Schools - why are they doing this?

[Scrooge89]

Why are the media preparing us for school closures? They simply can’t do this to us…

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59673271

Not to my children. My youngest struggled so much at home and was one of the 25% who couldn’t go to school (although I saw how much some people fudged the key worker card I may have to do it).

@MumbleCrumbs

Apparently there is going to be a nhs style plea to retired teachers to come back to teaching to help ease Covid pressures next term. Good luck with that.

This is all starting to feel a bit desperate .

I can't see retired people wanting to go near a school with so much covid there aren't enough teachers.

I also find it a bit 🙄 that the gov think this is a substitute for your normal teacher. Who knows exactly where you are in the curriculum, the ins and outs of individual students and their abilities, and has a relationship with them so can manage behaviour.

It is babysitting - and people do need to work, BUT the gov need to be honest and call their plan what it is. My concern the gov will say 'schools are open', but not acknowledge they aren't really functioning properly. There will need to be 'catch up' work done for schools which are 'open.' It is essential therefore that it is recognised that children aren't going to get "normal" schooling - open or not

Nowhere near. Last week there were 56 m people who had not yet had Covid

Well, this is just wrong.

All schools should be with them on line program now and those dc who need tech have it.

What some people fail to grasp is (secondary age dc), if you move on line before your teachers are ill, you can continue to have educated dc. With a tight system for absences which if your absence staff arnt ill, can also carry on with doing.
It's been managed very well at many settings.
Other wise you have teachers off ill and supply staff who actually often have no teaching quals at all and just read stuff out or do crowd control?
Some settings also do good rota on site and off site so they still get on site support and lessons but without the usual crowds.

There are ways and means but not all schools are on the same level at all.
This should have been urgently addressed after the first lock down fiasco where some schools got "ahead" on the curriculum!!

The minister for education who keeps banging on about these unworkable hair brained schemes Mr halfron I'm sure means well but really has no idea what's going on at all.

*halfons plan I should say rather than the gov, but my point still stands.. too much pretending things are normal for children in schools

I don't get how we go from we're (as in actual teachers) are expected to get the same results as ever, undergo ofsted inspections, be subjected to the same stressful constant scrutiny and results obsessions as if it were normal times but suddenly it'll be ok if it's just babysitting.

There is no slack or give in the system for us despite the fact of lockdowns having impacted kids, different kids having been out with covid at different times, lessons having been lost to in school testing or staggered starts to allow testing (our school has conducted 3 rounds of in school testing since September already), lessons lost to immunisations in school, lessons lost via staff absence with covid etc. Expectations are exactly the same and we're just magically meant to cover the same amount of work and have kids achieve the same progress despite all of that and despite the fact no funding or time or anything has been given to facilitate it.

Obviously within the NHS it's been accepted that some things have to give whether that's routine appointments, non urgent surgery, usual monitoring of long term health conditions etc. Nothing has been taken out in school. In fact at my school at least it's been endless rounds of curriculum reviews, implementation of new policies and steps to the school improvement plan, additional work being sent our way etc.

This idea that somehow volunteers or retired teachers could step in doesn't fit with the reality going on in schools. It's quite bonkers that no accommodations have been made really and we're all still stressing to death about how our residuals on our ks3 classes compare to a national standard pre-covid.

Anyway off topic moan sorry.

exam timelines can also be shifted
It's really not that easy. From the date of the exam it takes about 5 weeks to mark them and another 3 to process the data for results. Shifting those would have a huge knock on effect for post 16 and post 18 admissions.

My concern the gov will say 'schools are open', but not acknowledge they aren't really functioning properly.

True, but it's still A LOT better than closing them altogether!

@Scrooge89

Why are the media preparing us for school closures? They simply can’t do this to us…

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59673271

Not to my children. My youngest struggled so much at home and was one of the 25% who couldn’t go to school (although I saw how much some people fudged the key worker card I may have to do it).

Why are the media preparing us for school closures? They simply can’t do this to us…

Its not a question of 'doing it to us' its a question of sheer numbers of sick people!

My concern the gov will say 'schools are open', but not acknowledge they aren't really functioning properly.

