The Teachers’s Republic Refuge - solidarity comrades!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

So continuing on from our boycott/flowers we need to continue to defend our profession. This is teacher/school staff chat - if you do not fall into that category please start you own thread elsewhere.

#solidarity

I’ve just read a few comments on that but had to stop. What a complete arse-how dare he?!

Mrs we have had a similar sort of email.

It's actually quite nice.

Head also said he knows as much as us about when we will be back though everyone in the media has an opinion on it.

Lost my temper on one of THOSE threads. Coming to sit in here for a bit.

I don't even know why I read them

why the government had not issued proper guidance

The whole thing has been a shitshow hasn’t it? And what’s the point in the DfE setting up an online school if the implication is that teachers shouldn’t be using it?

I have actually been searching to see if there is some kind of conflict of interest, he seem such a cheerleader for Oak / online learning.

Why is it that these high profile people are coming out to criticise teachers and schools instead of the shitshow at the DfE?

Haha best not tell Andy all staff at my school have just received a small but much appreciated gift voucher for our hard work during this difficult time (we're not doing online lessons....). Had a lovely letter with it too which has made me feel much better. Oh , just remembered, I can't tell his lordship as he's blocked me for disagreeing with him - I didn't put anything rude/aggressive.

Soft targets noble ?

You’d think the DfE would be a pretty soft target for a Labour peer, piggy. There’s so much to criticise right now.

I don’t really understand why the government is getting off so lightly.

FGS I’m feeling grateful for Piers Morgan....

But he reminded us that the pupils are finding this difficult and we need to reduce our expectations of them

I think that is doing them a great disservice personally. If you reduce the expectations then you will reduce the quality of what they are doing. You don't have to have the same expectations of all children though.

Noble Are you on glue? (sorry, couldn't resist! I'm having a bad day so am joking my way out of it)

As an aside, we just got the eCode for the FSM voucher and redeemed it for our chosen nearest supermarket - which just happens to be a Sainsburys petrol station outlet. Nothing in the small print suggested a problem until I redeemed the voucher and then got an email saying it can't be used at the petrol station outlets even though they are owned by Sainsburys I suppose it's my fault for not having thought of it but it's the first voucher we've had (the school bought the others and sent them direct) from the government scheme. It's a monthly voucher as well, if it was just the £15 for the week I wouldn't mind.

I think that is doing them a great disservice personally. If you reduce the expectations then you will reduce the quality of what they are doing. You don't have to have the same expectations of all children though.

We had so many parents emailing in that we had to take this approach. With a dd in y7 at my school. It was hugely appreciated.

You’d think the DfE would be a pretty soft target for a Labour peer, piggy. There’s so much to criticise right now. I don’t really understand why the government is getting off so lightly.

I agree, Noble. Rebecca Long Bailey is being very quiet from what I can see. The article she wrote was fine but she should be taking Williamson to task for the lack of direction and there's nothing really.

We had so many parents emailing in that we had to take this approach. With a dd in y7 at my school. It was hugely appreciated.

And that's fine for those that need it for whatever reason but some won't benefit from it. Still, the teachers know who will and who won't so all is well that ends well.

England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said it was "very important" to know this factor to decide whether school closures are a "critical part of our long term response" in an online Gresham College lecture
It's important that we don't know how much children contribute to transmitting the virus and this is very important for example in deciding whether school closures are a critical part of our long term response."

And that's fine for those that need it for whatever reason but some won't benefit from it. Still, the teachers know who will and who won't so all is well that ends well.

Nothing ideal in these circumstances. I think this approach is better for my school though.

Nothing ideal in these circumstances. I think this approach is better for my school though.

Exactly - your school know best for your pupils
I am glad my DS's school haven't done it because he needs what they are currently providing and will do it willingly and easily but if they lowered their expectations then he'd lower his efforts, he's bright but he's got a tendency towards 'That will do' which needs awareness as the school can tackle it but I can't, though I try. He's year 10 and knows it all

@bettybattenburg
But he reminded us that the pupils are finding this difficult and we need to reduce our expectations of them

He wasn't actually suggesting we reduce our expectations of the quality of the work, just the quantity. It takes longer for them to read instructions and understand what to do than it does to listen to the teacher explain it. It often takes longer to get started if you can't share ideas with a partner. So the amount of work they can produce in an hour of home learning is less than they could produce in an hour of uninterrupted lesson time. He suggested setting time limits on pieces of work, and allow catch up lessons to give them a chance to finish work from previous lessons. This seemed eminently sensible to me.

Yes, it seems sensible to me too, it's just not what's needed here.

Noble you're right about live lessons. The students want to just sit and passively watch the lesson, they don't want to do any work or think for themselves. Just because lots of independent schools are doing live online learning, doesn't actually mean that students are doing more learning than state school kids with a good PowerPoint and a selection of questions they can mark themselves.

Skim read what's going on. Jeeze!

I want to know what Nobby McNobby has to say...

I'm lost in the land of trying to write a subject curriculum from scratch for an alternative universe where the virus never happened...

This thread on twitter blew up yesterday. What was Adonis thinking?

I am glad my DS's school haven't done it because he needs what they are currently providing and will do it willingly and easily but if they lowered their expectations

To be honest it doesn't make a difference. The kids don't know we have lowered expectations. The work is still there and marked. It's just for those that can't. It's better than the constant pressure.

Mn is excellent cpd at the mo for me btw. I hadn't properly realised what teacher Tapp is and who these people are. Now have the app.

Liking getting up to speed!

Okay can now see I'm late to the party with the Adonis thing.

I liked your delayed response. It was like teaching a lesson on Zoom!