Is there going to be any announcements today?

[ilikexmas]

I cannot see anything on the news.

@Lifeispassingby

The story about the not using a knife and fork or hold a pencil is not a school issue that is a parenting issue. If a parent is unable to ensure their child keeps the most basic skills then there is something wrong

What about families who do not use a knife and fork at home? There are many types of foods that are served in a bowl.

The schools also isolated whole bubbles rather than just close contacts in the event of a positive test which sounds different from the state sector that I read on here.

Nothing planned.

This, however, means fuck all.

I also work in an independent prep school. It really is no different to state schools.I’m not sure if people imagine we have full PPE and classes of 10 spread out in classroom the size of a hall? In reality our classes are around 16, but classrooms are smaller than the state ones designed to hold 30 kids, so not much more space. We have hand sanitizer and we open the windows. That’s it.

If anything, our head would be probably less likely to choose to close off her own back as it would not be popular with parents and it’s a business. Whilst all our kids have an internet connection, which makes remote learning much easier,, they don’t all have their own device which they can use all day and remote learning doesn’t magically work perfectly because the kids are richer. For the younger ones it’s just as tricky as in the state sector!

Boris is going to be on Andrew Marr show this AM .

What about families who do not use a knife and fork at home? There are many types of foods that are served in a bowl.

I like this a lot. Are you joking or did you just miss the point?

Boris is going to be on Andrew Marr show this AM

Please don't call him Boris unless you are sleeping with him. Come to think of it that probability isn't too low.

@dottiedaisee

Boris is going to be on Andrew Marr show this AM .

Just started a thread in news to discuss this.

11 minutes in and we've already had "kids SD and wear masks in school so should attend for their MH"

My child has moved classrooms this year, to a classroom supposedly designed for 30 kids. It is absolutely tiny with 30 massive year 10s crowbarred in.

Unsurprisingly, he caught Covid at school, along with 20% now of his class.

Burnham has said a quarter of all new cases in Manchester are new variant.

And they are nuts to just open schools with that in mind (needs to be managed instead)

And the decision should be made by local authorities...

Agenda set for Johnson to respond to.

@notevenat20

What about families who do not use a knife and fork at home? There are many types of foods that are served in a bowl.

I like this a lot. Are you joking or did you just miss the point?

There are people from many cultural backgrounds who don't eat with both a knife and a fork. Or families that don't eat many foods that require a knife and a fork. It doesn't mean poor parenting or that anything is wrong.

The knife and fork/pencil thing is neither here nor there.

I have an 8 year old child who can't hold a pencil and never has done amongst other difficulties with fine motor skills and even with full time schooling I can't get support for him because the government has stripped services back so hard that CAMHS and the CDC can only take critical cases.

I have a 16 yr old who can't cross a road safely, can't read particularly well and is on track for GCSE's that are 'U' again, same issue. You can't expect anything different from the government when they've already hammered schools into a mill of testing and 'one size fits all' teaching.

@Beebityboo

It seems from the papers that they will be standing firm against the "leftie unions" . I actually can't believe it. How can parents feel confident about sending their children to school under these circumstances? This is a nightmare.

Maybe parents don’t feel confident but have no choice?

@MrsMiaWallis

The honest answer is this particular government don't care if people die. They don't care who, and they don't care how many

Do you really believe this?

I do believe it. I don't think their top priority is citizens' lives, this is a nakedly self-interested government.

That is not the same as believing they actively want people to die - but I do believe that there is a general lack of concern about how many have died and will die, and no sense that trying to halve the number would be a pursuit worth bothering with.

Never mind pulling out all the stops, they haven't pulled out any! There is so much they could do, today, if it were worth the effort to them.

This explains better than me: mobile.twitter.com/chrischirp/status/1345452415357759498

I think the word abandoned is correct, they could be doing so much right now. I am very interested to see if Biden can move things in the USA, that will be an interesting insight into leadership change/covid outcomes.

@happinessischocolate

Teachers need prioritising for the jab -yes over old people. 80 year olds can stay at home generally and sheiks. Teachers can’t. Schools are necessary to the running of the economy. I’m generally a Boris supporter but they really fucked up over this tbh

But it's not just about the teachers, apparently the latest strain of covid is affecting children more than adults, so it's the children who are in the most danger.

That isn't true.

I am going to put a different view on here. The fear of some parents is that some teachers are going to do what happened last time and become unavailable or just send out a few worksheets.

The Head wasn’t answering their phone and responding to emails and when my SIL finally got through to a teacher she was told to speak to the head and that they weren’t familiar with online teaching.

