Exclusive: DfE considering delay to start of next term

[herecomestheSon]

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-dfe-considering-delay-start-next-term?fbclid=IwAR1QLOa7VrpJz2QeOpMo90R45SfwOfIPsr9pI_SMYEoClaJwJuAjbGB9cB8

According to the Times Educational Supplement.

Yesterday the NEU teaching union urged the government to move teaching online for the first week of next term to give schools enough time to train staff in administering Covid-19 tests.

The Department for Education is expected to make an announcement about the potential later start tomorrow, according to sources close to the DfE.

I thought it would interest you lot.

What an absolute shit show. This term has been so hard, yet teachers are still treated like scum. It doesn't seem to matter how hard we try or how much we care.

My school is amazing, yet they're being forced to treat the staff in line with the ridiculous government rules.

I don't want to administer covid tests, that should be a good enough reason for those posters who are stating how easy it is. I'll be teaching in person and online, I'll be replacing and re-resourcing lessons because (believe it or not) the same materials can't be used for in school/online learning. I change classrooms every lesson and I don't know what date my own children will be returning to school.

Some clarity from the government would be great!

This is just unbelievable. I commented on the thread about teachers striking, to say I thought they shouldn't, but I would symathise with any schools that refused to engage with this latest plan. No one should be trying to sort last minute online teaching, or the logistics of a testing program with this late notice. I hope any stressed out teachers, still get to enjoy a proper break, and don't get sucked into having to sort this shit show!

Teachers and staff are under enough pressure.

To those stating that teachers could take this on, why would you want to take the focus off teaching your child?

If teachers are run ragged and exhausted then your child will not be getting the best of that teacher, despite their admirable efforts to serve families.

Time to email MPs again I guess.

On it

Sorry if this has already been asked, but my child has had Covid. There are a large number at his school who have had it in comparison to national averages - so 10-20% of the school.

If all these children are tested within three months of having had the virus and their results are still positive or dip in and out of positive and negative (because this can happen) will they be penalised and sent home? My son's already suffered 6 isolations and Covid in GCSE years and can't endure much more.

@middleager

Sorry if this has already been asked, but my child has had Covid. There are a large number at his school who have had it in comparison to national averages - so 10-20% of the school.

If all these children are tested within three months of having had the virus and their results are still positive or dip in and out of positive and negative (because this can happen) will they be penalised and sent home? My son's already suffered 6 isolations and Covid in GCSE years and can't endure much more.

I think this will be thought through eventually.

I imagine that anyone who has a confirmed case of covid this term would not be sent home if they had a positive test in Jan. In fact, it seems a waste tk test these people at all. But for all the asymptomatic ones who had it this term but weren't tested, they would need to isolate if testing positive.

But, funnily enough, the scant published info today hasn't thought things through with any kind of nuance...

I'm a teacher with covid, the mass testing is optional at the start of term, so as the guidance says don't participate in asymptomatic testing within 3 month of a positive test I won't be volunteering to be tested. The trickier bit will be what to do if identified as a close contact, but for now I'd say any child with a recent positive test shouldn't participate in the lateral flow screening.

There is unequivocally, absolutely and definitely no way that this English teacher will administer tests.
Sorry if that offends some, but I will leave if I'm requested to do this.

The safeguarding issues, the general type of cohort our Secondary has...no way.

It won't happen. The unions won't let it happen. Not one single teacher, or TA in our huge high school has said they would do this.

@SophieB100

There is unequivocally, absolutely and definitely no way that this English teacher will administer tests. Sorry if that offends some, but I will leave if I'm requested to do this.

The safeguarding issues, the general type of cohort our Secondary has...no way.

It won't happen. The unions won't let it happen. Not one single teacher, or TA in our huge high school has said they would do this.

Don't fret. They'll make the Support Staff do it instead.

Thanks for the replies re my previous post.

@MitziK I'm sure you're right, and at that point I shall be leaving!

I'd love to volunteer to help our school through all this shambles - but I'm not volunteering to further risk our family catching Covid. Sorry. You can pay me for that DfE. And even then I wouldn't do it.

And my kids aren't being swabbed by any Tom, Dick or Harry either.

Its a good job that teachers can be in more than one place at a time.
by the end of this we will be
teaching in the classroom and online
sanitising rooms
doing up to 7 more jobs for testing
doing the actual testing
and
doing the track and trace

Yet some arseholes on here can't see why teachers are pissed off and are claiming that schools are coivd secure.

Now that takes a special kind of stupid.

So, no PPE inn schools, no funding for cleaning or PPE, now we need a clinical space within which to test students and it’s us who need to do the testing with absolutely no hands-on training?

