Schools closed until March/April? (part 4) **Mod warning in OP 22/01**

average_runner

penny piper wrote: »

Atleast 20 people have tested positive @ a creche in Tullamore. Offally....12 children and 8 staff have all tested positive...The owner of the facility is said to be distraught after having followed all government guidelines...

But one of the parents didn't follow the guidelines!!!!!!!!!!!

average_runner

So all the tests are back for my daughters class, no positive test cases, virus didn't spread

am_zarathustra

Deeec wrote: »

I think teachers should still be paid if it did come to this. Remote learning is unworkable for alot of families - you really need 1 parent not working to make it work. Its fine for a few weeks but not for months like we had in Jan/Feb/Mar.

I completely sympathize. I've found even my excellent, capable, polite and hard working students are cracking now. I wish the government would be realistic. Half classes, extra work at home, split classes so parents have a break, half in in the morning, half in the afternoon. It doesn't need to be this all or nothing scenario they are peddling.

Would you be happier with this, so your kid would do 2.5 or 3 hours a day (sorry not sure o f the age group) but in a much smaller class, with less mixing and then be given work they are actually able to do at home (a bit of extra homework really) to occupy them and reinforce what they've done in class. I know myself if you give me 12 kids for 1 hour or 24 for 2 I'll get nearly the same work done (as in what the kids will have actually assimilated) and I could spend more time checking in etc and parents would be under less pressure.

Icyseanfitz

Listen, we all know schools are 100% safe, the media are just doom merchants in bed with 5g internet billionaires like bill gates making all this up.....

Sarcozies

With the magical lack of cases in school buildings, why don't we put the most as risk in said buildings and let the kids learn in the vacated areas. We'd save so many lives.

josip

average_runner wrote: »

But one of the parents didn't follow the guidelines!!!!!!!!!!!

Couldn't it have been spread by an asymptomatic individual ? (I considered adding extra '?'s but decided they would be spurious)

Dempo1

penny piper wrote: »

Atleast 20 people have tested positive @ a creche in Tullamore. Offally....12 children and 8 staff have all tested positive...The owner of the facility is said to be distraught after having followed all government guidelines...

This sadly not all the news from Tullamore, Just learned 4 schools also have outbreaks in Tullamore, I live 19km from there. Offaly for some very strange reason appears to have some pretty high numbers

average_runner

josip wrote: »

Couldn't it have been spread by an asymptomatic individual ? (I considered adding extra '?'s but decided they would be spurious)

Anything is possible, but still they would of had to of picked the virus up from someone, who probably tested positive.

Deeec

am_zarathustra wrote: »

I completely sympathize. I've found even my excellent, capable, polite and hard working students are cracking now. I wish the government would be realistic. Half classes, extra work at home, split classes so parents have a break, half in in the morning, half in the afternoon. It doesn't need to be this all or nothing scenario they are peddling.

Would you be happier with this, so your kid would do 2.5 or 3 hours a day (sorry not sure o f the age group) but in a much smaller class, with less mixing and then be given work they are actually able to do at home (a bit of extra homework really) to occupy them and reinforce what they've done in class. I know myself if you give me 12 kids for 1 hour or 24 for 2 I'll get nearly the same work done (as in what the kids will have actually assimilated) and I could spend more time checking in etc and parents would be under less pressure.

My 2 are primary ( +1 preschoolar). My kids didnt have any live classes during lockdown. My Snr infant teacher sent videos which worked well but at that age you cant just plonk them on front of a laptop and say off you go - they need help and guidance on what to do next etc.. My older 4th class daughter her teacher couldn't do videos ( long story!) so we were just working from a list of work sent by the teacher - so really I had to teach her the topics the teacher wanted covered. This was the biggest issue for me. I hope we dont have to go back to this.

FishOnABike

deliege wrote: »

Belgium, facing rise in cases and now cases ending in hospital, is considering closing schools again (maybe not long-term but for an extended Easter break).

Declaration of Belgian Prime Minister on the 19th of March:

"Schools are at this point one of the main vectors of contamination. Children and teenagers catch the virus at school, bring it home and spread it there"*



* to be honest it's nothing really new: about half the cases I know amongst my friends and family in Belgium were strongly suspected to be brought in the families via school. What seems to have changed the narrative (and the dynamic of contamination) is that at this point more than half the cases are due to the UK variants, not even to mention other variants (Brazil, SA) also present in the country.

