We have staff meeting at 8.20 if anything interesting happens I’ll post up here, nothing interesting does usually!!

Hell if a lock down happens going to work to babysit Drac’s kids may be my only riding!!

Have schools not received any guidance as yet?

Mrs FD and I both work in the NHS, and this will be invaluable support for us….not sure Jnr FD sees it that way at the min 😂

List of key worker categories will be published today as far as I know. Hopefully some proper clarity on exams and grades (although I think it’s already pretty obvious given what Wales has already published).

Hell if a lock down happens going to work to babysit Drac’s kids may be my only riding!!

Only for one week as my shift pattern means for the next 5 you can sit at home in undies.

FunkyDunc

No, all came out of the blue, I think they were expecting closure, but not the key worker / vulnerable children support and they certainly weren’t expecting the dick move of cancelling exams. So as previously mentioned a lot of prep for teaching at home has been done but nothing for the rest of it. Year 11 and 13 have now effectively been cut loose, nothing to teach and nothing to work towards, can’t see them going back to be honest. Our local school is now concentrating on years 10 and 12 as they can’t afford to lose a terms worth of learning.

As someone above said they will have a fag packet idea they haven’t discussed with the people who have to manage it. Somewhere in the range of a million kids pushed aside for the greater good.

My lad was facing his GCSE’s and now feels a bit lost as to what he will actually get at the end, once the Govt gets a plan together.

His DoE is abandoned. There’s a lot of long term crap to come on the back of a half thought through plan

This is part of a letter we received last week.

Contingency Planning
As the Coronavirus outbreak develops, we will be following advice from the Department for Education and the Government. This might, at some point, involve temporarily closing the school on a full/partial basis to our students and possibly to our staff as well. If this happens, please note:
● We have remote access to the parent and student database and will send text messages to all families to keep them updated. Please recheck you have access to School Comms. It would help us if you can check with friends that they also have access to Schools Comms and if not ask them to get in touch with us so we can get them logged on.
● We can update our school website remotely and you should check this daily in the event

Year 11 and 13 have now effectively been cut loose, nothing to teach and nothing to work towards, can’t see them going back to be honest.

Desperately sad. My Yr 11 is in bits, after working her arse off for all this time she was looking forward to showing what she could do. I hope whatever they decide to grade on, it reflects what she did and she is rewarded, but I also feel for those that maybe had mocks as that ‘smell the coffee’ moment and now won’t get to prove it.

More than that – she’s gone through 5 years, even 11 years with the same group of kids. Some are going on to the same 6th form College, others to different places. Some of them are already off, ill or kept back home by parents. Some of her teachers are already off in isolation or looking after their own kids. School closes after tomorrow and the Yr 11’s are being asked in so yesterday’s announcement wasn’t a total throat slitting end, but it is like a bereavement with barely chance to say goodbye.

My wife works for a different school. Her head is very switched on and they are emailing their GCSE and A level kids along the lines of ‘the government has changed its mind several times already. Just be cautious that another U-turn and exams back on in some form or another might yet happen’.

I don’t think it will but don’t let your kids bonfire their revision notes yet.

[edit] and +1 – thanks to teachers for everything you do in normal times, and anything you can do in these times.

she also thinks the Government have jumped the gun on this as they didn’t need to say anything about exams for a couple of days until they had a strategy – which they clearly don’t have today.

That typifies “The government” … (a term I’m using loosely) not only on this but in general.
Essentially, make a big deal of not doing what “furrin experts” are doing…
With regards to COVID however it seems more a case of saying we aren’t doing what the rest of the world do then copying it in a reluctant sounding way and as a “it would be nice if” rather than direction and leadership.

Since nobody has a clue what May/June or September will bring the appropriate thing would have been for the Secretary of State for Education (Gavin Williamson) to have announced not some showboating Boris with his pet journalist asking pre-arranged questions to obfuscate.

They don’t know…. practically the whole world is in the same situation. Something will need to be worked out for exams and admissions. It may be totally radical like switching the Academic Year to Jan ??? It may be something else… ??

