Schools closed until February? (part 3)

TTLF

alroley wrote: »

Boris closing all schools in England from tomorrow. They went back for one day to mix and spread the virus?

Afaik not every school is back. Might depend on the county but I know a friend of mine not returning until the 11th of Jan despite his school finishing up on the 17th of December! :eek:

BonsaiKitten

khalessi wrote: »

I am surprised that the government have not moved out of the Convention Centre into a school, it would be much cheaper and they could invest the saved rent into improving IT for schools or even an online platform for students.

Norma could even assign them their magic bubbles and pods! She is a teacher after all (allegedly) so she must have the superpower.

appledrop

khalessi wrote: »

I am surprised that the government have not moved out of the Convention Centre into a school, it would be much cheaper and they could invest the saved rent into improving IT for schools or even an online platform for students.

Everytime I see them on news on Convention Centre my blood boils.

OK for schools to fit in 24 students and teachers in classroom but they have about 20m between them and only handful of people!

Everytime I see it I say I'd love them to come into any school for full day to see reality of it all.

The best was when Stephen Donnelly went for a TEST + they were all sent home! Imagine everyone in school sent home if someone had a TEST.

Sure people in same room for 6 hours don't even contact as close contact if positive case in classroom.

BonsaiKitten

TTLF wrote: »

Afaik not every school is back. Might depend on the county but I know a friend of mine not returning until the 11th of Jan despite his school finishing up on the 17th of December! :eek:

I think that depends on what Covid tier their area is in, afaik any Tier 4 school is closed (I'm far from 100% sure on that but vaguely remember the articles).

Mango Joe

vid36 wrote: »

Boris is going on tv in England tonight at 8pm.I bet , he will close schools too.

You just can't beat British comedy.........

Back on topic - After Josepha Madigan's "the schools aren't closed" blunder it really makes me feel like anyone could be a top tier Irish Politician...Literally anyone.

I feel sorry for any Teachers at national or secondary level when their political representatives are basically willing to sacrifice them.

I have a feeling that if closures don't happen then in about 2 weeks time our Nation will sorely regret this decision.....

nullzero

If we have a 4-6 or even 8 week closure of schools, that time should be added on at the end of the scheduled school year into the summer months.

The remote learning idea in practice is useless and is no substitute for time spent in the classroom environment.

Before this Covid situation eases into something manageable there are children in this country who will have missed a massive chunk of their education as a result of closures.

Some joined up thinking should have been done on this before now and plan put in place (I know why would the government plan for anything?). Teachers holidays should be taken out the closure time, God knows they did precious little last year in terms of actual work during the initial lockdown.

wirelessdude01

nullzero wrote: »

If we have a 4-6 or even 8 week closure of schools, that time should be added on at the end of the scheduled school year into the summer months.

The remote learning idea in practice is useless and is no substitute for time spent in the classroom environment.

Before this Covid situation eases into something manageable there are children in this country who will have missed a massive chunk of their education as a result of closures.

Some joined up thinking should have been done on this before now and plan put in place (I know why would the government plan for anything?). Teachers holidays should be taken out the closure time, God knows they did precious little last year in terms of actual work during the initial lockdown.

Grand so. No need to organise collection of the books from my room so seeing as we won't be doing online teaching and learning.

Stateofyou

appledrop wrote: »

Everytime I see them on news on Convention Centre my blood boils.

OK for schools to fit in 24 students and teachers in classroom but they have about 20m between them and only handful of people!

Everytime I see it I say I'd love them to come into any school for full day to see reality of it all.

The best was when Stephen Donnelly went for a TEST + they were all sent home! Imagine everyone in school sent home if someone had a TEST.

Sure people in same room for 6 hours don't even contact as close contact if positive case in classroom.

And now there will be no testing or tracing of anyone. They had all year to figure out a better system and didn't; were they just hoping it would never come to this?
Fail to plan, plan to fail. Muppets.

Benimar

nullzero wrote: »

If we have a 4-6 or even 8 week closure of schools, that time should be added on at the end of the scheduled school year into the summer months.

