Reopening schools question.

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
Member

I’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…

Pretty early on I suggested boomer (apologies if it wasn’t you) contact the school asking for the expectations.
I think this from tiree is what school’s should be sending out as a minimum. I hasten to add my school is pretty shocking at communications both internal and external.

http://www.tiree.argyll-bute.sch.uk/documents

What do you do for a living? I quite fancy ripping your profession to shreds on minimal evidence.

Yes @boomerlives what do you do?

I was talking to a mate in Cumbria last week and he was saying his head had had 51 communications … in 5 days from the big bosses. Most of them contradicting a previous one.

I used to be a teacher. That seems pretty normal.

Boomer – come on, we all want to know what job you do.

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.

This highlights an important point with teaching and I expect a good many other public services, they only manage to keep going based on the good will of those in the jobs. I spend my own money doing my job, pens for kids, other equipment and stuff for practicals etc, I have been using my own computer to sort out all the work, my own phone to call students, my own printer paper and ink. I wont get the money back and I wont be able to claim tax back against it. Its fine I dont care, but all the cuts increase the amount I have to spend.
I do all this because I want to and see the need so budgets just get cut more.

I spend my own money doing my job

This is a line I just won’t cross. Apart from cakes now and again for certain classes obviously. 🙂

I had a colleague who bought a class set of textbooks because the school wouldn’t which I think is madness and a dangerous road to go down.

I had to buy a set of books for one of my classes. I bought a chair once as well, as I had a class of 31 but could not get more than 30 chairs.

We were able to borrow laptops/Chromebooks if we needed to. I’m using the laptop bought for me by my union, because I’m District Treasurer. I think work bought me a laptop in 2002, which is still in the house somewhere.

Lots of teachers have bought houses with extra bedrooms or office spaces, as it’s pretty much impossible to do the job without somewhere to work at home.

I’m deliberately setting work which doesn’t need printing out, but that’s easier for A-level students.

I’m deliberately setting work which doesn’t need printing out, but that’s easier for A-level students

It’s got to the point now, after multiple parents complaining about printing, video & website access, lack of drawing/colouring implements, etc., that I’m setting work that only needs plain paper and a pencil.
I produce a Loom video explaining the work, also a PowerPoint, and just in case I screen shot the PP and upload it as JPEGs. If they still can’t access it then it’s really not my problem anymore!

Before we closed I told them “you’ve got your textbooks, make notes and answer the summary questions – do two subchapters a week for me”. So long as they have pencil and paper they can do that and everything else I’ve done is extra.

Meanwhile in the real (not boomer) world…

Mrs SWSD is now a week and a half into teaching her “bubble” (15 kids plus 2 adults).

They’re reasonable good at social distancing within the bubble (but not perfect). The kids have even invented new social distancing playground games. There is no contact with any other bubble. Of course, after school the kids all tend to wander off together anyway.

She’s a bit frazzled as its 100% pupil contact time including lunchtime and break time. But I think she quiet enjoying it. She thinks she’s getting some real teaching done, perhaps because there is not much planning – last week she chucked in stuff about viruses, epidemics and hygiene. This week its been the history of slavery and race relations.

She was a bit worried this morning as one of the kids has been off sick for two days. If it was CV that’s the whole bubble in self isolation for 14 days. As she’s not come home early I guess it wasn’t CV.

“you’ve got your textbooks

Must be a public school!

I’m going to say that I’ve been impressed with the work set by my daughters’ school. They’ve had work set across the A level/GCSE / Y7. Mostly it’s been set daily depending on what lessons they’ve had. The only part that’s mainly suffered has been French speaking.

Fortunately the girls have all got internet access, but without that or having to share access would have been more problematic. They’ve had to print out a few things but that appears to be the exception.

All three of ours have been back at school for just over a week. Year 1 , 6 and 7.
Yesterday “pink bubble” got sent home from year one and told to self isolate as a teacher had symptoms.
This morning “grey bubble” was sent home and told to self isolate as a sibling of one of the students in that bubble had symptoms.
At this rate, there will be no bubbles left by the summer holidays. We have to try, and we have to find ways to make it work, but it seems the current advice is very strict. It is good to know the school is on top of this though and are following procedures to the letter, it re-assuring in a strange way.

it’s pretty much impossible to do the job without somewhere to work at home.

I hardly ever take work home.

I hardly ever take work home.

Mrs OOB never takes work home. In 14 year together I remember two occasions: 1 Saturday and 1 evening. Both marking.

Our girls are Yr 6 so are back at school and I understand there is something like 90% attendance from the years that have gone back and no isolations yet. It worked out quite nicely as it was their birthday on Monday and their bubble is all the girls in their year so all their friends came back to our to play in the garden in a kind of mini birthday party for an hour.

Mrs OOB never takes work home. In 14 year together I remember two occasions: 1 Saturday and 1 evening. Both marking.

When teachers say it’s difficult or impossible to do the job without working at home I always make the point that I’ve largely managed that for 14 years. That’s not to say it’s possible for everyone but it’s certainly worked for me.

Talking to colleagues quite a lot of them work at home a lot not because they have to due to work load but because it suits their circumstances. So for example, they leave the building with the pupils to pick up their own kids spend the early evening with them then work later. I don’t have kids so I just stay in school ’till the work is done.

I don’t have kids so I just stay in school ’till the work is done.

Yup, she turns up sharp which misses traffic plus we have childcare ’till 6. Also she works her free periods, and reckons that some of the others use that as social time. Horses for courses.

Well.we got information today but in the way that creates more questions than it answers.
In on 16and23 to sort stuff. Then.in August it’s 4 days 1 day for prep(Friday) in school with three 1.5hr periods per day. And that’s all we’ve been told. We’ll get more information next week