Best case: From Imperial paper.

Perhaps our most significant conclusion is that mitigation is unlikely to be feasible without emergency surge capacity limits of the UK and US healthcare systems being exceeded many times over. In the most effective mitigation strategy examined, which leads to a single, relatively short epidemic (case isolation, household quarantine and social distancing of the elderly), the surge limits for both general ward and ICU beds would be exceeded by at least 8-fold under the more optimistic scenario for critical care requirements that we examined. In addition, even if all patients were able to be treated, we predict there would still be in the order of 250,000 deaths in GB

One of the biggest problems is the fact that those people who look for any excuse to take time off work in normal times – are now taking time off work.
My senior managers expressed their frustrations at this yesterday and added there is simply nothing they can do to avoid it.

As fantastic and responsible as some key workers are, it only takes those to make a difficult situation almost impossible.

I have already seen it in my work area, my wife who is a nurse has seen it in her area too .. reading above comments it seems teaching has those type of people too; things soon fall apart.

As per Stevextc- perhaps its time to change to a Jan start to the school year. This year everyone goes back in Sep as if it was the post Easter term and do the exams then. For coming years it will be hard to gee the kids up for yr11 & 13 exams with the “they’re important for your future” spiel as they respond that they can’t be that important if they were cancelled in 2020 and predicted grades used.

One of the biggest problems is the fact that those people who look for any excuse to take time off work in normal times – are now taking time off work.

We’ve had a few of those. My employer doesn’t pay any sick pay so people either use holiday or have to go SSP. Once it was announced there is no 3 day qualifying period on Monday they phoned in and left voicemails that they had high temps etc so will be off. When their supervisor called back to confirm they had to stay away for 7 days only getting SSP (ie c 1/3 of their usual pay) it’s surprising how many felt better and wanted to come back!

We have staff meeting at 8.20 if anything interesting happens I’ll post up here, nothing interesting does usually!!

To summarise, we know nothing!

FB-ATB

As per Stevextc- perhaps its time to change to a Jan start to the school year. This year everyone goes back in Sep as if it was the post Easter term and do the exams then. For coming years it will be hard to gee the kids up for yr11 & 13 exams with the “they’re important for your future” spiel as they respond that they can’t be that important if they were cancelled in 2020 and predicted grades used.

It’s just one scenario, someone else mentioned they could even delay a whole year etc. or we might have a vaccine earlier than predicted?

I quite honestly think “The Government” (but the Minister for Education not the “PM”) should just be saying they will address this as the disease progresses perhaps giving some alternative scenarios to assure people/kids that there exams will take place just we don’t know how or when as yet.

Schools staying open for key workers: We had a count up this morning on my daughter’s class’s whatsapp parents group. Out of my daughter’s class of 27, 20 parents are key workers. (Assuming Teachers, NHS workers, shop workers & delivery people are all key workers.) Most of the class will continue to use the school and wraparound care as normal.

No doubt we’ll find out over the next few days. Thing is, the Govt advice is announced as a strategy, the nuts and bolts of how it all works takes a little longer.

Mrs Scape is a teacher. She fully expects to be at work on a rota basis to look after the key worker kids, and more importantly the vulnerable kids who need school as a safe space and somewhere to get a meal. No doubt when she gets home tonight the actual mechanics of the distance -learning will have been thrashed out. Interestingly, her Head is currently self-isolating……

As for exams. Here’s what I know so far and then a bit of conjecture as to how cancelling GCSEs and A’s will likely pan out. Mrs Scape has already submitted predicted grades for all of her yr 11 and 13 pupils. These are based on coursework, mock results and the teacher’s knowledge of each student’s aptitude and attitude. She tells me her predicted grades historically have correlated strongly with the eventual results. There are of course kids who will (would have) crash and burn through exam nerves, and others who will (would have) really pulled one out of the bag, but they are very much outliers. SO her prediction is that kids will be awarded results based on those predictions and any other evidence the teachers can provide to justify their grades.

