Page 31 | No longer a national priority to keep schools open

noelgiraffe · 2020-12-19T13:52:53+00:00

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.

Msgiggles30 · 21/12/2020 22:31

I do think there could be something in this new strain with children. Been all okay in my school with the three cases weve had being staff but then suddenly in the last week 4 4year olds across 3 classes tested postive. I felt quite safe as an eyfs teacher and was keen to go back. It is soul destroying teaching 4 year olds online however those cases have rocked me slighty after all the talk of kids dont get it at the start

Clavinova · 21/12/2020 22:46

Clav, if it had been a school with a large EAL but Christian cohort - for example with a similar proportion of pupils with Eastern European languages as their first language - would you say the same?

I obviously wouldn't make the same comment about Christmas Day.

Your posts are very, very close to being racist

Nonsense - some posters were implying things I didn't say.

The chief executive in Noble's link;

"forwarded a letter the trust sent to staff which states: “I know you will have had some lovely activities planned over the holidays and be feeling extremely disappointed that these cannot go ahead."

"lovely activities planned" doesn't exactly convey a serious threat to health in the area.

mrshoho · 21/12/2020 22:57

@Clavinova

Clav, if it had been a school with a large EAL but Christian cohort - for example with a similar proportion of pupils with Eastern European languages as their first language - would you say the same?

I obviously wouldn't make the same comment about Christmas Day.

Your posts are very, very close to being racist

Nonsense - some posters were implying things I didn't say.

The chief executive in Noble's link;

"forwarded a letter the trust sent to staff which states: “I know you will have had some lovely activities planned over the holidays and be feeling extremely disappointed that these cannot go ahead."

"lovely activities planned" doesn't exactly convey a serious threat to health in the area.

What sort of person are you? The staff living alone who now have to isolate could have had lots of lovely activities planned and will now be isolating on their own unable to even go out for a walk.

CorvusPurpureus · 21/12/2020 22:58

@Clavinova

They should run the risk of serious illness because they don't speak English as their mother tongue?

I am guessing (I might be wrong) that the families concerned do not celebrate Christmas Day - so the day itself is not the most important factor in the decision - I said it was a difficult call.

Clavinova, I'm in a non Christian country. We follow the U.K. school calendar, more or less, because we are providing a 'British education'.

We called it a term & went to online learning 2 weeks ago because we were a bit buggered in terms of students catching that covid thingy, terribly inconsiderate of them.

It's really not about whether anyone is celebrating the birth of baby Jesus or having their wassailing plans disrupted, at this stage. Don't be so silly.

Clavinova · 21/12/2020 23:07

"lovely activities planned" doesn't really suggest that the school should be closing a week earlier than other schools elsewhere in the country though - hence why they were told to remain open.

myrtleWilson · 21/12/2020 23:11

jeez... I've read some eyebrow raising posts from clavinova before but the gems on this thread really do show clav's true colours.

Clavinova · 21/12/2020 23:15

myrtleWilson

You don't agree with Keir Starmer and Nicola Sturgeon either then?

mrshoho · 21/12/2020 23:26

@Clavinova

"lovely activities planned" doesn't really suggest that the school should be closing a week earlier than other schools elsewhere in the country though - hence why they were told to remain open.

The school was trying to be proactive to avoid this very situation and was planning back in November. Unlike the government, it wanted to act before the shit was flying off the fan.

Clavinova · 21/12/2020 23:31

CorvusPurpureus

You posted up thread that you work in a private school overseas - where parents own nice second homes and hire private tutors on zoom - how are those pupils disadvantaged if they miss a few weeks of face to face teaching?

compulsiveliar2019 · 21/12/2020 23:43

@MrsChristmasHamlet why couldn't it work?
If your teaching kids remotely does it matter so much if your teaching 30 or more? So you could free up staff.
The point is year group bubbles don't work. Bubbles need to be much smaller and better managed in order for them to effectively work and minimise the time that kids are not in school.
Years 11 and 13 need to be prioritised as they have already had one year of education screwed up for them and they deserve a fair chance of getting the exam grades they deserve.

user1496146479 · 21/12/2020 23:47

@Thewiseoneincognito

Unfortunately for the greater good schools are going to have to change significantly. The economic impact of full lockdowns is a waste of time because one of the main culprits of spread is still operating. Unless the change happens we will never get to grips with this virus and our ways of life will keep being decimated bit by bit. Schools need to switch to remote learning for the next year minimum.

A year! Give me strength!

user1496146479 · 21/12/2020 23:48

@Eng123

Children need to be in school to learn effectively. I am not a teacher, if it were do simple then we could save all the teachers! I'm also trying to earn a living - not comparable with home schooling either.

This with bells!!

Original poster

noelgiraffe · 22/12/2020 00:00

Groundwork being laid.

