Pupils with no laptop or space to study allowed to school

[Orangeblossom77777]

In case this is of help to anyone.

There are concerns some schools in lockdown could be inundated with pupils without laptops after a change to the vulnerable pupil list.
Pupils are learning remotely in England after schools were closed on Tuesday to all but children of key workers and those deemed vulnerable.
But those without laptops or space to study are now eligible to attend school, under government guidance

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55565537

Our secondary already did this on the first lockdown, sitting pupils a distance apart, and are doing this again for anyone not able to engage in online learning at home.

Gavin and Boris had better start producing more laptops for schools then!

Crikey you’ll have parents smashing thwir laptop on the patio and pronouncing that it’s broken, oh dear, gonna need that school space now

@Lemons1571

Crikey you’ll have parents smashing thwir laptop on the patio and pronouncing that it’s broken, oh dear, gonna need that school space now

Ha

Op I think our secondary does this too

Also, if anyone is able to donate an old laptop, there are local groups helping out.

They need to be making the laptops they need available then as the thought of full schools during this highly contagious new strain is just awful. Next they will say all kids need masks and everyone will be outraged about that! We will never get some kind of normal life at this rate.

I saw a primary school headteacher talking about this on the news last night. He said that it wasn't possible for his school and that if he had all of the children in who didn't have equipment at home it would be over three hundred. I think it was just under 350.

He said that he had just received fifty chrome books to hand out to families - that had been ordered in the autumn - and no more.

It showed a family of possibly six children I think who only had access to one device at home and another child who only had access to his mum's phone which was broken or damaged I believe but he could do some basics it showed.

This was a headteacher in Leeds.

I know in Scotland chrome books had been given out as standard to secondary school pupils well over a year ago now. I don't think all schools but the majority depending on the council. This was for all children no matter what parent's incomes were and each secondary aged child in the house was allocated one to use for homework and to take into school with them also.

I feel desperately sorry for all these families who are now struggling without any access. I can see both sides of this.

I had assumed at the time it would have been more rolled out the chrome books but I soon realised it wasn't! So many children would benefit greatly from having one now.

@catnidge

Gavin and Boris had better start producing more laptops for schools then!

My first thought!

And there's probably was "the way we can get around people noticing we didn't send out the laptops we promised is to make the schools take the pupils and then when schools don't have enough laptops blame them like we do for everything else"

Yes, surely the government should be ensuring that families have a laptop to work with?

And there's probably was "the way we can get around people noticing we didn't send out the laptops we promised is to make the schools take the pupils and then when schools don't have enough laptops blame them like we do for everything else"

@itsgettingweird. I think you are right. I saw a news article which said that the headteachers they’d interviewed had reported getting less than 10% of the laptops they had requested during first lockdown last spring.

A parent turned up demanding a laptop today. We don’t have any. If kids were sent in for digital access, we’ve already leant everything we have out.
We only have desktop computers, but they are packed together too closely and the room doesn’t have appropriate ventilation.

What a silly promise to make without consultation with schools.

what would you suggest is fair on children the in overcrowded accomodation and with laptops. Not everyone had a big, house, own room and access to IT.

@robinwisperer

Equally, what do you expect schools with no resources to do?

If you have those children in, they will need to be taught with paper and pens.

If they need to be taught, you need to bring in teachers.

If you bring in teachers (particularly at secondary) who teaches remotely?

If the teacher can’t teach remotely, how is that fair on the children stuck at home?

This is the government’s problem and they should be sorting it out. Correction, they should have sorted it out.

This is making me so angry. The government can’t get themselves organised to supply the devices promised, so instead they change the criteria for kids who are allowed to be in school, thus ensuring more kids and teachers are mixing, leading to further infection and spread of the virus, which school closures were supposed to reduce.

Arseholes, that’s what they are.

Can’t children access via school device in school?

Same learning as remote dc

Meaning you don’t need to teach them in person just provide room(s) and person not teacher. You can SD and mix year groups even

Doesn’t mean they will be given a space though.

This seems totally reasonable, I've seen a lot of people complain about this and I genuinely can't understand why.

@luxxlisbon

This seems totally reasonable, I've seen a lot of people complain about this and I genuinely can't understand why.

I presume because the idea is that schools are closed so the majority of children stay at home. If a school has 75% of children with no tech, then children of key workers etc in school what is the point in closing at all?

Equally, what do you expect schools with no resources to do?

I don't know. I have two children who should be in school but school is refusing to take them. We don't have IT, one is severely autistic with an Ehcp but special school closed. The other one is classed as a young carer and struggles hugely being with a severely autistic sibling. And I work and have no resources to teach as I have no time because I WFH (caring for DC1 is itself a full time job) It is utterly shit for them. No parent who has time, being on each others throats and no IT equipment cause I need the laptop for work I would send them in in a heartbeat if I could and don't blame parents for making similar choices.

They haven't closed, but gov are seen to be doing something, but changing nothing.
Mine is secondary and was offered a place today, she wants to go and I said no.

Do people think that schools are hoarding shit loads of IT that they just didn’t want to loan out?

Maybe the people talking key worker spaces they don’t really need should consider that they are taking a space from another family and denying another child access to learning.

But, as always, the pushy get their own way.

@OuiOuiKitty It doesn't really seem to be the case thought that a majority of schools in the country have 75% of students with no way to work and keyworker children on top.

Seems like fear mongering for no reason. If a child cannot access an appropriate education at home seems pretty reasonable that they should be in school, there is no need to sacrifice a second school year for some children more than others. Considering laptops were given out earlier in 2020 I'm sure this doesn't apply to the majority of children.

Considering how many people wanted schools to close i'm sure a majority of parents are happy to have them home and are able to facilitate their remote learning.

Even if some schools have 50% of the students that is twice as much distancing as they were able to do before.

The last lockdown only had 1% school attendance, so 50% now doesn't even seem likely.

schoolsweek.co.uk/coronavirus-school-attendance-around-1-finds-dfe-analysis/

We gave out laptops to families who didn’t have any. Today at school I was scrabbling round trying to find enough for the keyworker children to use. I had enough by taking in my own for one of them....