Schools fubared till November?

[Clemmieandareallybigbunfight]

Disruption to schools could continue to November, MPs told www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52895640

Is this a dystopian joke?

Are we actually trying to fuck up our kids?

Schools need to be instructed to open fully five days a week with enhanced on day cleaning, increased buses to allow distancing, staggered start and finish, covered but open refuge areas allowing distancing whilst outside in all weathers for breaks and no assemblies. Relatively low investment needed, huge gain economically but more importantly for our kids education and mental health. Some of these kids will never get back to school if they are out for so long. Some will fail to achieve their potential. And all for an illness with a tiny mortality rate overall?

Mary Ann, you have 3 children. Why are they so miserable out of school? Don't they play with each other? Don't they enjoy school holidays?

I am also working full time AND we have also been ill, but my dcs are loving the time off school, and using it really productively.

I do wonder about parents who say their dcs hate being at home. Why do your dcs hate being around you so much?

I could maybe understand that an only child might miss the company of other children, but if you have 3??

Yes whiskey 👏👏👏👏

I would like to suggest though, that people have a read of this thread

The utter desperation from the women on it is just heartbreaking.

Nike, you do know that disagreeing with you is not actually against MN rules?

If you don't like people having different opinions, you might find MN is not for you.

The Brady Bunch comments are just made up crap.

Of course unions represent their members. The 80s were decades ago. I think I experienced more strike days as a pupil in the 80s than i have as a teacher over the last 20+ years.

So much hate on one thread.
I feel for children who have parents like this.

Teachers are supposed to be highly trained in child development and yet they are willing to subject them to this.

whiskybysidedoor It's not the union who've put the restrictions and measures in place about which year can go back and when and how etc, it's the SAGE scientists. Be angry and rant at them, they're the ones coming up with "bubbles" and part-time and younger years first and it'll be them who keep the other years off until Sept or later. If you see from my comment above, the union wasn't consulted until AFTER the Govt and SAGE announced it would be June 1st. So blaming them for this mess is a waste of energy.

Shallwedancetomojito That's come from SAGE, not teachers. It was in the Govt's 25-page doc sent out to schools on how to transition the kids back.

"Part time for all years in June is better than nothing until November. Good for them for shock horror, finding a workable solution. A rota system. Why didn’t we think of that?! All this moaning about how you can’t fit 30 kids in a class and social distance there are so many solutions that people aren’t prepared to entertain."

English schools had a specific instruction from the government to take back certain years full time and NOT go for a rota system. Many schools had already started planning a rota system and then had to start from scratch once they got government guidance ( which the government changed 41 times in one week).

Good for them for shock horror, finding a workable solution. A rota system. Why didn’t we think of that?!

Er, we all did think of this in England, and then we were clearly told not to offer to other year groups. Why didn't Boris think about it a bit more, indeed. The rumour is that even the DfE thought of your idea, and was as taken aback as we all were when number 10 announced the year groups of choice in England. That's why Gavin looked so pissed off about it all.

@Barbie222 I’m not slating the profession I work in FE in an educational/caring role in equal measure. Just genuinely wondering when things truly will go back to normal. There is just so much at stake here. I think we can all cope with the shopping queue bollocks and sitting in people’s gardens bollocks but this is just so much bigger. I just feel so sorry for all the kids out there.

To the poster who said school is not childcare. It is. It is perfectly possible for school to be simultaneously two things at once. Our children are educated first and foremost at school, but the government expects you to work when your child reaches school age. If this was not the case, benefits would not be stopped, and women would be able to choose to be stay at home mums. Except they can’t. It’s not that difficult to understand surely?

I don’t see the government stopping housing benefit when you have a stay in hospital because you technically have free accommodation?? Ridiculous comparison.

@xxyyx

Maybe you are just a really inefficient worker or have particularly badly-behaved children?

Maybe you should use lockdown to build better relationships with your children rather than blaming teachers for the fact you can't control your own children? hmm

This is very clearly a personal attack.

You are not 'disagreeing' with me, as I have not brought my DC into the debate (to do so is poor form IMO). You don't even know if I have DC.

If you are unable to read the talk guidelines, much less follow them, then MN definitely isn't for you

Play the ball, not the man.

I also can't believe the people blaming the unions for ensuring their members are safe.

