Union say schools won't be fully open in September. Goverment say covid will be here till spring, so will schools fully open in spring 2021?

[947EliseChalotte]

Goverment say s hooks will be fully open in sept 2020 but unions are saying no they won't ! Goverment say covid we need to livewith covid and prepare for another wave, it's likely to be here till spring. So will schools reopen in spring 2021 when covid has gone?

Bitesize and Oak aren’t that brilliant, guys ~~let’s not talk ourselves out of a job~~

averysuitablegirl
Yes, the Oak Academy was created and rolled out by the govt specifically to address learning during lock down.

Technically by teachers.

Bitesize and Oak aren’t that brilliant, guys

I dunno, you get parents moaning about being set nothing but twinkl worksheets then you point out they have access to two different sets of daily online lessons and it’s ‘but I don’t like those’.

If they saw what happened in their kids’ actual classroom no doubt they wouldn’t like that either.

Do it yourself in that case, or pay for something better.

do it yourself in that case

Yes I do thanks, I’m a secondary school teacher. Not everyone who politely disagrees with you is an idiot parent, giraffe

The pandemic is a shame. Children have missed school. I feel in particular for year 11 and year 13.

It is not the end of the world. It will be forgotten about by mid September.

But.

Oak academy, Twinkl, Bitesize - they aren’t a substitute. That’s all.

I dont think anyone can answer that. We dont know what things will be like then.

My son's school are open and have been since the beginning of June. They are working in bubbles to minimise social contact.

However my son attends a special school. Their class sizes are smaller and as some children have nderlying health issues not everyone is back. This includes teachers who have been told to shield for whatever reason.

If there's no huge increase in Corona virus cases over the summer then I expect schools will open in September and then monitor the situation.

Obviously if there's a spike in cases leading to people having to shield once more then staffing might be an issue in schools.

Oak academy, Twinkl, Bitesize - they aren’t a substitute.

You might not like them but they are there and they are reasonable resources. People claiming that kids have been left in the lurch with nothing to do aren’t correct.

Of course being in the classroom is preferable for a lot of (not all) children but y’know, global pandemic. It’s like complaining that your garden party isn’t as fun with only 6 people there.

I’m starting to see the point of some parents.

Giraffe, the whole point is that they are massively generic. Think about the adjustments and differentiation you have to do in a class of 30. How can this be a reasonable substitute for every child in England and Wales? It’s not, is it? That’s not to say it is not fine as a stop-gap, but it most certainly isn’t a replacement for actual teaching.

Pick, desks are approx a metre long. They would only be able to seat one child instead of the usual two. You would also need space in the classroom to walk around.

You turn the desk so kids are end to end rather than side by side.

But that still leaves the issue of a meter to the next desk.

Where I am schools are bursting at the seems. The council refuses to add temporary classrooms until every space has been utilised.

So that means the library goes, the computer lab goes, the staff room goes, ok you're full you can have a couple of portacabins.

it most certainly isn’t a replacement for actual teaching.

But there’s a global pandemic on and schools are closed to most kids so what exactly is your point?

I think I’ve made my point: a pandemic is not a complete opt out, there’s your resources on bitesize, go away and don’t bother me until September.

We can and should be at least trying to help, and I am as anti teacher bashing as anybody but if the response parents are getting when they ask is a surly direction to oak academy, I can actually understand it!

We can and should be at least trying to help

Yes, and if a parent on MN is saying that their school isn’t providing resources then directing them to Oak Academy is helping, isn’t it?

Or do you want me to try to replicate the full classroom experience for them as well as teach my own kids and the ones in my school?

iusedtobeabletorun

The counterpoint is that some parents are not happy with whatever is provided, (some have good reason to), but some as we have seen only want what they want and nothing else is going to be good enough.

For all the talk of compromise (over many threads) many posters only want teachers to compromise.

