Neil Ferguson saying schools may close

[Orangeblossom7777]

On the BBC - older ones he says. Will they listen to him though now he got kicked off Sage? I thought the plan for for part time in secondary not closing if cases rose very high? Hoping this doesn't happen DC mid GCSEs and already missed loads.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54673558

the government should take control of the learning and have set on line learning across the board that children could log in to

They have. It’s called Oak Academy.

Parents have complained about being directed towards it.

Many schools didn’t offer any online learning last time

Oak Academy was available during the last lockdown too.

Maybe if schools closed down the government should take control of the learning and have set on line learning across the board that children could log in to

Trouble is schools don’t teach the same bit of the curriculum at the same time. So my year 11s need to cover Forces, Electricity and Magnetism.
A government enforced curriculum could see them covering the topics they did last year. Leaving a massive hole in their learning.

Does Oak Academy teach the various A level syllabuses?

Or even Pre U?

Has anyone seen any particular guidance regarding boarding schools?

It doesn't seem that Oak Academy caters to years 11 and 12? Those have the most to lose from missing school, with A level exams coming up last summer.

We cannot have another A level fiasco like last summer!

Sorry next summer

@Sunflowers246

Does Oak Academy teach the various A level syllabuses?

No. Gosh, maybe there is a need for teachers after all.

Well Noble here is your next thread thread title - ‘Teachers put down your markers - let’s rally the government to push all learning on to Oak Academy and then we can have a much needed rest on furlough’

(I’m sure they could add on A levels)

I want schools to stay open by making them safer, Cold so campaigning for schools to close and teachers to be furloughed would rather go against that.

People don't seem to realise it, but Noble is actually a ridiculous optimist. She thinks that if schools had some mitigations - better heating, ventilation, a bit more space, masks, protection for the extremely vulnerable etc, it might be possible for them to stay open without a switch to blended learning.

Personally, I think she's far too optimistic and even with all these things in place, we would still need to switch to blended learning in most areas of the country at some point over winter.

A campaigner for closing schools, she aint.

@Nellodee agree.

@Sunflowers246

It doesn't seem that Oak Academy caters to years 11 and 12? Those have the most to lose from missing school, with A level exams coming up last summer.

We cannot have another A level fiasco like last summer!

With Gav in charge, we will.

So even more important to keep years 10-13 in school. At least they'll have the fairest chance of taking their exams next summer.

If years 7-9 learned from home, would that create more space to spread out the higher years?

When DS1 'failed' secondary transition and was left without any education until tribunal hearing 8 months later I could not square this with the narrative of the time that 'every child matters' or the policy of fining parents for non attendance. Huge cognitive dissonance.

Ironically it really helped to read posts from teachers who recognised how utterly crap this situation was but had been 'forced' to comply with an unfair system. Before reading these posts I could only explain my day to day dealings with school staff delivering LA messages and enforcing LA policies by assuming they must be absolute psychopathic bastards.

I can't help but think 'where were you when ...' when parents who turned a blind eye to those in need (whether SEN or deprivation) prior to a pandemic are now up in arms.

In 'normal' times and for 'normal' kids schools are a fantastic resource that provide education, structure, social skills, food and childcare. I had to realise that my kids don't fit that definition and step up. These times do not meet that definition.

Schools are not set up to meet need for extraordinary kids or meet needs in general in extraordinary times. That requires funding.

You can rail against it as much as you want but it won't change things right now when time is crucial.

But I do think that teachers need to respect parents and stop lying to them and pretending that everything is fine. Telling the truth is not being negative. Until teachers respect parents they cannot expect parents to respect them.

But I do think that teachers need to respect parents and stop lying to them and pretending that everything is fine. Telling the truth is not being negative. Until teachers respect parents they cannot expect parents to respect them.

I agree with this. I do understand the pressure in real life though, I haven't been going over the top saying things are wonderful at school to parents, but I think you can draw a reasonable inference from what people don't say.

