Class sizes may have to rise to 60

[Baboonballoon]

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/sep/27/class-sizes-in-uk-may-rise-to-60-as-schools-struggle-to-cover-for-self-isolating-teachers

This is so depressing and the government’s statement at the end is pathetic - why didn’t they see this coming and allocate additional funding for schools to pay for additional teachers?

Because there is no money. And they don't care about education. Quite simple really.

Agree they don’t care about education! But there is money when it is needed for keeping the economy afloat, this should have been a priority.

Sorry, I'm just pissed off at the way children and teachers have been treated throughout this.

Where would they get the additional teachers from? There’s a recruitment shortage!

There is quite literally no space in my school for classes of 60.

Surely they will do online learning again.

Are there also really enough teachers to pay anyway. People are leaving teaching in their droves.

Extra teachers from where? It’s like conjuring up extra nurses and doctors to staff ITU!

But that's what I'm saying, the govt really truly, don't care about children and schools. They. Don't. Care. So they won't prioritise meaningful funding for schools over private businesses and crony organisations.

Not sure you can just get additional teachers. It takes 1-3 years to train.

Just like they tried to get nurses and doctors for the nightingale hospitals then realised there isn’t enough for the existing hospitals

This is the kind of thing teachers have been warning would happen if schools went ahead with full opening with no adequate safety measures and no robust track and trace.

In the press and on MN we’ve been absolutely vilified for suggesting it might not work.

They won't give us any pay to pay for extra cleaning and hand washing facilities so they certainly won't find more teachers!
As a parent I would not want my children being taught in a larger group like this.

Sorry that should say money to pay for ......

And fund more teachers

I really do feel very sorry for teachers right now. Not only have they had to jump to every last minute announcement made by the government resulting in hours or work, but they have no doubt predicted all of these issues and are one of the few people being told to go to work in packed rooms full of people without protection. It's madness.

Whatever happened to that army of retired teachers who were going to be called up to support schools?

I was a bit worried about Goddard talking about voice projection in those large classes, it would be better for the teacher to have a radio mike.

Yes this makes me so angry.
I've also been wondering about where they could get teachers from. Surely some recently retired teachers could be convinced to return (but presumably would want PPE, quite rightly). And then what about trainees?

My retired MIL would have done it, I suspect she's been out too long now but if this had happened a few years ago she would have returned.

But I suppose a few years is a long time for things to get even worse.

The only way this could possibly work would be to remove all tables and chairs in the classroom (not sure where you’d put them?) and have all 60 sitting cross-legged on the floor. They would be shoulder to shoulder though and it wouldn’t be comfortable or good for their backs to sit like that for any length of time.

I would imagine parents wouldn’t be happy.

There is actually a pretty large pool of supply teachers who would love the chance to help. Schools are quite rightly wary of engaging supply, who wants someone who's already been to for different schools that week? But if supply teachers could be allocated a single school, act as floating support within the school when there is a full compliment of permanent teachers then step up when needed during absences that would be more manageable.

Sadly, supply rates are so appalling (frequently less than M1, sometimes as low as £50/day) that the govt would need to step up and throw some money at the situation.

There's so little recognition and understanding of the position teachers are in and the stress they are having to function under. People were quick to understand the situation in the NHS but even after months of homeschooling there is still a serious lack of understanding from both parents and govt of the situation in schools now.

Whatever happened to that army of retired teachers who were going to be called up to support schools? hmm

They’re in the storeroom with the laptops.

I was a bit worried about Goddard talking about voice projection in those large classes, it would be better for the teacher to have a radio mike

Yep. Also, fun fact voice projection doesn’t work if you’re required to wear a visor whilst teaching.

Schools want extra money? Oh no no that will never do. You'll have to be inventive with what you've got.

It isn't easy to just recruit extra teachers. We have a teacher recruitment problem in any case, and it would take time to train people up. If there was a way of encouraging teachers who have left the profession back into the classroom, then that might work, but I can't see anyone queuing up to teach in a situation which is clearly putting the teachers' health at risk - why would they?!

Classrooms aren't big enough to accommodate 60 kids. They're not even big enough to accommodate 30 comfortably in many cases. The learning will have to be done online, or schools will have to adopt a blended approach.

This is what should have been done in the first place tbh. It was entirely predictable from the start that there would be significant staff shortages if schools went back full time with no real possibly for social distancing, so I totally agree that they should have seen this coming. I just don't think it's that easy to magic up more teachers on demand, so better efforts should have been made to avoid getting into this situation in the first place.

I'm so angry. I posted on another thread about my friend who's incredibly frightened as she's gone from shielding at home setting up online learning and doing live lessons remotely, to working in a busy school with no social distancing or PPE, and possibly now, she'll be exposed to twice the risk! She's still taking cancer meds and her immune system is low. She's frightened.

I think it's awful for previously shielding teachers. Office workers are advised to wfh if possible now. I know it's not possible for at risk teachers to as schools are open, but the government hasn't given these people any thought. I know many teachers who were previously classed as 'vulnerable' or 'extremely vulnerable' working in medium to high risk areas, with no SD, no PPE, who are worried. The government must think they've all miraculously been cured of whatever caused them to shield last time.

We can barely fit 25 in a class!