Schools closed until February? (part 3)

LittleBrick

Closing for 2 weeks before Christmas makes more sense. Learning is minimal, flu season will be at it's worst, and 2 weeks of school plus 2 weeks planned holidays is 4 weeks in total.

LittleBrick

That seems like a you problem. The school didn't birth your child.

beggars_bush

SusanC10 wrote: »

They were discussing it in the Dail.

luckily the Dail doesn't run the country, the government does

Icyseanfitz

So no need to worry, department are saying business as usual? Lets not bother putting a plan in place for remote learning so. Teachers and schools can't be held responsible then if they are asked to do a job they where consistently told they would never be asked to do again.

mvl

LittleBrick wrote: »

That seems like a you problem. The school didn't birth your child.

- well, in case you think I was giving out to the school, you are very wrong.

Some ppl here want to paint a picture that without the school opened as it is, parents would be lost. I disagree with this, as a poster here who happens to also be a 9-6 working professional that has to do all school runs.
It doesn't work better, while the secondary school we're attending doesn't keep the school open for the after-school activities, so as is, I have to interrupt my work schedule to support what is going on. I can see how collecting at 15h works for ppl who are on reduced hours themselves or don't work at all - I am a 9-6 worker, and this sucks for me.
I also understand why the school doesn't keep things open longer.

But my child would be a perfect candidate for blended learning -and I think having reduced hours in school would work better for both of us these days anyway.

byhookorbycrook

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

So no need to worry, department are saying business as usual? Lets not bother putting a plan in place for remote learning so. Teachers and schools can't be held responsible then if they are asked to do a job they where consistently told they would never be asked to do again.

Schools have been "warned?

The DES hurriedly sent out "guidelines for September to Christmas for blended learning" yesterday. So they are already 6 weeks behind and once again trying to blame schools for DES failure.


https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/department-of-education-warns-primary-schools-to-have-contingency-plans-in-the-event-of-covid-19-related-closure-39602717.html

Open the Pubs

Seems like further kicking the can down the road from incompetent government. I'm not sure it will supress the virus much, 2 weeks off at Halloween with nothing to do for teenagers. Expecting fireworks (literally), going around in groups etc.

What happened to "Living with Covid". Very short term thinking it seems.

meeeeh

irishblessing wrote: »

Link with that R number info?

This is what I found so far-don't have more time right now to dig:
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said today (8th oct): “Case numbers and hospitalisations are growing exponentially. The Reproductive number is now estimated at 1.2. If we fail to reduce viral transmission nationwide immediately, we could see 1,100 – 1,500 cases per day and 300-450 people in hospital by November 7th.”

https://www.irishcentral.com/news/coronavirus-ireland-updates

It says rate in Dublin is probably 1 and the rest 1.5.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/we-are-deeply-concerned-officials-report-611-new-covid-19-cases-five-further-deaths-1.4374444

JimmyVik

LittleBrick wrote: »

Closing for 2 weeks before Christmas makes more sense. Learning is minimal, flu season will be at it's worst, and 2 weeks of school plus 2 weeks planned holidays is 4 weeks in total.

The sooner they close the more effective it will be.
No point waiting for the numbers to go sky high when it can be taken care of now. Oh wait. They are already sky high. I mean no point waiting for them to get higher even.

ThunbergsAreGo

JimmyVik wrote: »

The sooner they close the more effective it will be.
No point waiting for the numbers to go sky high when it can be taken care of now. Oh wait. They are already sky high. I mean no point waiting for them to get higher even.

They are not "sky high"

Boggles

ThunbergsAreGo wrote: »

They are not "sky high"

Well they kind of are.

They just haven't presented themselves yet, but we are in the phase of exponential growth that will put down some fairly substantive numbers.

Then again I'm now so sure "sky high" can be expressed numerically.

So maybe you are right.

JimmyVik

ThunbergsAreGo wrote: »

They are not "sky high"

I think you'll find they are.

LittleBrick

My apologies MVL. I completely misunderstood your post. I too am an advocate for blended learning, or at least half days in school with staggered classes.

NIMAN

jrosen wrote: »

So is this another example of some stupid person making a comment and it being ran with by the media? Have us all up in arms and worried for nothing?

It wasn't just some punter on Facebook with a flippant comment, it was actually the Irish Indo piece by Fionnán Sheahan. He was on the News at One talking about it.

It is actively being discussed at the top level of government apparently.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/schools-to-close-for-longer-at-mid-term-break-to-try-curb-covid-19-39604165.html

is_that_so

NIMAN wrote: »

It wasn't just some punter on Facebook with a flippant comment, it was actually the Irish Indo piece by Fionnán Sheahan. He was on the News at One talking about it.

It is actively being discussed at the top level of government apparently.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/schools-to-close-for-longer-at-mid-term-break-to-try-curb-covid-19-39604165.html

RTE say it isn't and hasn't been discussed.

joebloggs32

NIMAN wrote: »

It wasn't just some punter on Facebook with a flippant comment, it was actually the Irish Indo piece by Fionnán Sheahan. He was on the News at One talking about it.

It is actively being discussed at the top level of government apparently.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/schools-to-close-for-longer-at-mid-term-break-to-try-curb-covid-19-39604165.html

I heard this idea from someone who works for the Department last Monday week.
It makes perfect sense.
By closing schools for 5 more days you can 17 days of a lockdown.
Something different needs to be done than just plodding along as we currently are.

Icyseanfitz

NIMAN wrote: »

It wasn't just some punter on Facebook with a flippant comment, it was actually the Irish Indo piece by Fionnán Sheahan. He was on the News at One talking about it.

