'Unsustainable, overwhelming' Covid burden on schools

[LastGoldenDaysOfSummer]

Ofsted finds school staff 'exhausted' from ‘firefighting’ amid Covid crisis – and that 'last-minute' DfE decisions aren't helping

www.tes.com/news/unsustainable-overwhelming-covid-burden-schools?fbclid=IwAR0hhEWbw0JML_n__3WxhgzxkTNjQs6Pnc_0GEC1rVf5Y5ddWvT-5d1sR-c

Yes, another schools one. But evidence of what teachers are going through in the face of a total lack of support from some parents, the LEAs and the government.

@motherrunner thinking of you. I also get angry at times. Angry that money was found for furlough, eat out to help out etc but sod all for schools who are having to fund everything covid related out of their normal budget. I'm sending wipes, handwash to my daughter's school as a result. The irony as a teacher myself.

@gottakeeponmovin

Alexa - I know teachers generally work hard but during lockdown they were not providing lesson content, not interacting with the kids and not marking their homework. That is the core of their daily job and at my kids school they were not doing it - so what were they doing?

My child’s school was the same. Work was less than hour a day online and we did not have any contact with the teacher through out lockdown at all. It was rubbish.

@avery
I did indeed - as did many other parents numerous times. To be fair they took it in the chin and agreed they needed to do better if it happened again

@MrsHamlet yes it does. Some kids are unable to work from home without internet access so they do need to be educated at school

[quote gottakeeponmovin]@MrsHamlet yes it does. Some kids are unable to work from home without internet access so they do need to be educated at school[/quote]
That wasn't my point, as you very well know.

@MrsHamlet what was your point then - you said it has nothing to do with schools? It absolutely does because if they aren't open some kids can't be educated

Are schools responsible for household internet...?

No but they are responsible for educating children and not all children can be educated at home which is why the schools need to be open

It's the government's responsibility to ensure that schools have the resources required to discharge their responsibility.

Fucking failure there then.

If the kids don't have internet and computers at home, ask the government about the sodding laptop and dongle scheme.

[quote gottakeeponmovin]@MrsHamlet what was your point then - you said it has nothing to do with schools? It absolutely does because if they aren't open some kids can't be educated [/quote]
Then it’s a home problem not a school one. Parents need to start taking some responsibility for their children’s education too.

@monkeytennis97

Are schools responsible for household internet...?

And for knife and fork management, apparently. What you're choosing to ignore @gottakeeponmovin is that the government made promises to provide households without internet access with the facility to get online. They failed. Like they failed to provide the laptops they also promised. You're also choosing to ignore the very simple fact that most schools are mostly open. Most and mostly because - guess what - schools are not the magic COVID free environments that people would like them to be.

Well, if they are not able to implement WHO guidelines, I think we ought to be able to pull our kids out with impunity.

Especially if we are able and ready to home ed them ourselves.

And especially if we're supposed to be shielding (what idiotic rules they have).

@herecomesthsun

Well, if they are not able to implement WHO guidelines, I think we ought to be able to pull our kids out with impunity.

Especially if we are able and ready to home ed them ourselves.

And especially if we're supposed to be shielding (what idiotic rules they have).

We follow the DFE guidelines and they are always followed by the caveat “where possible’ as they know it’s damn well not, case in losing MY SCHOOL.

And yes, I’m still bloody angry on behalf of my colleagues and my pupils. The pupils who will be sitting the same GCSEs and ALevels as everyone else.

*in point not losing

Angry typing.

People in care homes aren't complaining though

Wait, you mean they were happy with the level of PPE, the decisions to move sick residents back without testing, and there wasn't a court case aimed at the government? I guess you must have missed all that. Teachers were working from home with their kids under their feet, same as you were. You just didn't like that you had to deliver the materials. What a ridiculous way to think.

