Time to think about closing the schools

[DolphinFC]

ONS survey finds that education staff are 37% more likely to catch Covid than other workers.

Previous data showed they were no more likely to catch covid than other workers and many people (especially MNetters) felt that this was all the proof needed to keep schools open.

Well, new data shows the reverse is now the case.

[quote EasterIssland]@CallmeHendricksGingleBells

Primary school pupils were more than two months behind in reading and three months behind in maths when they returned to school in March following disruption caused by lockdown, new research has found.

By March - when schools reopened after two months of remote lessons - the new research found primary school pupils scored 23 points lower in Star reading assessments compared to similar students in the previous academic year.

For the maths assessments, it was 30.7 points lower, according to the study by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and Renaissance Learning.

The report suggested primary school learning losses in maths averaged 3.5 months in March 2021, which had worsened since the latter half of the autumn term, when it was 2.7 months.

The following link it’s from the sun but I can see the same from the telegram
www.thesun.co.uk/news/16970378/kids-fell-behind-lockdown/amp/

NEARLY all children have fallen behind at school because of the devastating lockdowns, a damning Ofsted report has found.

Millions of kids became “lonely and miserable” and some even lost the ability to hold a knife and fork as well as the function to play with friends, the landmark study found.

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/primary-school-lockdown-learning-losses-b1860168.html?amp[/quote]
It's not a school's role to teach a child how to use a knife and fork. COVID won't have affected that. The ONLY people to blame for a child's failure to use a knife and fork are their parents. Please can we stop putting the responsibility for raising children onto schools. If you don't want to teach your child the very very basics of every day life then don't have children!

I think it’s pretty obvious without links that what amounts to seven months off for some children will have led to them being behind in their learning!

Some of us are keen to talk ourselves out of job!

@CallmeHendricksGingleBells

Right, so some of you have provided evidence in the form of reputable links. Thank you. Others are repeating a trite meme, in a bid to shore up their wish for schools to remain fully open regardless of risk.

Covid isn't the only risk though.

Closing schools impacts a number of things and really should be avoided.

(And I say that as a school governor who goes into school as often as I can and a university lecturer who has been teaching f2f on campus as much as I was legally allowed to)

@CurlyhairedAssassin it’s something ofsted has raised so .. i guess for them it’s an important point. Not every child is as lucky to have a loving parent that cares for them and teaches them. These kids are vulnerable and many rely on “this shouldn’t be taught in schools but at home”

My child’s speech delayed until he went back to nursery. Do you think it’s our fault and that we didn’t speak to him? Many kids will have had delays one way or another which for ofsted are important

I don't agree at all. I'd be happier to do a 2 week mini lockdown, after Boxing Day, than close schools.

[quote EasterIssland]@CurlyhairedAssassin it’s something ofsted has raised so .. i guess for them it’s an important point. Not every child is as lucky to have a loving parent that cares for them and teaches them. These kids are vulnerable and many rely on “this shouldn’t be taught in schools but at home”

My child’s speech delayed until he went back to nursery. Do you think it’s our fault and that we didn’t speak to him? Many kids will have had delays one way or another which for ofsted are important[/quote]
Ofsted are not important. Teachers are trained professionals and understand these things without ofsted mentioning them.

Circuit breaker , new covid rules will be announced, possibly tomorrow? I think that's best.

[quote EasterIssland]@CurlyhairedAssassin it’s something ofsted has raised so .. i guess for them it’s an important point. Not every child is as lucky to have a loving parent that cares for them and teaches them. These kids are vulnerable and many rely on “this shouldn’t be taught in schools but at home”

My child’s speech delayed until he went back to nursery. Do you think it’s our fault and that we didn’t speak to him? Many kids will have had delays one way or another which for ofsted are important[/quote]
Ofsted also said teachers should be willing to die in order to ensure that kids are educated during the pandemic. Is that also an important point?

