Schools closed until February? (part 3)

khalessi

SusanC10 wrote: »

Does anyone else think that the Government are just trying to get to the MidTerm Break and then they will go for Level 5 plus schools closed for the entire Country for a number of weeks ?

If they do that is crazy.

If we do close it should be in sync with the North. We were able to manage to sync when it came to foot and mouth disease, and back then we dealt with Ian Paisley, so we should be able to collaborate on this.

lulublue22

HerrKuehn wrote: »

Well if he is muted then he can either listen in or not. There will be no one making sure he is looking at the screen and paying attention normally will there? I think it is a good example of how some will always look for issues and the only realistic thing is for schools to continue as normal or be off fully and make time up later.

In your opinion it is someone looking for issues - at no point did I state or infer that remote learning is not an option due to behaviour . If you read the thread you would see that the post is in response to the statement that classroom management is easier on line as you can simply mute them - I’m simply pointing out that that is not a viable longterm solution and that remote learning presents different class management issues than in class. But I guess that doesn’t suit your narrative.


eta - what it is a good example of is people who don’t understand the procedures in place in schools who then jump on the looking for problem bandwagon when the difficulties with certain solutions are pointed out.

HerrKuehn

lulublue22 wrote: »

In your opinion it is someone looking for issues - at no point did I state or infer that remote learning is not an option due to behaviour . If you read the thread you would see that the post is in response to the statement that classroom management is easier on line as you can simply mute them - I’m simply pointing out that that is not a viable longterm solution and that remote learning presents different class management issues than in class. But I guess that doesn’t suit your narrative.


eta - what it is a good example of is people who don’t understand the procedures in place in schools who then jump on the looking for problem bandwagon when the difficulties with certain solutions are pointed out.

There will always be people who see only problems. I would be delighted to be proved wrong, but I don't think we will see successful remote learning (with streamed lessons etc, not sending on work only). My view is really just based on the fact that we don't really have a history of the public sector providing innovative solutions to anything really. I don't think that is very controversial to say either. Anything new is too hard/GDPR/not in my contract/no training/no circular sent around/not consulted etc

hello2020

Is there anyway for us to stop sending child to school till this virus issue is over? My child is in junior infant and we feel nervous about sending him to school as they already had one incident of child testing positive in his class.

meeeeh

khalessi wrote: »

If they do that is crazy.

If we do close it should be in sync with the North. We were able to manage to sync when it came to foot and mouth disease, and back then we dealt with Ian Paisley, so we should be able to collaborate on this.

I don't get this, why should we be in sync with North. Firstly North are nowhere near level 5 restrictions so we wouldn't be in sync anyway. At the moment 6 people can attend a wedding in Cavan and 25 can attend a wedding in the North.

Would people who are suggesting we should synchronise with North like Stormont to legislate for the Republic too? Because that's the only way you will get synchronised approach. I mentioned before that countries in Schengen are not synchronizing and yes they have minorities living across borders before someone pipes up Ireland is special (it's not). Unless we synchronize our supports and healthcare with UK we can't sync restrictions no matter how enthusiastic are SF for that to happen.

Btw I don't think there is much of an appetite to close schools and as far as I can see most of Europe is not doing it yet. It might need to be done, but considering the age group of majority the schools really shouldn't be among the first to close.

Smacruairi

Lillyfae wrote: »

Careful now! Don't say anything practical, you might be bumped off by the thankswh*re mafia

That's ironic seeing as you were known for "thanking" a multitude of posts that openly bashed teachers, which were subsequently dealt with by mods. You don't engage in a constructive manner with people, as evidenced by your ignoring of me pointing out the problem with your opinion.

irishblessing

lulublue22 wrote: »

How long do you mute the child for ? what if the child is constantly disruptive ? All children no matter how disruptive have a right to an education. muting a disruptive child while it solves the initial problem is not a viable strategy longterm as it is withdrawing their right to an education. Schools are bound by rules and procedures and If it was that simple to deal with disruptive students we would have a very high level of suspensions and expulsions in the country.

How long? For that lesson, and let the parents know. If it's a repeat offender ask the parents to be on hand to deal with it. Other children also have a right to an education without that constant disruption too. It's the parent's primary responsibility to educate their children.
Presumably you teachers have been trained in classroom management so why don't you answer your own questions?

Lillyfae

Smacruairi wrote: »

That's ironic seeing as you were known for "thanking" a multitude of posts that openly bashed teachers, which were subsequently dealt with by mods. You don't engage in a constructive manner with people, as evidenced by your ignoring of me pointing out the problem with your opinion.

What? There were people carded for bashing parents, I haven't been carded anywhere here. Don't think I've ever been carded at all actually.

Someone who normally agrees with the teachers here and who would oppose me often, echoed the reply that I made. I don't see any of you quoting that post?

If a program is being used for collaboration in school doesn't have the facility to put any or all participants on mute then it's obviously not the right program to use. Does anyone know of any Teams/Zoom type program where it's not possible to mute? Imo the teacher that shut the whole class out in response to a disruptive student didn't really back up any possible future of remote/hybrid learning model. Either because there was no operating procedure set out for use by the school, it was substandard, or they were just making an individual judgement call.

