The Forty Fourth Republic - primaries sort of in, secondaries out, Gormless Gav says two weeks notice

[Staffdontblowitnow]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Do not give the staffroom password just in case it attracts the wrong sort

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation.

If you come with a stick to goad us then that is not allowed in the staffroom and you will receive a detention

Given the complete balls-up when testing started with people being sent to test centres hundreds of miles away, it does seem to have got a lot better.

How helpful is it to children’s mental health to see bullshit like this as front page news?

Fgs talk about catastrophising.

To be fair, very few young people will read that.

There is a MH crisis, the younger generation are going to be hit hard by Coronavirus and Brexit. I worry that 'we' are letting people like the CRG, U4T, etc. drive the narrative on this.

But 'we' are very out-gunned in terms of reach and simplicity of message/solution.

It's a bit sad, though. The original 'Lost Generation' were fleeing the USA to a cheap (war-damaged) Europe (hence 'lost' to the USA). I really hope that our young people can run off across the world, have fun, fall in love, explore life after all this is over.

And, of course, the DM won't mention Brexit. Son wants to go and live in Spain when he finishes university (which has become an endurance test). But that is radically more complicated now.

Bloody Daily Mail ...

Their parents might read it. Declaring a generation doomed because they’ve missed a bit of school at the same time as all their peers have missed school seems a bit excessive. It’s a global issue.

Yes. It's typical DM.

There's no doubt there will be a huge economic impact on that generation. But the causes of that are diverse. And, as you say, it's not as simplistic as saying it's simply down to missing school (with the implied teacher-bashing).

But there is definitely a cost. It's going to be interesting to see what happens with universities, for example. And that's going to impact on my daughter, directly.

And my son is job-hunting right now - and it's not great.

So - typical DM, contorting facts to a reactionary, simplified narrative.

But I'm pretty angry.

The impact, I think, will really be felt as the pandemic wanes. I think we'll see other countries putting in place more state support and experiencing a bounce-back far more quickly than the U.K.

I think that's when the economic cost will really kick in.

I hope I'm wrong.

I do wonder where those figures are derived from, though. And also what factors the projection is based on. For example, is that figure based on projections that take account of the assumed economic shrinkage of Brexit, too?

I've advised son to look for a teaching job in the Far East. I can't imagine it's going to be anything but difficult here in the U.K. over the next few years.

@noblegiraffe

Enemy I meant the young one who got taken to hospital?

Oops sorry. Our other neighbours report she is now home with a bundle of steroids to take, so that's good. Apparently only one night on oxygen and steroids, and much improved ☺️ elderly neighbours also seem much better - waved to my kids from their window when we walked past today. So so glad ☺️

That's good news. 🙂

It seemed so wrong for a young healthy girl like that to be taken so poorly.
I think I'll feel happier when I actually see her though. Currently it's just hearsay that she's better.

As predicted trying to get ds up is a nightmare

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Test handed over at 10.50 this morning, result text at 21.48. Efficient.

Thats impressive! The one I took this week took 24 hours and I thought that was quick (also negative)

Happy Belated Birthday btw.

For us

That was definitely me in my last job, Honey. Thank you!

It's only true that the current generations of children will "pay" for these crises if we accept the inevitability of neo-liberal capitalism.

After the second world war, broadly speaking, children enjoyed better lives than their parents. The social democratic consensus was that we should provide people with stable jobs, good housing and a proper welfare state.

We could return to that. We could start taxing wealthy corporations properly, and provide secure social housing for people. We could focus on providing good secure jobs, rather than zero hours contracts in an Amazon warehouse.

Obviously a Tory government won't do that, but it's not inevitable that the current generation of children will have to have more difficult lives than our own. They don't have to be a "lost" generation.

The guy who carried out the IFS research is quite interesting. He is very clear about chronic underfunding of education in all his previous work. That problems in education are now going to pinned to the pandemic is a convenient reading of the entire body of his work. He pretty much blames austerity for a lot of issues.

Clearly, our future generations will also be paying for Brexit, and for austerity measures.

Is that the research The Mail figures are based on, Piggy?

Do you have a name/link?

That makes a lot more sense than being wholly pandemic related.

Missing some months of school in and of itself needn't be a disaster.

It bocomes one when placed within a system that can't cope with such an occurrence and won't take measures to respond to the effects or adapt to the situation.

I saw it noted on Twitter that the ‘lost generation’ are projected to lose £1000 earnings per year in their career as a result of the missing schooling.

Which is the amount that they want to cut universal credit by.

It makes the intention of the Mail coverage far clearer, too. Using school closures as a screen to cover up the effects of years of austerity, the impact of Brexit, and move the terrain of the argument from demands for post-pandemic the-structuring, planning and investment (when I suspect we're going to see even more privatisation and defunding of public goods).

It indicates we're in for a lot of teacher-bashing. Not just now, when schools are doing a lot of on-line teaching, but also perhaps for the next few years, as political decisions continue to exact their costs. ('This is because schools were closed ...')

Worrying.

Yes, the BBC has a clearer article

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55859597

The Guardian

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/feb/01/covid-could-cost-children-350bn-in-earnings-through-lost-learning-says-ifs

With nice links at the bottom of the page to IFS September announcement on effects of austerity.

No thread on this in the coronavirus board yet. May be speaking too soon.

I am always surprised by how right wing MN is, economically. But I think you are correct sansa that that is because we think neo liberalism / free market capitalism is the only way.

Hear, hear Sansa

Wouldn't it be luvverly.

Of course that 350 billion is lost to the economy as well. So everyone suffers (apart from the privileged few).

How the fuck can they project the lost earnings of a few months out of school? Sorry but that seems utter horseshit to me.

@TheHoneyBadger

How the fuck can they project the lost earnings of a few months out of school? Sorry but that seems utter horseshit to me.

Good point Honey.