The Forty Sixth Republic - online learning has killed the 'snow day'

[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

Anyone seen the cover of today's Daily Star (you'll like it)?

Civil society means informal groups (ground roots charities, neighbourhoods etc) and just generally the idea of us all being willing to help one another. One definition is
society considered as a community of citizens linked by common interests and collective activity

So here's this, wonder if Kevan called the shots on this or what?
schoolsweek.co.uk/lost-learning-expert-group-scrapped-by-dfe-before-its-even-set-up/?fbclid=IwAR0ralYIIhEQyS9F8S7sETPNxaS5wxV7tS3nKuui-Hk67lHUbMFPmi5ie9k

Yes, civil society is Cameron again. Like after the riots instead of looking at the cause of riots and the problems within communities, people came along with their brushes and cleared up : literally swept the problems away from view. Same after floods : instead of shouting and protesting at government ears about flood defences the media shows the jolly Brits wading through water.

Well, Cameron hijacked the concept, yes.

Seen this - it's Viner and some others, but sounds reasonably sensible on reopening schools in relation to other sectors, and how schools could reopen:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55980052

Yes, but it is so miserable... who wants to go back to school without a haircut??

And the obsessive focus on exam years : surely those who will do exams in a couple of years with no concessions matter more??

They really do think catch up is a quick thing.

If they send back year 11 it makes cancelling exams altogether look stupid.

Just reading Twitter at the moment is a bit mad.

Teachers can't even make up their minds over what children 'need', so not sure how politicians think they can possibly know. And one size does not fit all ages/stages either. It shouldn't be a blanket response.

Remember when we stressed about this last summer, and actually what most primary school children 'needed' was boundaries, high expectations and consistency... oh, and normal teaching.

I hope you're all having a good week. Just a few more days until half term
I can't believe that vaccine/summer school idea! I think it's annoyed me all the more, as my GP confirmed I'm not in group 6 for my asthma. Obviously that's how it is but it would be nice to be offered it properly and not as a weird bribe/guilt trip

I think it's appalling to bribe you with the vaccine for summer working. I'm the usual type of mug (single, no kids, young-ish-) who would volunteer for it, and no way am I doing it.

I had such a nice day today. All the neighbours came out to clear the path, and one kind person went for coffee for everyone! It was so nice to talk to people in person. I had almost forgotten what it was like

SF Said ❤️
twitter.com/whatSFSaid/status/1358864113334632449?s=20

@borntobequiet

When ICT was compulsory in KS4, at least most people came out with a useful set of transferable skills and some understanding of computer systems. Then it wasn’t compulsory and only about half of them did. Then Gove insisted that proficiency the standard packages used in most business and commerce, including those for web design, along with an understanding of the organisations they might be used in, was worthless and made everyone do Computing, which was hated by many children as being boring and difficult. Now we find that many of our FE learners have minimal ICT skills and flounder in the workplace. They’re very keen on their phones, though, and think their use of What’sApp makes them techie whizz kids.

Completely agree (although I would fight for my subject as being far from boring and difficult, ha ha!) and I was very loud on Mumsnet back in the day (different username) telling many posters who just claimed ICT was a doss subject and not needed and Gove was right to remove it in England how wrong they were and that they would regret it. The fact that Wales and Northern Ireland still have ICT GCSEs and A Levels that are accessible to many and Scotland still has it in their Highers, makes me jealous!

CS than had nearly a decade of pupils taking the subject up at GCSE or A Level having never done it before and rightly found it a struggle (as would anyone taking, say Physics for the first time at GCSE having never done it before) which hammered results and caused many heads to not bother with it as they demanded unreasonable immediate results magic

Years later and we have systems working in place. A lot of primary schools do it now and a lot of us have re written our KS3 and are therefore much more prepared for pupils at GCSE and A Level.
As a result, I was going to have some fantastic results last year had it not been for the struggles in grades the years before would not have been hammered by SLT and that bloody algorithm.

I still think ICT needs to be brought back and/or SLT to seriously consider increasing the piss poor timetabling allowance to Computing for most schools at KS3, so we have at least a chance of fitting in some digital skills to help other subjects with their work.

