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@P-Jay I assume you are aware that when this all started the Teaching Unions met with the Government to offer to keep schools open for the vulnerable children? Ensuring that they went out of their way to feed them and keep them safe? Supporting the families and community whilst other support services had closed down? Keeping open during the holidays without question?
For my dept (science) I can say every pupil has had work, whether they have engaged is another matter, and every piece that has been returned has been marked. I missed a few days when I was in the hub but caught up.
As for return we are looking at 15th for staff but ScotGov and unions agree there needs to be a purpose and a cleaning regime as well as social distancing. In the meantime we'll keep pumping out work and marking it. Today was tough as it was change of timetable.
We need to know how council want to run the blended learning model and we need to know soon, as holidays start in 3 weeks and communication, not work done, drops off in the holiday period.
that children’s mental and social health and wellbeing is being put at the back of the agenda.
This is the concern for my son. He is 6 but we have spent the last two years gradually building his confidence. Now he may not see any friends for 6 months I am concerned what impact it may have on his social health. My wife and I can cover the teaching but we cant provide him the social interaction with peers that he requires and at the moment Im not sure when or how we can get him any :-(.
He cant even see his Nanny and Grandy FFS (they are a 3 hour drive away - more than I consider reasonable under the guidance) but as long as people can get down the pub.
Well, my kids school and college are setting work and providing feedback. Our two are bright and conscientious, so we've no concern as far as remote teaching is concerned.
I don't believe unions are being deliberately obstructive, but quite how we progress I don't know. As far as I can tell local schools have done all they can to get as many kids in on any given day, subject to space restrictions.
There needs to be some proper plans in place for September or some kids will really lose a whole year of schooling at this rate, and with parents losing their jobs it will get very hard to unravel.
that children’s mental and social health and wellbeing is being put at the back of the agenda.
Although in our area there is now a focus on trauma and bereavement training to enable the schools to support the kids. Not sure if that is National though.
Well done for typing the words Cummings wants you to type. Gold star.
Do you actually believe that Cummings is behind this? You really are deluded. Same as Spin and his Daily Mail default setting.
If you are a teacher let's have your master plan for reopening. Or even online lessons. Give us something.
As a parent all I see is teachers hiding behind the unions finding reasons not to do what they should be doing.
I have two big concerns at a UK wide level
– there is absolutely no extra money being made available
– that children’s mental and social health and wellbeing is being put at the back of the agenda.
****ing shameful that there's no extra money when it's so clearly needed. Hundreds of billions made available to keep the economy running, **** all for education. Tories will Tory 🙁
Why would you say that about the back of the agenda? I thought social aspects of schooling were a big part of the discussion? Am I wrong? At a local level, it was one of the first points from our HT. Robbo, can you get your lad on facetime or similar with friends? We did a movie night last week and my daughter enjoyed that (simultaneous start on Netflix.
My kids school (grammar) has just announced that they wont be opening this side of September (no real surprise there) and even then they are looking at 2 days a week in school maximum - half the school at a time plus closed on Wednesdays for deep cleaning between the two halves.
They say there will be online learning as well, but franbkly so far this has been very minimal - they simply dont have the resources or skills to deliver work online. My son has never taken more than 45 minutes to get the work set done, and like others it is never marked. As he is in year 7 I have a real concern that allowances will be made for those doing A levels / GCSEs next year, and maybe the year after, but his year could easily be forgotten. He has in effect missed 6 months of schooling already, and whilst he is smart, he has the self motivation levels common to most 12 year olds! We have sone our best (whilst working from home and dealing with a whole lead of university/workign abroad issues with our three older kids) but there is only so much we as parents can do.
Moving teaching online is far from simple - having done some high quality online courses (a post graduate qualification with the Open University) and plenty of rubbish e-learning, schools will take some time and investment to get to the required level. I do however think that this is required if we are to avoid a whole generation missing out on an education.
What is needed for some form of proper schooling to occur from September? Funding is definitely part of it, as is a radical rethink if what schooling actually entails - as well as education it provides socialisation and childcare. If online learning is here to stay then schools need massive support to develop this, as well as support (laptops/broadband etc) to those families that havent already got access.
If there is to be some form of face to face teaching (which is essential for the social aspect of schools) then there needs to be investment in buildings, a volunteer army of parents and others who can take some of the strain of managing hundreds of kids, and a rethink of teaching hours and holidays - which in effect means more teachers. It might also make sense to look again at scrapping GCSEs as the requirement to be in school or education/employment until 18 has rendered these slightly obsolete.
Oh and some recognition that in rural areas children are bussed into schools from 30 or more miles away, and any social distancing solution needs to think about 65 kids crammed into an old double decker bus for an hour twice a day with just the driver to keep control...
