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Original poster

There is no army of volunteers waiting to be called to keep schools open

145 replies

noblegiraffe · 13/12/2021 00:21

FYI.

So if you see anyone putting this forward as a serious suggestion, they're an idiot and anything they say about schools should be disregarded.

We can't even pay people to do it right now.

OP posts:
Iggly · 13/12/2021 13:15

Plenty of people with stupid suggestions about schools.

They need to shut the fuck up, sit down and listen to educators.

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 13/12/2021 13:18

@Iggly

Plenty of people with stupid suggestions about schools.

They need to shut the fuck up, sit down and listen to educators.

This one is the Tory MP Chair of the Education Select Committee so shouldn’t be so bloody clueless.
OP posts:
girlmom21 · 13/12/2021 13:20

This one is the Tory MP Chair of the Education Select Committee so shouldn’t be so bloody clueless.

Hahaha remember when Gove was education minister. Why are we still so naive?

TooManyPlatesInMotion · 13/12/2021 13:20

@Fairylights25

The word you have missed here, and it is a key word - the government are being 'urged' to.....

No one is saying that it is going to happen are they. Schools will have to work with what they have, in the same way every other industry will need to, it is going to affect everyone.

This!
RoastedParnsip · 13/12/2021 13:22

Happy to volunteer if it means my child continues their education and their mental health stays intact. Closing schools should be the last of anyones concerns while the pubs and nightclubs are open!

julieca · 13/12/2021 13:27

I suspect they could get enough volunteers to babysit i.e. put on a film. But that is not education.

BusBusBus · 13/12/2021 13:28

Volunteering only really works if the role is quite low skilled like directing people to parking places, or the people are already trained in the thing needed.
Its also unique conditions isnt it - volunteer into an active outbreak (otherwise they already have staff), in a crowded environment, with no mask unless in a corridor. It may be ventilated or not. If it is ventilated it will be cold.
Id volunteer for something specific like cleaning door handles but I dont think that would help anyway.

Itisasecret · 13/12/2021 13:30

@RoastedParnsip

Happy to volunteer if it means my child continues their education and their mental health stays intact. Closing schools should be the last of anyones concerns while the pubs and nightclubs are open!
That’s the point though you can’t teach. As lovely as the offer is. A lot of classes in primaries have been collapsed with a TA in front of them. Many of the support staff will not have a grounding in educational theory and how to undo misconceptions.

What you are suggesting is childcare, not an education. The two are very different.

EvilPea · 13/12/2021 13:33

Fuck me! I’d sooner they are sent home.
Might be ok for a few weeks with crafts and games in primary. But imagine GCSE year

RobotValkyrie · 13/12/2021 13:36

I'd rather keep my kids home and juggle work from home with home schooling again, than send them in COVID-infested schools to be childminded by unpaid strangers.

julieca · 13/12/2021 13:38

@BusBusBus that is not true. There are very highly skilled people volunteering for skilled roles. Specials in the police force, academics in charities, accountants in charities.
Not that I think ex-teachers will volunteer to teach.

julieca · 13/12/2021 13:38

Yes this would be childcare. Although that is all some parents seem to care about.

Thewiseoneincognito · 13/12/2021 13:39

Is no one else uneasy at the relative ease at which someone who really should not be working closely with children could effectively gain access to schools? I’m not a parent but I wouldn’t be too keen on untrained anybody’s suddenly being responsible for the safety of my child.

As previously said, volunteers would be childcare not teaching meaning the quality of education would be questionable and Covid would continue to spread amongst the pupil population. Meanwhile no mitigation’s would be put in place to make education settings safer and the Covid hamster wheel keeps on turning.

julieca · 13/12/2021 13:42

@Thewiseoneincognito Yes, I would. Which is why it will never happen either.

borntobequiet · 13/12/2021 13:42

Another retired teacher here (core subject) with no intention of going in to school as paid supply let alone as a volunteer.
In fact one reason I retired two years earlier than planned was a heart problem that my cardiologist said might well have kicked off after an otherwise mild Covid infection picked up while teaching (heart problem now back under control but I won’t risk it).