My colleagues often express surprise when I tell them I have only 1 hour a week to fit in subjects such as: circuitry. Binary, networking, computational thinking, encryption, data handling, programming, AI and how hardware and software works. I am luck. Many have one hour a fortnight or just one term on a rotation with DT for example. Some have none in year 7 or 8 at all and just expected to pick it up in year 9. They often assume we have plenty of time to show them the school network at the start of year 7. I always hollow laugh at that. We just don’t have the time and it’s not our job!

Interestingly, when I went to visit the Michaela School a few years ago, I found out they don’t offer any Computing at all in any years and when I asked Katharine Birbalsingh about it, it was the first time I saw her smile go and she walked out of the room we were in saying ‘goodbye’, leaving us with some pupils to escort us out (visit was nearly done anyway).

I think it was a touchy subject. I just wanted to know any tips they could give me for my subject really.
I’ve been wondering how they found their Zoom lessons as a result and was interested in Katherine’s help sheet!

I remember you telling us about that KB encounter!

She was being praised of course by Nick Gibb today for stellar results because of knowledge curriculum. Which had bog all to do with Covid.

Haven't they had issues? As in, not such perfect behaviour management.

like a reading support camp for Y6 going into Y7 who won't be able to access the secondary curriculum. Now that sounds like an almost sensible idea. Targeted, intense (as in small groups, not stressful) work on reading would really help the weakest kids. My school have a form time intervention for year 7 reading every year. Usually there are about 40-50 kids who have a reading age under 8 (I think that's our cut off) who then work one to one during 2 form times a week. We manage to improve most of their reading ages to 10+ by Christmas, and the ones who don't improve that much stay in the program until they do. It's only possible because we have a) an amazing team of TAs who organise it all, and b) an army of sixth formers who are instructed to do some sort of volunteering as part of their "rounded education", and this is the lowest effort volunteering (they are very well trained and supervised by the learning support department). So if some of that could be done over the summer, where the kids who need this intervention don't have to be seen going to it, that would be fantastic.

And can I have a little rant? Why is that when I'm not teaching I manage to get our kids fed, started on school work, little household jobs done (sweep the mud and crap up yet again, washing, washing up etc), while when I'm teaching and DH has the kids NOTHING extra gets done.....

I'm home working all day and dh is out at work in the office. It's my day off and I've given the house a thorough clean and got on with tomorrow's lessons. On the days I'm working, I usually manage meals and laundry, with the usual basic cleaning - wiping surfaces down etc.

This week one of my dc has bombed in an assessment and another has had strong words from his teacher about his declining levels of effort. This then makes me feel as if I'm not paying them enough attention. I do feel as if I'm shouldering much more of the lockdown work than dh (but of course, he earns much more than I do ).

Just a little pity party from here, really, and empathy with you @EnemyOfEducationNo1 . Think I need .

I saw that Piggy! I liked a lot of what I saw at Michaela but then also had to take it with a pinch of salt because there are a few subjects not taught at Michaela other than Computing (going against the NC) and if we all did that and had more time as a result in the timetable, we would probably find results improved too. I don’t think they can say they have a broad and balanced curriculum which is often a stick to beat other schools with so the ‘knowledge curriculum’ shout out is largely BS in my opinion.

And yes Rule I have been reading about their behaviour issues. If a school run like Michaela has those behaviour issues, it’s validation that Zoom lessons are not necessarily a very good way of delivering remote learning as some on here elsewhere like to claim!

This week one of my dc has bombed in an assessment and another has had strong words from his teacher about his declining levels of effort. This then makes me feel as if I'm not paying them enough attention.

I want to politely disagree with you and reassure you at the same time! You are not responsible for their efforts and it is no reflection on you. It is the same as their teacher talking to them about their efforts as if they were in school.
You are keeping a safe, clean and warm home with the right environment for your children.
You are all winning during a pandemic as far as I’m concerned and remember to take it just one day at a time I need to take note of my own advice!

That is so interesting @ChloeDecker. DH is a computing teacher in a primary school.
Amongst so many teachers there is this idea that children know all about computers these days because they are always on their phones.
He spends the best part of a half term teaching children how to use a touch pad and to sign in.