[sarcasm] What's so different about our schools that they are so safe? [/sarcasm]

Necro

AlekSmart wrote: »

FEAR...really is the key.

We live,and have always lived in the midst of diseases and virii all well capable of killing us without a seconds pause.

Population of the Republic. 4,980,000.

(https://www.cso.ie/en/index.html)

Total number of Covid "cases" recorded in the Republic 230,599.

(https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/ireland/)

Currently infected in the Republic.202,649 (21st March 2021)

Total Covid deaths in the Republic 4,587.

Remember also the Pharma industry is keen to have everybody vaccinated.....testing on infants as we speak...

https://www.businessinsider.com/moderna-tests-covid-vaccine-in-babies-and-young-children-2021-3?r=US&IR=T

Be afraid folks,be VERY afraid.

Mod: You have the wrong forum with that sort of nonsense - Conspiracy Theories would suit you just fine. Don't bring it up here again

average_runner

FishOnABike wrote: »

[sarcasm] What's so different about our schools that they are so safe? [/sarcasm]

Why could they open their schools earlier than us?? They also allowed out door training sessions! Why could they do that and not us?

deliege

average_runner wrote: »

Why could they open their schools earlier than us?? They also allowed out door training sessions! Why could they do that and not us?

Well different phases of the epidemic would be my guess. For one thing they had a wave back in October that we more or less skipped - only to get a bigger wave after the "meaningful Christmas", .

Lockdown measures were different regarding school opening (and to be fair they have been partly remote at secondary level there too) - but one of the major factor is hospital and ICU capacity (from memory, about twice more beds per inhabitants than Ireland). So they "chanced it" more than here.

For the last month or so this is what is happening: the "english variant" that has arrived and installed itself much earlier here.

solerina

Deeec wrote: »

My 2 are primary ( +1 preschoolar). My kids didnt have any live classes during lockdown. My Snr infant teacher sent videos which worked well but at that age you cant just plonk them on front of a laptop and say off you go - they need help and guidance on what to do next etc.. My older 4th class daughter her teacher couldn't do videos ( long story!) so we were just working from a list of work sent by the teacher - so really I had to teach her the topics the teacher wanted covered. This was the biggest issue for me. I hope we dont have to go back to this.

This shouldn’t have happened, teachers were meant to do live or pre recorded classes, a list of work is unacceptable, it was ok last Spring as no one knew what to do but this year it’s just not acceptable. You should complain to the school. I did all live classes this year and it was so much better for me and the students than last year.

appledrop

Childcare facility in Tullamore, 8 staff and 15 children test positive.

Disgraceful that the owner has received abuse.

She has followed all the steps and done her best. As we know this strain spreads like wildfire and is widespread in the community in Tullamore.

All education and childcare staff should be vaccinated as a priority if the government expects it to provide a service.

noplacehere

solerina wrote: »

This shouldn’t have happened, teachers were meant to do live or pre recorded classes, a list of work is unacceptable, it was ok last Spring as no one knew what to do but this year it’s just not acceptable. You should complain to the school. I did all live classes this year and it was so much better for me and the students than last year.

The teacher had to be in contact daily not necessarily live is my understanding. We had one live a week (senior infant). Everything else prerecorded by her and daily contact via class dojo. To be fair to her she had 2 primary school kids of her own at home with her. They appeared regularly in her demonstrations as props lol

hesaidshesaid

average_runner wrote: »

So all the tests are back for my daughters class, no positive test cases, virus didn't spread

Can I ask what class your daughter is in? Am interested to see if they are still just testing the pod from 3rd - 6th. Thanks.

It would be great to know if it was the UK variant in that class. In early December we had a case in Junior Infants and it seemed that no one else tested positive - schools/teachers don’t know who tests positive as HSE don’t tell us and everyone was out for 2 weeks either way. It was very early Dec so unlikely to have been UK variant.

It’s much more likely to be that now, so it’s very good news that there was no viral spread in your daughter’s class.

As for schools closing after Easter, I can’t see it. That said, we will probably send all books home anyway. No point getting caught out. Preaching to the converted here, but people really need to avoid indoor meetings for as long as possible so we can keep schools open until the end of June.

Deeec

solerina wrote: »

This shouldn’t have happened, teachers were meant to do live or pre recorded classes, a list of work is unacceptable, it was ok last Spring as no one knew what to do but this year it’s just not acceptable. You should complain to the school. I did all live classes this year and it was so much better for me and the students than last year.

