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?

I'll stick with my job for a while.No choice as it's a steady source of income. Plus I love it - hate all that government interference but I am old enough not to give a monkey's.

If it's a snow day, I do believe my internet will be broken. Sad.

Just popped in to hand OP a grip

Also good quality lessons and teaching cannot be kept in a resource bank. It is adaptive, pupil/class dependent. It is responsonsive and moves with the kids. A resource bank will only ever be a fall back or support.

Ha, funny! No.

Thank you @mac12 for taking me seriously.

@MushMonster

I think, once the pandemic is over, this could actually turn to be a reset botton for the NHS and schools/ education. More staff and resouces for the NHS, and more recognition and changes for teachers, possibly more jobs too. I wish logistics and supermarkets and other critical sectors would win a higher recognition out of it. Many of them are not paid that much at all. But I think this unlikely, sadly.

During the first lockdown everyone was saying how it would change are views on the environment and pollution.

We that didn't last long did it.

Sadly you will be disappointed here too.

I would much rather see better mental health support teams who will support school refusers and more teachers to support long term ill children.

I don’t see why we shouldn’t have both TBH. Better MH support teams are absolutely needed- but the children still need to access education while they work through their issues until they feel able to return to school. The same with long term illness. I’m not sure why any education professional is surely in the job to educate children would object to them having better access to education.

I bloody hope not! Remote learning is dire. I’ve listened in to my teenage kids lessons. Teachers with microphones off giving the kids something to do then buggering off. No actual teaching. My dd has been in tears absolutely terrified she’s not going to get any GCSE’s.

I think longer the ways of setting homework are changed forever. It will all be set online if our schools weren't doing that already.

Maybe education won't be taken quite so for granted in this country.

Ultimately I don't think education or schools will change because of this pandemic.

@Thefeep

I bloody hope not! Remote learning is dire. I’ve listened in to my teenage kids lessons. Teachers with microphones off giving the kids something to do then buggering off. No actual teaching. My dd has been in tears absolutely terrified she’s not going to get any GCSE’s.

I think schools will return eventually (I've no idea myself about any statistics on teacher resignations/turnover), but I do think that universities may change for good - at least the arts-based degrees - and possibly also 6th form colleges

Tuition fees are massive now and are often justified by all of the infrastructure/libraries/central facilities available, but we now have at least one year of students, many of whom will be running up huge debts for distance learning modules (and some also stuck paying for accommodation that they cannot use). All of the library resources can be digitised and put online - in fact, all students could be able to access all universities' resources, nationally and worldwide.

The enormous costs of accommodation would be gone for those able to stay living with their parents for a few years longer. Actually, if studying is mainly online and on-demand, they could have part-time (or even full-time) jobs and be earning money towards their own housing, whilst doing their studies in the evenings/weekends/days off, instead of going backwards in the housing stakes for three or more years before they can hope to start gaining a foothold.

For science/practical students who do need access to labs, sports/field facilities, specialist equipment etc., I can imagine this still being the case, but it becoming the norm to register with your most local uni and travelling in from home on a day-visit basis.

I think this would be very sad, as university is about so very much more than just studying, but it's the way I can see things going.

@CountessFrog

It’s only on MN that teachers are leaving in droves. I’ve seen loads of threads where they claim to have ‘quit their job’ as a result of government covid policy. I don’t know any in RL who have done so.

As others said, the number of teachers in training has increased, so when the mumsnet quitting teachers quit, they’ll be ready.

I agree that there will be enough teachers next academic year.

As a teacher who works with teachers who trained last year and is mentoring a teacher who is currently training, I am concerned about the quality of teachers declining.

Teacher training is a mixture of theoretical and school placements. The theoretical work is quite frontloaded and this is a real concern.

Trainees from last year hadn't started teaching even a 25% timetable when schools were shut. Many had no more hands on teaching before they qualified. They started teaching in September and the ones I've been working with have really struggled finding their feet and have huge gaps in their pedagogical knowledge. The ones I mentor show every sign of becoming fabulous teachers, but they have far fewer skills than others at a similar stage in their careers do normally.

