Government backs down on primary school opening 1 June

[peridito]

Just heard headline on Radio 4 .

Daily Mail seem to be only News agency reporting .

If I was a uni student I'd be deferring my year if my uni was not going back until next yr. How they can justify the fees is shocking

Whether they can justify the fees or not, they are not accepting late deferrals. So there's not much point in this year's cohort applying. One of my DC is among them. If his university is online in October, I have already suggested that he should rent a house with school friends who are going to the same university, just so they can all at least get away from home.

@SmileEachDay not sure that is true the French Education Minister said that they were infected before they returned, most are in cluster of areas and the schools shut down as a precaution. The contact trace test and Quarantine worked

Now the question is do we have a system in place that would work

Re University fees - my partner is a senior lecturer and he's working harder than I've ever seen him work. He's recording lectures (which takes far longer than just turning up to a lecture theatre, as his uni's system means that they have to be recorded in three segments and he has to create and fit PowerPoint visuals to them all), communicating with hordes of stressed students via email, Zoom and phone, marking essays online, modifying exams so that they can be taken online at home as 24-hour open-book papers), marking these exams (in an entirely new way), giving tutorials, seminars and thesis/dissertation supervision via Zoom, as well as staff meetings, he has to do a virtual open day on Saturday, he's in charge of admissions for next year, which are more complicated than ever because of the A-level situation, and his admin workload has easily doubled. He's working twelve-hour days, at least six days a week. Would you like him to do that for nothing?

Can I just say that the news about Cambridge has been misreported quite heavily. My brother is starting at Cambridge this Autumn and received an email from his department saying categorically that they would be starting the academic year as normal, students would be required to reside in Cambridge, but mass lectures would not be held. Lectures will be given online, but small group activities where social distancing can be maintained like tutorials, seminars, lab work etc. will go ahead absolutely as normal. I think this is fine, I only ever snoozed through my lectures.

Will be a big backlash against teachers and unions for this’

😂😂 Since when has the government ever paid the slightest attention to what teachers or the unions say?

it is quite staggering the number of people whose comprehension skills of the written and oral word is hugely lacking.
At no point did Boris say that schools were opening on the 1st June.
For a start, they've mostly been "open" all the way through Lockdown anyway.
He used plenty of modal verbs, e.g. if, could, may, might.
As far as I can see, hardly any of the pre-requisites to schools returning more widely to the premises, have been met.

Cambridge Uni off until Summer 2021, probably some other unis to follow ...
ffs, why spunk 15-20k per year when you can do Open Uni
Some prospective students will be making other choices

I think Boris/Dominic have been quite canny on this one. Whatever Johnson announced about schools re-opening, the caveats were much less clear to the public than the headlines. I'm sure this was a deliberate move to shift blame for any failure of this to materialise as expected onto teachers, unions, rogue councils, the elf and safety brigade. Anyone but the government.

I think Boris/Dominic have been quite canny on this one. Whatever Johnson announced about schools re-opening, the caveats were much less clear to the public than the headlines. I'm sure this was a deliberate move to shift blame for any failure of this to materialise as expected onto teachers, unions, rogue councils, the elf and safety brigade. Anyone but the government

Yes this is what Ive been saying since the announcement. sadly so many people Do Not have the ability to understand what Boris actually said.

ffs, why spunk 15-20k per year when you can do Open Uni

Because Oxford and Cambridge are better?

My DS is going to Oxford in October, and his information is the same as your brother has had, @modernmystery

Same with Care homes being blamed for the deaths of so many pensioners. It wasnt the fault of government policy. It wasnt the fault of highly educated doctors and Highly paid nhs managers. It was somehow the fault of care workers in care homes who should have quarantined the elderly. Those comments on a thread last night really annoyed me. How Easily brainwashed have people become?

FFS.

I wish people would stop posting stuff that suggests interrupted education for months won't be a problem (the NZ and Katrina stuff). Nobody buys it.

For starters, if that was the case, why was a 1 week holiday in term time seen as detrimental to education if months off is suddenly fine? Plus, it really doesn't reflect well on teachers, if a child can miss that much education and still be fine. I don't believe it. Sorry.

I get that teachers are worried about their health. Their families health. The kids health. I get that the logistics are a nightmare.

We're all worried. Scared. Stressed. Fucking pissed off. I'm sorry if teachers feel bashed.