My daughter graduated in BSc Special Needs and Inclusive Education Studies last year and has spent this academic year on a PGCE course, on teaching placements in two mainstream primaries. She has been mentored throughout and has regular observations all of which have been highly scored. Her Uni has declared that she will gain her QTS as there was no evidence to suggest that she would not achieve the required standard.

Son’s Uni closes as of tomorrow. His course (BSc Rural Enterprise and Land Management) was assessed on 50% coursework, 50% final exams. The finals were cancelled last week, but the Uni will set appropriate final assessments to be submitted online to a strict deadline. The assessments will be timebound but “open book”.

Guidance from our (primary) schools teachers today is they’ve been advise they are going backward on a term by term basis.  Therefore SATS will likely be in September to measure progress – currently – and they are measuring internally to relive pressure on external boards to focus on GSCE’s & A’s.

SATS aren’t important to anyone other than the government, they can be delayed, cancelled, scrapped with no major effects. A levels and GCSEs have real world implications.

Just had the following message from a mate….

“… we’re going to home school the boys for a bit, classroom down at river, will you be a guest lecturer for a day after lambing? Subject bike maintenance and mountain bike course/jump building, have digger K”

I look forward to it

Schools staying open for key workers children seems wrong and reckless to me.
It does not seem like a solution to the problem of how best to provide childcare to key workers children: more like a government bluff to cover their previous mistakes.
If we want to keep keyworkers working then we need to maintain social distancing between their families. If we keep schools open, then when one key worker catches this then they will pass it on ,through school and family ,to others.
A better solution would be for able volunteers ( eg including school staff) to offer key worker children child care in their own homes, whilst maintaining social distancing. This could be coordinated and supported by school heads , and kids could go to families with similar age kids to make home schooling possible. The big benefit would be that the covid spread would not burn through all the key workers connected by children at school. Id be happy to take a couple of children if it meant more doctor’s could keep working. And it looks more sustainable than the government time bomb plan.

Please shoot me down if there’s a big flaw I’ve missed, as I will be talking to our headteacher later today.

SATS aren’t important to anyone

They are an important measure of progress for teachers students and parents.   Specifically as KJ01 goes to Secondary in September its important to us.

I don’t think anyone stated they were more important than GCSE’s or A’s.

Welsh farmer. That sounds brilliant.

Please shoot me down if there’s a big flaw I’ve missed,

Agree with your logic, but would be scuppered by safeguarding, I think.

Please shoot me down if there’s a big flaw I’ve missed, as I will be talking to our headteacher later today.

I think there might be some safeguarding issues with that approach, needs some thinking through.

FB-ATB
Subscriber
One of the biggest problems is the fact that those people who look for any excuse to take time off work in normal times – are now taking time off work.

We’ve had a few of those. My employer doesn’t pay any sick pay so people either use holiday or have to go SSP. Once it was announced there is no 3 day qualifying period on Monday they phoned in and left voicemails that they had high temps etc so will be off. When their supervisor called back to confirm they had to stay away for 7 days only getting SSP (ie c 1/3 of their usual pay) it’s surprising how many felt better and wanted to come back!

We had two from team on Monday asking about company policy around this virus – they were informed full pay and it wont go on their absence record … three strikes and up before HR. The very next day one was off because she suspected a relative had it, and they had visited said relative recently; she had no symptoms. The other had a cough .. yet was vaping whilst video conferencing us to let us know. Both could have won an Oscar for performances whilst being told the LA policy was isolate for 14 days …. one had the audacity to let rip with “but I want to be there to help people” …. I am still fuming!!

loum
Member
Schools staying open for key workers children seems wrong and reckless to me…
A better solution would be for able volunteers ( eg including school staff) to offer key worker children child care in their own homes, whilst maintaining social distancing…
Id be happy to take a couple of children if it meant more doctor’s could keep working.
Please shoot me down if there’s a big flaw I’ve missed, as I will be talking to our headteacher later today.

Would you be happy to take delivery drivers, supermarket workers or carers children too? or just doctors children?