We did complain ( as did all the parents )but nothing changed. As a compromise the teacher agreed to take the class for a few extra hours per week when they went back to school to catch up and in fairness she has kept to her word and took them 2 hours extra last week and same planned for this week. She is an older teacher and found the IT workings regarding video upload etc too stressful. She did do videos for the first 2 weeks in January but done this with the help of her adult child who was at home at the time. Her contact daily with a list of work did meet the standards apparently.

am_zarathustra

Deeec wrote: »

We did complain ( as did all the parents )but nothing changed. As a compromise the teacher agreed to take the class for a few extra hours per week when they went back to school to catch up and in fairness she has kept to her word and took them 2 hours extra last week and same planned for this week. She is an older teacher and found the IT workings regarding video upload etc too stressful. She did do videos for the first 2 weeks in January but done this with the help of her adult child who was at home at the time. Her contact daily with a list of work did meet the standards apparently.

Jesus that's really not good enough, there is so much training available and it's not like we didn't know this was a real possibility. Strange it was acceptable to management

Richard tea

Found it strange with all the death and carnage in schools at the moment that one of my primary kids has a student teacher in at the moment training. And another of my kids class all received Easter eggs today. Maybe their school is unaware of the pandemic.

wirelessdude01

Richard tea wrote: »

Found it strange with all the death and carnage in schools at the moment that one of my primary kids has a student teacher in at the moment training. And another of my kids class all received Easter eggs today. Maybe their school is unaware of the pandemic.

What is the issue? We currently have three student teachers in.

km79

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

What is the issue? We currently have three student teachers in.

And a lot of secondary schools would have been in a lot of trouble regarding subbing cover without them .
No subs available
Student teachers had to do a lot of subbing this year. No ideal . Tough year for them even if they made a few pound along the way!

Richard tea

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

What is the issue? We currently have three student teachers in.

Well it's just that most posters here think schools are not safe places. Is teacher training essential at the moment? Can't have it both ways

History Queen

Richard tea wrote: »

Found it strange with all the death and carnage in schools at the moment that one of my primary kids has a student teacher in at the moment training. And another of my kids class all received Easter eggs today. Maybe their school is unaware of the pandemic.

Well whatever about Easter Eggs, I don't understand your point about the student teacher?

hesaidshesaid

Richard tea wrote: »

Well it's just that most posters here think schools are not safe places. Is teacher training essential at the moment? Can't have it both ways

It’s 100% essential. We need every newly qualified teacher we can get. Subs are impossible to find, our principal rang 36 teachers one morning last term trying to find someone to take a class.

Student teachers have to complete a certain number of days of in-classroom placement. They can’t qualify otherwise. Schools are being mindful of who gets the student though. We were due to have a student in 6th but it was decided that the class would benefit more from continuity with their own teacher having missed a considerable amount of in-person schooling over the past two school years. The student has been placed with a younger class and is doing great with them. Both kids and teachers can learn from a good student teacher.

History Queen

Richard tea wrote: »

Well it's just that most posters here think schools are not safe places. Is teacher training essential at the moment? Can't have it both ways

Is teacher training essential? In the middle of a recruitment crises? Really?

byhookorbycrook

solerina wrote: »

This shouldn’t have happened, teachers were meant to do live or pre recorded classes, a list of work is unacceptable, it was ok last Spring as no one knew what to do but this year it’s just not acceptable. You should complain to the school. I did all live classes this year and it was so much better for me and the students than last year.

They weren’t “ meant to do” any such thing . Sending out a list without any other interaction is certainly not acceptable, but live classes are unfair to many children who can’t attend at the time and trying to pre-record a full school day is pointless. Expecting a primary child to sit through 5 hours of video lessons will never work .

The SETs in our school did zooms but they were either one to one or in groups of no more than 4 .The rescheduling involved in trying to get all the children at the same time was very, very difficult If their class teacher was doing 5 hours of videos and then the children had to do zooms on top of that , how would that work?

wirelessdude01

Richard tea wrote: »

Is teacher training essential at the moment?

Given the scarcity of primary teachers, yes.

byhookorbycrook

The students are no different to subs and with such a shortage of subs, at least there are “ bodies” on site who can help to cover ill staff. Not ideal by any means , but the alternative is to send classes home .

hesaidshesaid

It will be interesting to see whether the past year’s events (including placement on vaccine schedule) and negative public attitude to teachers from some quarters will have any impact on numbers applying for teacher training this year.