It is actively being discussed at the top level of government apparently.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/schools-to-close-for-longer-at-mid-term-break-to-try-curb-covid-19-39604165.html

And in the same breath we where told by the department today that no such discussions are happening and that schools are perfectly safe and working as planned :rolleyes:
Usual mixed messages.

meeeeh

JimmyVik wrote: »

I think you'll find they are.

What are the numbers in Northern Ireland then. Universe high?

Icyseanfitz

meeeeh wrote: »

What are the numbers in Northern Ireland then. Universe high?

Ah sure as long as we don't hit italy numbers from march/april we are grand out :rolleyes:

meeeeh

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

Ah sure as long as we don't hit italy numbers from march/april we are grand out :rolleyes:

I know some here have hard on for high numbers but I prefer to avoid hyperbole to describe increase.

mirrorwall14

I know a relative working in a deis primary, very deprived area. They have been working practically one on one since September (with phone calls and video assistance) to get their parents set up for home learning. They’ve stepped up efforts to finish quickly due to the rumours

average_runner

joebloggs32 wrote: »

I heard this idea from someone who works for the Department last Monday week.
It makes perfect sense.
By closing schools for 5 more days you can 17 days of a lockdown.
Something different needs to be done than just plodding along as we currently are.

It would make more sense if the kids didn't go to the school for that week, but the teachers did and they could try online teaching with the kids for the week.


A week off is such a waste not to improve things

mirrorwall14

average_runner wrote: »

It would make more sense if the kids didn't go to the school for that week, but the teachers did and they could try online teaching with the kids for the week.


A week off is such a waste not to improve things

Our school WiFi is so appalling that it would be a waste of time forcing teachers to be in the building. My home internet is a million times better. And our school taught from home for the last lockdown. I imagine it will be same unless the DES say it’s actually holidays

jrosen

Im getting really fed up with the mixed messages. Dept say its not happening, I spoke to 2 teachers yesterday who said they heard not a word about it and yet today a local principal telling students they will have an extended midterm and they are unsure if its gonna be extra hols or remote teaching.

Dayo93

average_runner wrote: »

It would make more sense if the kids didn't go to the school for that week, but the teachers did and they could try online teaching with the kids for the week.


A week off is such a waste not to improve things

Excellent point

JimmyVik

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Our school WiFi is so appalling that it would be a waste of time forcing teachers to be in the building. My home internet is a million times better. And our school taught from home for the last lockdown. I imagine it will be same unless the DES say it’s actually holidays

Last year a friend of mine who is a teacher asked me if i could do anything with the shared laptop that she took home that day as it was so slow.
It was a Dell Inspiron from the year 2003, running windows xp. And all locked up with passwords and bloatware by another teacher who was their sys admin, after a 3 day computer course.

I told her to throw it in the bin.

She said they had 5 of these laptops between 20 teachers.
I have no faith in the school IT systems No investment put into them, ever.

wirelessdude01

average_runner wrote: »

It would make more sense if the kids didn't go to the school for that week, but the teachers did and they could try online teaching with the kids for the week.


A week off is such a waste not to improve things

If a teacher can do at home, what they can do at school from a remote teaching point of view, what is the reason behind them having to go in?

I know myself that my broadband connection is better here than at school.

solerina

JimmyVik wrote: »

Last year a friend of mine who is a teacher asked me if i could do anything with the shared laptop that she took home that day as it was so slow.
It was a Dell Inspiron from the year 2003, running windows xp. And all locked up with passwords and bloatware by another teacher who was their sys admin, after a 3 day computer course.

I told her to throw it in the bin.

She said they had 5 of these laptops between 20 teachers.
I have no faith in the school IT systems No investment put into them, ever.

Agreed on some level, there have been very large IT grants given to schools over the past few years, my school hasn’t spent any of these on devices for teachers, so we have old devices that we purchased ourselves, other schools have used all of these grants to buy devices for teachers. It’s not a level playing field as the P and DP generally decide what to spend them money on without consultation with teachers ( well that’s what happens in my school).

wirelessdude01

jrosen wrote: »

Im getting really fed up with the mixed messages. Dept say its not happening, I spoke to 2 teachers yesterday who said they heard not a word about it and yet today a local principal telling students they will have an extended midterm and they are unsure if its gonna be extra hols or remote teaching.

Well that principal is totally jumping the gun. No one that it would actually impact knows anything yet.

JDD

mvl wrote: »

Sorry to ask but how come you have 8h uninterrupted since school started, is it cause you are using after school activities ?
Kids don't stay 8h in school hours - 9-15h doesn't mean 8h !!!

For me as a working parent I am sick of collecting from secondary school at 15h while logged onto/listening to my really important afternoon meetings. I am dreading all last weeks, cause before while in primary I always had paid after-school organized, and now I have no effing option.
So don't start me on this one, I would really prefer reduced hours in school at this stage, 4h would work much better from my work schedule point of view - if now with covid there is no environment to have it all same as before (school and after school activities), the part time they are providing doesn't suit my work schedule at all!

My 3 year old is at creche full time, and the 5 and 8 year olds go to an afterschool four days a week. We pick them up at 5/5.15.

I know what you mean about pick up times. We'd be lucky in that primary school class pick ups are 1.30 and 2.30, so you could conceivably pick up during a lunchbreak where there is unlikely to be meetings scheduled.

I'm regretting not going back to getting a childminder in June. We had one up to January, and decided for the 3 year old's sake he needed a bit of social development so sent them all to creche/afterschool. There were only there six weeks before everything locked down. My husband didn't want to get a childminder again, as if we did we'd have to accept that it would be for the medium/long term. We couldn't keep moving the rug under the kids feet.