If only schools had planned for blended/part time learning

[pontypridd]

I watched the discussions here, before September, and was never convinced that going back as normal - full schools, classes and timetables etc was going to work.

It seemed obvious what was likely to happen ... but so many others didn't see it that way. Those arguing for blended/part time school - so that bubbles could be smaller and better controlled said that school would be more likely to last until Christmas etc if done in that way.

What do people think now?

Will the current school plan work? Is there a possibility of changing it to something else (blended learning is just one option) if the current plan fails?

I'm dreading going back to homeschooling as before. If only more thought had been put into this.

@TheKeatingFive

Right, so how much schooling are the thousands of kids who are already back at home getting. Let’s not pretend they don’t exists. And those numbers are growing.

This is a case of ‘I’m alright jack’ because your schools are still open without bubbles being sent home. All schools will be affected eventually and the government is doing nothing to mitigate this.

How have other countries managed to make this work? Investment and support for parents. Seems beyond us.

FYI- the government weren’t supporting parents by opening schools. They were shafting us because they CBA to invest and make the effort.

The school I work in has five members of staff off with primary ages children who have been sent home with their bubble. We are getting to the point where we cannot staff the day. We will have to close year groups soon because there aren’t enough staff.

Does this sound like a workable situation to you?

@FreidaMind please don't tell teachers to resign. Even if we ignore the fact that it's rather unpleasant, we have a huge crisis in recruitment and retention in education and can't afford for them to do so.

None of them can resign until half term (and they can't actually leave till Christmas) but if even a small percentage did then 'blended learning' might be a much more permanent solution in schools where there are teacher shortages.

Many will stay because need the money but enough are near retirement/have savings/other career options/a high earning partner to cause significant problems. I am genuinely worried that for workers in both education and health that the stress of this pandemic AND the shitty way they have been treated by some sections of the media, the public and our own government will leave a massive hole in the public sector at the end of this.

And ‘blended learning’ wouldn’t have prevented bubbles bursting or made more tests available. All it would have meant was less school as a starting base.

Right, so how much schooling are the thousands of kids who are already back at home getting. Let’s not pretend they don’t exists. And those numbers are growing

Agree - there is disruption already. No-one really thinks it's good no away soon, regardless of whether you think it'll affect your school. And that's happening irrespective of class and working pattern of the parents of the affected groups

DC still need an education, even if their school bubble bursts (and every time it bursts)

@TheKeatingFive

Yes, it would. Jesus, have you actually read any of the reports into schooling by SAGE. Blending learning would push down infection rates and push the peak from December to March next year.

It would absolutely save lives and the NHS. And would provide consistent schooling to all children because they’d all be having at least some school every week. Instead we now have thousands of children back in remote learning for huge chunks of time.

You seem to know nothing about how education works beyond your own DC and their situation.

I would have preferred this too. There's going to be disruption and working parents particularly mothers are going to be fucked over, that's a given. If we had part time learning instead, at least we would know in advance about this which would mean at least some parents could plan round it, and the DC would be exposed to fewer others so should be fewer isolations. They're both shit sandwiches, don't get me wrong, it's just one is a smaller shit sandwich than the other.

Yes, we should go to blended learning or fully remote and should have done from the start.

Parents will just have to adapt. Many have a SAHP anyway or one parent working part time.

It will be safer, offer stability and a routine rather than the yo yo effect currently and be better for community transmission as fewer in.

Opening schools fully because some parents wanted the free childcare or someone else to educate their children when teachers and unions had expressed concerns about it working was always going to be a bad choice. So many have vulnerable children or family members not to mention staff, some only think of their own wantst would seem.

Yes, it would. Jesus, have you actually read any of the reports into schooling by SAGE. Blending learning would push down infection rates and push the peak from December to March next year.

Absolutely no guarantees of any of that.

Meanwhile, child poverty and homelessness increasing as parents have to give up their jobs.

Tax revenue down even further as contributors are forced into benefits. How does that pan out for education budgets and public sector salaries I wonder?

Gaps in essential services (nhs, food production, policing, social services, teaching) as parents can’t do more than part time hours.

Children in challenging homes getting less escape and certainty no home education.

The problems it would cause are colossal.

Some countries are using blended learning, aren’t some states in America using that method?

Blended learning in secondary school would need to be backed up with a plan to ensure all kids have access to appropriate tech at home and/or a safe space to work in school full-time if needs dictate it.

Primary schools should continue to operate full-time because of the difficulties with this age group learning at home/childcare IF the government can get it's act together with tests. If not then half time learning with organised childcare for those that need it or informal arrangements between families permitted. I'm outraged that parents in the NE have had this taken away from them. @Jrobhatch29

Lastly everyone who wants to should be able to keep their children at home without having to deregister or get fined. Why we are forcing families with vulnerable members to send their kids to school when the system is under so much pressure is beyond me.

@TheKeatingFive

The blanket reopening of schools doesn’t actually solve any of those issues. We know from the local lockdown data that poorer children in the NE and NW are now the ones at home again.

How has this shit system actually helped those children? It hasn’t. They have been failed because the government didn’t want to invest in giving them a consistent educational package that would see them through these difficult times.

Blank school reopening was an act of extreme laziness on the part of the government.

School unaffected so far are the ones in the leafy suburbs. Make of that what you will.

Lastly everyone who wants to should be able to keep their children at home without having to deregister or get fined. Why we are forcing families with vulnerable members to send their kids to school when the system is under so much pressure is beyond me.

YY, that's fucking bonkers.

