Schools opening in the summer holidays!

[Biscuit0110]

GAVIN WILLIAMSON confirmed the Department of Education is looking into the possibility of propping up summer schools to help pupils catch up with their work after the pandemic.

It seems that after ruling out using the summer holidays to allow the children to catch up, it is now firmly back on the table!

What a positive development - will you send your child to school over the summer?

They need to adjust the goal posts of the Gcses is what they need to do, to account for the potential gaps in knowledge

They do not.

Another thing is that, yet again, teachers apparently don't have children of their own.

I'm sure my two would be delighted to come into school with me over the summer while I do catch up lessons with other kids...

@ITonyah

Actually the exam boards are consulting on year 10 and 12 as we speak.

They will put in place measures to ensure ‘fairness’ considering the learning time missed.

That could potentially be something like lowering grade boundaries next summer for instance.

No one is going to leave years 10 and 12 at a disadvantage. Summer school this year will be of no consequence and is more likely to end up being free childcare rather than anything meaningful.

I’m not being negative, that’s just the way it is. But, as I said before, I’m not worried about my classes, because when I’ve got them all back, we’ll be going for gold!

@ITonyah do you think they should just leave GCSEs as they are, despite the huge disparity between the level of work offered from the schools to Y10s never mind the fact most will miss a term of being in the actual classroom.

Yes I do. Otherwise it makes a mockery of all the kids, individual teachers and state schools who have tried to do the right thing in these circumstances.

Also, if they lower grade boundaries, the disparity will be even more marked!

If you are suggesting making gcses easier for schools that have done the best part of fuck all during this, then, its a no.

Lowering grade boundaries for all will just mean 85% of private school kids will get 10 x 9s.

But many state schools (and some private schools) have provided very little work for Y10s. Some schools have gone with the theory that the curriculum was suspended so haven’t taught anything new. Some children, through no fault of their own, can’t access the work being provided. Some teachers aren’t marking or giving feedback.

How can they keep the exams the same whilst that has been happening, and I say that as a parent of a Y10 child who is in private school and been getting live lessons on a full timetable.

Seems the unions advice to forbid live lessons for state school secondary was ill-informed. If you look hard, it’s always easy to find risks. The skill
is in balancing Benefits-Risk (ie a good management task).

We are in 2020s not 1980s. The tech is there to teach live. How many secondary kids have a smartphone ? Many ! From all sections of society and the closer they get to Years 9-13 the more likely they have it.

For zoom (or microsoft teams or google meet) you just need a smartphone and your school books, a pen, pencil, calculator and ruler.

The Office for National Statistics 2019 reported that 100% of 16-24-year-olds have Internet access via a smartphone

Childwise report 2019 “ The report, based on a survey of 2,167 UK five- to 16-year-olds, said 53% of youngsters owned mobile phones by around the age of seven.
It said that by age 11, 90% had their own device, and phone ownership was “almost universal” once children were in secondary school.”

Seems the unions advice to forbid live lessons for state school secondary was ill-informed. If you look hard, it’s always easy to find risks

The risks for certain platforms are well-documented. You don't have to look hard. Unions never forbade live lessons, as you well know. They advised caution.

I understand your point OP, but children need a break. My DD has a full timetable (9am - 4pm) of live lessons, assemblies, PE, and assessments.
She deserves her summer holidays, as much as the teachers who have worked hard to provide the online learning

I think there is going to be an awful public backlash against teachers and unions over this

Oh no! After the years of respect and support we’ve received? The autonomy and acknowledgment of our professional skills?
How will our fragile egos cope?

What form do you think this backlash will take?

Biscuit0110 I agree - kids who have already had so many weeks away from school, don't really need another 6-7 weeks

Also for parents who have used up all their leave and need to work flat out to pay bills, debt etc

It should be voluntary though until September

Even pre-recorded lessons from their own teacher would be an improvement and help the kids to feel more engaged and connected.

Oh no! After the years of respect and support we’ve received? The autonomy and acknowledgment of our professional skills?
How will our fragile egos cope?

Watch this. Especially the bit about revering teachers:

Also for parents who have used up all their leave and need to work flat out to pay bills, debt etc

You do realise that if this happens, it won't but if it did, it would only be for those in exam years. Those pupils who can already be left alone in the summer. It wouldn't be providing childcare for those whose parents need it for the youngest children so they could go to work.

What a ridiculous idea. It's certainly not a "positive development" and I don't understand how on earth you can be "delighted" by it, OP. The children and teachers will need their proper break. This has not been a holiday, everyone is stressing out about doing schoolwork, people are anxious. Even if the situation hasn't changed by the summer holidays, the children won't have the school work to worry about.

Re live lessons. The live zoom lessons (private) we are used to when we were Home Edders there’s no chat or visual of other students. We see the tutor and their screen only. The students can ‘chat’ to the tutor live and so feedback, ask questions and participate in a quiz etc. No one else sees this. Then homework is assigned and can be posted online for group feedback or sent. The link is emailed and unique to the student.

What would the risks be in that situation?

Then rather than say ‘use with caution’ maybe this can be done nationally in an agreed format so as to help the teachers then they focus on prep and delivering the lesson. I would be happy with one or two core subject online tutoring lessons a day.

Even pre-recorded lessons from their own teacher would be an improvement

I pre-record some explanations for my pupils. A 10-15 minute video takes a minimum of an hour to make. I have to prepare the powerpoint or whatever I am sharing on screen, usually record it at least twice as I have to stop and start again if I make a mistake, convert the video, upload it (I use unlisted Youtube and it sometimes takes ages to process, then put it on our website which uses very basic software and takes an age. I do one or two a day at the moment and it takes me all evening (impossible to do during the day as my own DC have a habit of interrupting). I'm not going to be making videos all through the holidays.

Barely any of mine even watch them anyway, and my pupils are from the sort of deprived backgrounds that people are suggesting would benefit from summer school. You can't force engagement.

Live lessons for 30 6 and 7 year olds? A bit different to the ones for home education I should think. Most of mine wouldn't join in anyway. They aren't even logging onto our existing learning platform or watching any of my videos. In fact, my parents don't even respond to my emails so I suspect engagement in a Zoom lesson would be virtually none. Not all schools are in the leafy MN demographic, so a one-size fits all policy is not suitable.

@dippy Don’t think primary level is the focus here; it’s secondary ages 13-18

@ect “The risks for certain platforms are well-documented. You don't have to look hard. Unions never forbade live lessons, as you well know. They advised caution.” That’s interesting - it seems then many state secondary schools misinterpreted the advice then, as it is the reason often given by state secondaries for not continuing the timetable live.

Fair enough. Yes mine started at 7. But we do have the tech at home. I just feel disappointed by what has been sent so far. Also I’m the one waiting on replies. I guess all schools are different.

Dippy, that sounds great. We would appreciate it. We have nothing except the odd YouTube video saying hello. It does sound like a lot of work. I do think some of this could be made easier for the teachers. We have tutors who teach remotely all around the world all day long and they have found a way to make it manageable. No doubt that has taken them a lot of time. Its not fair from standing start I see that now, I think teachers could be supported centrally with an IT solution rather than each having to work it out.

The literacy live lessons on the BBC are super (not the current ones) the 500 words etc. Perhaps that’s could step up.

echt

I don’t care much about the money, I’d just like less interference and innovation every bloody term. I was fairly sincere when I asked what would the backlash look like. More inspections? Insane targets? Parents telling us how we should do the job?