So quite straightforward really (/sarcasm).
Ok here you are my lessons for the week. Most have booklets and information to work through. I have asked for each to be returned at various times depending on the classes timetable and each is about 2hrs, as that's what we've been told. The lessons are set for the levels so N3 is slightly easier than N4. It took all morning to put these into teams and satche:one and not all are set to start today as not all classes are timetabled for today. I also set the work for the higher Chem class but that was posted by another teacher. I set it as I'm the "expert" on the course.
The whole school work calendar is viewable by all so we can arrange work and avoid clashes.
We don't know how the blended learning model will look as there is no guidance yet but it is probable that senior classes will get more face to face time and that the school will run Mon/Tues deep clean Thurs/Fri, which gives wed to get the online stuff for various classes up and running for the next week/time out of class. All schools go back 11th August but staff will need some time in school to sort out the classroom. We hope also to get in from the 15th june but how that will work is more of an issue.
and a rethink of teaching hours and holidays – which in effect means more teachers.
Indeed. A modicum of flexibility would do wonders, I think.
But your Sept suggestion is also circulating at one of my kids school. It's the usual shortsighted muddle headed nonsense.
Kids will mingle all summer, and then be split up for classes. Why? What is the value of that?
And when kids are doing options and intermingling for each subject, how would that work?
If you are a teacher let’s have your master plan for reopening. Or even online lessons. Give us something.
As a parent all I see is teachers hiding behind the unions finding reasons not to do what they should be doing.
Teachers are not responsible for this, let's be clear. Equally, I wouldn't expect my business to demand solutions from the operatives.
Unions are merely asking for a strategy of reopening which is in line with the rest of society, or at least elaborates on why additional risk is acceptable for teachers, students and their families, but unacceptable elsewhere. Seems fair to me. Or are you looking at the elevated death rates of bus drivers, for example, shrugging your shoulders and thinking it goes with the territory? I struggled with front line heightened risks as well, until TJ pointed out potential exposure to infectious diseases goes with the territory.
But your Sept suggestion is also circulating at one of my kids school. It’s the usual shortsighted muddle headed nonsense.
so i see your outraged but instead of apportioning blame - whats your solution ? ive not seen you provide any yet other than that teachers are lazy and need to try harder.
@RichPenny yeh we have done some facetime and stuff but I think the novelty is wearing off. Something we have managed to do in the last couple of days is set up a Minecraft world he can play with his cousins. They facetime each other whilst doing it and have been playing hide and seek and stuff where they have building challenges but is as close as he gets to playing with someone. One of the issues of being an only child I guess. We play with him but I don't think we are on the same level!
@boomerlives as in every job there are slackers. Yes our unions are strong but that's good because we need them to be.
You know why you don't know how it will work. Because no one does...
It's not a secret we're waiting to be told then we'll see how it'll fit into a real life classroom.
And you know what we want it to be robust because kids and parents will pick holes in it if it isn't and it'll be the front line staff that cop the shit. So we want it to work so we don't look like dicks because in 3 years time when you've moved on to the next moan about teachers the "didn't they mess up covid" will still haunt us.
Have you asked what the school plan is re sending out work and getting feedback? Or does that not allow this ALL teachers through their unions are lazy narrative?
ive not seen you provide any yet other than that teachers are lazy and need to try harder.
Look harder.
I've suggested online sessions. I suggested video-ing lessons. I even hinted that marking work done and feedback might be 'a good thing'
I even pointed out in March that once you shut schools, it's a real problem to open them again.
And here we are.
At some point, schools' will have to reopen, fully. The sooner this is accepted and planned for, the better.
Just kicking the problem into the long grass and blaming bogeyman du jour Cummings is just a distraction.
I’ve suggested online sessions. I suggested video-ing lessons. I even hinted that marking work done and feedback might be ‘a good thing’
Suggesting what most of us are doing. (Maybe not in your not statistically relevant experience).
Edit
https://www.gov.scot/publications/covid-19-education-recovery-group-april-2020/
Wow P-Jay, the Daily Mail got you hook,line and sinker didn’t they!
I've never read that rag in my life.
No hyperbole on my side, that's what I've encountered and that's how I feel.
I can’t reply to boomer without setting off the swear filters.
Boomer for education minister.
The answer is obvious. How did they miss it.
Blaming teachers is pretty desperate when the guidance from government is so contradictory & confused
without a track & trace system in place to handle any new cases reopening is risking a lot of deaths
Im sure teachers could be doing more- ours have been helpful, but its been incredibly hard as we try & wfh & keep the kids on top of their work & were lucky enough to have boradband, a printer a table etc so they can do much online.
