Could we ask MN for no more teacher bashing threads do you think?

[pinkrocker]

It's hard enough without being told we're "twiddling thumbs"
I'm really, honestly trying so hard right now. And I'm sure thousands more are as well.
I don't want to make excuses or feel sad for myself or start championing us, but can we just have a break please?
MN is full of arguments against us, angry justifications of opinions from both sides.
I understand why people are frustrated, but could we ask MN for people to take a break, please

Husky
Really??? Your child’s Y6 teacher has provided no feedback all year? You’re absolutely sure about that? People bang on about ‘good and bad’ teachers but in this situation we are only following DFE, LA and HT instructions ... clearly your school have decided twinkl is the way to go. Take it up with them but it has very little correlation to whether individuals at that school are ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

Ok, Glitterbug, if he is listed as vulnerable/SEND or has an EHCP, he should have been entitled to a place, even if his parents were not keyworkers. I would recommend that your cousin looks on her son’s school website and there should be a link or pinned post that gives current contact details of the school (could be an email address or phone number or both)
Even though it is Easter, at some point next week someone should reply. It may not help his normal routine he is used to from school but should provide some respite.
The government has also included the paragraph below and therefore, I would also recommend she phones her local authority too

While as many schools as possible should try to stay open for eligible pupils, this will not be possible for all settings, and the local authority should coordinate pooling of resources so pupils are able to access provision elsewhere.

The other alternative when your off for two weeks at Easter staff come in the Friday before you come back and have 9 days off instead of 10. Parents find it hard enough to cover without theses extra days or do training in your no contact time

@glitterbug that training before Easter is often used for moderation, it is there for a reason. Not just to make your life difficult.

So you want social workers who are protecting vulnerable children to do the teachers jobs where prey tell are theses social care issues placements ?? Respite really !! In the day with staff who don’t know him.

This @glitterbug shows how out of touch you are. Teachers are often doing the work of social workers and mental health professionals - not because there are lazy social workers etc but because early intervention services are cut to the bone. I used to have a pastoral role and on top of my teaching I would be doing laundry, feeding children breakfast, counselling, acting as a taxi service, home visits, chasing social care or health referrals, ensuring children had Christmas or birthday presents.... and that is just of the top of my head.
Currently our pastoral staff will be doing most of the above with more home visits, phonecalls etc.

Even somebody like me who is just a form tutor is regularly contacting home and feeding back to safeguarding teams.

Okay @Glitterbug76 you clearly don’t want to answer my questions but simply to vilify teachers with any anecdotes of poor attitude you can throw at us.

I’m too done in to engage so I’ll leave you to it. Stay safe.

I am sorry you feeling like this, op. I am not a teacher myself just a parent, but I really don't like teacher bashing threads.
But please remember there are many parents who really appreciate all the work teachers do for our children.
Thank you, and take care of yourself.

Chloe
Thank you so much for that I will send her this information now.
Twin set not out of touch my two aunties and best friend are social workers so i know what they are
doing during the pandemic.
Apologies Winchester I’ve just looked back but I can’t find a question I would not purposely ignore your question. Thank you for the message you stay safe to.

I an a teacher and have been accused of teacher bashing because I find it disgusting how many are saying they would refuse to go back to school unless they deem it 'safe' for them. Never mind about how many people have to go to work right now to keep us fed and with power and water and WiFi, police etc. If education is an essential service (which I believe it to be which is why I am a teacher) and that children need to be on school then teachers need to urging the Gvt to get us back to work, not saying they will refuse if they consider it too soon, or insisting that their 'booked holidays' must go ahead, regardless of what others have had to suffer.
So... no /teacher 'bashing' is not always unreasonable.

@glitterbug your cousin's son is entitled to a place in a school. If she gets nowhere with the school contact your local council or MP. If he is primary age there might be a hub school that your cousin has not been made aware of. Does she have no email contact with the head or current teacher. Teachers should be in daily contact with students.

You do sound out of touch. Why the ranting about how little teachers do if you know that on top of our teaching duties we are having to also fill the gaps of just about every frontline service?

If education is an essential service (which I believe it to be which is why I am a teacher) and that children need to be on school then teachers need to urging the Gvt to get us back to work, not saying they will refuse if they consider it too soon, or insisting that their 'booked holidays' must go ahead, regardless of what others have had to suffer.

I don't need the government to get me back to work- I am working as is very teacher I know. I am interested @Stellamboscha that you feel that you are not working. But working teachers and students into the ground solves nothing. My students have been working just as they would if they were in school. In fact more because they have all been set Easter work. If teachers want to volunteer or be paid to run childcare schemes over the summer that is fine.

I honestly think that teachers should be furloughed on percentage pay. Firstly, remote learning is an entirely new dimension of education which most of us are not familiar with. Secondly, the safeguarding parameters are very fuzzy and we could be laying the foundations for serious problems in the long run. Whose school actually has a remote learning safeguarding policy? Thirdly, many of us are trying to either home educate our own children or care for younger children (or a bit of both). Many of my non teaching friends have voluntarily taken furlough because this situation of trying to work full time in a BRAND NEW JOB while keeping children alive and well is simply not viable.
So, the remote learning should stop entirely and parents can choose to properly home school (as home schoolers do permanently without school supplied resources) or give their children an extended break.
Or maybe we will be back to school in the summer term doing the job we have trained to do?

Children need to go back to school as soon as possible so they can be properly educated as they deserve. However much work teachers might be doing now in planning and prep is is not actually giving children what they need -face to face teaching in a in a classroom.
Concerning if you think there is no difference to childcare or play schemes????
But do many teachers on here don't seem keen to do their job.

