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).

So sorry mibs. I can well imagine the state of hospital care as it was crazily stretched on high needs ward, or whatever you call it - I was catheterised and on a morphine drip etc and couldn’t move following life saving surgery, back in summer 2019.

The biggest factor in both schools and hospitals was that this came after a decade of chronic underfunding and deteriorating capacity.

And I feel like screaming from the hilltops about nhs bursaries. Scrapped by the tories and not even reinstated after brexit vote.

@TheHoneyBadger

The reason why I decided not to train funnily enough 3 years ago. I would have been qualified now but instead I’m working from home in a job that pays me a lot more than band 5/6 nursing.

Yes it’s bonkers to pay 27k in fees and your entire cost of living for 3 years (much of which is on placement helping the nhs at all hours) to earn that salary. It should of course be funded.

I wanted to retrain as an OT and specialise in adolescents mental health and had secured a place before realising bursaries were going by the time I would start my course.

I reinvested myself in my teaching careeer and continue to look for ways to use my counsellor training and mental health background with young people. Sadly the funding just isn’t there and any interesting sounding roles that come up in schools are blatantly aimed at people without any training in order to tick a box going by the joke salaries that are offered.

@TheHoneyBadger

I can resonate with what you’re saying. I’ve worked in pastoral roles within secondary hoping to utilise my knowledge, but soon realised what a joke that was, hence I’m now working for a MH charity from home.

I mean it’s okay, not as rewarding as what my sisters do (they trained in MH nursing and OT when bursaries were a thing), but it’s paying a reasonable wage and I want to stay in the field somehow.

Like you I refuse to pay all that money for three years. They have seriously decimated many peoples hopes in training.

Yep and then have the audacity to complain about staff shortages. Well duh! And its only going to get worse so they needed reinstating ages ago (or better yet never having been cancelled).

It is disappointing, there's so much faux concern about young people's mental health but it doesn't translate to doing anything other than box ticking exercises. I worked in fundraising at one point and I know how difficult it is for charities to secure funding nowadays, let alone funding for salaries or running costs hence the third sector's offerings have to shrink too.

Hopefully those bursaries will be back and you can get to do your courses.

I'm appalled that the poor children in y2 not only had to sit the cancelled y1 phonic screening just before Christmas but they will be expected to sit the KS1 sats in May with no allowances for the fact their whole time in school so far has been disrupted. The pressure this places on children, parents and staff is horrific.

Shelleytriflestrull the phonics screening is to help schools identify which children need additional support with phonics.

That's a good thing, surely?

The KS1 SATs aren't 'sat' - they're teacher-based assessment about how each child is doing. Again, surely a good thing?

What should happen is that the national curriculum and consequent 'expectations' about where students be adjusted to take into account the effects of the pandemic, although I'm not holding my breath.

@Sherrytriflestrull

I'm appalled that the poor children in y2 not only had to sit the cancelled y1 phonic screening just before Christmas but they will be expected to sit the KS1 sats in May with no allowances for the fact their whole time in school so far has been disrupted. The pressure this places on children, parents and staff is horrific.

If the kids these days are pressured during y2 SATS then that's appalling.

My youngest is in year 11 and when he did year 2 SATS it was billed as a special workbook that they had to complete in silence. Not being allowed to talk was the only pressure and it was so low key one of my kids didn't even mention doing the "workbook".

*the phonics screening is to help schools identify which children need additional support with phonics.

That's a good thing, surely?*

I'm pretty sure teachers already know which of their children need additional support.

@Twitterwhooooo

Shelleytriflestrull the phonics screening is to help schools identify which children need additional support with phonics.

That's a good thing, surely?

The KS1 SATs aren't 'sat' - they're teacher-based assessment about how each child is doing. Again, surely a good thing?

What should happen is that the national curriculum and consequent 'expectations' about where students be adjusted to take into account the effects of the pandemic, although I'm not holding my breath.