That is literally what unions exist to do!

Just because some people on this thread apparently don't care if teachers catch coronavirus, or some children, or if either category spread it to families and more widely in the community, I don't see why everyone else should be expected to not care about this.

Be selfish if you must - but don't expect everyone else to agree with you.

For the record, we think we as a family caught coronavirus from my DS, who picked it up at school just before lockdown.

I do NOT want other families to go through this needlessly. It is not a mild illness. It is not like flu.

@NikeDeLaSwoosh as soon as they make personal attacks you know that they know they have lost the argument.

2m is a made up number
1m = sensible

WASH HANDS
before class
WASH HANDS
before lunch
WASH HANDS
after having a wee boys, that means you
WASH HANDS
after breaks
NO SHARED FOOD
including staff room bicuits
MASKS IN CROWDED AREAS
ie during assembly

and the total long term viral load of schools will drop

Our grandparents knew about handwashing
we forgot

@Shallwedancetomojito how is any of that the fault of teachers? If people spent as much time holding this government to account perhaps we wouldn't be in as much of a mess.

Sure, campaign to get the schools back. I'm a teacher and fully support a return for greater student numbers.

But the ignorance on these daily threads is laughable. People just saying things like 'just get a little extra funding for the spare teachers/cleaners' and 'why haven't the head teachers asked for money'? Come on, just because so many of you have taken little interest in the funding and recruitment crisis that teachers have been talking about for years doesn't mean it hasn't been mentioned.

Those 'meddlesome' unions have been pushing for extra funding for a long time because we see the daily damage it is doing to the education of your children - and by the way the cuts to education have done far more damage than this past 6 months...didn't see you all up in arms then. Now suddenly everyone's an expert about how easier it is.

Be cross, sure! But direct your anger to government and maybe petition them yourselves for funding for your children's education that you all care so much about. But don't blame your school that's been complaining about these same issues for years.

@Drama123 I agree. Thankfully most people in RL are adjusting and getting on with things in the new normal and it's just a minority of posters here who keep chewing.

Yes I meant why didn’t the government here think of that. Not the schools. I agree they need much more guidance from the government.

Completely agree op.

My kids are at private school. They have made it work for R, Y1 and y6. The head and the staff have an amazing can do attitude and have moved mountains and plan to move entire ranges if needed. They've also had a full program of online learning, monitoring and feedback and will be given learning support over the summer if required. I'm well aware money makes this happen.

However it's appalls me that the gap between my kids and the local state school is widening on a daily basis. The local state school has just sent home worksheets. Head sends out emails encouraging families not to go back. This is a leafy middle England village. (My kids cousins go there) Why can't they use the village hall? The farmers barn that's already risk assessed for school visits? The church? Hire in sinks and ask for contributions from parents. Ask for parent volunteers. Get the sixth formers who've just left back? Get the local Church DBS checked volunteers on playground duty? The attitude is we can't rather than I can.

I appreciate its incredibly difficult for them but there's a generation of kids who are going to live with a lifetime of consequence. I say that having missed 6 weeks of school let alone till November.

I don't know what the answer is. Perhaps there isn't one. But the thought that six months of education and life experience is just...gone

I disagree with this. Yes it's far from ideal, and is terrible for those who will suffer mentally or physically in ways that they wouldn't if they were at school.

But to say that 6 months of life experience is just gone- it isn't. It's a different experience, and is inferior in many ways, yes - but what about all the kids who are actually gaining from not going in to school? A lot find it overwhelming, are bullied etc. But even those who aren't- they're experiencing zoom meetings with their friends (I'm not suggesting it's a substitute, but is still a different experience!), are possibly (probably) picking up other skills & knowledge without even necessarily realising it from things they wouldn't be doing at school.
It's just different.

That's not to ignore the fact that some are doubtless suffering though. Nor the effect on the economy and parent's own personal financial troubles arising from this.

I just disagree that it's all bad.

lockdownlou - most people don't actually live on benefits so I am not sure what your point is. The govt don't pay anyone who is able to work to sit around not working. The fact that they subsidise parents with very young children has nothing to do with schools being childcare or not.

When was that countmeout? @TheFallenMadonna, not yesterday admittedly but circa 1990. Not sure why it was stopped. Or if it weeded anyone out as being unfit for work in a Pandemic 😬