I'd still like somehow to answer plainly whether those of us teachers who worked 12 hour days and one day at the weekend throughout lockdown, planning and delivering new content, marking every single piece of work, phoning every single student every week and sometimes more frequently, fixing IT issues remotely, posting work to those who wanted it, and looking after KW children, deserve a few more safety measures than those who didn't? Because that seems to be the narrative.

@avery

Then it’s a home problem not a school one. Parents need to start taking some responsibility for their children’s education too.
It's a parents job to make sure the kids do their home work and get to school on time and participate. It's the teachers job to educate them. That's what they are trained for and paid for

@gottakeeponmovin

No but they are responsible for educating children and not all children can be educated at home which is why the schools need to be open

Schools are not open as usual though. More and more schools are having to close or partially close because of Covid-related staffing issues. Those kids at home who didn't have internet access before still don't have it now. We surveyed the parents about how they wanted remote learning provided if necessary - 1/3 have asked for paper packs as they cannot access online learning. There is no government support for this. Forget about those 100,000 extra laptops, we haven't had a sniff of them. We'd need 10 just for my class of 30 in a small primary school and that's before you even factor in internet access.

We have had a couple of classes that had to close that could have been kept open if we had any money for supply but there is not a penny in the budget. We've already had to absorb the extra cleaning costs, sanitising supplies and salaries for ECV staff that I've to work from home (very little they can actually do at primary level.)

We are months and months on from the original lockdown. What provision was made then (by schools who were completely thrown in at the deep end) is pretty much irrelevant to the discussion now. If you want your kids school open then money and support needs to be put in to help that happen safely. And if we want schools open then we need to find every way possible to restrict community transmission of the virus.

I think people did get very different experiences during lockdown that shapes this to some extent so whilst everyone jumps on the 'teachers were working 5000 hours' or 'teachers were AWOL' I think actually both are quite true depending on the school.

I have a child at primary and the school were and still are amazing.

The secondary school provision was poor. Not one online lesson. Nothing marked, no feedback. No parents evening. One phone call between March and July. The key worker thing is a red herring IMO too - at DS school of over 900 students, they had around 15 in each day. Apparently staff with primary school children at home were told to prioritise them. Which is great but they are paid to do their job, just like the rest of us who worked at home.

Even now, during isolation they are just sending work home. There is no excuse for not providing that lesson remotely the tech is there in schools.

But I blame the leadership rather than teachers directly for that.

It's pretty crap for everyone, everyone is so stressed and I'm not sure what the answer is really 🙁

What is the solution when schools run out of teachers and other staff?

I’ve taught classes of 60 in emergency situations (snowstorms, floods) and it’s more of a one-size fits all task, differentiation by outcome.
Not workable for more than a day or so, and that’s if you have a group with no significant needs or behavioural challenges.

@gottakeeponmovin it is our job to educate them. That is what we are trained and paid for.

It is not our job to provide Internet. The same as it’s not our responsibility to provide pens, pencils and the kitchen table to work on.

[quote gottakeeponmovin]@avery

Then it’s a home problem not a school one. Parents need to start taking some responsibility for their children’s education too.
It's a parents job to make sure the kids do their home work and get to school on time and participate. It's the teachers job to educate them. That's what they are trained for and paid for [/quote]
And once again, I taught live to timetable throughout lockdown. My teacher fitness in other schools taught live to timetable. My own children at their primary was set daily tasks which were marked - daily.

Don’t tar all teachers with the same brush as you chose to send your children to a substandard school.

-*friends not fitness

Still angry from reading all these contemptuous posts

These discussions would get a lot further if there could be an acknowledgement that some pupils were failed during lockdown and parents are concerned it could happen again. Posters are not necessarily lying when they tell of their experience, it is irrelevant if one teacher was working 12 hours a day doing X, y, z if that was not that parent's experience.

Yes, and teaching, 60-120 in one room is also fine when we're trying to avoid the spread of an airborne virus. Snow day, fine.

We nearly had to close last week because four classrooms were unaccessible due to an emergency site issue. In normal times, we could ram them into other rooms. Not safe at the moment.