True, but it's still A LOT better than closing them altogether!

It's not an either or. Completely shit but technically still open is not the best we can do.

@ArthurTudor

*halfons plan I should say rather than the gov, but my point still stands.. too much pretending things are normal for children in schools

Oh the one who's always always quoting UsforThem

@FourTeaFallOut

Nowhere near. Last week there were 56 m people who had not yet had Covid

Well, this is just wrong.

What figures do you have then?

Well, what you have is confirmed cases. Not the total number of those who have been infected.

@Getyourarseofffthequattro

I cannot believe people are still referring to themselves as "cannon fodder" when they are double and triple vaccinated.

Many of us who work in schools do feel like this, especially those of us who are over 45. Vaccines reduce severity of infection but can still leave you with long term health issues. Telling people to ‘retire’ because they are worried about their health is ridiculous when one of the reasons schools are shutting now is staff shortages. Still, you can just hand in your notice and look after your kids, can’t you? You’re all set for that, I assume.

Ventilation, compulsory mask wearing by all children, isolation for close contacts and priority vaccines for school staff are what we need (what we needed).

@TheHoneyBadger

I don't get how we go from we're (as in actual teachers) are expected to get the same results as ever, undergo ofsted inspections, be subjected to the same stressful constant scrutiny and results obsessions as if it were normal times but suddenly it'll be ok if it's just babysitting.

There is no slack or give in the system for us despite the fact of lockdowns having impacted kids, different kids having been out with covid at different times, lessons having been lost to in school testing or staggered starts to allow testing (our school has conducted 3 rounds of in school testing since September already), lessons lost to immunisations in school, lessons lost via staff absence with covid etc. Expectations are exactly the same and we're just magically meant to cover the same amount of work and have kids achieve the same progress despite all of that and despite the fact no funding or time or anything has been given to facilitate it.

Obviously within the NHS it's been accepted that some things have to give whether that's routine appointments, non urgent surgery, usual monitoring of long term health conditions etc. Nothing has been taken out in school. In fact at my school at least it's been endless rounds of curriculum reviews, implementation of new policies and steps to the school improvement plan, additional work being sent our way etc.

This idea that somehow volunteers or retired teachers could step in doesn't fit with the reality going on in schools. It's quite bonkers that no accommodations have been made really and we're all still stressing to death about how our residuals on our ks3 classes compare to a national standard pre-covid.

Anyway off topic moan sorry.

This with 1000 bells on.

No, I have an estimate (not dusputed tbh) based on infections, known cases and surveys. .But there won't be a huge difference. JHU estimates 11m cases in UK to date so far.

It'll be a stretch to get the rest all infected by the time schools are back.

Everyone so often someone starts a thread on MN about 'who knows people who haven't had covid' and it is still a lot of people.

I'd still welcome your figures fourtea.

A few weeks back about half children have had it according to Whitty - must be more by now

I don’t get that figure tbh - if you take the dc figure out there’s not much left

TheKeatingFive
Teachers have contracts of employment. Like most employees do. Let's try out your suggestion on other jobs or maybe with your own or your family members' jobs?? I have a contract. I work accordingly. If children are not in school I continue to work setting work and delivering lessons online. Of course I will not accept to work throughout the summer instead. Utterly hilarious.

Plus if you take eg London with quite low vaccination rates and compare to antibodies- then many must have had it?

Other areas sure not that far off

Teachers have contracts of employment. Like most employees do.

As did all the medical staff and staff in other sectors who had leave cancelled/postponed/shifted at short notice. My own boss, in a totally different field had just a day and a half off in total between March and December 2020.

It's a pandemic, etc, etc.

It's about the long term planning. Ifwe are going to be open to lockdowns every winter, the current arrangements don't make any sense.

Week we have 65 million people in the UK and we have 11 million confirmed cases. I assumed that's how you arrived at that figure. I'm just saying it's a lot more than that.

Sorry, 68m

Nope. John Hopkins University 'arrived at that figure'.

So, assuming Whitty was somewhere near right that's about 5.5 million people marsha.