The fact is that its the government who proposed a policy without first thinking how to work it through whilst holding up countries that have returned kids as an example, but without then adopting the same techniques those countries are using!
eg Denmark using closed museums & libraries as extra teaching space to allow for distancing
hence another embaressing government u-turn that is damaging the lives & prospects of many children
And for information, it is not as simple as that on the continent. At my kids school in France, only 2 days a week, every other week. End of year is 4th July. Basically they have 4 days at school left.
And 8 weeks summer holiday.
The attacks on teachers and school are totally unfair.
I can’t reply to boomer without setting off the swear filters.
You need to work on your vocabulary in that case. If only there was a formal setting for such a venture.
I’ve never read that rag in my life.
Maybe you should start? I think the two of you could be very happy together. 🙂
Schools now have got themselves in a situation where they don’t have an exit strategy.
Schools? We were told to close, we closed, now we are told to reopen following certain guidelines that in many cases are not possible. I cant see how this is the schools fault, maybe you could enlighten me?
Daughter (primary teacher in London) was told she was switching years and to be back in the classroom on Monday. Switching years means a whole lot extra work above what she's been doing. Then told only 40 kids turning up in the whole school so she’s now on reserve. She’d been in doing risk assessments etc and said the restrictions were such that she expected the 40 to decline by the summer. She has kept her kids working, when I spoke with her yesterday she had just made 23 phone calls. On top of her paid work she has read a bundle of kids' books on YT. I'm sure she's not an exception.
In this instance, it's the parents, not unions, that are challenging government advice.
My wife is a primary school teacher, and has spent lockdown working with her class remotely (and the planning that entails), going in on a rota basis to work with children of essential workers, Zoom meetings with class, colleagues and management, and lately planning an effective strategy for if the schools reopen to wider year groups. All, I might add, with worse than useless governmental guidance. I've forked out for a supply of visors because they'll be marginally less disturbing for her class than facemasks.
Her colleague has been delivering work packs to children so they could see her and give them a bit of a boost, and I think my wife will be doing a bit of that next week possibly. All this in addition to homeschooling our primary school age daughter (with the little bit of help that I am).
So the subtle anti-teacher rhetoric can ******* poke it.
So the subtle anti-teacher rhetoric
Its hardly subtle!
If you are a teacher let’s have your master plan for reopening. Or even online lessons. Give us something.
As a parent all I see is teachers hiding behind the unions finding reasons not to do what they should be doing.
I can’t reply to boomer without setting off the swear filters
I don't mind setting off the swear filters.
Boomer can **** off.
If you are a teacher let’s have your master plan for reopening
Doesnt matter what I want or think, the government give the guidance. I'd go back to normal tomorrow if I was in charge. I cant take much more of this shite, my job has had all the bits I enjoy stripped out and has multiplied up all the bits I hate.
AJ at least two of us have outlined our index of how it'll work but he just wants to fight and niggle.
We don't want a reasoned discussion, just to tell us how shit teachers are bunch of lazy overpaid slackers who don't care about their charges.
Spin
MemberI’ve never read that rag in my life.
Maybe you should start? I think the two of you could be very happy together. 🙂
I’ll ask your Mum to pick me up a copy.
I'm confused about the whole "kids will be mingling together all summer" comments. Did I miss an announcement about the end of social distancing?
Round here, they really aren't mingling. Small groups of teenagers meeting in the park for socially distanced chats and picnics, but social distancing still being very well observed.
So the subtle anti-teacher rhetoric
Its hardly subtle!
As a parent all I see is teachers hiding behind the unions finding reasons not to do what they should be doing.
It would be a lot simpler if one side admitted they want free childcare and the other admitted that's what they provide instead of this pretence that school is somehow important otherwise.
morecash
I’m confused about the whole “kids will be mingling together all summer” comments. Did I miss an announcement about the end of social distancing?
Round here, they really aren’t mingling. Small groups of teenagers meeting in the park for socially distanced chats and picnics, but social distancing still being very well observed.
I think this is just another symptom of divisive politics, spurious advice and legislation and the state of England/UK.
Overall there are simplistically 4 boxes...
a) people at work who want to be at work (for COVID reasons)
b) people at work who don't want to be at work (for COVID) but have to...
c) people who aren't at work but want to be
d) people who aren't at work but don't want to be
then there are ....
i) people who know they had it and recovered
ii) people who think they had it and recovered
iii) people who don't think they had it and recovered
iv) people who don't think they had it and haven't
then there are
1/ people trying very hard not to get it
2/ people who are following legislation to a bare minimum
3/ people who aren't even bothering ...
putting all those together ends up somehow with a set of people trying not to get COVID and a set of people not trying
One of my old mates who's in the US has confounded myself and another mate .. he's suddenly become all pro-economy - being in at least 2 high risk categories - posting every bit of BS why lockdown should end.. except he doesn't work conventionally as he's an artist and his wife as a very eminent doctor earns more than enough and neither have living parents.
