How/when did the tide turn on schools?

[LaceCurtains]

In the beginning the mood here was almost desperate calling for schools to be closed.

In the last week or so there's been a marked shift to getting them open (from peope here).

Is it the same people who wanted the closed, now calling for them to get back to normal or have the original campaigners gone quiet/new people got louder?

FWIW I always thought schools closed as early as they did because of public pressure and it seems to me that "other" things are getting back to normal more quickly than originally planned/expected (because of DC and the need to distract?) but schools don't seem to be included in that.

I'm at a loss as to why schools are being treated so differently. I'm SLT in school, if that makes a difference and the government guidance is a shambles. Changes daily but doesn't seem to have any clear aim.

Jane - you said you couldn't take back all those in the first wave because of the 2m rule, that's what I took issue with. Hundreds of schools have managed what you couldn't/wouldn't.

Going forward my own view is that in primaries the bubbles should be a straight 30. Keep bubbles isolated from each other. But I'm aware lots wouldn't agree with me.

I’m reluctant to resign because some parents are having a pure hissy fit about having to look after their own children for 8 weeks

You cannot really be a teacher if you wrote that. What an appalling comment to make. So many parents are jugging WFH while trying to home teach their increasingly fed up children – they're not having hissy fits, they're drowning.

Schools had to close in March as staff were going off ill or self isolating. We could not staff all pupils in school. The government have handled it terribly. Lockdown should have been stricter from the start. The secondary school that I work at will be offering all year 10 and 12 4 hours of teaching per subject. Plans are sensible. However under the guidelines the government have given ( which our head told us had changed 48 times !) I can not see how schools will return as normal from September. Working out the logistics for 2 year groups to be in school, plus keyworker children and still having teachers provide narrated lessons on line for other years have taken 4 weeks. It is a total mess. But schools are not to blame.

I supported the closure of schools. However I think they should have been clearer from the outset that they would be closed until september and that schools would be expected to educate remotely (many have chosen to do that anyway, others have chosen not to). The majority of school kids have access to a laptop or an ipad. The majority of schools have a stash of laptops they could hand out to those who don’t have one and the government should have provided a fund to then bridge the gap for those who had no other means of accessing a laptop.

The people calling for schools to reopen will be those with children (like mine) who have received no meaningful education from their schools since March.

The half hearted attempt at bringing back year R, year 1 and year 6 should have been postponed as well so that teachers could continue to educate properly remotely rather than having to juggle education on site, education remotely and social distancing 4 year olds. At my kids school only 50% of kids eligible to go back have returned, the other half presumably making the decision for various reasons not to send their children back.

The inequality between those at schools which are educating and those at schools which aren’t is going to be massive.

@ProfessorHasturLaVista it's not just 8 weeks though is it?

We are on week 9. We have 5 more weeks of term, followed by 6-7 weeks of summer holidays.

After this time IF schools are able to open they will need at least 2-3 weeks to sort themselves out because they will not be making any plans during the summer break. They will need weeks to decide what to do, how to do it and then do their teacher training during which time the children will still be off.

That's 23 weeks.

In my DC's case this will be a period where they get badly thought out worksheets, multi choice tests off free websites and occasional links to bite size. So just completely totally and utterly rubbish teaching provision, no marking at all, no feedback, not even a mark scheme or correct answers to Mark their work with. It is pitiful.

I have of course contacted the school to be told they are doing their best and are following guidelines.

So we are stuck with this unless I start teaching them from scratch myself whilst holding down a full Time job.
Believe me it's tempting).

My DC are extremely resilient. I prize this skill above anything else. But they are beginning to really suffer. They have grafted for 9 weeks with no help whatsoever from their school. They have struggled and had no one to help them other than google. I'm beginning to feel its pointless as they are not really learning anything.

Yet the news is full of debate about getting people on planes, football restarting and shops reopening. Meanwhile out young people are shut away like they don't matter.

It's sickening.

An appalling comment is “my child will kill themselves if you don’t fully open schools”

Have a listen to yourselves ffs.

There are resources online. Resources from schools. We are able to be connected to each other in ways we couldn’t have dreamed of even 20 years ago.
Sitting here typing shows you’ve internet access. So do what you can with that for your children and stop blaming teachers for not wanting to catch a potentially deadly disease with no cure.

@CallmeAngelina
Hahahahahaha!

Oh people like you are hilarious. I bet that you were happy to point to France as a reason why we should have locked down early. Now they are a few weeks, perhaps a month, ahead of us and are better able to reflect on what did and didn't work and you dismiss out of hand the view of someone looking at their scientific evidence (which will be ahead of ours given their position on the curve) because it doesn't fit with your own world view. Which is, I imagine, pro locking people down for as long as possible until no virus exists anywhere. Who cares about the children's education or mental health or even physical health, or the adults who will lose jobs. Provided there is no tiny risk to teachers. I bet you are enjoying yourself at home!!

@Pitaramus I agree with you. If hime schooling provision wasn't so pitiful things would be so much easier.

Just a few well thought out pieces of work, a mark scheme and occasional feedback would be wonderful.