Honestly, I don't respond to a lot of the criticism I get here because it drags the thread further off topic to point out very simple solutions to the questions raised.

morebabies

hello2020 wrote: »

Is there anyway for us to stop sending child to school till this virus issue is over? My child is in junior infant and we feel nervous about sending him to school as they already had one incident of child testing positive in his class.

I totally understand how you feel, I'm very uneasy with the whole situation, homeschooling is your only legal option to keep them home which I would love to be able to do, but have a look at this link where a lot of your questions are answered :

https://www.tusla.ie/tess/faqs/#Top

ginoginelli

khalessi wrote: »

If they do that is crazy.

If we do close it should be in sync with the North. We were able to manage to sync when it came to foot and mouth disease, and back then we dealt with Ian Paisley, so we should be able to collaborate on this.

Exactly. The government have constantly cited the north as a reason they are hamstrung in fighting covid. Now here is their chance, maybe the only chance we will get before the hospitals are over run and they cant makes decision.

khalessi

meeeeh wrote: »

I don't get this, why should we be in sync with North. Firstly North are nowhere near level 5 restrictions so we wouldn't be in sync anyway. At the moment 6 people can attend a wedding in Cavan and 25 can attend a wedding in the North.

Would people who are suggesting we should synchronise with North like Stormont to legislate for the Republic too? Because that's the only way you will get synchronised approac.

Actually it is not the only way. We synchronised our response to Foot and Mouth disease many years ago and it worked well. I think in the even tof a pandemic we shoudl just get over ourselves and come to some agreement.

egan2020

hello2020 wrote: »

Is there anyway for us to stop sending child to school till this virus issue is over? My child is in junior infant and we feel nervous about sending him to school as they already had one incident of child testing positive in his class.

As he has only started junior infants can you take him out and and say you'll start him next year instead?

HerrKuehn

khalessi wrote: »

Actually it is not the only way. We synchronised our response to Foot and Mouth disease many years ago and it worked well. I think in the even tof a pandemic we shoudl just get over ourselves and come to some agreement.

That is a bizarre example, foot and mouth would have had very little impact on the lives of people other than farmers.

bladespin

egan2020 wrote: »

As he has only started junior infants can you take him out and and say you'll start him next year instead?

Optimistic about timeframes there I'd say, this virus will be an issue for several years to come, even if a vaccine miraculously appears.

khalessi

HerrKuehn wrote: »

That is a bizarre example, foot and mouth would have had very little impact on the lives of people other than farmers.

True, but it was a worry and it did impact the public in a big way at the time and was big news and is just an example of cross border cooperation

HerrKuehn

khalessi wrote: »

True, but it was a worry and it did impact the public in a big way at the time and was big news and is just an example of cross border cooperation

So, there would be some logic to coordinating measures like pubs/restaurant closures. Someone in NI might be willing to travel 10km across the border to have a pint or whatever. I don't see kids in NI looking to enroll in our schools though so I would wonder what the logic would be in coordinating on that.

wirelessdude01

HerrKuehn wrote: »

So, there would be some logic to coordinating measures like pubs/restaurant closures. Someone in NI might be willing to travel 10km across the border to have a pint or whatever. I don't see kids in NI looking to enroll in our schools though so I would wonder what the logic would be in coordinating on that.

Plenty of kids from the north go to school south of the border.

JP Liz V1

Schools:

Right-pointing triangle 384 facilities have had mass testing.
Right-pointing triangle 9,345 tested - students and teachers.
Right-pointing triangle Positivity of 1.9%

HerrKuehn

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Plenty of kids from the north go to school south of the border.

I have no idea of the numbers, maybe you have them? But my point was more about them closing schools is not going to lead to an increase in people from NI coming into our schools. There will always be people moving across the border for work anyway.

techdiver

Can anyone here explain how remote learning will actually work?

What resources do each household require? Laptop, Tablet? What do people who can't afford these resource do?
Do parent have to quit work in order to facilitate this (because for younger kids that is what this amounts to).

Comparing working from home with remote learning, especially for young kids is idiotic in the extreme.

SusanC10

techdiver wrote: »

Can anyone here explain how remote learning will actually work?

What resources do each household require? Laptop, Tablet? What do people who can't afford these resource do?
Do parent have to quit work in order to facilitate this (because for younger kids that is what this amounts to).

Comparing working from home with remote learning, especially for young kids is idiotic in the extreme.

It depends on the School from what I can make out.
Also depends on the age of the Kids.

Our daughter (5th Class) is on Google Classroom. Our son (2nd Year) is on Microsoft Teams. Both are also on Zoom.
We have bought a new Laptop so there are now 3 Laptops in the house.
Both our Kids require minimal supervision.

This week we got notifications from both Schools asking all kids to test the platforms and also saying that if there was an issue with internet or devices to contact the school in confidence.

