NEU calls for two week closure for secondaries and colleges following leap in infections

[noblegiraffe]

The NEU has called for a two week closure of secondary schools and colleges following a more than 9-fold increase in the infection rate in secondary school children in a month.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-teachers-demand-2-week-school-closures-after-cases-jump

The infection rate in Y7-11 was 0.5% last week, according to the ONS survey of random households, but this nearly doubled to 0.93% in the latest set of figures. This rise cannot be ignored or passed off as relating to university students as has happened so far.

In other, entirely unrelated news, 61% of teachers report that if a student doesn't wear a mask in a school where they are mandated in communal areas 'nothing happens'.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-61-staff-say-nothing-done-if-pupils-wont-wear-masks

And Teacher Tapp data from yesterday had 26% of teachers reporting that their schools were partially closed to students.

In the meantime, the testing positivity rate in 10-19 year olds is 17%, which means that this group is severely under-tested and lots of cases will be missed. The rate should be below 5%.

Yet the insistence continues that in any lockdown scenario, schools will remain open. Idiocy.

Yes, don't forget that we teachers found out about the lockdown on the 6 o'clock news along with the rest of the country. And we then had to set up a fortnight's adequate and accessible work in 2 days, on top of our usual insane teaching commitments.
So, I think it's rather unfair to criticise that part of it. After Easter, however, things should have improved.

As part of my teaching role I have overseen the training and upskilling of all teachers in my large inner-city secondary school to ensure that all teachers provide high-quality recorded lessons as well as independent learning tasks during any periods of remote learning. I quality-assured all work set during lockdown, and if there were short-comings, these were dealt with promptly.

Nonetheless, many pupils did not engage, despite weekly phone calls. Unfortunately, parents have to take responsibility for that, not teachers. Those pupils who engaged properly with the learning found it effective, and sometimes more enjoyable, as they did not have their lessons disturbed by the poor behaviour of others.

@CallmeAngelina

I’m sure most the kids in your school in an affluent area will do fine regardless of how/where they are taught, unfortunately not all kids have this privilege and luxury so they need to be in school.

[quote OverTheRainbow88]@CallmeAngelina

I’m sure most the kids in your school in an affluent area will do fine regardless of how/where they are taught, unfortunately not all kids have this privilege and luxury so they need to be in school.[/quote]
Totally missing my point, but still ....

unfortunately not all kids have this privilege and luxury so they need to be in school.

And yet due to poorly controlled infection rates, thousands are currently not in school.

Why are these kids who are being sent home to isolate being ignored in this argument about keeping schools open?

My year 11 (then year 10) was happy with power points and being referred to YouTube clips etc. He much prefers to work at his own pace as he works very efficiently and can get through stuff quickly - completed all his lessons in around 2 hours. Did a good job and is currently in a good place re GCSEs.
DD then year 8 became quite demotivated with this approach. Luckily her school then started live lessons which she loved and they also started pre recorded power points which she thought were great, but DS thought were a waste of time - he could read them himself much quicker. It's tough I don't think you can say one approach is better than the other and different DC are suited to different ways of learning.

@CallmeAngelina

But still what then?

Those kids shouldn’t be ignored, it’s shit; but why keep all kids at home when most can be in?

@ChloeDecker My goddaughter’s school set no work. Why would I not believe her mum who told me directly, my best friend of over 30 years and who was desperately worried about her starting secondary school after six months of no education.

Hilariously, my teacher brother was called out on Facebook by his own form teacher from the school we both attended... who wanted to know how he was finding all the time to revamp his house and garden during lockdown.

Not one person on here has said that all teachers were doing nothing. That’s what you choose to read.

rubyandben

Surely if cases are as high as you suggest, it's all going to settle down soon as they'll all have had it/be naturally immune/ have had it back in March et

No evidence of immunity is there tho. First cases of COVID have been part of ongoing testing, some have not produced the antibodies to support immunity.

noteven - I though you had been through the schools complaints system, I thought you had moved your children to another school...resolved.

And @ChloeDecker my own brother told me that all he was doing was lesson planning for the next school year...FOR SIX MONTHS.

We were discussing the merits of live teaching online in the case of lockdown/school closure. My point was that even in our (relatively) affluent area, parents couldn't facilitate it. So we made the work we provided accessible to ALL our children, regardless of their "privilege or luxury."
Where did I say that any kids should be ignored or be kept at home?

Bunsygirl, Perhaps your brother is a teacher who "requires improvement?" Who knows?
But please don't judge the rest of us by his low standard.

What happened over lock down sorted out the wheat from the chaff. So many schools around where were proactive, planning and sorting things out prior to lock down.

Perhaps more dynamic heads? My dds school was proudly announcing gymnastic meets that were still going on in the tone of... We are not going to be dragged into this silly fuss.

