I tried phoning the Department of Education but they're closed. Everyone is working from home.

[jomartin281271]

The Department of Education realise there is a pandemic sweeping the globe, so their staff are working from home. And before anyone says that's because of the nasty old unions, it's a bit more complicated than that. The government realise they have a duty of care to civil service workers, and if they force people to come into the office and they subsequently die or end up with long covid, the government could be sued. So why are our children being squashed into tiny classrooms?

But that constant argument against online lessons is the very reason schools now have no choice but to reopen fully.
If schools had all provided online learning that might have been an option going forward. But refusing to teach any children online just because some can't /won't engage is utterly idiotic. There could have been some in school provision made for those who couldn't be taught online. Instead the unions have actually put themselves in a corner where the only options were to fully reopen school or have only privately educated children being educated for the best part of 12 months or more.

I wonder how many other adults work in buildings that have their windows painted shut?

Every single council department (across various local authorities) I have ever worked in - they seem to prefer run down, no longer fit for purpose, can't swing a cat in the room type of buildings for some reason. More cost effective I assume.

@teaorcake I don't mind where children are taught I just think their education needs to be a priority. And if teachers haven't found any other way to deliver it then the schools need to be open.

Who is going to provide a mixture of online lessons and in class lessons? A teacher certainly wouldn't have the capacity to do both which you would know if you had any idea of the work involved. If attendance isn't mandated, do you think all children who would benefit would go in? And no, it's not their fault. Do you also not see the issue with the divide in those who have the space, amenities, equipment and time to provide home learning are able to, and others are forced back into what they see as the risk? I do agree that those who are medically vulnerable (actually so, and don't just have paranoid parents) should have an alternative to school; but people dismissing the 'argument' is pretty privelledged and gross. You can deregister if you aren't happy.

What @Teaorcake said 👍

So what do you suggest then? That we just continue to fail to educate children?

I already moved mine to private school last term as this crisis made me realise how little the state system values education

And it's not privileged to value education I went to university and now work with lots of people who used education to massively improve their lives. They are the children I am most sad for right now

If a) Denmark could allow temporary home schooling as an option,and if b) Italy can use public buildings for extra classrooms to allow distancing why can't we a) give those options and b) put effort into making things safe?

I just get the impressions that these politicians know nothing about state schooling and DGAF about children and families. The ministers are yes men who are in place to do what Cummings wants and get Brexit through and our children and families'welfare counts as nothing to them. Back to work plebs! Another brick in the wall!

If there was a political will to open schools more safely and protect the vulnerable, it could be done, but I see nothing of that from Boris/Gavin etc.

@NeverTwerkNaked

Surely most teachers are bright enough to realise that by office workers working from home that reduces the spread of the virus making it safer for those who can't work from home.

Also, teachers and schools had a chance to prove they could deliver education remotely last term but didn't take the opportunity. I said at the time that that was a short sighted approach to take.
If teachers had all thrown everything at teaching remotely last term maybe different options would be on the table now. It was a major error of judgement by the unions to resist online teaching for so long.

Really good point there.

Equally, government/DfE have really not thought creatively enough about the whole situation since the start. Nor has enough funding been given. The PP who said primaries should be being taught outdoors with wet weather gear etc was spot on.

So if kids are deregistered they will if anything be in a worse position with respect to their families getting support with their education won't they.

I would say, the clinically vulnerable should be allowed to home school (if they wish).The clinically vulnerable teachers should be allowed to support that.

This would make classrooms less crowded as well.

The vulnerable children from a social needs perspective could be requested to attend school /have a social services plan around that.

And this should have been planned from the start.End of.

I was very happy with the provision on line - this was not 6 hours of zoom a day, it was 2-3 hours work plus more if needed and it was fine. We only need to be pointed in the direction of the syllabus really.

Thats fine for you @herecomesthsun but the work our schools set wasn't even daily and rarely took our (admittedly bright) children more than 10 minutes to complete and there was no feedback or interaction.
DH and I are working full time supporting frontline services. We need the teachers to actually teach this year.

It is perfectly possible for a secondary school (which is where the biggest issue lies) to deliver online learning in a way that means that all children are accessing most of the curriculum and not having their education disrupted. I know, because my daughter's school did exactly this for the whole of last term. I appreciate that there are some families who don't have the resources to access this. Those children should be in school with access to the school's broadband, laptops and other resources. And they could be socially distanced from each other and from teachers as there would be far fewer of them in school. They could join in any zoom lessons or similar with school equipment and infrastructure.

If our government had put a decent plan in place and, crucially, provided resources to do it instead of putting funding into eating out etc, secondary children could absolutely be looking forward to a non-disrupted term ahead. It wouldn't be the same as school but it would allow them to access and benefit from almost all of the curriculum. As it is, it is highly likely that all schools will suffer some disruption to their provision through no fault of their own and with no funds to cover this. Children might be back in school temporarily but many of them will miss out on learning due to closures and local lockdowns and staff absence.