Ofsted also said teachers should be willing to die in order to ensure that kids are educated during the pandemic. Is that also an important point?

I don't think that's correct. Wasn't it the previous CEO?

And I also don't think that was quite what was said.

You have to compare this with the medical emergency over the last year and the commitment on the part of medical professionals, and nurses, and doctors.They’ve gone the extra mile at great cost to themselves, and their families, their health – they have sacrificed their lives in some cases. We need a similar commitment by the teaching profession over the next academic year.

Wishaw said that medical professionals had, in some cases, sacrificed their lives. His next sentence said that teachers should do the same.

@codexa

The issue of schools closing wouldn't have anything to do with kids on people's hands rather than the gap in education would it?

Teachers and associated professions are not respected as they are in other countries, and I am astonished at how crap their pay is. To me they are doing the country a great service and should be commended every day of the week.

Many of those up in arms are balking at the idea of having kids under their feet rather than at school.

I know, I know, plenty of jobs are risky Covid wise, and people have to work etc. but still.....

@Sowhatifiam

but it's either ignore your kids all day, or ignore your job and get the sack

You realise this is the same for teachers, right?

Not all teachers. One generic email/online learning post a week to the whole class. No interaction, no corrections

Direct quote from Wishaw, verifying point.

@PlanktonsComputerWife

The kids are SO behind n their learning already.

This statement is a nonsense...behind what?

Children are 'behind' an arbitrary standard set by the English government.

Children are 'behind' an arbitrary standard set by the English government.

That doesn't make it okay.
It is not acceptable for children to repeatedly have their education disrupted.

So even though everyone has had the opportunity to get 3 vaccines, or at least the opportunity to have one booked before the new year, which will offer 85% protection against severe illness and hospitalization, we're back to "teachers are going to die"? OK.

What WILL satisfy you, OP?

An acknowledgement that teachers have been disproportionately impacted on by covid and some degree of understanding from parents that the decision to open and close schools is not just about children's well being but staff well being too.

So even though everyone has had the opportunity to get 3 vaccines, or at least the opportunity to have one booked before the new year, which will offer 85% protection

Myself and 5 colleagues will not have had the booster jab by New Year. We have all
tested positive just before getting our boosters. Got them lined up for the New Year, but I will be going into work on the first day of term without a booster and it will be 6 months since my second AZ jab.
I don't think I'm going to die, but I am aware I am taking a risk.

the decision to open and close schools is not just about children's well being but staff well being too.

Not on the part of the people making the decisions it isn’t.

@DolphinFC

An acknowledgement that teachers have been disproportionately impacted on by covid and some degree of understanding from parents that the decision to open and close schools is not just about children's well being but staff well being too.

It's not though. We don't close other workplaces for staff well being. Schools were closed to prevent Covid spread.

Let's not kid ourselves that the government care about any of us. Decisions to close things are to prevent the collapse of the NHS, not to protect healthy adults from Covid.

@DolphinFC

An acknowledgement that teachers have been disproportionately impacted on by covid and some degree of understanding from parents that the decision to open and close schools is not just about children's well being but staff well being too.

School teachers aren't the only ones who have been impacted. The ones I know have done a wonderful job but there are other jobs and professions that have had to carry on working out of the home too. I'm a governor at a school and I know how tough its been but it's also been tough for lots of other people.

All teachers have now been offered 3 vaccinations and this should mean we shouldn't close schools.

As university lecturer I believe that's why we shouldn't close campuses as all staff and the vast majority of students will have had the opportunity to get boosted before term starts.

We can't continue to mess with peoples education. It's too important.

I assume the people who make these sorts of comments just believe that all children live in nice happy little houses with their two parents who love and cherish them and their smiling siblings, and the parents just need to "buck up" and stop being lazy. No consideration for the possibility there are children in this country who's parents don't give a shit, for whom school is the only chance they get to experience "normality" and to learn the very basics of every day lives.