I hope they are now although somehow I fear it won’t be the case.

Is it still the case that teachers are unwilling to use Zoom live?

[quote MinnieJackson]@inquietant yes I think I will but would have to be something like d&v so we don't have to get tests, which would give us about 3 days I think[/quote]
You are all self isolating due to being a contact with a positive case...

I can see the argument for teachers over 50 or ones with a health condition getting the jab as a priority but not for younger ones. Why should teachers be given priority over other public servants such as police or bus drivers or supermarket workers? If you prioritise youngsters who at worst get a flu like illness (and I've never heard them begging for a flu jab) over oldies/vulnerable the latter group will never get the jab. And they may well die or end up in hospital as a result

I doubt it. I’d expect one next weekend to close all schools for a month.

My children are going no where near a school next week.

[quote inquietant]@SnowGnome there's no need for you to turn nasty, I certainly wasn't going to.

The snidey remark about state teachers voting with their feet shows what you think clearly enough.

Teachers in state schools are facing serious risks, those in independent schools know nothing about it, hopefully if they listen they will learn something.[/quote]
This is nonsense. I'm sure a small number of independent schools are cushioned by wealth and small class sizes but I used to work in the independent sector and have many friends still working in it.
They have lost money over covid (many schools have closed) and so have pay freezes and zero budgeting systems, have no more space than the surrounding state schools and class sizes are 25 rather than 30 but in smaller classrooms. They also have to follow the bizarre government guidelines.
The difference comes in the online learning provision. I am just as worried for my friends in the independent sector as I am for friends in state and myself. The indies are also more likely to be threatened with their jobs if they don't go in on Monday.
This is not a private/state battle when it comes to staff and pupil safety. Ffs can we not have some level of solidarity across the profession.

@Bathroom12345

I am going to put a different view on here. The fear of some parents is that some teachers are going to do what happened last time and become unavailable or just send out a few worksheets.

The Head wasn’t answering their phone and responding to emails and when my SIL finally got through to a teacher she was told to speak to the head and that they weren’t familiar with online teaching.

I hope they are now although somehow I fear it won’t be the case.

Is it still the case that teachers are unwilling to use Zoom live?

Some LAs advised against it last time for safeguarding reasons. Some teachers were perfectly happy to use it. Live lessons aren’t the be all and end all, I did some last time and didn’t find them as effective as directing the kids to watch a high quality video online and doing some work to follow up. I can only assume parents like the idea as the child is kept busy for the duration of the call. It doesn’t work if kids are sharing devices or if anyone (kids or teacher) lives in an area where the internet connection isn’t great.

The other issue is some schools are inundated with key worker kids, my friend is a head and she insisted both parents had to be key workers to get a place. She still needed 4 members of staff (out of 7 teachers and a few TAs) in to supervise them. How can teachers be offering live lessons, or even high quality not live teaching, when they are supervising groups of key workers all day? (This is not the case in all schools - we had only 10 parents identify as key workers and they all kept their kids home, so we could offer good remote learning options.)

That is not the same as believing they actively want people to die

That is what I thought you meant.

Sometimes it's hard to see through the hatred of the government to the reality.

I think the extreme left may have to be careful that their politicising of the pandemic doesn't become too obvious.

Live lessons aren’t the be all and end all, I did some last time and didn’t find them as effective as directing the kids to watch a high quality video online and doing some work to follow up. I can only assume parents like the idea as the child is kept busy for the duration of the call

Absolutely, if that work IS followed up properly.

I think the point about parents feeling that their kids were abandoned last time is valid. PLEASE NOTE I SAY 'FEELING' - whether they were or weren't, most state parents I know felt the provision was low quality overall - this will make it less likely that they will support schools closing again.

@MrsMiaWallis

That is not the same as believing they actively want people to die

That is what I thought you meant.

Sometimes it's hard to see through the hatred of the government to the reality.

I think the extreme left may have to be careful that their politicising of the pandemic doesn't become too obvious.

I am moderate, so the 'extreme left' (whatever you personally mean by that) is of no relevance to me.

It is pretty astounding that I genuinely believe that the government quite simply do not care about deaths. This is not normal.

I largely agree with what Boris is saying on Marr. Risks are low, for most it is a mild illness, the benefits of attending school are huge. Secondary school return is already delayed, all but essential shops are closed in much of the country, steps are being taken to slow transmission. We can't stop everything. Younger primary school children cannot be taught remotely in any useful way so should attend.