Supporting students at home

Newdawn11

Any thoughts on what the
DES's guidelines re supporting students who stay at home will be?

I know of one teacher who has been requested to record and live stream their classes for those self-isolating?

Treppen

Livestreaming a class to anywhere outside the school is a very bad move if you ask me.

strawberrie

https://assets.gov.ie/85746/9ff54b35-352e-4cdb-b93b-68a25ac7c619.pdf

You can read them here. Checklist at the end

Newdawn11

Thanks, is there an equivalent post primary circular.

byhookorbycrook

Unless a child falls into the “ very high risk” category, they don’t qualify for support at home.”

wirelessdude01

Unless they fall into the extremely narrow 'very high risk' category then they are entitled to ZERO support from the school.

Xcellor

Any funding for teachers to get laptops?

Treppen

Xcellor wrote: »

Any funding for teachers to get laptops?

Its not specific, schools were allocated >€210m in the last 5 years for various IT things but how it was up to the school to use it is another question.
Some schools got new devices for teachers and students. Some schools managed to get a new Gmail account for their students !

If it's any good to you Apple will give you 10% off if you're a teacher.

Xcellor

Treppen wrote: »

Its not specific, schools were allocated >€210m in the last 5 years for various IT things but how it was up to the school to use it is another question.
Some schools got new devices for teachers and students. Some schools managed to get a new Gmail account for their students !

If it's any good to you Apple will give you 10% off if you're a teacher.

Apple tend to be quite expensive so 10% isn't really much!

Just seems teachers are expected to do more and more online and make materials available on Google classroom but they aren't provided with necessary tools or laptop

Treppen

Xcellor wrote: »

Apple tend to be quite expensive so 10% isn't really much!

Just seems teachers are expected to do more and more online and make materials available on Google classroom but they aren't provided with necessary tools or laptop

I agree. Really if you are expected to do work on a device you shouldn't do it unless it's provided to you.

If they say use your own then lay the GDPR card.

Xcellor

Treppen wrote: »

I agree. Really if you are expected to do work on a device you shouldn't do it unless it's provided to you.

If they say use your own then lay the GDPR card.

Would be good if unions raised this. I mean classroom closure is going to happen and if they expect any chance of continuation this needs to be in place.

All summer to figure this out and get contingencies ready...

joebloggs32

Xcellor wrote: »

Would be good if unions raised this. I mean classroom closure is going to happen and if they expect any chance of continuation this needs to be in place.

All summer to figure this out and get contingencies ready...

We had a union meeting for our branch a few weeks ago.
One of the questions asked was would the department be issuing a circular/guidelines for remote teaching/blended learning.
We were told the department wouldn't do it as they had said its not possible as schools across the country were all different and the IT set up in them varied too much to do so. In other words, its down to each school to come up with their own policy.

Treppen

Xcellor wrote: »

Would be good if unions raised this. I mean classroom closure is going to happen and if they expect any chance of continuation this needs to be in place.

All summer to figure this out and get contingencies ready...

But but but the government announced €50m for IT (although that was from allocated money anyway :pac: ). I think the real question is how each school spent the money, there should have been enough for everything (acknowledging that some schools didn't initially even have any WiFi infrastructure!).

I don't think govt. could announce "laptops for every teacher" now because a good few schools have just bought laptops for every teacher. And a few have older ones but still working relatively ok.
If it were a case of schools buy out of an extra fund then bit would beg the question "what did ye do with the millions we have ye already". That's a messy answer that would get lost in the media.

But yes, unions should push anyway as it's coming down the tracks thick and fast, and the whole legal/additional work issue needs to be sorted. Maybe the unions will wait for the 5hitstorm to happen first do they'll have surveys to back it up (anything pre June is old news).

Xcellor

Treppen wrote: »

But but but the government announced €50m for IT (although that was from allocated money anyway :pac: ). I think the real question is how each school spent the money, there should have been enough for everything (acknowledging that some schools didn't initially even have any WiFi infrastructure!).

I don't think govt. could announce "laptops for every teacher" now because a good few schools have just bought laptops for every teacher. And a few have older ones but still working relatively ok.
If it were a case of schools buy out of an extra fund then bit would beg the question "what did ye do with the millions we have ye already". That's a messy answer that would get lost in the media.

But yes, unions should push anyway as it's coming down the tracks thick and fast, and the whole legal/additional work issue needs to be sorted. Maybe the unions will wait for the 5hitstorm to happen first do they'll have surveys to back it up (anything pre June is old news).

My other half is wanting to fork out for a new laptop as her existing one (which is her own) is on its last legs. As someone who works remotely the idea of having to pay for my own laptop is absurd!

Not impressed at all with lack of info from unions. They should be dealing with this on behalf of teachers.

Comer1

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Unless a child falls into the “ very high risk” category, they don’t qualify for support at home.”

Are the criteria for students in the "very high risk" category the same as those for the teachers?

Do they qualify for support if the student doesn't fall into a category but someone at home does?

wirelessdude01

Comer1 wrote: »

Do they qualify for support if the student doesn't fall into a category but someone at home does?

Afraid not.

am_zarathustra

Xcellor wrote: »

My other half is wanting to fork out for a new laptop as her existing one (which is her own) is on its last legs. As someone who works remotely the idea of having to pay for my own laptop is absurd!

Not impressed at all with lack of info from unions. They should be dealing with this on behalf of teachers.

It's crazy, I run the ICT in the school, websites etc and do it all from my own device at home. If the government even made it tax deductable for teachers to purchase one device every 4 years that would go a long way. I'll have to buy something before Christmas too, if it was for personal use I wouldn't be looking at the specs I am looking at!

SligoBrewer

Xcellor wrote: »

My other half is wanting to fork out for a new laptop as her existing one (which is her own) is on its last legs. As someone who works remotely the idea of having to pay for my own laptop is absurd!

Not impressed at all with lack of info from unions. They should be dealing with this on behalf of teachers.

Have you told your union this? Very easy to shoot the breeze online, but the most effective way is putting your shoulder to the wheel.