The remote learning idea in practice is useless and is no substitute for time spent in the classroom environment.

Before this Covid situation eases into something manageable there are children in this country who will have missed a massive chunk of their education as a result of closures.

Some joined up thinking should have been done on this before now and plan put in place (I know why would the government plan for anything?). Teachers holidays should be taken out the closure time, God knows they did precious little last year in terms of actual work during the initial lockdown.

Do you think kids should give up their summer holidays too? 5,6 and 7 year olds in school from March to December with only a break at Easter? Really?

Stateofyou

nullzero wrote: »

If we have a 4-6 or even 8 week closure of schools, that time should be added on at the end of the scheduled school year into the summer months.

The remote learning idea in practice is useless and is no substitute for time spent in the classroom environment.

Before this Covid situation eases into something manageable there are children in this country who will have missed a massive chunk of their education as a result of closures.

Some joined up thinking should have been done on this before now and plan put in place (I know why would the government plan for anything?). Teachers holidays should be taken out the closure time, God knows they did precious little last year in terms of actual work during the initial lockdown.

Ah bless.

wirelessdude01

Stateofyou wrote: »

And now there will be no testing or tracing of anyone. They had all year to figure out a better system and didn't; were they just hoping it would never come to this?
Fail to plan, plan to fail. Muppets.

Forsa are reporting that at the meeting today they were told that testing and tracing of school cases would continue. It will in me hole continue. Can you also.imahone the reaction online if that were to happen. Teachers getting special treatment and so on.

Stateofyou

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Forsa are reporting that at the meeting today they were told that testing and tracing of school cases would continue. It will in me hole continue. Can you also.imahone the reaction online if that were to happen. Teachers getting special treatment and so on.

Okaaaaay...where have they been and where are they claiming to be getting that info? Sounds like it's pulled from you know where.

khalessi

Notice education did not make it

https://twitter.com/RTENewsPaulC/status/1346112575499546625


This is not about educating our children

ETA I take it back apparently Norma met with FORSA today

https://twitter.com/apike1/status/1346099001855238144

nullzero

Benimar wrote: »

Do you think kids should give up their summer holidays too? 5,6 and 7 year olds in school from March to December with only a break at Easter? Really?

Because that's exactly what I said.

Honestly though, shortened summer holidays are something that should be on the cards, even if teachers noses are put out of joint by it.
Some weeks off over the summer makes sense in order to give some time off but school time is required.

Kids lost from mid march to the end of the school year last year, and could lose 2 or 3 months this year, but yeah summer holidays are too important for kids who've been off for months already.

antgal23

nullzero wrote: »

If we have a 4-6 or even 8 week closure of schools, that time should be added on at the end of the scheduled school year into the summer months.

The remote learning idea in practice is useless and is no substitute for time spent in the classroom environment.

Before this Covid situation eases into something manageable there are children in this country who will have missed a massive chunk of their education as a result of closures.

Some joined up thinking should have been done on this before now and plan put in place (I know why would the government plan for anything?). Teachers holidays should be taken out the closure time, God knows they did precious little last year in terms of actual work during the initial lockdown.

Funny that, who do teachers with families teach during lockdown?

Icyseanfitz

khalessi wrote: »

Notice education did not make it

https://twitter.com/RTENewsPaulC/status/1346112575499546625


This is not about educating our children

So our minister for education (and hiding) won't be at tomorrow's meeting deciding the short term future of education in a once in a lifetime emergency :pac: ah lads

Glebee

reading this thread sometimes I still cant figure out if people are worried about the kids or just want to get a dig at teachers

nullzero

antgal23 wrote: »

Funny that, who do teachers with families teach during lockdown?

What's the punchline?

Icyseanfitz

nullzero wrote: »

Because that's exactly what I said.

Honestly though, shortened summer holidays are something that should be on the cards, even if teachers noses are put out of joint by it.
Some weeks off over the summer makes sense in order to give some time off but school time is required.