He refuses to answer questions as to if he's had COVID... or perhaps his wife his feeding him the cool-aid about why he shouldn't worry about her going into work???? Dunno but very weird change in behaviour and she would most certainly have access to unlimited testing.
I’m worried the NUT are going to drag us all into another decade of austerity and poverty.
This has got to be the single most outrageous, ridiculous and dare I say stupid thing that I have read all year. Maybe ever!
I’m confused about the whole “kids will be mingling together all summer” comments. Did I miss an announcement about the end of social distancing?
Well no, what happened was people are allowed to now meet in public places.
Rightly or wrongly parents, trying to keep teenagers entertained after 3 months of being locked up indoors, allowed them to take advantage of these new rules and meet their friends in the park etc. Most adults can’t hangout chatting with friends without moving closer, we’re a heard species. Teenagers really can’t so they tend to congregate. I’m sure there are those perfect kids out there with the self discipline we’ll beyond their years who manage it, but off the internet and into the real world I really doubt they’re the norm.
But it’s not the end of the world as the WHO (who recommend 1m social distancing not 2m remember) are confident that non symptomatic carriers of Covid very, very rarely pass it on.
But it’s not the end of the world as the WHO (who recommend 1m social distancing not 2m remember) are confident that non symptomatic carriers of Covid very, very rarely pass it on.
Unfortunately PJ you have misunderstood what was said. To be fair, the WHO have had to explain how her comments were misinterpreted
Up to 41 per cent of people infected with coronavirus may be asymptomatic and more information is needed to understand whether such cases regularly transmit the virus, a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert has said.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, sought to clarify comments she made on Monday in which she suggested transmission of the virus through people not displaying symptoms was “very rare”.
Ms Kerkhove noted that she had been referring to “some two or three studies” when making her comment.
“I was responding to a question at the press conference. I wasn't stating a policy of WHO or anything like that. I was just trying to articulate what we know,” she said at a briefing on Tuesday.
“And in that I used the phrase 'very rare', and I think that that's a misunderstanding to state that asymptomatic transmission globally is very rare. What I was referring to was a subset of studies.”
I’m worried the NUT are going to drag us all into another decade of austerity and poverty.
This has got to be the single most outrageous, ridiculous and dare I say stupid thing that I have read all year. Maybe ever!
Yeah I know, the NUT dont exist anymore!
At my wife’s school, two teachers have said they can’t do online lessons as they don’t have a computer. When asked how they could be working from home for the last 8 weeks, they went a bit quiet…
If you have this level of knowledge on the in depth workings of the school and teachers, what have they told you about the lack of feedback your son gets?
It’s a bit odd though if a school wants to provide online lessons surely they provide the teachers with computers to achieve this?
It’s a bit odd though if a school wants to provide online lessons surely they provide the teachers with computers to achieve this?
I got a memory stick!
I got a memory stick!
It was assumed we had a computer at home.
We all work on desktops in school, no laptops, so none to take home.
I was given a brief introduction to Teams and that was it.
Luckily I'm computer literate and have the required hardware at home, but some teachers are struggling, and are going into school to do all their work.
I got a memory stick!
Nice! If my employers expected me to use my own computer for work I’d be inclined to tell them to stick it up their hole.
We got iPads but to be honest they're pretty hard to use for what we need, especially as the apps don't have full functionality so I have to use my Chromebook through my phone as a hotspot.
I was talking to a mate in Cumbria last week and he was saying his head had had 51 communications on school opening in 5 days from the big bosses. Most of them contradicting a previous one.
Boomertroll, I can only suggest you move your son from that school, from your description it sounds a bit crap. Maybe this would be a more positive move than trying to apply your own miserable experience to decrying our profession as a whole.
FWIW, our school is setting fresh work every week, supporting this with 'live' sessions, and providing feedback on every piece of work submitted. Due to our demographic we are also posting out paper-based work packs to the maybe 20% of our students who have no usable device or internet access on a fortnightly basis. The only thing we are not doing is chasing students and families for work not submitted - our demographic is firmly in the highest level of deprivation in the UK, and the last thing our families need is more stress created by teachers calling and emailing all the time saying that work has not been completed. On top of that we are obviously open for key workers' children, have just opened provision for our most vulnerable students, and of course have been preparing for some Year 10 students to return from June 15 which is much more than a just case of 'open the doors and they will come'.
What do you do for a living? I quite fancy ripping your profession to shreds on minimal evidence.
I was talking to a mate in Cumbria last week and he was saying his head had had 51 communications on school opening in 5 days from the big bosses. Most of them contradicting a previous one.
Yup. Pretty much over the course of last weekend, the guidance changed 45 times...