I obviously feel desperately sorry for people who work in hospitality and leisure (my husband works in theatre and is basically looking at an entire year or more without income) but why are we supporting cafes etc at the expense of education? I know which is more important long term and it is not being able to get a cut price meal.

The government needs to come up with a workable plan for blended and online school and needs to prioritise this above inessentials.

@Castoreum the Government have just published their latest data on how many laptops etc have been provided under their scheme. I have just looked up the figures for our local MAT. They got 20% of the amount they need. It's disgraceful, but I am sure they will get the media to show how wonderful they have been and look how many we have provided. It is a pity the data doesn't show the amount provided compared to the amount requested.

If people are able to work from home (like my my DH) they should. If they can't work from home, like myself they should go back to work. It's simple. We need to balance the economy and the health of the nation with educating children. Schools aren't going back like they were pre-lockdown (I was very unhappy with my working conditions in that last week schools were in).

Four year olds needs to start school. My Y11 DD needs to be taught by a human. She even struggled when she was in school in July and her lesson was streamed from the next classroom while a TA supervised in her classroom. DD had questions which couldn't be answered, because the teacher was in the next room. Sadly she struggled to learn at home even with me supporting her. I'm very envious of people who merely needed pointing in the direction of the curriculum. We cannot stop the education of children even if it means risking the health of some people (I desperately hope I don't bring COVID home to DH!)

[quote Ellsbells12]@latticechaos cases not deaths you either lock up until vaccine or get on with life [/quote]
If you can only think of the two extremes 'lock up until a vaccine' or 'get on with life' it suggests you are bit unimaginative.

I am already getting on with life.

I just think social distancing is required in secondary schools to avoid the situations seen in Israel and USA.

Interesting (in a bad way) data starting to.come out from the USA about children and long covid. We still know very little.

I would say, the clinically vulnerable should be allowed to home school (if they wish).The clinically vulnerable teachers should be allowed to support that

Our school doesn’t have any clinically vulnerable teachers so we’d have to find someone else to support those staying at home.

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@Castoreum the Government have just published their latest data on how many laptops etc have been provided under their scheme. I have just looked up the figures for our local MAT. They got 20% of the amount they need. It's disgraceful, but I am sure they will get the media to show how wonderful they have been and look how many we have provided. It is a pity the data doesn't show the amount provided compared to the amount requested.[/quote]
Sadly, this is no surprise to me at all.

I have just dialled 666 and no one at the DfE picked up

We need the teachers to actually teach this year.

Don't blame all teachers and schools because yours is crap. My 4 children at different schools all got very good on line teaching with lots of interaction from their teachers.

The tubes are not too bad at the moment. They were lovely and empty while I travelled across London to support key workers and vulnerable children last term. I’m very happy if everyone who can effectively work at home stays at home so this can continue as it minimises the chances of me becoming infected and passing it on in school.

I want to get back to work. The students need to get back to school. But anyone who can work at home should still be doing so to help protect us.

@StaffAssociationRepresentative

Who do you actually want to speak to. If it's a Covid related enquiry then I suggest you try the Covid helpline

The government is pressuring civil servants to come back into the office, not for any operational reasons, but because otherwise the bubble of overpriced lunch and coffee providers will burst.

This could be an opportunity to actually make large scale changes to the way we live our lives, reduce wastage, environmental impact and rethink some of the negative aspects of modern life, such as the time wasting and health and social impacts of commuting.

Yes, I feel bad for the employment lost by those working for Itsu, Pret etc. But maybe we should ask ourselves whether the problem was really that this isn’t an essential sustainable industry and whether these people could have more fulfilling employment than making sandwiches for overworked people who only have a few minutes to grab lunch.

It feels like in the past system, almost everybody is having a non optimal experience. Perhaps before trying to get everything back to “normal”, we should think about whether we can do better than the old normal.

It feels like in the past system, almost everybody is having a non optimal experience. Perhaps before trying to get everything back to “normal”, we should think about whether we can do better than the old normal.

Yes agree. But we would need compassionate government to help lose who lose out - and we don't have that.

Maybe being in lockdown has opened a number of people's eyes to the way we live, and reduce their consumer spend etc. We certainly have as family. DH took a pay cut, as did all senior management, in his firm to try and save having to make anyone redundant. We have still managed to save more money than we normally would, and even though more things are opening we are not rushing back to them.

DH is currently WFH, but will go back to the office soon, but won't be in the office full time, he will be WFH on a regular basis as will many in the office. Across the firm they are looking at reducing office space, holding virtual inter office meetings rather than traipsing across the country, reducing the amount of travel people were having to do, saving the firm a quite substantial amount of money on mileage claims. Also good for the environment.

As DH has no commuter time at the moment, he is home more. His main hobby is cooking, so he is having more time to spend making different meals rather than the weekly standard ones we were having. So no desire to go to restaurants. I am sure over time we will start to go out more but I don't think our consumer spend will go back to what it was.