Kids lost from mid march to the end of the school year last year, and could lose 2 or 3 months this year, but yeah summer holidays are too important for kids who've been off for months already.

So i expect youd be okay with teachera not doing a bit of remote work as long as schools are off so?

nullzero

Glebee wrote: »

reading this thread sometimes I still cant figure out if people are worried about the kids or just want to get a dig at teachers

I'm worried about my kids education.

Teachers seem to be worried about their generous holiday allocation being tampered with for the sake of educating their pupils.

antgal23

nullzero wrote: »

What's the punchline?

If you don't know the punchline you should back to finish school

nullzero

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

So i expect youd be okay with teachera not doing a bit of remote work as long as schools are off so?

You mean that bare minimum that was done during the first lockdown?

Whatever the workload was for teachers behind the scenes to prep the remote learning was, the time spent by children doing it didn't come anywhere close to comparing to time spent in the classroom environment.

lulublue22

Glebee wrote: »

reading this thread sometimes I still cant figure out if people are worried about the kids or just want to get a dig at teachers

It’s cyclical - expect the same digs re unions pay lazy teachers , extending hols not for educational concerns but as a way to stick it to the teachers over the next few days. Funny though questions re lack of contingency planning on behalf of the dep never seem to feature nor do questions around class size. 😉

nullzero

antgal23 wrote: »

If you don't know the punchline you should back to finish school

Do you mean I should GO back to finish school?

People in glass houses etc...

wirelessdude01

Stateofyou wrote: »

Okaaaaay...where have they been and where are they claiming to be getting that info? Sounds like it's pulled from you know where.

They met with health and education officials today as did all the education spokespersons for all the political parties.

the kelt

There is another aspect of this too.

I know of companies that are allergic to people working from home (I used to work for one and still have friends there)

We are all being told to work from home but this isn’t happening, there are companies forcing people into city centres to do jobs that could easily be done from home because their ethos and way of doing business sees working from home as something that can’t be trusted.

Only when the schools were closed did certain companies actually allow people work from home. Keeping schools open during a time of record breaking case numbers means an awful lot more people are not going to be staying at home than just teachers, students etc.

wirelessdude01

khalessi wrote: »

Notice education did not make it

https://twitter.com/RTENewsPaulC/status/1346112575499546625


This is not about educating our children

ETA I take it back apparently Norma was there along with FORSA

https://twitter.com/apike1/status/1346099001855238144

The first meeting you mentioned is tomorrow. They always meet before new measures/restrictions are announced.

nullzero

lulublue22 wrote: »

It’s cyclical - expect the same digs re unions pay lazy teachers , extending hols not for educational concerns but as a way to stick it to the teachers over the next few days. Funny though questions re lack of contingency planning on behalf of the dep never seem to feature nor do questions around class size. 😉

Teachers aren't the root of the problem by any means.
But by the same token they should have some understanding of why parents are concerned about extended time off school for their children.

Teachers will be working long beyond this Covid crisis, our children only have one chance at receiving an education.

History Queen

nullzero wrote: »

I'm worried about my kids education.

Teachers seem to be worried about their generous holiday allocation being tampered with for the sake of educating their pupils.

Teachers understand that students won't be able for long runs without breaks. I'd imagine a lot of families are planning a relatively normal summer with meeting family and friends (assuming that's possible) and maybe going on holidays. That being said I'll teach during the summer if schools are closed with no online/blended learning.

nullzero

the kelt wrote: »

There is another aspect of this too.

I know of companies that are allergic to people working from home (I used to work for one and still have friends there)

We are all being told to work from home but this isn’t happening, there are companies forcing people into city centres to do jobs that could easily be done from home because their ethos and way of doing business sees working from home as something that can’t be trusted.

Only when the schools were closed did certain companies actually allow people work from home. Keeping schools open during a time of record breaking case numbers means an awful lot more people are not going to be staying at home than just teachers, students etc.

Those companies are going against government guidelines. Those who can work from home should have been doing so since last March.