Schools closed until February? (part 3)

tom1ie

Grand, so when they let us and the principals/teachers know at some stage on Wednesday, that gives us 2 and a half days to prepare to teach our kids at home.
This is gonna be some **** show.

mirrorwall14

tom1ie wrote: »

So if schools were supposed to go back today (if there was no covid), I presume the children would be doing schoolwork this week.
So I’m just wondering did anyone get any school work or guidance or any correspondence from their primary school on how we should be teaching our kids?
This is a genuine question I’m not trying to get anyone’s back up here.

Schools weren’t due to be back until Wednesday. No teacher or principal has a clue what is going on and never has. We find out at exactly the same time as the general population. Communication and trust between schools and the department was low after the recession, it is now non existent. Everyone is angry, frustrated and feels abandoned and disrespected by our managers the DES.

There has been absolutely no plan put in place for online learning on a mass scale except at an individual school and teacher level. Nothing has been done by the department. They could have had the inspectorate and all the Junior Cycle trainers putting the whole curriculum online in video lesson format. Instead they had them running courses in the evening when teachers were already exhausted from teaching in masks and repurposed the school inspectors to be covid inspectors which was completely and utterly ridiculous. Then they started having to give them to public health to try and contact trace in schools because they couldn’t cope. They didn’t even manage to join the dots between the very high risk teachers working from home (me for example) and the very high risk students working from home. Their response from beginning to end has been outrageously bad and utterly incompetent. The government have only added to the mess.

Guidance will come. From schools and teachers. Because no one else will have to interpret whatever absolute ****e scenario they will put in place that the vast majority of teachers will inevitably have to break ourselves to make work but will still be bashed by parents, media and government for being whiners. Because it’s a ****ing national pastime at this stage

Ahem. I may be beyond annoyed and angry tonight

wirelessdude01

tom1ie wrote: »

Grand, so when they let us and the principals/teachers know at some stage on Wednesday, that gives us 2 and a half days to prepare to teach our kids at home.
This is gonna be some **** show.

Could be Thursday seeing as NPHET are only meeting then.

mullinr2

Schools will stay shut until after the February mid term break. Guarantee it

khalessi

tom1ie wrote: »

So if schools were supposed to go back today (if there was no covid), I presume the children would be doing schoolwork this week.
So I’m just wondering did anyone get any school work or guidance or any correspondence from their primary school on how we should be teaching our kids?
This is a genuine question I’m not trying to get anyone’s back up here.

Wednesday for us too but what class are the kids in?

NetChat101

Stateofyou wrote: »

And how many of those adults socialising had covid brought into the home from school. Plenty of cases there to back that up.

I think it was more likely (up to Christmas) for the opposite to be true ie, being brought into the school from home. But now everywhere is equally unsafe. Because of what's happened over December it's rampant in the community - schools wouldn't stand a chance if they opened.

BonsaiKitten

tom1ie wrote: »

So if schools were supposed to go back today (if there was no covid), I presume the children would be doing schoolwork this week.
So I’m just wondering did anyone get any school work or guidance or any correspondence from their primary school on how we should be teaching our kids?
This is a genuine question I’m not trying to get anyone’s back up here.

Wed - Fri were designated school holidays by the Govt so no remote learning is due. Perhaps some schools sent it out but I'd be surprised if they did.

km79

tom1ie wrote: »

So if schools were supposed to go back today (if there was no covid), I presume the children would be doing schoolwork this week.
So I’m just wondering did anyone get any school work or guidance or any correspondence from their primary school on how we should be teaching our kids?
This is a genuine question I’m not trying to get anyone’s back up here.

Your kids are on holidays this week

tom1ie

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Schools weren’t due to be back until Wednesday. No teacher or principal has a clue what is going on and never has. We find out at exactly the same time as the general population. Communication and trust between schools and the department was low after the recession, it is now non existent. Everyone is angry, frustrated and feels abandoned and disrespected by our managers the DES.

There has been absolutely no plan put in place for online learning on a mass scale except at an individual school and teacher level. Nothing has been done by the department. They could have had the inspectorate and all the Junior Cycle trainers putting the whole curriculum online in video lesson format. Instead they had them running courses in the evening when teachers were already exhausted from teaching in masks and repurposed the school inspectors to be covid inspectors which was completely and utterly ridiculous. Then they started having to give them to public health to try and contact trace in schools because they couldn’t cope. They didn’t even manage to join the dots between the very high risk teachers working from home (me for example) and the very high risk students working from home. Their response from beginning to end has been outrageously bad and utterly incompetent. The government have only added to the mess.

Guidance will come. From schools and teachers. Because no one else will have to interpret whatever absolute ****e scenario they will put in place that the vast majority of teachers will inevitably have to break ourselves to make work but will still be bashed by parents, media and government for being whiners. Because it’s a ****ing national pastime at this stage

Ahem. I may be beyond annoyed and angry tonight

Fair play.
We appreciate the lengths the principals and teachers go to, to try and make the best of this.
The DES are an absolute disgrace, anyone with half a brain knew this was going to happen.

tom1ie

km79 wrote: »

Your kids are on holidays this week

They were due to go back on Wednesday.

tom1ie

khalessi wrote: »

Wednesday for us too but what class are the kids in?

Senior infants and 2nd class, they were due back on Wednesday, which I should’ve known!

MerlinSouthDub

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

At least they've come out with an actual strategy unlikely our bunch of fools, im so fed up with our leadership right now, we where so proactive at the beginning but we're useless now.

Ah now, you can hardly say Boris has a strategy with a straight face. Some schools in England re opened today and then close again tomorrow! It is even more chaotic than here

Benimar

tom1ie wrote: »

They were due to go back on Wednesday.