This year's trainees may even be in a worse position. In the first term, trainees on some programmes teach barely 20 hours of lessons. There are a million reasons to hope that schools open in ASAP, but this is one that's not thought about much.

I suspect what will happen is that schools that have treated staff well in the last year will be just fine, but those that have given unreasonable expectations may find their experienced teachers leaving and only finding very inexperienced newbies to replace them.

And who would want to be a headteacher after all this mess is another question. But personally, I've always thought those people a bit mad for choosing the job!

The government have just started their Tv advertising campaigns for more people to get into teaching. I'm sure they do it at the same time every year and that it's just part of their normal forward planning; but I do wonder just how many people will feel led to apply this year, with everything going on.

I wonder the same about army recruitment campaigns and if they get fewer applicants at the times when there is already an actual war going on or strongly rumoured.

@YouBoughtMeAWall

One thing I think will be better is access to education for those who can’t get into school for whatever reason (illness, school refuses due to anxiety/bullying etc) 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. It might also allow people to take holidays during term times if they can commit to their child logging on and completing their school work during their absence. No work done= the £60 daily fine.

But if she's sick she shouldn't be at school or doing school work?

No wonder we have a problem with presenteeism in the working world...

We won't be back by Easter, i think... Everyone has to be vaccinated first otherwise another variant virus might overcome the vaccine and then we are back to square one and no one is protected. Handcockup talked about vaccinating everyone over 16 by September. Govt aren't saying anything now, but I think slowly slowly it will be obvious that schools won't open for the rest of the year.

Sorry, that's what I think... based on reading what the scientists are saying

@PickAChew

No . The tories will make a run for it and leave a note saying . Sorry not sorry no money left in the coffers.

The first rule of economics is full employment. Trust me the government will be spending and investing in jobs when this is all over.

Probably in housing which people won’t like but it keeps a lot of people employed along with associated businesses.

If they keep the schools closed the rest of the year I hope they repeat years then or I had a p1 last year who missed 5 months of school if he misses another 7 months . He will be going into p3 with under a years education.

But if she's sick she shouldn't be at school or doing school work?

There are different types of 'sick'. A child who feels fine but was vomiting yesterday or a child who has panic attacks in the classroom could access from home. I agree that there should be no pressure to work when sick though.

I'm a lecturer and on one assignment last year, the student who went above and beyond was the one in hospital, who thanked me for giving her something to break up the boredom

No

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.
How would it be supported? It’s a pain in the arse sharing groups with another teacher, so if the solution is having someone else working to put the lessons on then I wouldn’t go for it because by the time I’ve told them what I want them to do I could have done it myself, plus in terms of collecting the work as the class teacher I need to know where they are at so I can’t see how someone else would do it. In addition to this what would we have to do with students that haven’t completed the work? If it’s contacting home that’s a huge increase in tasks, I might have 8 students off across the day, a 5 minute phone call to each is 40 extra minutes a day.

Now all of a sudden a 5 lesson day adds an extra 2 hours per day on. That’s before our current workload.

But if she's sick she shouldn't be at school or doing school work?

No wonder we have a problem with presenteeism in the working world... hmm

Not all sickness is the same. If a child feels able to do school work whilst off sick that should be facilitated.

My friends daughter was in hospital for over a month recently, I won’t say what her illness was but she was absolutely fine to continue working from her laptop from her hospital bed. If it had happened a year before her school work wouldn’t have been available on the laptop for her but as it was post covid it was and it made a hell of a difference to her anxiety levels being able to keep up with her classes.

if the solution is having someone else working to put the lessons on then I wouldn’t go for it

I don’t think it would be your call tbh.

I don’t think it would be your call tbh.

As a middle leader I would have a say. I would also be expected to work with my department and feedback their opinions. There are a lot of teachers burning out at my school, I have a reasonable slt that don’t want to be stuck with no teachers so respect the opinion of others and are willing to work with them.

One thing that makes teaching hard is the fact most people went to school so seem to think they know how to run one.