No longer a national priority to keep schools open

OP posts:

CorvusPurpureus · 22/12/2020 00:57

@Clavinova

CorvusPurpureus

You posted up thread that you work in a private school overseas - where parents own nice second homes and hire private tutors on zoom - how are those pupils disadvantaged if they miss a few weeks of face to face teaching?

They aren't - they are jolly privileged in that respect, & we moved quite seamlessly to distance learning. We've been bobbing in & out of it with f2f & distance learning all term.

That isn't really the point I was taking up with you, though, which was your presumption that certain schools, because of their demographics, should be less bothered about staying in unsafe conditions at school because they don't celebrate Christmas. Not cool.

Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum · 22/12/2020 01:09

Been saying for a few weeks now school wouldn't go back until end of January at the earliest. Christmas alone would have done that. Now there is a faster spreading mutation on top we stand no chance of not having full lockdown.

What people need to be shouting about really is the government making online learning fit for purpose. The difference between schools is shocking.

They need to produce a set of standards fast. Hopefully not ones that are impossible for the schools to achieve but enough to ensure kids get taught appropriately online.

Piggyinblankets · 22/12/2020 06:07

noel, Molly Kingsley is on page 18 of the DT according to that... she is U4T founder... love to know their angle! While they have the ear of MSM, SM and the Tory party , schools remain in trouble.

Spikeyball · 22/12/2020 06:24

"They need to produce a set of standards fast. Hopefully not ones that are impossible for the schools to achieve but enough to ensure kids get taught appropriately online."

It isn't possible to teach some children online. When people say switching to online or remote learning they need to accept they are saying switching to no education for some children.

MrsChristmasHamlet · 22/12/2020 06:34

I only teach exam classes. Because of the way the timetable works, I'm not in the same place as everyone else (and they won't be in the same place as each other) If you were to add a "new" teacher into the mix of remote teaching, it would be a huge problem for some kids. I have two year 11 groups and they do not need the disruption of a new teacher at this point.
Doubling up might work for some year groups but it wouldn't for others.
A rota would work much better because we could control who was in each group and they'd all get face to face teaching, plus they'd have consistency.

Goingdooolally · 22/12/2020 06:47

We’ve not discussed it yet (school broken up already) but I imagine for our exam classes we may do videos as back up and also teach live on Teams. We’re in Scotland so all exams are cancelled anyway but we were doing prelims first week back. I’m hoping we can share around the videos. We have an extra day to get it all organised then straight in! Nightmare. I was really looking forward to switching off this holiday but the brain is swirling around and I’ve lost more weight (stress burning it off). Not complaining really as I know I’m fortunate compared to many 💗

Goingdooolally · 22/12/2020 06:52

@Piggyinblankets

noel, Molly Kingsley is on page 18 of the DT according to that... she is U4T founder... love to know their angle! While they have the ear of MSM, SM and the Tory party , schools remain in trouble.

U4T Scotland is particularly bad. Started off well I think (speaking up for children) but has just become a ragtag bag of teacher bashers, conspiracy theorist/anti vaxxers. There are posters in there pretending to be teachers, trumpeting their agenda. I think they’ve lost the plot.

user1496146479 · 22/12/2020 08:54

@tappitytaptap

Those who say ‘if you work from home’ you do realise it’s WORK from home not look after your children from home.....

This with bells on!!!

mrshoho · 22/12/2020 08:57

From the start Us4them has been terrible. Their insistence on schools being open no matter what. They were so vocal in demanding no social distancing at all in schools. Ironic that if schools had returned with more stringent measures schools could now be providing much better education. Instead we are back to uncertainty and infection rates out of control in many areas thanks to the high transmission in schools. Us4them should disband and crawl under the rock they came from. Don't know how much support from their friends in high places will be giving them now.

SantaAssociationRepresentitve · 22/12/2020 09:06

Funnily enough @user1496146479 and @tappitytaptap plenty of teachers, especially those on mumsnet, have children too.

Misssugarplum12764 · 22/12/2020 09:07

@Piggyinblankets

noel, Molly Kingsley is on page 18 of the DT according to that... she is U4T founder... love to know their angle! While they have the ear of MSM, SM and the Tory party , schools remain in trouble.

Quite a few people on Twitter have shared the article as screen shots. She too has spotted the shift from school to education being open.

KnowingMeKnowingYule · 22/12/2020 09:07

@mrshoho

From the start Us4them has been terrible. Their insistence on schools being open no matter what. They were so vocal in demanding no social distancing at all in schools. Ironic that if schools had returned with more stringent measures schools could now be providing much better education. Instead we are back to uncertainty and infection rates out of control in many areas thanks to the high transmission in schools. Us4them should disband and crawl under the rock they came from. Don't know how much support from their friends in high places will be giving them now.

This with bells on.