The children have to take the sats papers. That's what we use to inform the teacher assessment. The message on the recent training I went to was that any children who we assess differently to what they achieve on the sats paper will need to be discussed with the LA.

I know exactly who needs support in phonics. I don't need to sit a screening to find out.

Are you a KS1 teacher?

@luverlybubberly

I absolutely never pressure children during the sats. However, we cannot help the children at all during the papers which goes against everything we've done all year and breaks my heart to see them struggle. This year will be worse.

Your class is very lucky then, if they've had a consistent teacher who know exactly where each child is and exactly what help they need.

The phonics screening is five minutes or so for a child with member of staff that they know scoring their sounding out of 40 words.

What exactly is the problem with that?

Neither of my children really knew that they were doing KS1 SATs papers, as it was all incredibly low key. Unless you're putting lots of pressure on children, I can't see how it can be otherwise at 6/7 years old.

@Twitterwhooooo

Your class is very lucky then, if they've had a consistent teacher who know exactly where each child is and exactly what help they need.

The phonics screening is five minutes or so for a child with member of staff that they know scoring their sounding out of 40 words.

What exactly is the problem with that?

Neither of my children really knew that they were doing KS1 SATs papers, as it was all incredibly low key. Unless you're putting lots of pressure on children, I can't see how it can be otherwise at 6/7 years old.

Are you a ks1 teacher?

If so then I'm shocked you don't know how the year 2 children have been affected by continued disruption and expecting them to achieve standards that children in a normal year might achieve is very wrong.

In a normal year some children struggle massively as we cannot help them and they are simply too hard for them. It kills the confidence we have helped them build over their time in school and is wholly pointless as my own assessments tell me where their gaps on. This is a million times worse this year.

If you aren't a teacher then hear what I'm saying. Spouting rubbish that the government say 'end of ks1 assessments' are based on teacher assessment only is dangerous. Where do you think we get the assessment from? We have to inform it with the sats papers. They still have to sit them. I am incredibly nurturing and put no pressure on children, but putting work in front of a child that is way too hard and seeing their eyes look up in despair is heartbreaking and goes against my whole ethos.

@Twitterwhooooo

Shelleytriflestrull the phonics screening is to help schools identify which children need additional support with phonics.

That's a good thing, surely?

The KS1 SATs aren't 'sat' - they're teacher-based assessment about how each child is doing. Again, surely a good thing?

What should happen is that the national curriculum and consequent 'expectations' about where students be adjusted to take into account the effects of the pandemic, although I'm not holding my breath.

If the teachers don't know which kids need help they aren't doing their job.

They shouldn't need an exercise like this to identify it.

What pisses me off is the focus is only on those failing to hit targets too. There is nothing for the kids who aren't behind but arent achieving where they would otherwise be at that point but for the distruption. Its affecting every kid, even the ones who kept up with the work because the overall standard and ability to even sit still is far below where it should be. That puts them at a massive disadvantage against other age groups - yr3 and yr4 at least were in school long enough to learn to read and sit still so they have better building blocks to recover from.

My sons year is definitely already labelled as 'a handful' and from what I'm aware of, its a thing for Yr2 across the country. They copped it all at the worst possible moment.

Instead of wasting all this time on testing i wish they had just used it to focus on catch up.

The teachers were telling me last year that DS would pass his phonics screening just fine, so they clearly know all this shit anyway (how do they give them the correct band book to read in school otherwise? !!!)

I am finding it all infuriating and frustrating.

DS's best friend is a truly lovely kid but he is now starting to get the label 'naughty'. He is absolutely not. I have spent time in class with them. He is struggling with sitting still thats all. His parents are involved and despairing. The school are putting a lot on them but the reality is they can only do so much about an in school problem. He is genuinely a nice kid and by god am i glad he is my sons best friend. I feel he's been so let down by whats happened.

But no, the emphasis is on phonic screening.

The phonics screening is for Ofsted. We screen children all the time for their phonic understanding. It’s part of our daily phonics session in Y1 to identify alien words using our phonic knowledge. The official screening is for data.

