‘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?

pfrench

My partner is me so I work all day.

I have tried negotiating with work. Before furlough they initially told me I could make my hours up but when I told them what hours they could do I just got a sorry no that doesn't work for us.

If nurseries don't open before furlough ends I am screwed.

The simple fact is that it won’t work,
Nor will the 2m rule.
Nor will requiring all children to wear face masks and not have physical contact with each other. None of it will work long term.
We cannot force children to live like that, not for any sustained period. It isn’t fair on them. It is completely impracticable and will impact not only their education but their mental
health. Especially when they are not vulnerable to the virus. At all. Why should the future generation pay the cost?

On top of that, as others have said, it simply would not be economically viable to require parents to continue to home school children even on a part time basis. Most households are dual working. Any back tracking from this will cause a housing market crash and a recession.

I think the government is still unsure right now how to respond to the virus. There is a lot of noise from pharmaceutical companies promising to deliver a vaccine soon. At this stage, whilst there is hope of a vaccine in the very near future, the government will do
all it can to delay the spread of the virus. But if it emerges that the vaccine is years away if at all I think the government’s position will have to change. There will be riots on the streets otherwise. They will have to leave it to citizens to decide whether they want to carry out social distancing methods or take their chances with the virus. After all the likelihood of life threatening illness for most is less than 1%.

Surely that's what we all expected though, right? A mix of in person and distance learning until the virus is under control? I work in a college and have a child in primary and this is fully what I expect to happen. What other options are there? You can't social distance at school when it's at full capacity. So, we either do away with social distancing and let the dice fall as they may or we continue to social distance and school looks different. Because it will be different. Worse, to be honest. But it's on a global scale and ultimately they're all missing weeks or months of education as a whole so will all be in the same boat.

Those that find this unacceptable - what is acceptable?

But Winterrain sd only works if most people do it. You're talking about the vulnerable and elderly staying shielded long term aren't you. I'm not in that category but if I was I'd probably have some serious questions about how I'm supposed to educate and feed my kids, according to your plan.

Realistically, though I think things are different now. If workplaces have to incorporate social distancing and working from home where possible this will have to include schools. Which they can't reasonably do as they were before lockdown with the buildings as they are. So we might get part time school, home school etc. This is it until there are treatments for Corona unless it is deemed acceptable for teachers and pupils to at closer quarters with no PPE than anyone else.

Yes, this means new challenges in terms of feminism for women. However, this is always the case in times of great societal change and emergency.

Yes, this means new challenges in terms of feminism for women. However, this is always the case in times of great societal change and emergency.

Nah, women always carry the can. Not this time.

Men can stay home they won't.

It makes no difference whether there are 10 students per class room or 30. It is not practicable, or fair, to force children to stay 2m apart and wear face masks and not make physical contact with each other. I’d go as far to say it is cruel, actually, when such measures are not there for their own protection. Young children will not understand social distancing, and even if they could comply with it any sustained period of it must surely risk causing long term development issues. Do we want 5 year olds to learn that they must stay 2m away from anyone not in their household? How do you move away from that in one, two years time? And as for older children, teenagers - do you think they are going to stay away from their friends, miss out on making new friends, relationships for years on end? Of
course they’re not.

Someone asked what is the alternative. Well it’s simple, we get the virus to a low enough level so that the NHS can cope, and then we return to semi normal with regular hand washing and increased contact tracing and isolation of new cases, and at the same time we strongly recommend those at high risk to isolate and take stronger precautions, and provide financial support to those people. In other words, we take Sweden’s approach.

My ds asked how he was going to play with his friends if he had to stay 2 m away.

He then realised all the games he couldn't play.

I said I didn't think that would be the case when we went back and that everybody would be very careful about handwashing as I couldn't let him think that was going to be the case.

Not read the whole thread so apologies if it’s already been linked to, but @fuckweasel do you have a link for ‘ Scottish government’s projected stats if schools were to fully open’

Sounds interesting.

www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and-guidance/2020/05/coronavirus-covid-19-framework-decision-making-further-information-2/documents/coronavirus-covid-19-framework-decision-making-further-information/coronavirus-covid-19-framework-decision-making-further-information/govscot%3Adocument/coronavirus-covid-19-framework-decision-making-further-information.pdf?forceDownload=true page 13

Neuro, I really doubt they will be able to enforce the 2m rule once the lockdown has eased. Not for long. The problem is the government’s message on stay at home was almost too effective. It’s scared people who shouldn’t be overly scared of catching the virus. Obviously there is a small risk to anyone who catches it but there’s a risk of death every time you get in the car, every time you have a major operation.

