Announcement on schools today at briefing?

[whattodo1976]

I read in The Guardian yesterday that Gavin Williamson will be announcing 'school catchup' today. Also, there is talk of schools getting £1 billion for tutors from September to teach in small groups in after school clubs. However, I guess this very much depends on social distancing rules in September? Either way, it will be interesting to listen to what is said today.

If a child hadn’t engaged during lockdown (even though they have been set work) I can’t see them engaging with additional hours at school.

I don't know that is necessarily true. One of mine has not done much school work for a number of reasons but would love a small group tutor session. He has very strong school/home boundaries, we have both been working so can't help, technology is not very easy to use, the school work doesn't challenge him so he goes off and finds more interesting stuff on Oak academy or BBC bitesize. I am not bothered as he is ahead anyway but I imagine that there are other dc who also have not engaged with home learning but do enjoy school and would thrive in a small group. The parents might also appreciate an extra hour of school if they are working.

I am thinking more about primary. Secondary would be more problematic as I guess then non engagement is more down to the child and school transport can make after school activities tricky.

I was thinking more Secondary School @TW2013.

I don’t understand where all these ‘tutors’ are supposed to come from. Private tutors are eye watering lot expensive, what school can afford those? How about school budgets are increased to allow for the re employment of all the teaching assistants that have been priced out by budget cuts?

Making the school day longer when there will already be pressure on schools to close the attainment gap? Sounds wonderful for MH . The article says it will reach 1 million children. The large majority won’t get anything and so this is nothing but a load of hot air to distract from the very real issue, of when schools will be reopening FULL TIME!!!

I can’t watch later, getting angrier by the day.

My neighbour’s daughter is a tutor. She didn’t actually finish her degree, though did do A levels. Very few of them are teachers at her agency.

I would rather the money was given to heads and they could allocate out extra to teachers they wanted (probably teachers/part timers/supplies they know).

Not paying an agency!

We already provide catch up and revision sessions every morning, lunchtime and afternoon of the week at our school without any extra funding. I am sure most schools do something similar so this won't actually be anything any different from what happens in a normal school year except that it looks like the government has thought of it and provided a lot of funding. As a teacher and a parent I would rather they were planning properly for a September return.

Maybe all the uni students who are stuck at home and can’t get internships or holiday work or go travelling can now do the tutoring? Kill two birds with one stone?

The tutoring money works out at around £14,000 per school - that’s not going to go very far .

Think it works out at about £100 per pupil.

I don't mind the extra support suggestion. But I do think that it is how it is implemented and to whom.

We've been homeschooling and I think my child could do with such a programme, but bet that it becomes on offer to those who are deemed most in need, aka the children of parents who have done f all, as it always seems to fall, rather than recognising that though we've tried to keep on top of things, there are obvious gaps, needs etc that need addressing.
Bet the phrase again will be the vulnerable, and that is too wooly.

@ineedaholidaynow

Think it works out at about £100 per pupil.

Where we are though that could easily get 10 hours group tuition or 8 hours 1:1. And if Targeted and gap analysis done beforehand, could be transformational along with really focused class teacher learning. To me the issue is we'll go back to teaching whole class, when what would be more beneficial is individualised learning to a greater extent.

Maybe all the uni students who are stuck at home and can’t get internships or holiday work or go travelling can now do the tutoring? Kill two birds with one stone?

I’d rather my kids were tutored by actual teachers!

Much prefer that the cahs went to the schools not to agencies. More profit for businesses, no no no.

8 hours wouldn’t go far for a Y10 who hasn’t engaged at all though would it

Interesting that the govt are just refusing to acknowledge that there could be a second wave in any of their pronouncements

Let’s be honest very few of us are going to get this extra help for our children. Those of us just muddling through.
It’s a massive distraction from the wider school issue. It will be ill thought out and there will have been no consultation with schools. They will probably have to magic up these extra tutors

We can’t let them brush the school issue under the carpet. They want this. By the end of July it will be the summer holidays. There will be no plan for September and time will have run out.

