but got their minds in gear ready to return to actual lessons. I can’t understand why other schools wouldn’t do this also to be honest.

This would cost an awful lot. If you divide my salary by days worked (and yes I have worked every day during the pandemic including an unpaid bank holiday in May), it works out at about £180 a day. A teacher at the top of the pay scale costs more. So from that point of view it seems unlikely to happen!

My other concern in the impact on tourism. I live in an area that is heavily dependent on tourism. Last year, there was obviously a drastically shortened season, and it looks like we will be in a similar situation this year (eg things won't be able to open at Easter). Many businesses only just clung on because they had a great summer holidays last year.

And of course these businesses have now lost out on the Christmas trade for a year too.

If the summer holidays are shortened by two weeks, that will have a real impact on a lot of businesses - it might be the difference between them staying afloat and going under or giving up. If too many businesses go under, it will absolutely devastate communities. There aren't many other jobs around here.

I'm not sure the benefit of being in school for two extra weeks with some families probably not sending their kids in and the remaining kids being knackered will compensate for the costs.

@VioletAlder

Definitely secondary English, MrsHamlet. All we do is a bit of gentle reading & then watch the film, right?

Too right. That's my day sorted...

My son is year 7 and has a full online timetable everyday so I do wonder at these mystical teachers that are spending all their time on hobbies and not teaching. I teach primary and equally am working all my normal hours either in KW or online.

With all these suggestions there is little thought to the children and how they learn. Extending the term or the school day (another suggestion in the media) doesn’t take into account children’s learning capacity. Instead of trying to force children to “catch up” in a short space of time it would make more sense to redefine the curriculum expectations over the next couple of years to enable this to happen at a more realistic and achievable pace.

Mootymoo - I really do think that’s a lazy narrative perpetuated by the media. There’s always someone who knows someone! Back in the real world though, every teacher I know is working far more than they ever have before.

Our 2020 holiday got moved to July - Aug 2021 so if we are able to go, we'd miss the two weeks. Our school has provided a full online timetable which our DCs have 100% attendance so they have not lost anything education wise, just the social aspect

Well we’ve booked to go on holiday now according to end of school term 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ So if they plan on doing this I’d wish they’d told us all sooner 🙄

but secondary teachers can get away with little depending on subject

Are you fucking kidding me?

I am teaching my complete timetable via Teams, to classes with 100% attendance, and my normal marking load. Planning is increased so that all lessons can be taught online and without a whiteboard.

We will also have to generate TAGs for the GCSE and A Level cohorts, using whatever assessment system the DfE and Ofqual invent at the last minute but which we, as classroom teachers, will have to mark ourselves.

Please don't spout complete bollocks based on anecdotal evidence of one FB friend.

Agreed that the teachers at my children’s school are all working above and beyond what they were before.

I agree that during the first lockdown I think the teachers were doing less teaching due to being on a rota system looking after the key worker children. However this time round all the teachers are teaching and I’m absolutely sure there will be a huge amount of extra work because of the ball ache that tech has brought and I know they are chasing the work around Teams and answering questions constantly.

Good idea.
Our school teachers had lovely gardens during the first lock down whilst sat on full pay. The weekly email suggesting BBC bitesize programmes took about 10 minutes work.
Currently have no live lessons and worksheets for those at home with TA's sat with those in school doing the same. Appalling how some schools appear to offer a good standard and others worksheet/TV programme suggestions. Some real classroom teaching in the summer would be welcome

In this type of scenario people always talk about teachers needing to be paid for the extra time (which they 100% do). No one ever takes into account the other people needed to run a school: the TAs, technicians, cleaners, site team, receptionists, matron, pastoral, safeguarding. The cost of funding extra hours would be massive, let alone trying to find enough staff willing/able to work extra.

If you're unhappy with the provision offered by your school, you need to take it up with them. 2 extra weeks in the summer won't make up for poor provision now.
Meanwhile, I'm teaching my full timetable online so my students don't need those extra weeks.

I'm a TA in an infant school and there's no way on earth I'm bloody working during my holidays! Schools are NOT shut and I've worked every bloody day with no social distancing etc whatsoever. My anxiety and stress levels are through the roof as it is, especially with parents moaning that there's not enough work, parents moaning there's too much work, parents moaning the videos we put on the online learning platform are too long/too short/any other ridiculous moan.
Randoms who have never worked in a school moaning about school staff - it's relentless!!!!
I'd rather hand my notice in because quite frankly, I've had enough of all the teacher bashing.

Phew! Sorry for that rant but it's incredibly difficult in school right now.

Fabulous idea. Trust the Daily Heil to come up with the solution to everything, as usual. Are the MPs and journalists suggesting it going to step up to the plate and deliver the lessons and supervise the kids? I mean, it's not like teaching requires any special skill or anything, just the ability to stand/sit in front of a group of kids and talk for hours on end....

@MrsHamlet

If you're unhappy with the provision offered by your school, you need to take it up with them. 2 extra weeks in the summer won't make up for poor provision now. Meanwhile, I'm teaching my full timetable online so my students don't need those extra weeks.

I second this. My kids won't need extra either. Both schools, one primary one secondary, are teaching full time online and I take my hat off to all the school staff.

Children have fallen so far behind, I don't think we have much choice.
On line learning is no substitute, and millions of children have had no access to it all year.

I took this article with a massive pinch of salt for the following reasons:
Teachers won’t do it - they’ve already worked their hours, just not in the usual setting.
Unions will kick off about it and won’t allow it
Kids have worked too - online learning is difficult and they need a break from it
Parents will want a break from supervising it

It’s just noise to try and make the government look better.

No way, my children have barely seen their grandparents for over a year now, by the summer they'll all be vaccinated and we plan to spend as much time together as possible while the weather is good, as my parents have said they'll probably still want to keep meet ups to the outdoors this year, to be on the safe side as they're vulnerable.

We've booked a UK cottage holiday for the first week of the holidays too. We've worked incredibly hard and done our best to home school at the same time and saved lots of our annual leave for summer fun.