This year 5/7 year 7 comp sci classes are being taught by non specialists. Our HOD is a man on the edge.

Since I've had my first vaccine (cev) they can shove their bribery of working over summer and get the vaccine. Just diabolical to suggest it.

@StanfordPines

That is so interesting *@ChloeDecker*. DH is a computing teacher in a primary school. Amongst so many teachers there is this idea that children know all about computers these days because they are always on their phones. He spends the best part of a half term teaching children how to use a touch pad and to sign in.

Steve Jobs famously stated that he designed the iPad and iPhone so that they could be used by 2 year olds without training. They are essentially black boxes that require no understanding of how they work (very useful teaching tool when I am teaching about Abstraction though!)

When it comes to network, PCs and laptops, it’s like a whole new world for them. I have Year 7s who have never used a mouse before or saved a document to a particular location. Some teachers in other subjects often get a shock when they set an online homework and they haven’t had a Computing lesson yet (they have so few C lessons that this can often be after a fortnight into Sept!)

Teachers like your DH are mini heroes trying to teach them these skills despite Gove’s meddling.

It’s not the first time that I have found Gove’s legacy to have been directly detrimental to the success of children’s outcomes this pandemic (coursework and modular exams being the other) so I still hate him just as much as Gav!

@MrsHamlet

This year 5/7 year 7 comp sci classes are being taught by non specialists. Our HOD is a man on the edge.

Sadly still too common but this breaks my Computing heart! My subject is the world to me and the left over idea that ‘anyone can teach it’ by some SLT or the fact that schools can’t employ anyone for love nor money because let’s face it, if you have a CS degree, you will earn triple what a teacher does with better working conditions, is slowly killing the subject when in fact, it will be so useful in so many ways to the next generation.

@DreamingofBrie you are doing the best you can, and you only feel bad because you know about your DC's teacher interaction. In more normal times you would know nothing about it.
But I get it. My 7 year old seems to have forgotten how to write (although she started reading Diary of an 8 bit warrior this morning and had finished it by 5pm, so her reading is fine!) And my 4 year old has become an iPad games addict, while my 9 year old has suddenly discovered how to find videos on YouTube (she's working on a laptop unsupervised as we are both working and we've always kept her kindle locked down). Luckily she's mostly investigating black holes, white holes, quarks and string theory so far..... The 7 year old is now DanTMs biggest fan
I'm just grateful that the 4 year old has moved on from bloody Blippy!

Me and DH are hot desking from the office, occasionally one of us on a laptop downstairs if our timetables/schedules clash, and we try to supervise the kids whenever one of us isn't working...
Half term cannot come soon enough.

I've been to a DanTDM actual gig... DD and I would have got to meet him if her social anxiety hadn't mean we had to hide at the back of the crowd by the stage door...

Evening all - just skimming the thread after a frankly miserable day at work. Have there been any further whisperings over the Grand Reopening on or after 8th March?

Welsh bacc is a separate subject - it's general studies with bells on, and it's often compulsory at GCSE and was even compulsory at A level for DD1, which shot down her chance to take a fourth A level as Welsh Bacc sucked up all the timetable time. And you had to volunteer too for something in the community.

I've been looking at the timings today. Welsh gov reviews are every three weeks and that's when they make educational decisions too. They've decided foundation go back on 22nd Feb. And have several times said that they need to see how that goes before they decide who else to send back to school and when.

The next review is the 19th Feb, so foundation haven't gone back by then. If they decide three weeks after that to send KS2 and older back, and still give the 2 weeks they have promised as notice, then the two weeks ends just as the Easter holidays will start.

Of course, they could backtrack and not wait to see what the foundation phase (all of ks1) return does to infection rates etc and decide to send us back earlier. Stranger things have happened.

@JanFebAnyMonth

I've been to a DanTDM actual gig... DD and I would have got to meet him if her social anxiety hadn't mean we had to hide at the back of the crowd by the stage door...

Me too! He made a comment about how half the people in the audience probably didn't know who he was The baton has been passed from ds1 now to ds2.