Holidays were extended by the Government until next Monday.

tom1ie

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Could be Thursday seeing as NPHET are only meeting then.

Ffs!

lulublue22

tom1ie wrote: »

So if schools were supposed to go back today (if there was no covid), I presume the children would be doing schoolwork this week.
So I’m just wondering did anyone get any school work or guidance or any correspondence from their primary school on how we should be teaching our kids?
This is a genuine question I’m not trying to get anyone’s back up here.

Primary schools were due to go back on Wed 6th. Gov extended hols to Mon the 11th of Jan. No online teaching during this time. Possibility of these 3 days to be made up later in the school calendar. That is the official stance of the dep of Ed / gov . I doubt any school will be sending out any work / online learning unless the dep issues a new update superseding the existing one.

tom1ie

Benimar wrote: »

Holidays were extended by the Government until next Monday.

In my original post I said if there was no covid they’d be back this week.
So they would be in school from Wednesday doing school work if there was no covid, which is why I was wondering if anyone received school work home.

wirelessdude01

lulublue22 wrote: »

Primary schools were due to go back on Wed 6th. Gov extended hols to Mon the 11th of Jan. No online teaching during this time. Possibility of these 3 days to be made up later in the school calendar. That is the official stance of the dep of Ed / gov . I doubt any school will be sending out any work / online learning unless the dep issues a new update superseding the existing one.

Any school/teacher giving out work this week should be ashamed of themselves for their unashamed points scoring.

Queried

tom1ie wrote: »

They were due to go back on Wednesday.

I was due to go back Wednesday too. I reckon they allocated the days as holidays so they could leave it until Wednesday to tell us what was happening and tell principals and school staff that we have Thursday and Friday to figure everything out for Monday the 11th. Then they can claim they are giving us "time" to prepare. Just my opinion though, I could be completely wrong.

km79

tom1ie wrote: »

In my original post I said if there was no covid they’d be back this week.
So they would be in school from Wednesday doing school work if there was no covid, which is why I was wondering if anyone received school work home.

No because the holidays have been extended .

mirrorwall14

tom1ie wrote: »

In my original post I said if there was no covid they’d be back this week.
So they would be in school from Wednesday doing school work if there was no covid, which is why I was wondering if anyone received school work home.

Everyone’s a bit tetchy. As my previous post indicated. And a lot of posters make their way in to ask a ‘simple’ question and proceed to spend pages bashing teachers. So everyone’s grumpy

SusanC10

Feeling very stressed tonight. Don't know why really as relatively speaking we are lucky.

We have taken the decision not to send the Kids back next Monday even if they do open the Schools. Have explained it to both Kids who are both fine with it. Going to turn the Dining Room into a "School Room".

Lucky that I didn't go back to work in 2020 which was the plan. Lucky that my Husband can WFH and has been since March. Lucky that we can manage (I think) the "homeschooling" if necessary between us.

But I just can't shake this edgy feeling at all this evening.

tom1ie

km79 wrote: »

No because the holidays have been extended .

Yes.
Due to covid.

khalessi

tom1ie wrote: »

Yes.
Due to covid.

Is there an issue with that?

tom1ie

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Everyone’s a bit tetchy. As my previous post indicated. And a lot of posters make their way in to ask a ‘simple’ question and proceed to spend pages bashing teachers. So everyone’s grumpy

Ah yeah I get ya.
I have no beef with teachers or principals,
But I just wonder if there is a best practice remote setup put in place by some principal thinking outside the box, that could be copied by my school or something.
In my own job I find lack of communication, generally leads to **** ups, so it would be nice to keep the lines of communication open.
I think we can discount the DES coming to our rescue!

tom1ie

khalessi wrote: »

Is there an issue with that?

With covid? Your damn right!
Chill khalessi, I just wondered were any primary schools sending out school work as if there was no covid the kids would be in school.
Ya get me?

khalessi

tom1ie wrote: »

With covid? Your damn right!
Chill khalessi, I just wondered were any primary schools sending out school work as if there was no covid the kids would be in school.
Ya get me?

Woooooh there I just asked a question

MerlinSouthDub

SusanC10 wrote: »

But I just can't shake this edgy feeling at all this evening.

I think we're all feeling like that right now. It's like we felt in March. I sort of see it as a good thing. It means we're scared, and we're going to be more careful. It will help get things under control. We did not have enough fear in December and look where that got us?

A couple of months of staying in, battening down the hatches and things will start to get better again. We've done it before, wasn't fun but it was ok.

Queried

tom1ie wrote: »

Ah yeah I get ya.
I have no beef with teachers or principals,
But I just wonder if there is a best practice remote setup put in place by some principal thinking outside the box, that could be copied by my school or something.
In my own job I find lack of communication, generally leads to **** ups, so it would be nice to keep the lines of communication open.
I think we can discount the DES coming to our rescue!

This is a big source of frustration for a lot of teachers. Many have been crying out for months for some sort if standardised remote learning plan should the need for one arise. Alas, pleas fell on deaf ears. Probably why the department is so reluctant to close the schools to be honest. My school has been working with the platform 'Seesaw' for the past few months and during the school closures for the past academic year. I find it quite good I must say. Unless the department decides to share some sort of plan with us over the coming days, it would be down to individual school management to decide which route to take I would imagine.

tom1ie

khalessi wrote: »

Woooooh there I just asked a question

Huh?

wirelessdude01

tom1ie wrote: »

With covid? Your damn right!
Chill khalessi, I just wondered were any primary schools sending out school work as if there was no covid the kids would be in school.
Ya get me?

They wouldn't have been until Wednesday. You don't seem to be able to grasp that. Actually you didn't seem to be aware of that until you were told on here.