Also my sons class had a substitute teacher for the half term before covid, then this year teacher has gone on maternity. As well as having supply for another 2 weeks on top.

There has been a massive outbreak of covid the last two weeks of term and lots of kids got chicken pox around half term time.

DS is on top of everything. He's is one of the very few. He's extremely emotionally secure but even he's been emotional over the last week.

And hes supposed to be doing screening tests amongst all that?

Good god.

@RedToothBrush

Also my sons class had a substitute teacher for the half term before covid, then this year teacher has gone on maternity. As well as having supply for another 2 weeks on top.

There has been a massive outbreak of covid the last two weeks of term and lots of kids got chicken pox around half term time.

DS is on top of everything. He's is one of the very few. He's extremely emotionally secure but even he's been emotional over the last week.

And hes supposed to be doing screening tests amongst all that?

Good god.

I agree. The government have spouted about focusing on mental well-being, socialisation and playing. That's what I believe will help the most. But in reality the message to schools is clear. No excuses, they need to achieve 'normal' levels. They could also provide more money. An additional member of staff in a y2 classroom would make a massive difference.

Yes. Across the board the expectation is that we should be getting the same results as normal and it’s our problem as much as ever if a child is below targets. That’s the catch up policy on the ground: just expect teachers to magically make it happen despite no extra time or any other resource to facilitate it. Just apply more pressure on the teachers and watch the magic happen.

@TheHoneyBadger

Yes. Across the board the expectation is that we should be getting the same results as normal and it’s our problem as much as ever if a child is below targets. That’s the catch up policy on the ground: just expect teachers to magically make it happen despite no extra time or any other resource to facilitate it. Just apply more pressure on the teachers and watch the magic happen.

And then they want ex-teachers to volunteer their time. Lucky them. Work for free, risk Covid and still be expected to show progress 🤔

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-retired-teachers-urged-to-return-to-classrooms-to-cover-staff-absence-as-omicron-takes-hold-12500466?fbclid=IwAR1-MPdPC7cU0AJB1pbgDY_oUYh-wOrQFoEUhhMdpaLXFMSrau22j2TeTJQ

And any head who dares to say to ofsted that something is because of covid gets castigated for it.

The government focus on mental health and well-being is a distraction. The problem in schools are things like the narrow curriculum, over testing, Ofsted and targets. Why and how did ‘phonics’ become a subject in itself? It’s a means (just one means some might suggest-though not in the current climate!) of teaching children to read.

They are adding ‘mental health’ as something extra to be ‘done’-there will be some poor sap in school who will be the designated mental health lead who will have to sign up for £1200 of online training which will probably take 40+ hours of their time, and then they will get a certificate. They will then be held responsible for the mental well-being of all pupils and staff (and probably parents!) at their school. Nothing will change.

Whilst the curriculum and systems themselves are not addressed, it’s just an elaborate, time-consuming and expensive facade.

@Appuskidu

The government focus on mental health and well-being is a distraction. The problem in schools are things like the narrow curriculum, over testing, Ofsted and targets. Why and how did ‘phonics’ become a subject in itself? It’s a means (just one means some might suggest-though not in the current climate!) of teaching children to read.

They are adding ‘mental health’ as something extra to be ‘done’-there will be some poor sap in school who will be the designated mental health lead who will have to sign up for £1200 of online training which will probably take 40+ hours of their time, and then they will get a certificate. They will then be held responsible for the mental well-being of all pupils and staff (and probably parents!) at their school. Nothing will change.

Whilst the curriculum and systems themselves are not addressed, it’s just an elaborate, time-consuming and expensive facade.

Hear hear

As an update I've just received an email from two of the schools confirming a staggered return and possible home lesson sessions starting again when they return

@MammaMacgill87

As an update I've just received an email from two of the schools confirming a staggered return and possible home lesson sessions starting again when they return

That is concerning.

Can you say whether primary, middle or secondary school ? And even if you don't want to be too specific, which country and which region that happened in?