‘School will have to look different from now on’....

[Starrynightsabove]

‘With a mix of home schooling and in-school learning’

So said Nicola Sturgeon.

So how does this work for a single parent trying to work full time from home with a full on job who needs to pay the mortgage. Literally how does this work?

I definitely think in September it’ll still be all different. I’m starting my NQT year and I know that there’s questions from our current uni about whether we will be teaching our given class every day, or if classes will be merged as there will be so few in.

Parents will likely keep their kids off a lot quicker from now on (if they can) because people will still be anxious. What will the response be like from now on if a kid gets a temperature? It’s going to be a long time before it’s normal but hopefully we can get on with it ASAP.

Also I would try and provide online and in school learning if needed. May as well add a bit more work to my NQT year 🤷‍♀️

These 'new' ways of working aren't permanent and never were supposed to be, employers aren't going to continue to support people to work from home when that means they are primarily looking after children, nor will they continue it when it's damaging the business (for example one company I am aware of have allowed home working temporarily but are in iffy territory GDPR-wise).

I don't know how different school can look, with classes the size they are it's a huge task to try to overhaul the system. trying to make permanent changes now would be ridiculous, too many parents need to work and can't just change hours or work from home, too many children depend on school as a safe place.

@Raver84 I don’t know about your child’s school but it sure as heck takes me a lot longer than ten minutes to provide a week’s home learning. A maths, English and topic activity for each day, with modelled examples by me on video or labelled diagrams etc showing examples. Three personalised plans and sets of work are provided for my children with moderate SEN. I read and provide feedback for every piece of work from every single child that is posted on Seesaw. Plus I do my share of the weekly rota in school looking after key worker children and the myriad of other jobs needing doing such as replanning the curriculum for when we head back. I have just finished work for the evening now.

Oh, and I have a 17 month old who can climb over stairgates and barely naps. Trust me, I’d find it MUCH easier to be back at work, dropping the toddler off at the in laws every morning.

Home schooling isn’t working for us. Teenager, home alone all day while I work. Isn’t able to stay focused and on task, has tendency to go off work and on to YouTube etc. Despite being key worker, school is refusing to have him because he’s “too old to need childcare”.

Nicola sturgeon has done a great job up till now..
But.. Its time to think ahead.. My ds is due to sit Nat 5s next year. He needs to be in school I can't help him with most of his work.
I get we have to keep the numbers down don't overwhelm the NHS.. I. Get it..

But there are other considerations.. And kids education is one of them

Society has changed over the years eg both parents work,more single parents etc and turned it into childcare. Time for society to do a bit of back pedalling.

Back peddling on single parenting? Back to ‘stay together and miserable for the kids’, going to force the missing parent to actually show an interest in their child? Get involved in necromancy and raise people from the dead?

I also look forward to you making my mortgage and monthly costs back peddle from needing 2 full time salaries to cover.

Just a wee peddle that.

I have to work full time to support my children as does my ExH in our respective homes as key workers.

The school made a huge fuss about me being a bank Nurse as I could "just not work" while this is going on. So I have struggled badly the past few weeks trying to figure it out.

I feel your pain OP. I have serious homeschooling fatigue amongst other stresses.

I can totally work from home. Can i educate my 13 year old daughter through the most important years of her school career? Can i fuck!

Is opening the schools for a longer school day but with less children at a time, as someone suggested, not a complete contradiction in terms? Less at a time means a shorter day for the children so that won’t help parents!

Extending the average 9-3 school day will not be beneficial for children. My school does 8-4 from year 1. But they have longer holidays and trust me the last couple of hours are not the most productive! This is normally sports/fixtures/play rehearsals/forest school/assembly etc. There’s a reason why the core subjects are done in the morning!

After school care is much more the norm now- yes it costs money but first off its very different from school and second off, extend the day and it’s not just teachers salary’s that will have to rise - funds are squeezed enough and I’m sure no one wants any more of a tax rise then we are likely in for as it is!

Let’s not turn this into a teacher bashing thread. It’s been done to death, we know schools are varying considerably on how much work is going out and being marked. This is why I don’t believe any differences will be permanent by any stretch, because attainment will drop way too much.

I think many parents will start off too anxious to send children back, but will put them back in quicker than we think out of the fear of them missing out. I can’t see how teachers can effectively teach all day and send the same quality out to those remaining home, unless the class is live streamed all day and even then it won’t match. And parents will realise this, and real life will come back to us and in they’ll go.

I don’t disagree with spreading classes out - is using village halls and stuff. The problem is you can’t say spread a class still at school across two rooms when you’ve still only got one teacher. It would be a disaster. We all remember our school days, the mayhem that erupted when a teacher was late or you were waiting for them to return from break or waiting for a supply.

