If You Could Choose Any Education Option for Sept

[IDSNeighbour]

I'm getting so confused by what parents actually want to happen with schools right now (I'm not a parent, I'm a teacher). I want to know what home opinions my classes are going to be coming in from in Sept - whether they're likely to be nervous or confident, whether they will want to SD or not, etc.

I know parents aren't one hive mind but the 'loudest voice' seems to keep changing its mind. Or I hear different ones, idk.

I'm sure there used to be a board for polls and surveys but, if I wasn't imagining, I can't find it.

So, if you're up for an unscientific straw poll to help me gauge general feeling, can you post A, B, C, D or E in the thread (you can explain if you like, I don't mind!)
A - I want full time schooling as close to the old normal as is allowed
B - I want full time schooling but with safety measures such as social distancing and masks for all who can and are old enough.
C - I want blended learning (half in the classroom and half online)
D - I want to keep my child at home all the time, home school them and not be penalised (ie, I want my place back when I think it's safe)
E - I think schools should remain closed for most children for now.

PS, before I get jumped on like I always am on these threads.....

I genuinely AM horrified that teachers may not get this payrise? Of course it is very much needed and deserved to get teachers salaries in line with other public sector roles, who had had raises (eg nurses).

I would obviously fully support teachers striking if necessary, even if means sporadic school closures.

@PrivateD00r technically, we are getting a pay rise. It was negotiated in January for September. But it's an unfunded rise, meaning it has to come from the school budget. Many schools, faced with having to buy laptops for the students that didn't get the ones the government promised, or having to install new outdoor sinks, or pay for food for students whose families can't, will not be able to award those rises. Heads have to decide whether it's more important to pay teachers what the pay scales say, or buy hand sanitizer and continue to fund SEN support for children who don't have EHCP but need support. Do I deserve a pay rise? Yes. Do I need Bob to have support? Yes. Those are the choices.
Announcing the rise when they did, months after it was agreed, was a cynical move. And that's what makes a lot of us angry.

Because teachers have been saying for absolutely years how underfunded schools are. And it has been ignored as moaning teachers.
Schools budgets are cut to the bone. There is no funding for standard cleaning already, let alone enhanced cleaning and hand sanitizer.
We didn't get the last pay rise as the government didn't fund it, and it would have meant redundancies. I doubt we will see this one. My kids school didn't replace 2 TAs that retired as they can't afford it.
I'm done in teaching. I love it but I am fed up of being in such an undervalued, underpaid profession. I'm going back to my previous career in finance from January and will almost double my salary despite going back in at a lower level due to being out for 13 years.

[quote MrsHamlet]@PrivateD00r technically, we are getting a pay rise. It was negotiated in January for September. But it's an unfunded rise, meaning it has to come from the school budget. Many schools, faced with having to buy laptops for the students that didn't get the ones the government promised, or having to install new outdoor sinks, or pay for food for students whose families can't, will not be able to award those rises. Heads have to decide whether it's more important to pay teachers what the pay scales say, or buy hand sanitizer and continue to fund SEN support for children who don't have EHCP but need support. Do I deserve a pay rise? Yes. Do I need Bob to have support? Yes. Those are the choices.
Announcing the rise when they did, months after it was agreed, was a cynical move. And that's what makes a lot of us angry.[/quote]
Thank you for the reasonable explanation, now I fully understand and will have a lot more sympathy towards this anger.

Posts like 'you live in a dreamworld' because I didn't know that, really don't help!

@PrivateD00r

As well as what MrsHamlet said, there's also no legal requirement to give it to anyone other than the NQTs on the lowest level in the pay range. This is especially true in academies but also can be the case in local authority schools too.

But being honest with the public about it doesn't help the Government to mislead others into thinking they actually care about education.

With respect to the pay rises schools are given their funding by the Government. The Government also dictate the pay rises for teachers. Unfortunately they are not increasing the funding they give to schools to cover the pay rises so schools can’t actually afford to give the pay rises unless they let some staff go to free up some money.

But you don’t see this being publicised by the Government only the wonderful pay rises they are ‘giving’ to teachers.

It’s like the wonderful scheme they brought in to give laptops to disadvantaged pupils. Splashed all over the media how wonderful they were. Just ask schools how many they received, because it certainly wasn’t as many as promised.

Or the wonderful additional tutoring scheme the Government announced. The problem with that is that schools have to fund an element of the tutoring themselves before getting any of this funding. See my comment about teacher pay rises, schools don’t have the budget to pay their element of the tutoring so can’t access the funding and so won’t be able to offer any additional tutoring. Again this fact is not splashed across the media.

So now the Government is going to spend money on a campaign to tell parents how safe schools will be, without even giving schools extra funding for soap and hand sanitiser!

My LA has has 1 case in a week. The bordering one 6 cases in a week. So I am happy and confident for now going ahead with A.

Unfortunately this whole pandemic started with 1 single case. Case numbers being low isn’t a reason to say ‘back to normal, folks’.

We went from a few cases in Feb half term to the entire country being locked down and only being allowed out once a day for exercise in less than a month.

Yes things are different now in that many people are working from home and everyone else who is working gets a COVID-secure workplace, but that doesn’t mean you can chuck the nation’s children into germ pot schools with no mitigation measures and expect the virus to stop at the school gates. A won’t have schools open as normal, it will have them open and then close.

Us4Them want zero mitigation measures, btw. They see A as back with nothing changed.