Wolfiefan · 13/12/2021 13:47

I’m a retired teacher. No fucking way would I volunteer to do the job that broke me.
Plus DBS (or whatever they call it now) checks?
Maybe we need a kind of secure space (locker) parents can leave their kids in as free childcare? Monitored by CCTV?? It’s no more bonkers than this suggestion.

Starcup · 13/12/2021 13:47

@ImmutableSexQueen

Former teacher here. Triple vaxxed as of this morning. In the words of Thom Yorke, 'I am not going back, I am not going back...'. I love to be useful. I love to do the right thing. But there's no way this can be anything but chaos, with a death-wish added in for good measure. No. Just no.
A death wish? How old are you?
Dilbertian · 13/12/2021 13:50

What, those same volunteers who were going to deliver all those catch-up summer schools?

And the cover staff that aren't available even if the school can afford to pay for them?

What a load of codswallop. Wouldn't it be lovely if we had education ministers who actually had genuine experience of the realities of our schools.

BusBusBus · 13/12/2021 13:51

@julieca - that what i meant by 'or already trained in what they are doing'. If you dont know how to be a teacher its not a very easy thing to just turn up and do. I suppose some volunteers follow long training programmes to get the skill needed but that requires investment and support. id always assumed the volunteer accountants in charities doing accounts were already accountants rather than trained on the volunteer job. So to me this scheme only works if teachers volunteer.

Thewiseoneincognito · 13/12/2021 13:53

@Wolfiefan

I’m a retired teacher. No fucking way would I volunteer to do the job that broke me. Plus DBS (or whatever they call it now) checks? Maybe we need a kind of secure space (locker) parents can leave their kids in as free childcare? Monitored by CCTV?? It’s no more bonkers than this suggestion.
I shouldn’t laugh but I did because it’s true.
Treaclepie19 · 13/12/2021 13:55

I volunteer in a school one morning a week. I'm an ex teacher.
I have a 6yo in school though and 1yo. It only works by the fact that it's volunteering so if my husband needs to be in a meeting I can rearrange it. If my son is home ill, they know I can't make it.
They don't have any other volunteers right now that I'm aware of. There used to be loads of us.

Motorina · 13/12/2021 13:59

@Nevertime

Ha ha. I work in school. I could reasonably expect to be competent at giving a vaccination, with a bit of training. Deliver a maths lesson.....not so much.
I stick needles in people for a living. I'm reasonably confident I could teach you to give a vaccine in five minutes flat. Ten, tops.

I like maths.

If you try and teach me to deliver a maths lesson then I'm hiding in the loos til it's all over.

There are some skills that can be picked up quickly, and some that can't. Wrangling 30 14 year olds? Definitely can't.

Icecreaminwinter · 13/12/2021 13:59

Retired teacher here. I would do it. It would be hard to just turn up to a random school and be expected to do something meaningful though. You would need somebody in charge, a lot of organising and appropriate resources. I could teach my subject off the top of my head but outside my subject area it would be more difficult. If it was more general supervision, then ex-teachers could do that but what would the pupils get out of it?

julieca · 13/12/2021 13:59

@BusBusBus Sorry I didn't understand what you meant. Yes, they are already trained. Special constables are not already trained, but there is a well-established training and support programme for them and they do not do the same job as a police officers.
Yes, this would only work if teachers volunteered, and I can't see that happening. Unless you literally just want to provide very basic childcare, sit in front of the TV and play games in the playground. But that is not education.

BogRollBOGOF · 13/12/2021 14:03

In about the second week of March 2020, a few parents including me offered our support to the school, there was a cluster of avaliable qualified teachers and we had DBSs with the school.

Since then school have frozen parents out of school life. On a practical note, I'm not trained for this age group although am used this age group through youth groups and indeed know a lot of the school community beyond school. My main Covid risk is from the school community so if they'd let me carry on volunteering in my usual way, there would have been little additional risk introduced. My good will is tired now and taking on an unfamiliar curriculum after a growing absence from teaching is a big ask to do for free. Earlier in the pandemic, I would have been more willing before the relationship with school became tainted.

When I looked into returning to my old agency in 2016, the rate of pay was £10 day (or £50 per week FT) worse than it had been in 2010. Due to DS's SENs, I'm not avaliable for paid supply work for at least the next year.