Am thinking specifically of DBs checked people in my ” able volunteers” .
Background, I’m support staff in a primary of around 300 and thinking that if 50 of us – teachers, cooks, LSA, MDA, office, – could take 1 or 2 each then we might cover 75 to 100 key worker kids more sustainabley than if they were all together.
It’s not a solution to the vulnerable kids, but it might keep acouple of social workers in work that could help the bigger picture.

Key workers hasn’t been defined yet but in my plan , someone cleverer than me would rank their importance to the fight and prioritise childcare. I’d take what I’m given.

Hundredth, I am also marking one of my subjects, I have managed to get less than 50% in to do the write up so far. Lets hope Swinney throws us all a curve ball by having a sensible solution.

Most of the class will continue to use the school and wraparound care as normal.

Good luck with that.

I suspect by the time we have clarity and a plan the majority of the country will be in full lock down.

Good luck with that.

I suspect by the time we have clarity and a plan the majority of the country will be in full lock down.

Well, yeah, everything at the moment comes with an ‘as things stand’ caveat.

A better solution would be for able volunteers ( eg including school staff) to offer key worker children child care in their own homes,

Yeah bollocks to me sending my 13 year old girl to some random volunteers house.

You didn’t read my full post .
Not random people, dbs checked school staff.
Just the same people that you already send her to, just not in the same place.
To enable social distancing.

But your family, your choice

Not random people, dbs checked school staff.
Just the same people that you already send her to, just not in the same place.
To enable social distancing.

I did you said teachers and volunteers in their own home. I’m not sending her to a stranger’s home, teacher, dbs checked or not. It ain’t happening.

That breaks every rule ever.

Unfortunately there is no easy answer to all this.

A good measure they are bringing in is to test those key workers for the coronavirus if they think they need to isolate … that way its a deterrent to those trying to take advantage of the situation to get off work for 14 days.
At the moment my wife (a ward nurse) has been looking after a person all week who has just been tested positive for coronavirus. They tested the ward Doctor who was also tested positive, but as yet have not tested any of the nurses on ward – or even offered to test them; its bonkers!!

I am a key worker myself so I am not having a go at key workers before anybody starts complaining. Those working in the NHS or for LA are very fortunate that our jobs are not at risk as a result of all this – so with that comes the responsibility to do the jobs we are paid to do, and not be selfish if that means an inconvenience for the next few weeks/months.

Remote classrooms set up and populated with resources and now it’s up to the likes of
IdleJon
Subscriber
to get their kids to do the work. Should be easy eh?

Yeah. my wife and I are continuing to work full time until we are told otherwise, or get ill. We can go home and check how much work the kids have been able to do after we make food, do the chores etc. Perhaps we’ll even be able to make sure the kids aren’t going stir crazy before we go to bed. Thankfully, all three of my girls enjoy school, but how much will the 16 yr old be expected to do now, and how much can you teach an 8 yr old remotely? And how will they share the one laptop we have?

I did you said teachers and volunteers in their own home. I’m not sending her to a stranger’s home, teacher, dbs checked or not. It ain’t happening.

If only there were large public buildings that aren’t being used over the next few weeks?

Should it turn out the WHO’s teams of epidemologists turn out to know more than Boris’s “experts”

Do you know who these experts are, just out of interest?

I’m starting to get a bit wobbly now just come back to my room to find messages on my board from year 11’s I wont see again, no last day, no prom, no results day…hard to grasp.

It’s alright to feel like that
I think you’re at the front line at the moment aa
Thanks for all you’re doing

Yeah the thing that triggers the reality AA is moments like that. I wish even half my teachers were as good as teachers are now. I may have taken more interest and even been pointed the right direction of support. Again thanks to you and your colleagues.

Just heard that a friend’s daughter that was due to sit A levels has been to an impromptu “end of year” assembly today where the 6th formers were said good bye to and asked to hand their lanyards in.

Feel sorry for the lower 6th- missed both GCSEs & A levels being cancelled by a year!