@IceCreamAndCandyfloss and how am I supposed to "adapt" when I'm a single parent and can't WFH?

Sick of the "free childcare" comments. I know school isn't childcare but I have no alternatives.

Said the same all along @pontypridd! Schools - particularly secondary should have been made to move to a blended learning approach with special measures in place for vulnerable children. (DFE should have put in place extra money as they have done for furlough etc)
As a family we've been in a privileged position (as already home educators of a couple of our children) to be able to move our school going children into an internet school to ensure continuous education and mitigate the risks to us as parents and our immunocompromised ds who's taking a gap year after his A levels.
I also believe there maybe an argument for ordering all university students who aren't in courses where clinical placement is essential to return home and study online. Our eldest dd is a second yr student (London university biomed student) who lives at home anyway and she is entirely online for at least this semester. They are even facilitating remote lab work and time zones lectures to enable international students stuck abroad or not returning to continue their courses.

I will give up every one of my social contacts if it keeps my kids at school. They are so much happier now that they are finally back. They missed the social aspects so, so much. Homeschooling was a nightmare. Even though their schools were good at setting work and keeping in touch. I can’t do that again. Not even part time. It nearly broke me. (I’ve been working FT all the way through - I’ve had 8 days holiday since this whole thing began).

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@IceCreamAndCandyfloss and how am I supposed to "adapt" when I'm a single parent and can't WFH?

Sick of the "free childcare" comments. I know school isn't childcare but I have no alternatives.[/quote]
Yeah, the problem is that large swathes of our work and benefits systems are structured on the assumption that school is exactly that.

If only schools had planned for blended/part time learning

Schools didn't have time to plan for that AND plan for the full return of every pupil with all the social distancing and classroom adjustments that involved. And they STILL don't have time. My OH has had his lunch break reduced to a hurried 10 mins because there is so much extra work involved now the kids are eating in their classes as well as learning there. I have never seen him as shattered this early into a term.

@BatSegundo I don't think it needs to be a government mandate for (sensible) people who want to keep their children at home and educate, without deregistering, to do so.

Its in the schools interests to keep them on their books and I'd have thought many schools would be happy to have fewer pupils in at present. I'd have thought that heads of year/ head teachers would be open to a degree of flexibility at present.

BUT, for some children this option would be a disaster so it can't be one rule for all. Shouldn't we allow headteachers to have discretion?

The only reason any Secondary children lost any learning time was because the Government did not promote Online live learning from March to July.

100s of private schools did this. Successfully.

Keyworker children, including teachers' children, always had access to schools throughout, and there is no reason that Secondary premises should not stay open now for healthy but otherwise poor or vulnerable pupils who do not have wifi/tech at home.

They are not the majority.

There is no childcare issue for Secondary pupils aged 13 to 18 to be in school Online live. It is not ideal but this is a pandemic. Long-term covid is real and so is its mortality rate. Those who say its "forever" may be right or may be wrong but on the balance of probabilities better to take stock next Summer.

In the meantime, sports staff can continue to offer outdoor sports for Secondaries.

@TheKeatingFive

And ‘blended learning’ wouldn’t have prevented bubbles bursting or made more tests available. All it would have meant was less school as a starting base.

Blended learning would have lowered the chance of bubbles bursting dramatically. Half a class already halves the risk and if children are in less it’s less likely they’ll have been around a positive case before diagnosis. Thus less disruption.

Im extremely angry.
My kids caught a cold within 8d from school.
Now as the cough goes round it would be weeks before they can go back. Even if i wanted as tbh realising clearly how ineffective the measures are. And the cough hasnt even reached me and dh yet.
Anyway they are not going back without masks.
I have asthma i dont want to catch covid (again?). But as i say anyway they would be in anyway.
At the moment they are getting no work at all and dc2 is missing the start of reception.
I could try to get dc2 tested but it's most likely she has what dc1 had.
Realistically larger families too would have this issue. And i would think they will send back without testing.
Incredibly unreason for people who always get coughs!
Yes u4t and the gov have completely messed this up.
Minimum schools should not have opened in high areas. And imo anyone coming back from abroad should have had to quarantine before school no matter the country.

FFS - children need to be back at school. My son was so happy to be back - this should be the norm. So much about school is the social aspects.

Another period of WFH and trying to home school a 6 year old would break us. Trying to still do our jobs and all the teaching and run a home and meaning working into the evening routinely and never having a break. Fine to home school if you are on furlough or SAHP not when you have work responsibilities.

Still bitter about how the gov through parents of young children under the bus on this. So many other people got financial support - we got - understand this is difficult when you have children so you have the flexibility to work different hours but we still need you to get your jobs done.

They are not the majority

And your evidence for this is what?

We have tech, we have internet, but one computer between 3 children is not workable for full time home learning. I am sure I am not unique in not every family member having a computer.

And don't even start me on the internet connection, rubbish if the bandwidth is insufficient to support multiple children at the same time.

@Worriedmum999

Blame the Us For Them group. Or rather ‘Us for Ourselves because we are sick of homeschooling’. They shouted the loudest and got what they wanted. Full time school with no mitigations. I hope they are pleased with themselves.

It’s not their fault. I don’t think they shouted the loudest at all. It just fitted with what the government were going to do anyway.

This is 2020 not 1980s.

Besides, the world of work for the majority of these Secondary pupils will be on screens, live or not, a sort of blended work.

What example are you giving to these youngsters with the defeatist, inflexible, tech-phobic approach?

Wake up England, it is looking backwards and decrepit.