If the schools close there should be no pretence that they have switched to "online learning".

[Billie18]

If the schools close they are shut. Schools are not equipped to deliver teaching online. Teachers have not been trained to teach online. Children are not equipped to learn online. The curriculum has not been designed to be taught online. If schools close then children will not be receiving an education. It is dishonest to pretend that they are.

So if the schools close then teachers should be furloughed and children's education should be paused at the point of closure. Closing schools should not be disguised as something it is not. This would allow the damage to continue indefinitely. 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.

I’ll take that furlough and then a redundancy payout thanks and I’ll be off into the sunset to do a different job. Better than dealing with parents like you! Enjoy home schooling long term when all off the teachers don’t come running back to a job that overworks and disrespects them!

No one left for key workers’ children , Manteo, we’ve all taken furlough.

Right, as I doubt I'm going to get that furlough option, I need to head off for a bit. iPad is going away so I can catch up on some sewing or playing my new game. Still struggling to recover from covid 12 weeks ago so need to sign out of these kind of threads for a while and take some time out to relax.

@Manteo- yes. I'll be sure not to respond to any of my classes photos of themselves with pets, pools, gardens with my own. There was me thinking we were having a social class time on top of work but actually I was probably really offending the one parent with a rod up their arse. Won't do that again, no matter how many times they ask to see my dog / tomatoes/ cat. God forbid.

Wow.

I am a teacher and I have been trained in teaching online. I have been teaching to half-full classrooms and several students via Teams simultaneously for several weeks.

I don't believe schools should close for many reasons. Kids need to be in school. However, if there really is no other way and it is deemed vital, online teaching is a valid second best (providing schools are still open for KW, vulnerable and those too young to access learning online).

Making teachers redundant so they can find other work... Not sure if you've noticed but not a lot of work going round right now and a fair few already looking...

@Iamdodonewith2020
So those of us whose kids didn't go back in June should be happy with woeful educational provision from schools (which actually got worse once some years went back) because some other people's kids were being educated.

@Abraxan that would have been great if it was linked to a task but it was just I've been baking/walking dog/reading books. Not a baking competition/task, not reading a book to the kids, just this is what I've been up to. I'm not saying you did this, what your school offered sounds amazing. It's just frustrating when other schools don't offer anything like what your school offered and teachers here don't seem to believe it.

Yeah! Furlough - absolutely brilliant. No need to worry about exam classes for the rest of the year. What a treat! No romping through the spec, after school lessons, lunchtime lessons, no marking mocks and absolutely no sleepless nights over what grades to put when, inevitably, exams are cancelled. Works for me.

@Iamsodonewith2020

That is really just not the case
My 3 (Y10, 8 and 5 at the time were off from March 19 - to end of July. that is a term and a couple of weeks whichever way you add it up.
DS 1 - then Y10 had 10 x 1 hour sessions in first 2 weeks July).
DS 2 primary school didn't re-open for any other than vulnerable and keyworker children, nor did many round here. ECV staff, and inadequate facilities.

I don't agree with the OP, but the situation for many many children and young people really was not ok

Come to think of it I did do some baking and gardening (and sunbathing!) during lockdown myself, mainly when my own kids had online lessons (DD then in Year 11 had some bridging sessions, or DD15 had actual lessons) or when DP was live teaching. There was only so much our internet could take. Plus, had to keep the noise down in the house.

I just recorded my stuff after dinner and was still working until 10pm most nights answering parent/student emails, organising phonecalls for the enxt day etc. So yes, there was downtime during the day simple because my own resources couldn't cope with 4 different computers using the broadband at once.

In fact I'm on my laptop now after a Teams meeting with my exams officer, Head and 2 HoDs and I just can't be arsed moving.

Are we talking primary here?

Many secondary schools have been teaching online via Teams this term.

Online learning didn’t work for us at all. There wasn’t much online content and I was working so it was really hard to support my daughter with it

I haven't been trained to teach online, but it's not rocket science. Microsoft Teams put a PPT in, send an email invitation. Do it twice, you know how to do it.