It's only really anonymously that I can talk about how worried I am for my family, class, community

"But I do think that teachers need to respect parents and stop lying to them and pretending that everything is fine. Telling the truth is not being negative."

Yeah, coz that's working out really well here on MN, isn't it?

I just cannot believe that they haven't changed their stance on fines. They have no idea how much stress they are putting on families like mine (or more likely they just don't give a shit).

@Sunflowers246

So even more important to keep years 10-13 in school. At least they'll have the fairest chance of taking their exams next summer.

If years 7-9 learned from home, would that create more space to spread out the higher years?

More physical space, yes - it would free up rooms. But it wouldn't free up teachers because we'd still be teaching those students remotely. So I would still have 32 year 11 students in my one classroom. The only way to make that work would be part time school - as in one half of each year out at a time. That would give me 16 in and 16 at home - which would be problematic in a different way.

@Nellodee

People don't seem to realise it, but Noble is actually a ridiculous optimist. She thinks that if schools had some mitigations - better heating, ventilation, a bit more space, masks, protection for the extremely vulnerable etc, it might be possible for them to stay open without a switch to blended learning.

Personally, I think she's far too optimistic and even with all these things in place, we would still need to switch to blended learning in most areas of the country at some point over winter.

A campaigner for closing schools, she aint.

Thanks, Nellodee, it appears it is possible to read my posts and understand what I’m saying!

Why do so many persist in making shit up and pretending that’s what I said instead?

@notevenat20

(2) some children physically in school regularly but not full time

What happens to the parent, typically a woman,who then loses her job?

Well, for a start, you would hope that the complementary group to that - 'other children physically in school full time' - would include those from families that need school most for childcare. But if not - what about the parents, often women, who are going to be losing jobs left right and centre in the hospitality industry because high covid rates force those businesses to close? We could keep batting 'what abouts' backwards and forwards all day, but the fact is there is nothing we can do right now that doesn't have some kind of negative outcome. All we can do is compare the bad outcomes and try to make choices that have the least bad ones, or only temporary ones, or ones that can hopefully be mitigated against in other ways. There are no really good choices here at all, but there are some less bad ones. Controlled part-time schooling seems to me to be clearly better than uncontrolled part-time schooling, and what seems to me to be clearly a pipe dream right now is full-time school completely as normal.

@Nellodee

People don't seem to realise it, but Noble is actually a ridiculous optimist. She thinks that if schools had some mitigations - better heating, ventilation, a bit more space, masks, protection for the extremely vulnerable etc, it might be possible for them to stay open without a switch to blended learning.

Personally, I think she's far too optimistic and even with all these things in place, we would still need to switch to blended learning in most areas of the country at some point over winter.

A campaigner for closing schools, she aint.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks"

But if not - what about the parents, often women, who are going to be losing jobs left right and centre in the hospitality industry because high covid rates force those businesses to close?

I'd add to that, the very many people, usually women, who are losing their jobs right now because of continuing back-to-back closures for their children, when they could have managed with regular part time school for a couple of months until infections in their areas dropped.

Are you saying definitively that with part time schooling, there will not be any DC who will have to self isolate? I thought the argument for not returning to school before the summer was that even with half the class in it was still impossible to social distance the DC and teachers. Our primary only managed 6 DC in a classroom in June. My DCs school has smaller rooms than that so could presumably fit less in. How do you envisage part time schooling?

"But I do think that teachers need to respect parents and stop lying to them and pretending that everything is fine. Telling the truth is not being negative. Until teachers respect parents they cannot expect parents to respect them."

Teachers are telling the truth on here and they're disrespected even more for it. When schools were honest in May about what a reopening was going to look like for primary children there were threads moaning saying that the schools were being massively negative and they were trying to put people off from sending their kids back to school with the implication being that teachers wanted more time off by deliberately trying to make it sound as grim as possible.

Teachers who speak the truth in real life are told they are unprofessional, or you get parents saying they don't want to leave their child in the care of someone who's upset or negative about the situation.

Parents don't want to hear the truth. They actually just want to turn a blind eye to the reality and hope for the best.