I honestly think that teachers should be furloughed on percentage pay

I want to keep teaching, in particular my exam classes are still working as normal with every student doing the work to the expected standard. We are moving through the curriculum, they are being taught and assessed on new content and getting regular feedback.

My key stage 3 are also working, it is not quite so smooth but they are submitting work and getting feedback.

I want to go back when it is safe for schools to open which I really hope is before the summer.

It's not our decision when schools are opened though. They're not closed because teachers have demanded it!

Children need to go back to school as soon as possible so they can be properly educated as they deserve.

Ignoring the minor issue of a global pandemic that sees 1.6 billion pupils/students currently affected?

Stellamboscha

You have an opinion, others are also allowed to have an opinion.

IMO, increasing the risk of spreading a disease through 1200 - 2000 kids, thats approximately 700 - 1500 separate families is unacceptable especially when you consider that social distancing will effectively end with schools going back.

I am looking forward to going back in to school, I miss the work and the kids, but I am not going to put them at risk for soemthing that I want.

And again with the holidays. 6 weeks work for no pay would be taking the piss.

I've decided I'm going to stop reading these threads but before I go I'll just address the bit about pay a few pages back. I'm paid £25k pa for 45 hrs work a week in term time, and probably about 2 further weeks of doing those hours over the holidays. I don't chit chat in school or take a lunch break - those are actual working hours. I'm on a part-time contract in a tiny school and that's the reality of sharing the workload of running a school between a handful of people. I have been teaching 8 years and am consistently judged Outstanding in observations etc. I have a first class degree, 3 As at A Level. I worked in business before retraining. I honestly don't think I am overpaid; if it weren't for the holidays I simply wouldn't do the job for that level of pay, good pension or not.

The other alternative when your off for two weeks at Easter staff come in the Friday before you come back and have 9 days off instead of 10. Parents find it hard enough to cover without theses extra days or do training in your no contact time.

Google the history of Baker days-that might sort out a misconception that you appear to have picked up so where along the way.

I spent the first two weeks of lockdown I'll and then recovering from a virus, probably covid, that I almost certainly picked up at school. At least 2 kids I taught in the 10 days before lockdown were in with coughs.
I'm absolutely not putting myself out there or working as hard as my friends in the nhs. But I am working. I am going to be in over Easter looking after key workers kids.

There seems to be a lot of people who really believe that teachers are well paid wasters, constantly moaning for no reason and generally not working very hard. Yet there is a massive teacher recruitment and retention problem? Square that circle.

I'm not being terribly productive at the moment, I'm stressed, I'm not sleeping well, I'm trying to do the best by my children and this whole situation is horrible. All my resources are in school, I don't want to go in unless I have too, working from home is hard. My normal teaching very much relies on me being there. How do you run a speech and language group remotely? How do you teach dyslexic kids to read via online learning? A large part of my work is assessment that I just can't do online.

Not all teachers are amazing, but the vast majority love our kids and are desperately worried for them.

These children are entitled to a school place, but if all schools are anything like the ones round here they act like they're the only people in the world still expected at work and you just want to drop your kids off and go back to bed.

Management's position at my place of work (NHS, patient-facing) is that our children are entitled to a school place therefore we are still to come to work, even though school is only 9-3 ish anyway and obviously our shifts are outside of this. Any time off for childcare reasons is unpaid. My manager is having to phone schools (in all the spare time she has in this time of crisis) to insist that they allow our children to attend, as the government has instructed them to, because some have flat-out refused. I still get a call from school once or twice a week where they speak to me like I'm trying to have some sort of laugh at their expense, reminding me that my daughter is only to attend if it's actually necessary, asking me what I would normally do in the holidays since school wouldn't be open? Well her grandparents usually look after my DD but obviously that's not an option at the moment!

I don't actually think badly of teachers or hold the teachers responsible for how this is being handled, I know they work very hard, most are doing their best for their children even though they aren't in school, and understandably they are worried to go in to work at this time - but aren't we all. Somebody is obviously telling the office staff to treat parents in this way, to avoid children coming into schools when they are entitled to.

Teachers didn’t ask for schools to close, and in the final week before the closure my husband was having to teach two separate classes at a time from the corridor to cover staff absence due to either illness or needing to look after their own I’ll children. I’m sure that will be seen as teachers shirking of course but they were following the govt guidelines just like everyone else. It was unsustainable, and I fail to see how giving schoolchildren face-to-face teaching in that manner is what they need either

Like a fish
Who’s going to look after the key worker children ? Or do you suggest hospitals should close because you need to get on with looking after your children.

And everyone in the country who is working from home should just stop working! Do you actually live in the real world !

Like a fish
Who’s going to look after the key worker children ? Or do you suggest hospitals should close because you need to get on with looking after your children.

I absolutely agree with you Glitterbug. I am pleased teachers in the U.K. are supporting in this way.

It’s interesting that many many countries have closed schools entirely to all children, including keyworker children and those who are vulnerable/SEND. Their hospitals are still open. Ireland, for example and Italy and Spain....Maybe this should be something teachers in the U.K. could be free of being bashed for, do you think?

I find it disgusting how many are saying they would refuse to go back to school unless they deem it 'safe' for them

Teachers are not just teachers though, are they? Some of us have caring responsibilities for people who are currently deemed ‘high risk’. I personally do not want to be responsible for killing my child. So no, I won’t be going back until it seems safe to do so.