My feeling is it will begin with children doing a couple of days a week each and will go from there.

I get we have to keep the numbers down don't overwhelm the NHS.. I. Get it..

But there are other considerations.. And kids education is one of them

You do ‘get’ that by overwhelming the NHS, many, many more people will die? Have you looked at the Scottish government’s projected stats if schools were to fully open? Worst case scenario is pretty grim, most likely scenario would also completely overwhelm the NHS by July.

There is a really clear reason why we have to be cautious about reopening schools. As a country we haven't all been great at social distancing or following fairly simple rules, most have but too mant haven't. My local authority is seeing a rise in cases 🤔
We all want to get back to school, but we can't safely manage the famies and transport let alone full classes. So for just now the best we can hope for is some sort of part time schooling and that enough teachers will continue to do many unpaid hours to provide online work even when full time classroom based.
There will be no money for schools to adapt, there never is, it will come down to goodwill to get schools running as they need to be.
It won't be easy for anyone, but that doesn't make it the wrong decision.

@Raver84
Obviously you've never been inside a classroom or tried to teach children at around home time?? Honestly, the people who judge and comment on schools on mn are half crazy

If they did longer days they could have less people all in at once

When do you propose we do marking, planning, resources prep and assessment, then?

Raver84, have you ever actually been in a classroom with 30 Primary School kids? If they get to lunchtime still focused you're doing well. You can see mental fatigue in them in the afternoon session. What a ridiculous idea.

How does this work?
I think the true answer is it works badly but we don't have a choice. We are in a life or death situation. Yy schooling is hard. Isolation is hard. Finances are difficult. But we are in the middle of a global pandemic. We have one of the highest death rates in the world. The priority atm has to be trying to save lives.

Not permanently, surely? This has got to be over eventually.

I have no idea how we will manage to have both children in school and children being taught online. We have a full, live, online timetable and there's no way the parents of those not in school will accept a drop in quality or quantity (they pay). Very intrigued as to what the solution will be.

Maybe children could Zoom in/come in on MS Teams to physical lessons and join in from home as if they were really in the classroom? Wouldn't be easy.

I'd happily keep the children at home much longer if the teachers actually delivered some teaching. At the moment all we get is some links to BBC bite size and a cheery email each day about what a lovely time they are having baking and playing football with their own children.
I have to hold down a very busy full-time job too. It can be done from home but it is at the expense of my children getting any kind of education at the moment. I wish the teachers would step up. There's no pastoral care, no education, just a few links to websites!

So if teachers want children to stay at home longer they need to swiftly find a way to deliver proper teaching.

@NeverTwerkNaked I think you probably mean your children's teachers - not THE teachers.

Please don't tar us all with the same brush. Some of us are working flat out teaching online/working from home whilst attempting to teach our own children. If it's any consolation, I'm doing a crap job at teaching my own right now even though it's my actual every day job as I can't homeschool and do my job at the same time.

Also please please contact the head of school if you are unhappy with the level of work being set or the lack of work - nothing will change unless you let them know what is or isn't working.

Do they? If everyone is stuck at home then all DCs are being similarly educated. There will be differences in parental involvement but there's always been that. Wealthy parents may pay tutors but, again, that's always been the case. If the majority are at home with poor teaching resources and busy parents then that will create the new average.
Will UK DCs be disadvantaged compared to DCs overseas whose countries managed Cobid19 more effectively? Yes. But that is the fault of the government not the teachers.

It's a fair comment about " not all teachers" but actually all teachers need to share best practice and push the unions /DfE/LEAs to ensure there is decent remote teaching across the board if they want to delay the return of children.

Otherwise parents will be shouting for schools to reopen.

Sounds like the death knell for women in the workplace. Given that the economy is not going to be supporting full employment for a long time to come, anyway, it seems it’s back to the 1950s for women.

Yep. We always knew who was going to be first against the wall. I'm another one interested to see whether mortgages and other living costs (not smashed avocado served on the latest iPhone...just basic living costs) backpedal. My guess is...not. Monthly mortgage payments could reduce a fraction-half a loaf is better than no bread to the bank- but I wonder if mortgage terms will extend like Japan in the 90s.

I have done. I get some meaningless waffle about "balance" and mental health and baking or some shite. I have secondary aged DC. One hour of doing online quizzes is not an education. I am doing my best to add stuff myself, but I am working and not a teacher. I'm not trained and not paid to teach. I'm sorry but in my kids school the teachers are barely even phoning it in.