We need to rise up about the lack of education for our children

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Please do this. Please join the Twitter movement #usforthem
Please write to your MPs
Please talk about this.

Our children are missing out on their fundamental human right of an education.

The children of regular families are suffering (all 5 of mine are suffering desperately), but those in vulnerable families are suffering even further. The gap between these children will be HUGE

I am a teacher and a mother. I am ready to go back to work full time and with the 'old normal'. I am also type 1 diabetic.

Please help us rise up to get our children educated. Our children have been totally forgotten about. Throughout my career I've had it rammed down my throat about how school is a safe place for so many children. They don't care about these children now.

I am amazed so many people have just accepted this. It has gone on for too long now.

I'm appalled about this so thanks op.

I am totally bemused that schools and ofsted are so obsessed with attendance to the extent I received a shitty letter because my dc had lots of medical appointments in school time, yet we are parents are supposed to be totally accepting of this current situation.

I do have to say I doubt Schools will be back as normal in September. Both my Husband and I (both teachers) are preparing online learning from September as we've been tasked to do by Leadership.

Do you colleagues agree with you OP? I do and so does my headteacher but most of our colleagues are very reluctant. This is of course because of some very real concerns but some are just reluctant to come back, including some senior staff.

"THIS yes, exactly. Where I live we've been in the 20-30s for weeks."

You know the numbers are low due to lockdown don't you?

And they can go up again as quickly as they did in March?

I can't imagine not being able to understand exponential maths.

For those saying we have hardly any cases:

Jan 29. First case in UK.
Mar 23. Lockdown.

Had we gone on any longer, we would have gone beyond the capacity of the health service. Already, we had 50,000 deaths

7% of the UK have antibodies. If we stop all distancing, we will get a repeat of the 1st wave.

It takes 2.5 days for the virus to double, without distancing.
It takes 2 months to half.

If we take the brakes off this thing and allow it to go exponential, we had better be prepared to deal with the worst case scenario. 50,000 deaths will look like foreplay.

@MintyMabel
I'm not sure what you are trying to say or twist. My whole point is that ALL children need a full time education. Sadly, children in hospital or with cancer etc etc are not well enough to be in the classroom. If they had access to The Oak academy for these periods that would be good if they are well enough to access it. It doesn't mean the rest of the country should be off school.

We are fundamentally failing our children. Life is a risk. We cannot remove all risks. The pandemic in 1968 did not cause schools to shut - millions of people died worldwide.

Please everyone, write to your MPs

I found this post very interesting - especially people who have high school children who are saying they are not getting an education. I know some of this is sometimes down to a lot of families not having the electronic resources - but what surprises me is the difference in education that schools are giving. My two high school children are in different schools and while they are getting different educations they are certainly getting good educations even if it is remotely they have lots of teacher contact. They have very full days although one of them is maybe too busy with school. Next week they are sitting end of year exams electronically and the one who is very busy has 14 exams in one week. So I get surprised to hear other high school children have hardly anything to do. I have friends whose children are home schooled and their high school children self educate so I take the view remote learning is doable - but it seems that sadly so many kids are struggling.

"I am totally bemused that schools and ofsted are so obsessed with attendance to the extent I received a shitty letter because my dc had lots of medical appointments in school time, yet we are parents are supposed to be totally accepting of this current situation."

I think the usual rules had to be abandoned when we entered a global pandemic and faced hundreds of thousands of deaths.

All I want is a decent online education for all. Where’s Ofsted now? No school is accountable at the moment and many are providing next to nothing.

@Justgivemewine
My children are NT, but I also have a part time advisory post to advise schools about a very specialist and ignored group of children. I spend my life fighting for these children. I won't say what it is in public but if you would like to pm me I will discuss it with you. If only you knew the fighting I do.

"All I want is a decent online education for all. Where’s Ofsted now? No school is accountable at the moment and many are providing next to nothing."

I think that's fair enough actually.

But 'decent' is subjective, and schools have had to manage an awful lot of changes in a short amount of time. If you're a small staff, with minimal technology know-how, then it's going to be harder than it is for a school with lots of staff to share the workload.

the only reason the numbers oare so low is because we have lockdown. Nothing else has changed. If we stop lockdown then the numbers will go back up.

we need to be organised for ensuring all children get a decent education but just having the schools go back to normal isn't it. Scotland's model of Blended learning where they are planning both for the time they will spend in school and the time that they will spend doing remote learning seems as good an option as possible.

I received a letter once detailing the effects on children as their attendance dips below certain percentages.

And now, not a sound on the effects of this on their education.

I'd like at the very least some recognition and information about how children are going to be able to catch up.

Yes, where’s Ofsted and, generally, what’s the plan for our children ? ´Get-on-with-going back’ is too simplistic. For our whole society, this is not safe whilst the virus is around.

Childcare (Child minders, Au pairs, nannies, clubs...) and safeguarding (Social Services) are not the primary purpose of schools.

The government collapsed the curriculum. People are struggling to understand this. There is no curriculum at the moment.

rawlikesushi has a point though. The government will look pretty stupid or hypocritical for having banged on about attendance so much when they (quite correctly imo, but in vain) try to convince parents that it'll be fine and the kids will catch up.

And they can go up again as quickly as they did in March?

But nobody has suggested ditching social distancing all together have they?

We will all still distance from eachother at work. We will still queue outside the supermarket. We still aren't going about as 'normal'

Schools being closed is only one measure.

I also absolutely agree that our children have been forgotten by the government it's a total disgrace, they should be doing everything they can to get them back at school, I will be writing to my MP & the education secretary with the letter template.
Us parents have to stick together & fight for our children's education NOTHING will be done if we don't. We have to try.

A quick google tells me 30,000 people died of the Hong Kong flu in the UK.

We have had more deaths WITH lockdown than we had in 1968 without it. Perhaps this is why the reactions were different?

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/882722/25-options-for-increasing-adherence-to-social-distancing-measures-22032020.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3hS83Z3HJm3_0ne0f6Z1dq2sjLEzvetnLwEiIXHI0ULaRxLhSVriQn5mI
May I suggest a quick read of this government document.
Much of the hysteria has been media led with government encouragement. Essentially they had to put the fear of god into the stupid, which is actually quite difficult, unfortunately the not so stupid are absolutely terrified. The clever minority have questioned the media throughout and have pretty much concluded that the behavioural science has worked well. Now, how do we convince people it’s ok for the schools to go back since 80% of the population fall into the stupid and not so stupid category?

What you have to remember is is that when a child isabsent from class that class continue learning in that child's absence. At present the curriculum is suspended and therefore an individual child is not missing out!
Private Schools tend to follow IGCSE and do not follow the National Curriculum.
I an still setting daily online tasks and am communicating with my students weekly. The tasks are not what I would be doing if I was teaching them.
I love the selfishness of this thread, the lack of regard for social distancing and the health of School staff and their families. We are in unprecedented times!!

At present the curriculum is suspended and therefore an individual child is not missing out!

So all kids will be on an even footing when they return? Pull the other one.

I am losing the will to live!! The Government has suspended the curriculum and repurposed Schools! I really do not get why people here do not understand this!

What really worries me is that we did all of this to not overwhelm the NHS well it didn’t get overwhelmed and here we still are. We are all sitting here and watching it all happen to our children, to the economy. I am with you OP - we should all be protesting very loudly, not sitting watching it all happen to us.

I really do not get why people here do not understand this!

We do! But it doesn't mean children have all had the same experience out of school or done the same amount of learning or had the same support.

So when the curriculum is reinstated some will have advantage over the others surely?