I don’t think anyone’s said the online stuff is a perfect substitute. Even the people producing it. But it is there and it is available for free to anyone with an internet connection or (in the case of bitesize) a tv license.

We will protect teachers by ensuring transmissions remain low in the community, hence transmission mitigations elsewhere until the vaccine

I don’t see much going on to keep that happening. There’s what appears to be an increasing minority of people who seem determined to give up on the (admittedly complex) social distancing rules.

Given the rates of respiratory outbreaks in school were much higher than normal for this time of year with just the key worker children in and have been increasing since year R/yr 1 and yr 6 went back it’s unlikely everyone back full time in September is a brilliant idea.

Giraffe - I don’t actually have an issue with making suggestions, but to claim it’s done so in order to help rather than to be brusque and sarcastic is a bit misleading, isn’t it?

Conceding that some schools haven’t been brilliant with what they’ve provided and that curtly directing people to generic work is bound to beg the question that if Oak / Bitesize are a fair substitute then what precisely are we doing?

As it happens, I think you have been bloody rude to me and with no good reason, and I can understand now the frustration parents must feel when they get a similar response.

Oh absolutely Fripp and I know: too much work, not enough work, too easy, too difficult, too this, too that.

On the other hand, I can see why some parents are concerned.

I don’t actually have an issue with making suggestions, but to claim it’s done so in order to help rather than to be brusque and sarcastic is a bit misleading, isn’t it?

But in this case the mention of Oak Academy wasn’t to a concerned parental request for help was it? It was on a moany thread where someone was complaining that things just aren’t good enough.

In response to genuine parental requests for help, unless you’re a name-changer, I think I’ve done far more on here than you have.

Covid is here for ever
like Flu
we have to learn to get kids educated in a world with COVID

• handwashing
• more hand washing
• even more hand washing
• masks at key times and in crowds

Seriously, are we doing well I’m more helpful than you, ner ner ner?

Let people moan, it’s only adding to their disgruntled feelings if you tell them to use Oak. You know that is not what they want.

The bottom line here is that everybody has to get used to a new "normal" and there has to be give and take by everybody on what is possible and practical.
As an example, which is being quoted in a lot in the posts, we are now operating on a metre plus scenario. The average classroom size is between 45 and 50 square metres. If you then plot out on paper the theoretical rectangular classroom, then it is very easy to establish that you can put 40 pupils in the classroom standing more than a metre apart. But pupils need desks to work and the usual desk size in primary schools is about a metre in length, which then means that this reduces the number of pupils that can be accommodated using these desks. The art of compromise is logically maximising the number of pupils that are able to work on the current desks with maybe the purchase of some smaller desks which will allow us to get 30 pupils in the classroom or maybe some give and take on the one metre rule.
This is the kind of logical conversation that needs to take place at national and local level without the "we have always done it this way attitude" that is stymieing the creativity to make things work.

I wonder if unions were told that teachers won’t be paid if they don’t go to work (just like most who aren’t government employed are being told) they would change their tune.

The "2m rule" was relaxed in primary schools already for the 1st June opening. It hasn't stopped lots of schools from resisting opening more. It just seems like lots of teachers don't want the children back.

I have never taught in a school with spare classrooms. It's bizarre that people think that there's spare anything in schools after years and years of austerity and a rising school population.

It just seems like lots of teachers don't want the children back.

I don't know a single teacher who doesn't want the children back. But the government needs to come up with guidance that works, and that both parents and teachers can trust. And at the moment they simply don't have a clue. If the unions weren't pushing them and pointing out what won't work, you as parents would find your kids in an unsafe environment.

No it wasn’t. Bubbles were limited to 15 and there needs to be strict distancing between bubble. But children should also be keeping 2m apart within bubbles as much as possible.

Some schools have chosen to ignore that part.

Realistically, I think masks are going to have to be part of the solution here. Especially in UKS2/secondary if scrapping social distancing is going to be part of the solution to getting kids back.