@littlescottiedogs again things I hadn't thought of. Like I said just my ideas because it doesnt seem like the government care.

Yet the news is full of debate about getting people on planes, football restarting and shops reopening. Meanwhile out young people are shut away like they don't matter.

I totally agree with that. Those people will be exposing themselves and the people who have to operate services to Covid 19, which is wrong. Opening schools would not make that right.

@TrustTheGeneGenie

That comment is why teachers have a bad name on here.

Well, that illustrates perfectly the level of intellect I’m addressing.

One teacher sez sumfink I not like! ALL TEACHERS BAAAAAAD!

There are resources online. Resources from schools. We are able to be connected to each other in ways we couldn’t have dreamed of even 20 years ago
Sitting here typing shows you’ve internet access. So do what you can with that for your children and stop blaming teachers for not wanting to catch a potentially deadly disease with no cure

Online resources aren't a proper education.

I wasn't blaming teachers I just think you're attitude is why people are getting pissed off with teachers.

Teachers are great. YOU are giving them a bad name.

@ProfessorHasturLaVista have you tried sitting infront of a PC alone for 5 days a week for 9 weeks trying to teach yourself something with no encouragement, no feedback and no guidance?

That is what you seem to be suggesting young people with working parents should do.

Guess what, that would take it's toll on anyone's mental health, especially a child's.

I have even contacted my DC school to ask for a copy of the KS3 and GCSE curriculum so we can at least try to plan something. But apparently that's not something they can or should provide.

Your are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Professor - you lost all intellectual credibility with your snide comment about parents having hissy fits about looking after their children as you don't seem to recognise any value to the education you supposedly provide.

One teacher sez sumfink I not like! ALL TEACHERS BAAAAAAD!

Oh no it's not that I don't like it it just makes me wonder how someone like you would ever manage to get employed in a job working with children.

But you cannot whinge when people slag teachers off because it is entirely your own fault.

[quote Nighttimefreedom]@Littlescottiedog you're coming up with a lot of reasons why not.
What we're asking for is an education task force, comprising education and health expertise, to come together to agree what is possible and set a strategy to get all children back in to education as soon as possible.
Who could object to that?[/quote]
Unfortunately, there are lots of barriers in the education world, where you can't even take your class across the road to the park (in normal times) without parental permission, hi-viz jackets, a first aid kit, lots of adults and a risk assessment signed off by your head at least two weeks beforehand.

I think a specific taskforce is what teachers and schools wanted from the beginning. It would have made so much more sense and we wouldn't be in this mess now. The government have a lot to answer for, for the last ten years and especially the last 4 months.

[quote Iwantacookie]@littlescottiedogs again things I hadn't thought of. Like I said just my ideas because it doesnt seem like the government care.[/quote]
No, it doesn't, does it? I know only around 8% of the workforce have primary-age children, but to shaft them in this way is beyond awful.

Sitting in a class of 30 with a TA pausing Oak Academy lessons on a whiteboard because the class teacher is in ICU isn’t a ‘proper education’ either.

There. Is. No. Magic. Wand.

No one can change this suddenly, so we have to make the best of it.

Having to look after their children for 8 weeks

Sorry, you seem to think school is merely childcare? And you're a teacher?

Sitting in a class of 30 with a TA pausing Oak Academy lessons on a whiteboard because the class teacher is in ICU isn’t a ‘proper education’ either

Are all the subs dead too or?

That comment is why teachers have a bad name on here.

One comment? All teachers?

[quote Chaotic45]@ProfessorHasturLaVista have you tried sitting infront of a PC alone for 5 days a week for 9 weeks trying to teach yourself something with no encouragement, no feedback and no guidance?

That is what you seem to be suggesting young people with working parents should do.

Guess what, that would take it's toll on anyone's mental health, especially a child's.

I have even contacted my DC school to ask for a copy of the KS3 and GCSE curriculum so we can at least try to plan something. But apparently that's not something they can or should provide.

Your are living in cloud cuckoo land. [/quote]
That school sounds dreadful and unhelpful.

I feel betrayed by any teacher who thinks it is acceptable for education to be disrupted to that extent for a virus this mild.

What a slap in the face for the tens of thousands who have lost loved ones to this virus.

Sickeningly callous.

I'm sure that the half-hearted "allowing the schools back" recently was nothing more than a token gesture by the government, so they can later say self-righteously "we tried to reopen the schools in June, but parents/teachers/unions refused to co-operate".

@TrustTheGeneGenie

Sitting in a class of 30 with a TA pausing Oak Academy lessons on a whiteboard because the class teacher is in ICU isn’t a ‘proper education’ either

Are all the subs dead too or?

Subs? Do you mean Supply Teachers?

Not enough of those to go round in your Brave New School World, I’m afraid.
This is what makes me laugh about the Foot-Stampy Brigade Of parents . The evidence is that classes do better with staff they know, particularly in schools where challenging behaviour is a problem.
But somehow it’s better for an adult a class doesn’t know to stand and click an online tutorial through than for a parent to monitor it at home occasionally.
It’s about your convenience and nothing else.