I know winter. We both have asthma (day and I) so Dh was rather ott at the start. And to be fair I've been stringent too. I'm worried about the longer term fatigue associated as I've had that before.

Nah, women always carry the can. Not this time.

Men can stay home they won't.

Your statement seems to assume women would prefer to work away from the home. I'd rather women have the choice of whether they are the ones who stay home or not.

Both myself and my DH are happy at home. If he is offered permanent working from home he will take it. He already has flexible working which for him means he works from home at least one day most weeks. Our D.C. is happy, for the moment, with doing his school work at home. He has enjoyed his home study. Although he does miss friends and appreciates having his teachers actively teaching lessons.

Not everybody is unhappy with their home situation or the division of labour within the home.

I think the move towards more flexible working is a positive one. And the times working from home has not been a positive experience is often down to some inflexibility on behalf of employers or spouses. This might by enlarge be the crux of the problem rather than working from home being completely untenable.

My school haven't been SD and I wouldn't want them to; too distressing for them (Sen)

Whatever Nicola’s grand plans to do things differently to England, they will hit a huge hole in the road when Boris announces the end of furloughing. There is no was it could be maintained from the Scottish budget and all those parents will need to go back to work and won’t be impressed with part-time schools.

I am a single parent. It is a struggle to get DS with autism to do an hour of schoolwork a day even. I am recovering from coronavirus so have not had to try to fully balance working from home with this. That fun is still to come.
But yes, I can see a cut in paid work on the cards as I cannot see how doing my job properly is viable. Either that or not sleeping - do the job in the middle of the night.
I am hoping if I cut my hours, this can be temporary and I can up them again in due course but who knows?
Whoever said this is the death knell for women’s equality in the workplace is correct.

@veryvery not all of us can work from home.

Longer days won't work. DD2 (12) has ASD. Within 5 minutes of getting home, she is out of her uniform, in pyjamas and sat on the sofa, barely talking. She's exhausted by the school day.

Why do children and teenagers need exams at all? They don't. They are children!

All learning needs to be more flexible, less stressful, more easy going and with more options in the future for children, teenagers, and parents.

Societies always evolve. Things never stay the same. Just because we have been doing schools that way for the last couple of generations, would never mean that we have to do it that way forever. Things evolve. We have much better technology now.

I'm a SAHM but I can't wait to send my kids back. My 7 year old is really difficult for me to "teach" he hates anything I ask him to do like write a note to his cousins, read for 10 minutes etc. he will only go through a maths workbook which he has finished now. Had a bit of success with bbc bitesize but I cant get more than 45 minutes absolute maximum out of him and only very limited subjects. I've been trying to teach him to tell the time as I realised he couldn't do it but he gets really distressed but the very idea of me explaining it to him!
I really think this has gone on long enough, we have controlled the initial outbreak and everyone now knows to wash hands, social distance as much as possible, isolate if vulnerable. But the fact is we can't save everyone. More will catch it and some will die. Ramping up testing and contact tracing will stop a second wave like the first one. We are best off easing back into normality now than waiting for September when winter bugs start going round again.

Trust, I understand that. However, the number of companies having a fuller appreciation of how working from home can actually work and setting up IT infrastructure in order to enable this has massively increased. The opportunities in this should not be wasted.

Neuro, if you have asthma it makes sense to social distance longer in the hope they will find a vaccine. I think they should provide much more support to those who are vulnerable to this virus as they are the ones who need it the most.

@katienana maybe that tells us all - that 7 year olds shouldn't be doing so much structures learning. They should be playing!

The old school system put way too much pressure on young children.

We are moving into a better system

Why do children and teenagers need exams at all? They don't. They are children!

I’ve been thinking this too. I’d love it if this became an opportunity to overhaul our outdated and frankly stupid education system.