Even now, the education issue isn’t being talked about. There was a bit of discussion in the media for a few days then back to football.

Meanwhile millions of children are losing out on an education, on social interaction.
Many are struggling mentally. Parents are at breaking point trying to juggle homeschooling, childcare with full on jobs. Yet nothing is being done. Right now on the radio they are talking about bloody football.

Let’s be honest very few of us are going to get this extra help for our children.

Agreed. The money will go to tutoring agencies.

Children need to be taught by teachers, not some random from an agency.

Give the money to heads-let them decide how to spend it. It my schools, we have part time teachers who would happily teach extra, if paid, and run interventions. The children would know them and it would be quality teaching.

I would like to know who is on the pay roll for these approved tutoring agencies.

It's not qualified teachers. Action Tutors hire volunteers. I suppose it will be another duty that falls upon their class teachers to steer and coordinate these tutors.

Marina Hyde in the guardian is right on the money:
Schoolchildren in this country are in crisis. Why has the government failed children so incredibly badly, in ways that will damage many of them for ever? Did they think people wouldn’t notice? The negligence is so enormous that it demands several interlinked theories. For what minuscule amount it’s worth, I have one for the set. The men – and it is almost exclusively men – who have stood behind Downing Street podiums for months telling us what a great job they’re doing have a somewhat unreal understanding of what has been happening in the domestic sphere since lockdown, because this has never been how they themselves have lived. My suspicion is they have wives who have done huge and disproportionate amounts of home and childrearing work for them, while they have climbed the greasy pole. This has insulated them from the realities of how others live, and consequently from forming anything like an informed appreciation of how they might currently be living under the privations of lockdown. What ends as the failure of a generation of children began simply as a failure of imagination.

I wonder who they consulted with to come up with this idea?

How are grads going to be able to know what gaps need filling and for who? Oh yes, teachers are going to have to come up with individual plans for each child having this tutoring, so that it can be delivered by an untrained person. Excellent. And considering schools have to find the money to pay for a quarter of this themselves, it won't really happen. PP budgets in my school for example already pay for another teacher to take the disadvantaged out for extra lessons.

Our schools have to submit their budgets in the next couple of weeks, there is no scope for additional tutoring costs.

Hasn’t Nicola S hinted Scottish schools will be back as normal for the next year? You can guarantee Boris won’t be one upped by her if she does that. I’m still expecting Primary schools to open with bubbles of their full class only. Lunch in the classrooms. Staggered breaks in the playground. Doesn’t seem so difficult to me. Secondaries are much harder admittedly..

8 hours wouldn’t go far for a Y10 who hasn’t engaged at all though would it

Especially if it then works out at an hour’s tutoring for each of their GCSE subjects. Barely time to introduce the tutor before onto the next one.

What frustrates me is I’ve just finished a Pgce and most of the people on my course, including myself, have not secured a job for September. There are plenty of qualified teachers who need jobs so why the need for tutors. This is just a smoke screen to cover up the wider issue, our children need to be back at school.

I understand that this money is going to be allocated to schools not be controlled by the government. So individual schools will decide how and where it is spent. If they decide to bring in a private tutor firm then that's their decision. However I would say that perhaps the government need to do a review of schools and see which ones did step up (I'm sure many did) and which ones didn't becuase perhaps those schools need better heads...

I must admit I don't understand all the posts about year 11. I understand it was very disappointing (for some) that they couldn't do their exams and end of year stuff however I wasn't aware the schools started teaching the 'A' level curriculum prior to September. My DDs school just has recommended work and reading to do, rather like what all school children have had to do for the past 3 months. What are parents thinking would happen about year 11, apologies if I've massively missed the point.

I understand that this money is going to be allocated to schools not be controlled by the government.

That isn’t my understanding of it. It looks like heads will have to use ‘approved’ tutoring companies and will have to pay 25% of the cost towards it.