Is this the end of schools as we know them?

[Elephant4]

Teachers are leaving in droves.

This new variant will not come down to acceptable R levels for a long time, will it?

How will schools open up to ALL students without a government strategical plan in place? There doesn’t seem to be one.

Is our school system about to collapse alongside the NHS?

Original poster are you suggesting that both healthcare and education will be non state and private open market only in the post pandemic future?

I think there will be a very barebones NHS and education provision. It's pretty barebones now. But it will be drained and whittled down to a really shit service.

Most people will have to go private, yes.

I think there will now be another option of homeschooling as we are now (for free, maybe) online.

I've always thought we'd end up like this one day and that in person schools would end. I always imagined that kids would be sat in classrooms learning from screens. Perhaps they will. I wonder if this is what the government is now intentionally aiming for ...

@Elephant4

Teachers are leaving in droves.

This new variant will not come down to acceptable R levels for a long time, will it?

How will schools open up to ALL students without a government strategical plan in place? There doesn’t seem to be one.

Is our school system about to collapse alongside the NHS?

Where are they leaving too? We are heading for the biggest recession in living memory. Anyone leaving will have queues of well educated people from the collapsed private sector willing to take their place.

I think (hope) parents will appreciate schools a lot more. I have always been mildly in awe of what teachers manage to achieve with 30 kids at a time, when I struggle to get 2 to complete fairly simple and straightforward tasks. Now I'm on my second stretch of homeschooling, I am just totally in awe of what they manage to achieve most days!

I like to think the government would reflect this in better funding, but suspect that is totally unrealistic with the current gov.

This would make me leave! My workload is already unsustainable, online teaching increases my workload significantly, doing it alongside classroom teaching pushes it too far. All of my planning needs to then be turned into two different formats. My marking and tracking is then in two different places, I couldn’t manage it long term.

Like I said, I would like it properly supported. By that I mean for the teaching staff too! Currently it is a temporary sticking plaster and wasn’t properly planned so of course it is a nightmare. However, unfortunately for you, I do think it’s one positive that has come from this, it’s something that can work for a lot of pupils (which is who the education is for) and one that should be invested in properly.

and herein lies the problem! Parents think we just take our usual planning and resources, whack it on the website, job done.

No no no no and no.

@Elephant4

Original poster are you suggesting that both healthcare and education will be non state and private open market only in the post pandemic future?

I think there will be a very barebones NHS and education provision. It's pretty barebones now. But it will be drained and whittled down to a really shit service.

Most people will have to go private, yes.

I think there will now be another option of homeschooling as we are now (for free, maybe) online.

I've always thought we'd end up like this one day and that in person schools would end. I always imagined that kids would be sat in classrooms learning from screens. Perhaps they will. I wonder if this is what the government is now intentionally aiming for ...

That's a scary thought. The thing is it's already happened and there is no end date.

Sorry, but is it just me who automatically read and heard "It's the end of the world as we know it" R.E.M style?!

I doubt the government are trying to move everyone to permanent online schooling. I mean they are just making things up as they go along these days so I don't think this is part of some masterplan. There hasn't been an experienced or competent cabinet member since Johnson became PM.

And where is your source for teachers leaving in droves OP? I mean actual data not anecdotes.

@MsJaneAusten

Yes. It’s going to change snow days forever.

Bloody online learning. I’m gutted.

Oh ffs. That had not occurred to me. As if 2020/21 wasn't shit enough, we've lost snow days too.

@TheRuleofStix. I thought that and I'm not even a teacher.

Where is the stats to show teachers are leaving in troves ? Do you have a link ?

Whether schools and healthcare will be pay as you go private only going forward or not - children educational requirements will include peer in person interaction and social learning development. Surely individual stay at home remote children schooling with a parent or nanny etc will be no substitute for traditional in person class learning and playing together. Young children learn as much from each other as from their teacher in the early years. Children have a natural curiosity and attraction to other little children unconsciously. That’s why they like playing together even with strangers in the public park playground etc. I doubt this can be reproduced via live video conferencing remote schooling. Educational is as much about overall child social development and all the intangible elements as well as the passing and grading of examinations.

Private only healthcare is a remote possibility post Covid as when the total pandemic disaster bills finally come in then obviously off the scale cuts will be implemented including healthcare. Selfish reckless non Covid rule breakers take note!

