The Thirty-Sixth Republic - New Year approaching, no clear idea of what is happening next week and has Gav been sacked yet?

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Noble the announcement on 18th Dec said key exam years from 4th and I don't think anything official has superceded this yet..

@noblegiraffe

I literally can’t remember what was definitely planned and what was just a leak about plans any more.

Exactly how I feel. My head is spinning!

Yes that was the plan noble apart from Scotland and what I have been prepping for.

What are they gaslighting is with now!?

Or am I going mad?

Nope. Original plan was 11 and 13 in on the 5th.

@noblegiraffe

Key exam years return 11th Jan ‘as planned’

That wasn’t the plan was it? They were supposed to be in next week. Or am I going mad?

That was the leaked plan yesterday. Secondary plan pushed back a week with remote learning for y11/13, extra week holiday for other years - to allow testing to be set up... Although this has not been confirmed by the government.

@RigaBalsam

Sorry for the sun.

What do we think?

Likely or bollocks??

I definitely planned (very vaguely) for Y11 to be in from the 5th - because I've uploaded 'isolation work' as normal for any that weren't.

11th was the plan for non-exam years.

I've had to see them as a way to collate key images for the staff to use in powerpoints etc and for their own knowledge in order not to burst a blood vessel over them.

Yes - I use the images put into the 'adult' KOs for all my planning, and the wording too. Thing is, they've been written by one person on SLT - it's just one person dictating what is taught in a school. I might have better ideas, better images, better resources and so on, but I have to use the ones given to me. It's tricky.

Gavin Williamson to set out revised plan for return of schools
mol.im/a/9098639

Hmm...

@OnehorseopenBobsleigh

Thanks everyone- so they're like summaries of the lessons? Heaven forbid that the pupils would make their own links!

More like detailed vocabulary sheets to be honest. Listing key knowledge you need.

However there's issues in applying a blanket uncritical approach to all subject areas imo.

A really good example I was given (here?) was using one to set the scene of background knowledge of 1930s US daily life when reading and responding to Of mice and men.

However, my school is an sen primary; few children can read in KS2 and a few can't even talk....

As I say, in our context it has to be for staff key knowledge of a topic
and giving them some key diagrams or images to use in visuals.

Again, use in PE...?! Limiting!

I don't even think we were planning on having the extra inset. My school is very much against holiday communication, we have been told to come to work as normal on Monday and it'll be sorted out then (letter to parents on last Friday said y11/13 in and let them know if you needed a KW place, said they'd be in contact with vulnerables). I don't expect to hear anything else before Monday unless we are being instructed to WFH.

Well, at least closing primaries in Tier 4 is a start. Doubt it'll actually happen, though.

Sorry to all the secondary colleagues who were and are and will be stressing about KS4 and 5 exams - the Government really don't have a clue and it's unfair on you and your pupils.

I don’t think they’ll go for a tiered approach in schools - it goes against what every single scientist is saying AND it will guarantee they’ll have to cancel exams.

In no way is Gav ready to u turn on exams. That’s for May.

I might have better ideas, better images, better resources and so on, but I have to use the ones given to me. It's tricky.

Yes exactly. And it becomes very prescribed. For some subjects that might limit the flexibility of content driven by pupil interest.

As far as I can tell they may have been promoted a lot by the author of a curriculum tome all the heads seem to have who is an RE teacher.

Some subjects are fact based. Others are not.

In primary, very good vocabulary sheets is their best use.

I was one of the first people to use KOs at my place - super useful when you’re doing something like the A Level Media Studies course we did with about 20 set products to analyse - one format with boxes for the key terms/facts etc and space for students to add their own revision notes, rather than making handouts from scratch every time. Of rather less use applied wholesale across a setting with no regard whether or not they work for that topic and subject.

I wish they would hurry up and make their announcement rather than leaks to the press. This just wastes precious time when we could be preparing. I’m Tier 4 and if that is true, potentially all the work I have done since before Christmas Eve may be for nothing. Sigh.
Arses.

I'm absolutely sure they are in secondary.

Definitely not primary SEN unless it's the Y5/6 most able classes who can read and discuss. (Not many.)

I'm not a KO fan in maths really. There's some value in the facts from each topic but I'm not sure how valuable they are. Has anyone used them successfully for maths?
I haven't used them much because my gut is against them (terrible really!).

To my mind they'd be a bit like a maths display on a sheet? Again, more vocab and symbol and example like?

I've seen some massive essays on tes that you can buy. Not sure the point?

@NeurotreeWenceslas - Queen Mary Myatt?

I've seen her speak a couple of times. First time it was as if she was on coke, genuinely. Second time was 'better', but again - she banged on about showing the children a picture of a prayer mat from a museum instead of showing them a picture of a prayer mat from a Twinkl powerpoint. What's the difference? They won't engage with either. Get the Muslim teacher, or one of their parents to come in with their prayer mat and talk about it, discuss its importance.

AAAAAAanyway. It's better than bloody Jon whatsisname from Reach flogging his booklets. Again, just one person sat in a room for a year doing things with publisher and Google. Why is your choice the correct one?

Yes rule. And yes the film I saw of her talking about KO didn't fit with my experience of primary children, sen or no.

(Give them the root Greek or Latin word....)

Given I found a child in y5 couldn't show me his thumb recently...

When I'm teaching if there's a key formula I get them to highlight it in their books so the next lesson they can flick back and find it. I suppose you could put those in a knowledge organiser but I wouldn't want to give kids the suggestion that they can revise maths effectively by staring at a sheet.

@ChloeDecker

I wish they would hurry up and make their announcement rather than leaks to the press. This just wastes precious time when we could be preparing. I’m Tier 4 and if that is true, potentially all the work I have done since before Christmas Eve may be for nothing. Sigh. Arses.

I know! I have 11 child free hours remaining before I go back. By the time they've made the announcement it will be 8.

To be fair though, I'm pretty sure SLT won't tell us how exactly we're going to do remote learning until the inset (the plan in place for year group closures requires a rota for online (50%) lessons) - our AHT in charge of timetables and rotas is a last minute Larry.

I love Mary Myatt at times, yet despise her at others. A lot of what she says is good but only in her context and style of subject. Some of her maths suggestions have been cringe worthy and now she doesn't say much about maths!

@Monkeytennis97

Gavin Williamson to set out revised plan for return of schools mol.im/a/9098639

Hmm...

That says ‘primaries are not thought to be affected’.