If the schools close they are shut. Schools are not equipped to deliver teaching online.
Many are and always have been.
Several has invested time, equipment and money to ensuring they now have tech for staff and have robust software and learning platforms in place.
Teachers have not been trained to teach online.
In many schools they have. I trained all of our staff to do just that, almost all done prior to the March lockdown. We'd been advised by an ex colleagues who let us know the types of things she'd have liked to have known how to do had she had forewarning - she teaches in China so was ahead of us in all this.
Children are not equipped to learn online.
Many are and have been doing so since March. Others have learnt with their families since March.
Others without the necessary tech may well be vulnerable and invited into school anyway where they will have access to the support to access the remote learning. Others may have paper based versions delivered to them.
The curriculum has not been designed to be taught online.
A lot of it is perfectly adaptable to remote learning if we try hard enough and provide the necessary equipment and support. It may well not be as good as being taught in schools with qualified teachers, but to say the curriculum cannot be delivered online in incorrect, infact there are many people who do just that ordinarily.
If schools close then children will not be receiving an education. It is dishonest to pretend that they are.
Depends what you mean by an education.
The education they receive may look different to what they'd receive in school, but it may well be an education in another form.
Many children at my school had a full and varied education during the previous lockdown and subsequent isolation periods. A lot of this was via our robust, regular, monitored and varied remote learning. For some their education other forms - or is education only being counted if it is taking place in a school?
So if the schools close then teachers should be furloughed
Well it would be a darn sight easier than what we were doing in March and during isolation periods. Sat at home not working lengthy hours and still getting paid to do so. Wonder where the funding will come from?
Would mean that key workers children and vulnerable children get no childcare though. What happens to the medical staff and supermarket/delivery staff, and the many other key workers etc who can't work due to being no schools to take their children? They then can't work. Can they be furloughed too? Who will pick up their work when they are no longer able to?
March to summer we had full bubbles (we are very close to large teaching hospitals so have a lot of medical staff before you even look at other key workers) and all but 4 members of staff were working full time in school supervising/teaching them as well as providing remote learning. The other 4 of us were home due to being clinically vulnerable and we were the lead team for the remote learning provision. I was working far longer hours leading that that I do when schools are open. Non teaching staff were busy in school throughout as normal. Our safeguarding team worked very long hours caring about out vulnerable children.
children's education should be paused at the point of closure.
Again, does education only happen during term time school hours ordinarily?
Closing schools should not be disguised as something it is not. This would allow the damage to continue indefinitely.
The damage to many of those vulnerable children could be immense if there were no staff available to keep an eye out for them.
If schools remain closed for a longer period then teachers should be made redundant so that they are free to do other work. This of course would be terrible and would hopefully not be allowed to happen... But then schools have already not been fully open for nearly a year.
And what happens when we want schools to be open again for all?
Expect those staff to drop their new jobs and return, despite being treated so poorly?
And most of your comments refer to teachers. Do you realise there are other staff employed within schools? What will you do with those?