What fucking planet are they on? More importantly, why should school staff be doing an additional clinical/medical job without the required PPE that clinical environments can rely on? Why should we be in close contact with potential covid cases? Please show me where in our job descriptions it could be considered reasonable that this is the job of schools?

If my head asks me to do this, he will have my resignation the next day. Fortunately I can afford to say ‘fuck it’. Many of my colleagues can’t.

This is not our job. Not by a long shot. Close schools unless they can be made as covid secure as any other work place in the country. This has now gone beyond schools staff lives being ‘collateral damage’. We are now looking at very calculated situations which will cause deaths.

I'm worried its that drip drip of additional expectations. The boiled frog.

Staff will just do it :( I really appreciate posters on mumsnet for letting us know whats going on. I really felt for the staff at my childrens schools (I'm no longer teaching in schools) as they obviously have to prevent a brave face to us. The email today said how wonderful the testing in January would be...

@RememberSelfCompassion

I'm worried its that drip drip of additional expectations. The boiled frog.

Staff will just do it :( I really appreciate posters on mumsnet for letting us know whats going on. I really felt for the staff at my childrens schools (I'm no longer teaching in schools) as they obviously have to prevent a brave face to us. The email today said how wonderful the testing in January would be...

I agree. There will, be enough foolish staff in school, that want to please and will just do as they're told- whatever the detriment to themselves or the kids - that it will happen and become an extra part of all of our days.

@Rollingpiglet

This is just unbelievable. I commented on the thread about teachers striking, to say I thought they shouldn't, but I would symathise with any schools that refused to engage with this latest plan. No one should be trying to sort last minute online teaching, or the logistics of a testing program with this late notice. I hope any stressed out teachers, still get to enjoy a proper break, and don't get sucked into having to sort this shit show!

Trouble is teachers dont want to cause any more disruption to children's education. We are over a barrel because we can't strike without causing this disruption.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/teachers-covid-testing-english-schools-nick-gibb

I don’t think striking will help here. I think heads refusing to set up testing stations in schools is the way to go.

Dear Gav,

1. We don’t have facilities for storing the tests
2. We don’t have a room with a non-porous floor in order to hold these tests in. We have a hall but it is used for breakfast club/mocks/classrooms/lunch.
3. We have canvassed our parents and a vast majority refuse to give consent for daily testing rather than self-isolating if their child has been near a positive case.

We therefore have completed our risk assessment and we will not be able to set up a testing site on our school. If the NHS/LA/Serco wish to set up local testing facilities somewhere instead, we will try to accommodate pupils attending where possible, accompanied by their parents once we have seen further detail. As is stands, we will continue to isolate pupils for 10 days following contact with a positive case as remains government advice everywhere else in the country.

Yours

Head teacher

So that Guardian piece says paraphrasing ‘teachers won’t be doing it they’ve got a job already’ but then says ‘volunteers won’t need dbs checks because they’ll be supervised. Supervised by whom, Nick???
(And btw Nick carrying out a regulated activity in a specified establishment still requires a dbs check even if there is a supervisor present. But hey, safeguarding kids isn’t important is it?)

Wouldn’t the parents need to be canvassed? They may not agree.

If you are against that part of testing how about at the start of term? This is a positive isn’t it?

It is interesting in that Guardian article that Gibb said (also a line trotted out by Susan Acland-Hood yesterday) that decisions need to be reactive as the pandemic is rapidly changing. Hasn't any journalist asked him what new information has led to this sudden and rapid decision??

He got one thing right

Asked if teachers would have any role in testing, Gibb told Sky News: “No – teachers are already fully occupied. They already have their hands full.”

Hopefully him or the intern at the DfE will inform OFSTED that they will temporarily override Safeguarding directives for this otherwise we will all fail our next inspection

Hopefully him or the intern at the DfE will inform OFSTED that they will temporarily override Safeguarding directives for this otherwise we will all fail our next inspection
Doubt it, Nick Gibb, schools minister doesn’t seem to know what the safeguarding directives are....

@Judashascomeintosomemoney

So that Guardian piece says paraphrasing ‘teachers won’t be doing it they’ve got a job already’ but then says ‘volunteers won’t need dbs checks because they’ll be supervised. Supervised by whom, Nick??? (And btw Nick carrying out a regulated activity in a specified establishment still requires a dbs check even if there is a supervisor present. But hey, safeguarding kids isn’t important is it?)

The temping agencies are going mad today with their WE CAN DO YOUR COVID TESTS FOR YOOOOUUUUUUU! emails.