This government still doesn't give a shit about schools or your kids

[noblegiraffe]

I've posted before about this government's catalogue of failure when it comes to our children and schools and unfortunately it's still going on.

Sir Kevan Collins, the government- appointed schools catch-up tsar has just resigned over their complete failure to accept his recommendations and their pitiful offer of a programme worth only one tenth of what he said would be necessary to alleviate the impact of the pandemic on children's education. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57335558

Holland are spending £2500 per child for their catch-up programme, the US £1600. How much do you think the Tories value our children? It works out at £50 per head, and some of the proposed 1.4 billion is going on teacher training rather than tutoring initiatives so won't have an impact for years.

For the much vaunted national tutoring programme, have the government hired experts to provide this? No, according to Sam Freedman, former education advisor to Michael Gove "The DfE have also ballsed up the procurement of the National Tutoring Programme by scoring quality too low vs price so it's going to be run by a Dutch outsourcing firm called Randstad. They undercut all the orgs who actually understanding tutoring. So a lot of the high quality UK charities and organisations providing support to the tutoring programme will now likely pull out. Proper shitshow."

At the same time they have been cladding new and refurbished schools in Grenfell-style cladding www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/30/dozens-of-new-school-buildings-in-england-have-combustible-insulation, and have rejected calls from fire safety experts to install sprinklers in new school buildings. www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57335558

In January, Johnson unexpectedly announced the cancellation of exams for Y11 and Y13. There was no plan for what would replace them and the buck was passed to Ofqual. By March, Ofqual admitted that they had no idea what to do, and so it fell to teachers and individual schools to set, mark and grade GCSEs and A-levels - tasks normally done by exam boards who are still charging exam entry fees this year for doing what appears to be very little. Scotland is paying teachers £400 each for this extra work, England is, of course, paying nothing. Parents are reportedly already gearing up to appeal teacher assessed grades while the government dodges the blame for the impending fiasco.

As I have posted about before, the government have cut Pupil Premium funding by millions, so in practical terms the most disadvantaged children now receive less per pupil than in previous years when there wasn't a pandemic. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4227538-See-how-much-the-government-has-just-cut-free-school-meal-funding-by-in-your-area

And on top of everything else...GAVIN WILLIAMSON IS STILL ED SEC. It's inexplicable, he is widely regarded as completely useless and yet while others involved in education resign around him, he gets to keep his job.

YABU: This government really cares about education and children

YANBU: This government do not give a shit. Not just incompetence, they really don't care.

Some parents have no idea what actually happens in schools. Then typically they moan that teachers aren't doing enough.

Dealing with this shit is exhausting.

@Waveafterwaveslowlydrifting

My class are shattered by 2.30pm and a linger day will not help bring them on.

Tutors who are possibly unqualified, with no idea of their starting points, put on contracts because the company they work for is owned by a tory mate of the cabinet, will not be effective in improving standards for my class.

The end.

Agreed. Halving class sizes so teachers could spend quality time with each child, removing formal assessments and league tables from primary schools and properly funding all ECHPs would actually make a difference.

@Headspinning188

Difficult to imagine how much longer I can personally manage as a teacher. It is absolutely relentless. Surely it should get easier with experience but the constant changes, demands and monitoring are becoming unbearable. Mental health at an all time low. The biggest insult; a chunk of the money set aside to train teachers. Train them in what?

I assumed it was money for ITT to make for all those of us who have already left or will leave

[quote Onceuponatime1818]@baroqueandblue

I like to think they haven’t read it properly and got their answer wrong!!![/quote]
If only. Mind you, given that decent educational provision has never been a priority for the Tories, you might be onto something there. These are the poor souls their policies have robbed!😄

@Greyscreendream

I agree. It’s disgusting. They have announced a £1 billion payout to TfL today - their third. The total amount the Government has spent in ‘protecting’ the capital’s transport system now totals in excess of £3 billion!!!

What is being provided to pupils is a drop in the ocean in comparison. How can one City’s trains/buses be more important than the nation’s children?

Oh yes it’s the Tories!

Would you prefer tfl went under? Obviously that would means thousands of kids not being able to get to school, or teachers not getting to work (plus lots of key workers).

You've just noticed? The government don't give a shit about anything provided that suckers continue to vote for them and line their, and their friends, pockets.

@Thisisus909 YES. But that would cost money so, nope.

Any mitigation measures for covid safety eg increasing teaching capacity, installing extra handwashing facilities, marquees outside to enable smaller groups etc were not even considered during lockdown 1

My school is large and could only accommodate year R not year 1 and 2 this time last year. The progress my 12 children made with the individual attention from me and a TA was enormous. It gave me a taste of what could be possible in small teaching groups if this was the norm.