@PrivateD00r Glad that helped. My specialist TA left at the end of term and won't be replaced. That makes me angry because of all of the students who will suffer from not having her support.
I can't speak for all teachers, but I know many teaching colleagues who are simultaneously ground down and furious about the way the profession is vilified. Many of us feel we're any easy target, and when the bear is poked too many times, it bites.

A for both (one primary, one secondary)

A or B, preferably A. I don't want teenagers to have to wear masks all day but in the corridors then off for outside and when seated would be okay.

Why do posters have to be so inflammatory?

Teachers are rather at the end of their patience having been so attacked as a group on MN and in the media that ‘unicorn shit’ and ‘living in a dreamworld’ are actually quite mild.

You saw Boris morality-vacuum Johnson lecturing teachers in the Daily Mail about moral duty?

Or perhaps the headlines about how workshy teachers were blocking the wider reopening of primary schools? (A lie!)

Or maybe the many, many threads whining that lazy teachers couldn’t be arsed to do zoom lessons?

Or the despicable actions of the government relabelling a pre-agreed pay rise as a ‘reward’ for working during lockdown knowing that this would set off another round of ‘teachers did jack shit during lockdown’ because they, the government briefed the papers to say this?

Teachers are very, very pissed off.

Also many schools have had to cut their supply teacher budget to the bare minimum or indeed have no budget.

Hence the questions on here for people who voted A how they think schools will manage if teachers go off sick, which they are most likely to do under option A. And I am not necessarily talking about at death’s door but even with mild symptoms but following Government policy that they have to self isolate. Classes can’t be left unattended so what will happen?

C for my secondary school y10 and y11 kids. It's the option I feel would have the balance to ensure schools have the best chance of remaining open with more protection for staff and pupils.

My SEN school I work at will be option B. it is a tiny school with high teacher:pupil ratios and space to spread out. The new safety measures mean the school is now completely different with groups split into bubbles where we will never cross over. Due to the needs of the students we will not SD within the bubble but I can accept this as the numbers will be small. It is nothing like the large state secondaries.

We all ^want^ schools back to normal but most have the common sense to see this is not possible currently. Unfortunately certain people do not have the ability to see the problem until the damage has been done. Hence why the government was late in locking down. I wonder whether 'Us for them' are some sort of double agents whose aim is actually to destroy our education system. What they are shouting for will lead to schools closing faster than any other option.

I’m not a teacher but have a lot of empathy and respect for them right now. More than ever.

In simple terms. This payrise comes from the school budget NOT the government so the school has to cut other things to afford the pay rise. For example a teaching assistant could lose their job or several teaching assistants could have hours cut to pay for it. Not good for our children that is it?

Funding is already stretched to the limits after a decade of cuts.

This rise if they get it still leaves teachers on significantly less pay than a decade ago.

So if they get this tiny long overdue rise, the school and education lol round suffers.

I can see why they’re angry.

all round

@noblegiraffe

assumes that you'll require the word asymptotic more frequently than asymptomatic?

Maths teacher problems.

Call me sad, but this is my favourite comment on this whole thread. The struggle is real.

HE advanced statistics specilised researcher here

And you add to my last post. Dc’s school has already lost too many TAs and had to make some part time in recent years. I know this from just looking at the staff listed on the new class info pack each year. And that is having a negative effect on our children’s education. There’s no time to focus on children ahead or behind the curve. They get forgotten.

If UsForThem truly care about education they should put their efforts into campaigning for better schools, more funding and more staff.

@Bupkis it's a disgrace that you are being threatened with fines. Could your medical consultant write a letter of support? Are there any charitable organisations that advocate for people with your child's condition? Do you know any other families with children with this condition (e.g. through support groups) and could you ask them about their plans and their schools' reponse? Do you have a sympathetic local MP? You have probably thought of all this already but I didn't want to read and run x

Option c with a gradual phased return to normal

I realise that for you this is just about children,
Which is precisely who we need to prioritise now.
People are fudging the issue by talking about 'cases' which is the wrong measure to consider in opening schools and keeping them open.
It doesn't matter if cases are 100% and risk of serious illness vanishingly small, and of death negligible unless you are over 80 and/or serious obese in which case shield if you want to, but not at the expense of younger people who keeping society functioning.
Children do not die of this unless they are already terminally ill -ONE case in the UK of a child with no KNOWN prior risk factor.
If people don't choose to work in the school system for (irrational) fear -resign
If parents are terrifying their children about a non-existent danger /de-register and home school.

A there is far greater risk to children’s well-being and development by all these ridiculous and unnatural measures than by COVID

lifeafter50

For all your pontificating and calls for teachers to resign, you seem to miss that

When teachers get this, and if they do in the normal quantities, by following the guidance schools will close due to lack of staff.

If teachers resign there won't be enough staff to open the schools.

What you are posting is self defeating nonsense.

(A)with some extra hand washing and no large gatherings e.g assemblies.

But remember @FrippEnos @lifeafter50 believes that teachers should still come into school even if they have symptoms, so there won’t be anyone going off sick!!

I just hope @lifeafter50 isn’t a teacher at my DC’s school

Us4Them supporters retweet stuff like

“People throw around ‘anti-masker’ like it’s something to be ashamed of

I am anti absolutely everything that infringes on our freedom

Loud and proud”

Children’s interests my arse. Their own interests using children as a cover. Despicable.