I a SAM so obviously I can supervise but have friends where both Parents were WFH in March -June. One Parent would start early and finish early and then other Parent start later and finish later.
My friend in the US whose Kids are still fully remote learning does this too with her Husband. Their Kids are younger than ours.

eviltwin

techdiver wrote: »

Can anyone here explain how remote learning will actually work?

What resources do each household require? Laptop, Tablet? What do people who can't afford these resource do?
Do parent have to quit work in order to facilitate this (because for younger kids that is what this amounts to).

Comparing working from home with remote learning, especially for young kids is idiotic in the extreme.

Its not practical in the long term. You would need a different laptop per child and constant supervision from at least one parent which isn't possible if parents are working. We tried - and failed - to educate our one school going child from march this year. We had a laptop but he needed a lot of one to one support which wasn't possible as I'm out of the house working and my other half is working from home. I think most parents struggled and very little got done so its not really a solution.

techdiver

SusanC10 wrote: »

It depends on the School from what I can make out.
Also depends on the age of the Kids.

Our daughter (5th Class) is on Google Classroom. Our son (2nd Year) is on Microsoft Teams. Both are also on Zoom.
We have bought a new Laptop so there are now 3 Laptops in the house.
Both our Kids require minimal supervision.

This week we got notifications from both Schools asking all kids to test the platforms and also saying that if there was an issue with internet or devices to contact the school in confidence.

I a SAM so obviously I can supervise but have friends where both Parents were WFH in March -June. One Parent would start early and finish early and then other Parent start later and finish later.
My friend in the US whose Kids are still fully remote learning does this too with her Husband. Their Kids are younger than ours.

I can understand older kids can do it, but what about 6 and 4 year olds? Kids with ASD etc? What then? It's just not a runner with younger kids in my opinion. Also, not every parent can WFH (unfortunately), so this is not feasible across the board.

Personally, I'm ok. I can work from home and have a flexible (to an extent) employer. many employers will not allow this leeway to employees. If I think of my extended group of friends (20+ people), I am the only one working from home full time, one more has "some" working from home, whereas the rest either work in jobs that require them on site or have employers that will not allow working from home. in many cases both parents work outside the home.

I can afford extra resources, but as you say yourself, you have 3 laptops in the house. How many households can afford that? What about households with 3, 4 or 5+ kids?

I find these discussions to be always myopic and people can't see past their own situation and can't empathise with others. It's the same with attitudes towards restrictions. Restrictions are completely necessary, but we must balance everything.

eagle eye

techdiver wrote:

I can understand older kids can do it, but what about 6 and 4 year olds? Kids with ASD etc? What then? It's just not a runner with younger kids in my opinion. Also, not every parent can WFH (unfortunately), so this is not feasible across the board.

It's really easy to homeschool kids under 10 for a short time.

Inquitus

Case in my Son's school, child last attended on Thurs last week, tested positive I guess today or yesterday, HSE says no further action required, no one else to quarantine or be tested. My son has close contact with this child, not sure I can agree with the HSE on this one.

wirelessdude01

Inquitus wrote: »

Case in my Son's school, child last attended on Thurs last week, tested positive I guess today or yesterday, HSE says no further action required, no one else to quarantine or be tested. My son has close contact with this child, not sure I can agree with the HSE on this one.

Primary or secondary?

SusanC10

techdiver wrote: »

I can understand older kids can do it, but what about 6 and 4 year olds? Kids with ASD etc? What then? It's just not a runner with younger kids in my opinion. Also, not every parent can WFH (unfortunately), so this is not feasible across the board.

Personally, I'm ok. I can work from home and have a flexible (to an extent) employer. many employers will not allow this leeway to employees. If I think of my extended group of friends (20+ people), I am the only one working from home full time, one more has "some" working from home, whereas the rest either work in jobs that require them on site or have employers that will not allow working from home. in many cases both parents work outside the home.

I can afford extra resources, but as you say yourself, you have 3 laptops in the house. How many households can afford that? What about households with 3, 4 or 5+ kids?

I find these discussions to be always myopic and people can't see past their own situation and can't empathise with others. It's the same with attitudes towards restrictions. Restrictions are completely necessary, but we must balance everything.

I just think that there should be a choice during a Pandemic.
Remote Learning doesn't suit every household. But it does suit some. And by suiting some, it would reduce the numbers of people physically present in schools.

As I said earlier in the thread, in my friends School in the US, the Parents were given the choice to continue with remote or not without losing the child's place in school. They chose remote despite both WFH (one does need to attend onsite a few times a month).

Inquitus

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Primary or secondary?

Secondary

wirelessdude01

Inquitus wrote: »

Secondary

They seem to be using the fact that secondary students are wearing masks and don't spend two consecutive hours together as the basis for not being a cloae contact. Anything to avoid having to test is my opinion.

Inquitus

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

They seem to be using the fact that secondary students are wearing masks and don't spend two consecutive hours together as the basis for not being a cloae contact. Anything to avoid having to test is my opinion.

They also play maskless on the playground, and congregate a small amount on the way in and out of school.