No longer a national priority to keep schools open

[noelgiraffe]

The government has surreptitiously dropped its priority to keep schools open.

It has replaced it with a priority to “keep education open”.

Remote learning is now a viable alternative to keeping schools open (as opposed to last Monday when it was a matter for the high court).

In the DfE media blog, tweeted earlier today regarding the delayed start to term in January they say:

“ Is this an extension of the Christmas holiday?

No, this isn’t an extension of the holiday and we haven’t asked that the start of term is delayed.

All students will return to education from the first day of term. Secondary school and college students should learn remotely for one week except those in exam years, vulnerable young people and the children of critical workers. It remains our national priority to keep education open and we are not closing education for any period other than during the set holiday periods.”

Interesting development.

@noelgiraffe

So far we’ve established your source, when asked, is your opinion

Right, so you've come on a thread to spout ill-informed nonsense and now it's clear you haven't even read the OP, which contains a link to the source that you have asked for.

Bloody hell.

Honestly OP - read source and then admit you put your own interpretation on it.

I’ll leave you to continue spouting nonsense. Got to get on with children’s dinner!

@noelgiraffe

The staggered start is also supposed to be to help with the mass testing that won't be happening.

Ah yes

Again. Speaking as a fact rather than your own opinion.

Not one for detail are you op?

@hellotheresweet. Is it not reasonable to assu,e that by requiring all schools by law to have remote provision in place by the end of September,, linked to the curriculum and enabling standard to teaching and learning to be maintained , that the government have envisaged a scenario where they will need to make a quick policy switch. And if we weren’t in the holidays, that switch might well have happened in parallel with Tier 4 announcement?

Term did not end early in Greenwich @Hellotheresweet
Remote learning was planned with keyworker, vulnerable and SEND children allowed in school for that week.

Speaking as a fact rather than your own opinion.

The mass testing is supposed to start on 4th Jan. The guidance is not yet released. The mass testing is optional for schools. All the unions have said that they will support schools in not working on this over the holidays and only look at it once term starts. On 4th Jan.

If you think that mass testing will be available to all 3.4 million secondary students the first week back in January, then I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you.

Basildon was that the guy talking fighting talk re not listening to a letter if it came? He would if it had. Can’t remember I know another council had many secondaries closed but not blanket closure and not primaries.

Anyway closing primaries is less likely than using rota in secondary. Which I’m ok with although exam year seems to not get rota which is also good.

noelgiraffe is not the one spouting nonsense...

We're in one of the boroughs that were told to reopen. Dd1 tested positive on Friday thus putting her classmates into isolation over Christmas. I think she may have already had it, although only started showing symptoms on Friday. But her classmates wouldn't have had to isolate if they'd been allowed to remote learn from Tuesday.

Honestly OP - read source and then admit you put your own interpretation on it.

Have you read it yet and discovered that the government have mandated online learning for most secondary students the first week of January?

@Itisasecret

This has nothing to do with who I want as labour leader. It’s about the shit show in schools.

Starmer is just as responsible in my opinion because he hasn’t challenged the status quo.

It’s beyond desperate the de-railing in school threads.

If you want to talk about the issue in schools, I’m all ears. If not, I don’t really care what your political opinion is. As fascinating as I’m sure it is.

Then don't make sweeping political statements and stick to the topic.

But if you raise something people are allowed to reply. You can choose to ignore if you're not interested.

I'm in agreement with the premise in the op.

Oh that's awful, Stokey, everyone must be gutted. And furious at the government for forcing the situation.

Tempsperdu. Absobloodylutely. 👍

@noelgiraffe yes, it makes me so angry that the DfE wasted their time threatening schools to do something that was blatantly wrong, just to score points against some Labour councils.

I have no dog in this fight being Scottish but it seems to me you lot arguing are pointlessly wasting time. Who gives a shite what the government have or haven't said. It'll all be different next week anyway.

Goodness me. I don’t know how you put up with it noble. I’m glad I’m full time so don’t see half of these posters often. Talk about brick wall.

It’s weird how people respond to others posting.

Almost like it’s not a chat forum. FB might be better.

It's really saddening. Closing schools has been shown to hit the most deprived and vulnerable children the most.

@mumwalk

It's really saddening. Closing schools has been shown to hit the most deprived and vulnerable children the most.

Its more saddening (and quite maddening) that this has been said from the start by teachers but many many posters have vilified teachers and are still doing so with no end in sight.

And I await the mass pile on when the vaccinations in schools fail and its blamed on the teachers for not doing enough, instead of blaming the wankers that are in power.

FFS. I'm going to absolutely loose my shit if schools shut again.

Somehow this will still end up being spun as 'teachers want to close schools, how on earth are we meant to work from home if we are doing teachers' jobs for them'.

It's worrying that for most of a year school leaders, teachers and education unions have been pushing for a safe and responsible opening of schools and even now this is still unreasonable according to some.

Mum walk yes, that I can imagine after the last lock down.

My dc were cut loose and one is on the sen register, they wouldn't tell me anything, give me anything, I just had to face twinkle, research the curriculum myself, buy Carol voderman books and go through them, do tons of research (whilst simultaneously working). I cannot imagine what dc in my dd position would have done during that time in households with problems, no capacity to help their dc.
Lock down turned out well for us in the end and I was able to bring dd on.
I can certainly see how other dc would be left behind esp in primary which has far more challenges.

However other places managed to go on line very smoothly and easily and kept learning going without missing a beat.
They were able to monitor vulnerable dc, log and record and chase those who didn't turn up on line.
Keeping vulnerable students busy, attached to their teachers and peers through on line learning, giving them structure and work was the best thing next to being in an actual classroom.

How do people,think mass testing is going to happen in schools from 4th January? Seriously? Where is the space to test in going to come from, given that we are all as spaced out as we can be? Where are the actual tests going to come from? Millions of them delivered when the country is shutting down for Xmas? Where are the staff going to come from to do these tests? Volunteer recruitment - even assuming there is no legal challenge to saying no DBS required - isn’t going to happen when the country is shutting down for Xmas. And let’s not forget that schools have been told to keep outsiders in school to an absolute minimum so more potential challenge over that. And then school staff - sure as hell not in our job descriptions to be performing medical procedures and whilst some will undoubtedly be happy to lend a hand, many of us are vulnerable ourselves, over 50, with vulnerable family members at home.

Mass testing in schools won’t happen from 4th January. I would be surprised if it happens at all. It will be the last straw for many school staff, however.

And I await the mass pile on when the vaccinations in schools fail and its blamed on the teachers for not doing enough, instead of blaming the wankers that are in power.

I really hope not, the government is having a laugh with this one, and I do think it’s a step too far. Teachers and school staff can’t possibly administer this process along with everything else and properly trained folk need to be administering tests, whether that’s health professionals or the military as has been the case in testing centres. I’d hope most folk would understand the issues around this. I’m not affected because I’m in Scotland but would support industrial action against any proposal that school staff should be trying to get this up and running - it’s a bloody nonsense.

Not read the whole thread and assume this has been mentioned but if not the guidance for yesterday’s announcement is that other than the staggered secondary return schools will be opening as normal, even in tier 4.

You can’t have family spending Christmas Day together but you can have 30 odd people from 30 odd different households spending 6 hours a day, 5 days a week together in a small room.

Perhaps schools could hire out classrooms for people to meet on Christmas Day, seeing how safe an environment they are.

Yep, but the government is peddling the line that mass testing will be going ahead at the same time as the staggered opening.

That might require a rethink.