It is not unreasonable though for people to want to talk about the biggest disruption to education in a generation on a public parenting forum. Its hard to know what's going on. What's currently normal. What we can ask. Who to ask. What the issues are. What we might expect a week from now.

How we can help our kids.

@Mary1935

The government should stop there pay if they don’t go in. Unions!!! Deluded fools. There is a risk everywhere. It isn’t going away. Go to work and do your job that you get paid for.

@mary1935 I know what career I’d be sooner doing.

When are you applying to do your teacher training? Good luck getting a place, they are in high demand and universities can cherry pick the best.

For starters, if that was the case, why was a 1 week holiday in term time seen as detrimental to education if months off is suddenly fine? Plus, it really doesn't reflect well on teachers, if a child can miss that much education and still be fine. I don't believe it. Sorry.

There have already been a few threads on this issue very recently, if you want to do a search and read them and the overall outcome is that for one child to be off for a week/2 weeks when all the others are continuing on with the curriculum means that it can be a little harder to catch up as things have moved on by the time they get back.

I am sure those who have carried out studies/research on the attainment position after the NZ earthquake and H Katrina will take note of your opinion that ‘nobody buys it’.

"Cambridge Uni off until Summer 2021, probably some other unis to follow ..."

Not true. Come on, Choc, I already told you that on the Brexit threads!

tilder

As has been said many many times.

Nobody is stopping you from asking specific questions about your children's teachers or school.

Nobody is stopping you form asking questions about the governments policies or the current (or any) education situation.

Lies, generalisations and bullshit will be called out.

It is quite simple.

For starters, if that was the case, why was a 1 week holiday in term time seen as detrimental to education if months off is suddenly fine? Plus, it really doesn't reflect well on teachers, if a child can miss that much education and still be fine. I don't believe it. Sorry.

Yeah, whatever, but I think you'll find that it wasn't "teachers" who invented that rule in the first place, but the Government. So, yet again, teachers are being held responsible for stuff that IS NOT THEIR RESPONSIBILITY!!!!

I don't like this government one bit, but they always said June 1st date was 'if it was safe to do so', never a mandatory requirement of schools. They're entitled to say 'it may not be safe' - much as we hate them, I get really annoyed by the way people shit on governments when they actually do what people want. The response should be 'good', not 'ugh, the u-turning useless bastards'

No, they shouldn't have announced schools restarting before it actually was safe, but they also never framed it as a demand to be carried out at all costs. I always felt the day was rather asinine as obviously, the end of half term would be 'symbolically nice' but that doesn't mean the virus will meet your convenient timeline. They wouldn't have announced it had the end of the school year not been approaching.

FTR, I would have been happy to send my kids back (not that they're in the priority year groups) in themselves, but totally understand concerns about teachers and capacity for wider spreading, especially with track and trace in place and operating.

@FrippEnos maybe not in so many words (although i did see one poster say nobody should be discussing this at all at the moment).

Tbo I felt nervous posting on this thread. There have been a lot of really angry and aggressive posts. From both perspectives. Its pretty horrible to be honest. Nobody appreciates a vocal minority telling them what they can or cannot post. Its called bullying.

I get that teachers don't appreciate being lumped together as a group and criticized. Neither do parents. A lot of teachers are parents too.

I don't know what the solution is, but these threads seem helpful to a few posters and then descend.

On the plus side, I emailed the school for office for ds1 and said how brilliant they are. Then when our yr6 teacher called (which freaked me out, they only call whsn there is a problem!) I was clear that yes i would love her to go back to school but trust their judgment.

Then thanked my lucky stars that the previous head has left and we have a new awesome head (poor woman, only started in january).

@CallmeAngelina fine, speak in capitals you want. I think the point I was making was clear.

This stuff about Cambridge is nonsense! They said lectures online - most of the teaching is seminars and tutorials and those, like at most universities, may well be in person. Universities have to do a large online offering because of overseas students who may not get here.

@ChloeDecker ok, show me the link please and I will happily read.

I would love to think that this will not affect my kids education. Would be one less thing to worry about.

Thank you, yes, I will emphasize in capitals if I think that it needs highlighting YET AGAIN that "teachers" should not be held responsible for matters which are far above their pay-grade.

You may have made your point clearly, but I fundamentally disagree with it; in fact, you are wrong.