I don’t think it will change snow days, for two reasons:

1. We won’t be able to get IT out to all pupils who need it, so we would automatically be excluding the most disadvantaged from education

1. Most parents wouldn’t call for education or engage in education on a one-off snow day, preferring instead to make the most of a special day of sledding and building snowmen while they can...can you imagine the poor child sat in their bedroom looking out at the snow, whilst their teachers voice goes on about fractions in the background

Where is the stats to show teachers are leaving in troves ? Do you have a link ?

I have not stats - sorry. I've read so many teachers saying they are leaving here on MN, I thought it was true ...

But what I do see for myself is that our primary school now has lost most of its support staff. And so has the secondary. There are very few staff to keep the places going. And with the recession coming - our underfunded schools are going to be even more so - if that's at all possible.

@YouBoughtMeAWall I’d like online/home learning to be properly supported permanently so that if Jane is sick for 3 days one week she can log on each day and all her class work will be on google classroom or whatever for her to do and submit
I would like Jane to rest and not worry about school work while she is unwell!

@Elephant4

Where is the stats to show teachers are leaving in troves ? Do you have a link ?

I have not stats - sorry. I've read so many teachers saying they are leaving here on MN, I thought it was true ...

But what I do see for myself is that our primary school now has lost most of its support staff. And so has the secondary. There are very few staff to keep the places going. And with the recession coming - our underfunded schools are going to be even more so - if that's at all possible.

Who are these teachers? I'm on the education threads a lot and I know of only one who resigned, though others would jump if they could.

OP I think you’ve raised an interesting point. Not sure I agree & have no data on teachers BUT the new variant has completely changed the maths of this epidemic in the U.K.
quite simply, the NHS cannot sustain this level of infection & the current numbers are with large swathes of the population having been under Tier 4 pretty much since early December.
So how do we reopen schools without total collapse of health service?
Wait to see how effective vaccination programme is & keep all fingers crossed there are no escape strains? How long is that?
Masks/improved ventilation will be essential
Testing - LFTs not sure they’re fit for purpose, what can we do better around testing?
How can we reduce class sizes? What level of investment needed?
Do they stay shut until summer respite from the virus & then shut again in Autumn/Winter? Ie basically flip school year?
Rethink & improve online provision
More outdoor learning/forest schools etc
Going to be a lot of stressed, traumatised & bereaved kids coming out of this - how do we support them? Is straight back to normal best? What does a 2021/2022 curriculum really need?

So far everyone has dismissed the OP. Everyone thinks we’re going back to what we had before but I think it’s this kind of complacency & failure to plan & be creative that has got us into this mess.

Aldi you took the words out of my mouth.

"Stop vomiting Jane and do these quadratic equations!"

I would like Jane to rest and not worry about school work while she is unwell!

Unless you are Jane, what you’d like is irrelevant. Lots of janes are very happy to continue their school work whilst unable to attend school.

@IsabelleSE19

Aldi you took the words out of my mouth.

"Stop vomiting Jane and do these quadratic equations!"

Yes because vomiting is the only possibly circumstances Jane could be in whilst being off sick.

you are very misguided OP

I'm afraid you're talking out your arse, to put it bluntly, OP. You're just making completely false assertions.

Everything is online now so it makes sense that schools are going to catch up eventually and get all their resources online. Even ten years ago some of DS’s subjects had all the resources, class work and homework online so it could all be done from home.

Both my kids found it very anxiety reducing when they could see the curriculum online as a whole, where they were up to, what was coming next etc.

It’s especially important given the trend for not supplying textbooks.

Schools wont change because they are cheap to run as they are with minimal investment. The only reason people are getting learning online is because staff are doing at home with their own IT equipment and resources. Most schools internet wouldn't support 3 people on a zoom call with video let alone all staff.
Snow days may well be a thing of the past but unlikely to be live or recorded lessons as outwith a pandemic youcannot demand staff have and pay for broadband on the off chance you get a school closure day.
Online sickness learning, at the moment is unlikely to be from class teacher directly, what may happen is link sent to external recorded lesson banks with worksheet work to folliw

Sorry phone froze and uploaded.
Worksheet to follow.
I would much rather see better mental health support teams who will support school refusers and more teachers to support long term ill children.