We were pointed to twinkle that was it. No guidance on the curriculum, what had been covered, nothing.
Dd isn't an average student she was below average and they were obstructive and awkward when I tried to find out what the hell was going on, what had been done already, what dd should do etc..

Our next door neighbours dd however was being given weekly work, proper set of work.

So it's so hard when people excuse what happened. It's a travesty. Luckily my dd has me, and we crawled out of the pit and massively helped her. In fact she ended up thriving in lock down.

But what about the dc with similar issues as my dd and no such support?

Why can't other teachers take this on board? Why argue agaisnt it, it's a red rag to a bull, it really is.

@ForthPlace the vaccination is relying on it. Read up on t-cell immunity. Antibodies are by their nature more short-term, t-cells "remember" how to recreate them.

@ChloeDecker I have consistently posted how our school provided very little and did not respond to requests for support. I remember @CallmeAngelina was quite sympathetic. But this is a school I have otherwise found very good, I think it was poor leadership rather than the teachers choice. But it was frustrating to have no support. It does sound like there has now been a standard set, so imo there’s no point in looking backwards, and I hope there’s a plan when inevitably we do have a hopefully short lockdown.
It’s understandable to feel anxiety about work, I feel it every day (nhs) nobody wants to put others/themselves/family at risk. Undoubtedly many occupations are more protected than others, it’s hard to understand unless you are doing that work ! I have enormous sympathy tbh.

Dd is isolating now and we got told now much work the teachers are doing '' up loading '' videos for the dc to work from.

The teacher said hello, here's the video bye bye?
No explanation from her... No encouragement... Nothing.

What's wrong with these people? Where I work teachers are doing back to back live lessons, they may not teach for the full hour but my goodness they are teaching!

Instead of being able to leave dd being taught on line once again, like lock down I had my own students to support and dd.... Whilst her teacher, at home... Was doing......

@noblegiraffe

Feedback from our higher set kids who had pre-recorded PowerPoints etc was that they really liked the ability to go at their own pace and not be constrained by the timetable and the pace of the rest of the class.

Other dc much preferred being able to pause (oak academy) but we had a wilful toddler around so a must.

I do think it depends on the child. I was surprised Ds sounded as positive as he did. But I do worry about screen fatigue long term for sure.

Why can't other teachers take this on board? Why argue agaisnt it, it's a red rag to a bull, it really is.

Who's arguing against it? I am just not willing to take responsibility for something that is nothing to do with me. I worked hard, as did tens of thousands of other teachers, in very challenging circumstances, not least of which was the slamming we received on Mumsnet at the time. I will not criticise other schools' provision, however, as I do not know the whole story.

@BunsyGirl

And *@ChloeDecker* my own brother told me that all he was doing was lesson planning for the next school year...FOR SIX MONTHS.

Spent 6 months planning? Flipping heck he must be bad.if he is an NQT he needs to ask his mentor for support.

@CallmeAngelina I am not judging everyone by my brother. I made that clear in my post but a previous poster insinuated that people were lying by saying that some schools did little or nothing during lockdown. You are absolutely right, he works in a “Requires Inprovement” school. There is nothing wrong with his teaching skills but his attitude stinks.

@StaffAssociationRepresentative He’s a head of department!

Thanks, Pomegranate.

[quote BunsyGirl]@StaffAssociationRepresentative He’s a head of department![/quote]
Bloody hell that is disgraceful. I hope you called him out on that. He doesn’t deserve to be in teaching if he spent 6 months planning. I am assuming he is just going to achieve grades 7-9 at GCSE and A*/A at Alevel. His students must have bespoke plans

I'm just popping onto this thread to mention something that I've also posted in the staffroom.

Most of you won't have seen it, but the teachers on Mumsnet shared so much knowledge and resources during lockdown. We taught each other how to be better at Teams, recording PowerPoint, using OneNote etc. We shared which were the best YouTube tutorials to use. I felt a real sense of solidarity and if there are accusations levelled at MN teacher posters about not doing enough or not caring, I don't believe them to be true.

I taught a full online timetable during lockdown. Most of my classes were well attended and all lessons were recorded so they could be viewed later. The children who would join for registration at the beginning of the lesson, but who then muted themselves and were nowhere to be heard when I asked them a question, and failed to turn in any work, are the children who are finding the return to a full timetable difficult.

I’m just looking back at all my messages from him during lockdown including the photo he sent to me of him putting his feet up and telling me that’s where he was staying for the next five months. Call me a liar all you want, I don’t give a fuck. When it comes down to it, my kids will continue getting a great education because they have great teachers. I comment on here because I feel angry and sad about the children of family and friends who do not have the same experience.