Unfortunately the year 1 and year 2 children weren't offered places (apart from key worker and vulnerable children). Not our choice. Government guidance stated that if small bubbles could not be accommodated throughout the school due to lack of staff and teaching spaces, year R took priority.

1. They sonr know what happens in state schools because they have no experience of it.

1. They don't give a shit because genuinely good education outcomes don't benefit them short term.

1. Long term we are deeply in the shit. Our children deserve more.

My son’s school had R,1,2 in on a part time timetable with small classes. Children and staff loved it. Parents were wishing we could just sign up to this long term! Frankly I’d rather my child went half the week and got a great education than all week with overstretched staff and unsupported SEN needs. I’m very fortunate to be able to work part time.

You've just noticed?

No, this thread from last August has a similar catalogue of government failure.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4001279-This-government-don-t-give-a-shit-about-schools-or-your-kids

I’m not even mentioning what happened in schools between September and December, that was several other threads.

This is why I left teaching last year. Couldn't put up with it any longer.

What worries me the most is that schools are run on good will. Extra curricular, House events, school performances, intervention at lunch and after school, even just ‘miss, would you mind me seeing you at lunch to have some extra help with this essay?’ will all go as teachers are on their knees with exhaustion with tiredness and low morale. What’s the point in going the extra mile - and teachers have gone more than that this year, they’ve done a marathon - when you get this insult of funding given and a Daily Mail narrative of laziness?

@Moondust001

You've just noticed? The government don't give a shit about anything provided that suckers continue to vote for them and line their, and their friends, pockets.

No, I don’t think this is the first time @noblegiraffe has noticed!

None of this is surprising, particularly to anyone working in schools. It’s all utterly appalling. I’d love to have with chat with Kevan-I presume he genuinely felt his recommendations would be listened to.

It’s also frightening that 10% of voters here think YABU.

@Appuskidu I’m assuming the 10% are the same people who have comments on the Fail article and said ‘teachers will moan about anything’. ‘Give them a pay cut as they haven’t worked for 2 years and that’ll fund it’.

YANBU

The YABUs have voted and run. I hope one of you will try to explain why you think the OP IBU.

@noblegiraffe has been championing for teachers' rights since the start of the pandemic @Moondust001.

A worrying number of parents are happy to ignore the education crisis until it's their own little darlings who are taught by an unqualified teacher or string of supply teachers because the class teacher left the profession, or went off sick due to stress.

And it IS a profession. A bloody hard one. You can't just rock up and do it. I read a study once that found teachers make decisions every 3 seconds. Constantly spinning plates, managing other adults, jumping through impossible hoops. It's wonderful but hard. I spent 9 hours today, unpaid, working on reports and other jobs that I couldn't get done in my 60 hour working week last week.

And the additional support for children with disabilities, seems to be hidden away somewhere...
This from the Disabled Children's Partnership.

For those who think I didn't work in lockdown, I was there, in school, every day, teaching key worker and vulnerable children then filking home learning videos, uploading work, marking work, phoning parents, doing 1.1 interventions on appointment over Zoom. At no point did I sit in my garden doing fuck all. Quite the opposite.

This government is a Tory government and they never will ever give a fuck about education. Ever.

£22 per child per year is disgraceful. I’m writing to my Tory MP - I wrote to her previously about this and she gave me some nonsense back.

It’s no surprise that one of the big policies that got Tony Blair into power was around education and they had to Chuck money at schools after years of Tory neglect. We will go down the same path again!!

Shocked that anyone has voted YABU

They also aren’t being transparent about the spread of Covid in schools.

I’d like to say I’m surprised they are low balling on kids educations, but then, they have been ignoring the needs of ASN kids for decades now and I don’t recall everyone here getting worked up about it either.

@HazeyJaneII

And the additional support for children with disabilities, seems to be hidden away somewhere... This from the Disabled Children's Partnership.

Thanks for that, Hazey, I’ve not seen that mentioned before. Shocking that vital appointments and therapies were missed over lockdown and no provision is being made for those children to catch-up.

I went for YABU although in fairness I think the overall title isn’t unreasonable in itself.

But I’ve been teaching a long time and I’m not convinced throwing money at problems solves them. Sorry - I know that won’t be a popular view here.

@Jennyfromtheculdesac I find it difficult to care much about TfL when I live in the south west with perhaps 2 buses a day in some of the villages my pupils live in. I appreciate that it will be a much bigger issue for those who live in/around London.

Of course every Tory minister sends their kids to private schools.