I also haven't been trained to sit on the toilet floor and talk to a suicidal 15 year old. But I did. I haven't been trained to counsel children who witness domestic violence. But I do. And I haven't been trained to teach geography at KS3 - but I've had to!

Teachers will adapt, overcome and survive. Also, most of us have experience from the last lockdown, although I'm aware on here there were a lot of complaints about the lack of work (rather than complaining to the actual school )

You’re right OP. My child’s school thinks it’s equipped for online learning but having experienced it it’s woefully inadequate and requires maximum adult supervision. God knows how parents who are WFH will make it work with Reception - year 3.

@DBML Thanks for explaining that. And of course I wasn’t saying all teachers were lazy - just some.
I can only speak for my daughter’s school, but we were never told that any of the teachers were redeployed. We were simply told that lessons would switch to online and then given an A4 sheet for the week...

If you don’t mind me asking, what sort of roles would the teachers be redeployed to? And would the parents of that teacher’s class be made aware of this?
Information like this would obviously be helpful to know if there is a second closure of schools. A poster up thread very helpfully pointed out that we should be asking to see the policy. It also strikes me that parents should be told if teachers are being redeployed.
I know the general consensus from my child’s school was that the teachers just used it as a massive paid holiday and the calls for a second closure are simply an attempt to get another one. Knowing they are being redeployed in other roles clearly changes that.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

No one left for key workers’ children , Manteo, we’ve all taken furlough.

Huh? I haven't said anything about furlough?

OP I pity you for so many reasons. You're clearly finding things very hard but you're not alone in that. Maybe accept that things have moved on A LOT since March.

Sorry, but that’s an incredibly stupid idea. It’s like you thought “let’s make sure children are negatively impacted as much as physically possible by this!”

You are talking complete rubbish.

For months, I and colleagues have been teaching online. We have also simultaneously taught to some pupils in school and some on teams at home. We can screen share, use chat functions, visualisers for modelling and some of us even have digital pens so we can write over documents and students can see.

My current Y13 finished the Y1 content with me over teams very successfully thank you which is reflected in their recent mock results. Thankfully, they and their parents are appreciative of the efforts we made.

Schools will vary, I don't deny that, but don't belittle the efforts of the many teachers like me who have never bloody stopped since March

Teachers aren't stupid, I'm sure they are perfectly capable of teaching well online.

@Manteo
The OP suggested it and it seems popular with the teachers too. The parents of the children who didn’t get to go to school would like it as key worker children wouldn’t be in either (so it’s fair). You don’t have to feel angry when you see the teachers posting videos of themselves drinking gin and sunbathing because they aren’t being paid. You are all expert Twink users because you had to teach your children for nine months with no other material or help, so you can keep your children on track. Shall I email Boris or will you?

Agree with part, work was set but there was no online teaching for my children at any stage in their educations until near the end of term, one a day. No work was marked and no feedback given. My son actually made better progress than he has normally at school as I was able to give him a lot of 1:1 time and his own laptop. Both these elements are in themselves not putting our education system in a good light. He has since repeated all the work we did at home as so many of his peers didn't/ were unable to. It's shit.

@Dukekaboom

I’m a secondary teacher, but I was redeployed to work in primary schools with either vulnerable learners or key workers children. A bit like a play scheme environment. My adjusted hours were 8am - 5pm.
We’d end up having far more staff present than kids, but I think our LA wanted to ensure our time was accounted for.
As we were not at our ‘home schools’ there was no access to IT to monitor our own learners and most of the children I looked after, I’d never even met before.
I was in most days, with some odd days off to account for my longer hours.
The parents would not have known that we were redeployed in this way.

I did try to log on and check pupils online work, giving feedback, but this was not a requirement and I did it in my own time. I only did it because I get for the kids sending their work in to no one.

We have been told that redeployment will not happen again. TAs and support staff will provide care for key workers children and the vulnerable, teachers expectations will be full time online teaching.

I hope this goes some way to explaining where some of us might have been during lockdown.