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

17larsson

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

No instructions from anyone. We have decided as a school staff not to send anything home. If something happens then we'll deal with it after Easter.

Ok great, I was worried they knew something was coming

DSN

Daughter came home Tuesday upset saying 'teacher said' we might not be back after Easter. I was annoyed though why say this?? I didn't complain (just venting here) because she's a great teacher otherwise v commited. She the same in Nov telling them we going into lockdown, speculating re school closures before we ever did. Am laughing tho at kids all blabbing to teachers re parties etc daughter wouldnt even say in class we went for a walk with a friend as 'miss wouldn't approve'

Lisha

MarshmallowPop wrote: »

Thank you. We are doing OK and taking it day by day. Such a heartbreaking time.

Not Covid Related but something I want to bring up because I see New Zealand have introduced 3 days of Compassionate Leave for those who have suffered a miscarriage.

We get nothing in Ireland, I was shocked when I found out!

So very sorry for your loss. I was listening about the NZ compassionate leave and I agree it’s shocking that we don’t have it here.
Best wishes to you both .

Rosita

17larsson wrote: »

Ok great, I was worried they knew something was coming

As a general guideline you can assume that schools will be among the last to know if they are not opening. Last March the potential closure of schools was rumoured for several weeks yet the government could not even give schools one day to get this kind of thing sorted. The schools closed literally on the day it was announced. Contempt is the default setting.

wirelessdude01

17larsson wrote: »

Ok great, I was worried they knew something was coming

Don't you realise that we hear it from the media like the general public.

Icyseanfitz

MarshmallowPop wrote: »

Thank you. We are doing OK and taking it day by day. Such a heartbreaking time.

Not Covid Related but something I want to bring up because I see New Zealand have introduced 3 days of Compassionate Leave for those who have suffered a miscarriage.

We get nothing in Ireland, I was shocked when I found out!

I read that as well regarding new Zealand, if I was young and free I'd be seriously considering immigranting there at this stage, seems to be a well run little country.

Random sample

MarshmallowPop wrote: »

Thank you.

I know sick leave is there but I'm still shocked there is no compassionate leave.

It would very easy for me to use a lot of sick leave if I didn't go back after Easter.

I also have to think down the road, if this happened again, I would need more time off.

The last thing I wanted to do when I found out that I had a miscarriage was to ring my boss to take me off WFH and straight onto sick leave.

That's a particularly cruel phone call to have to make.

BonsaiKitten

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

No instructions from anyone. We have decided as a school staff not to send anything home. If something happens then we'll deal with it after Easter.

Same here, we've heard about other schools sending books home but decided against it ourselves. No need to stress out the kids like that - if the schools did close, we'd just allocate a time for parents to come in and pick up book boxes as was done before.

Lisha

BonsaiKitten wrote: »

Same here, we've heard about other schools sending books home but decided against it ourselves. No need to stress out the kids like that - if the schools did close, we'd just allocate a time for parents to come in and pick up book boxes as was done before.

I don’t agree with the books going home when it’s unknown if kids will be in school or online after Easter. If they are going to be in school then the books will have left the school controlled environment into varied homes. Then to go back into school bringing contamination into from every hone. As does each child every day I suppose I dunno.

TLDR In essence I agree if needed they should have arranged a time for collection after Easter

Ray Donovan

Lisha wrote: »

I don’t agree with the books going home when it’s unknown if kids will be in school or online after Easter. If they are going to be in school then the books will have left the school controlled environment into varied homes. Then to go back into school bringing contamination into from every hone. As does each child every day I suppose I dunno.

TLDR In essence I agree if needed they should have arranged a time for collection after Easter

It’s not exactly life changing decision FFS.

Lisha

Ray Donovan wrote: »

It’s not exactly life changing decision FFS.

It causes uncertainty and worry for children, parents and teachers.

Flippyfloppy

Lisha wrote: »

It causes uncertainty and worry for children, parents and teachers.

I agree, and I think it's quite the statement for schools to make.

On the other hand it may encourage parents to decline that party invite or playdate because they know what is at stake

Messi19

Lisha wrote: »

It causes uncertainty and worry for children, parents and teachers.

Seriously? Don't see anything wrong with schools putting their own contingency plans in place and being proactive. Plan for the worst, hope for the best

jrosen

Its causing unnecessary stress. One of the local primary schools has sent home all books with teachers telling students its incase schools dont open after easter. Really this sort of jumping the gun does nothing but upset people and have parents worried.

Hold My Hand

We’ve decided not to send anything. The children are thrilled to be back and we wanted to keep the positivity going. We have had record attendances for the days we have been in school. Hopefully, we’ll stay open. Have a good Easter break everyone.

wirelessdude01

jrosen wrote: »

Its causing unnecessary stress. One of the local primary schools has sent home all books with teachers telling students its incase schools dont open after easter. Really this sort of jumping the gun does nothing but upset people and have parents worried.

Pros and cons to sending home or leaving in school depending on what happens. As I said we've decided against but can see merit in doing so but wouldn't agree with it myself.

BonsaiKitten

Lisha wrote: »

I don’t agree with the books going home when it’s unknown if kids will be in school or online after Easter. If they are going to be in school then the books will have left the school controlled environment into varied homes. Then to go back into school bringing contamination into from every hone. As does each child every day I suppose I dunno.

TLDR In essence I agree if needed they should have arranged a time for collection after Easter

I do have to admit I don't care at all about that aspect of books going home...the biggest Covid risk is always the people. I think a lot of the book quarantining etc going on in schools is for show. But we agree, just coming at it from different angles

irishblessing

This is crazy!

https://www.rte.ie/news/investigations-unit/2021/0325/1206176-whistleblower-shane-corr-department-of-health-autism-dossiers/

What Mr Corr had seen on his computer that day related to a group of children who had been diagnosed with autism and, in the early to mid-2000s, had seen individual High Court cases taken in their name by parents fighting for access to appropriate services and education.

At the time, other cases were making high-profile journeys to the Supreme Court to ensure children with autism could not be denied their right to a proper education.

It appears that, in most cases, the parents would have incurred significant legal fees because solicitors acting on their behalf prepared detailed case files to build a case to take to court and this incurred instruction fees.

But once the cases got lodged in the High Court, the proceedings never moved on.

In many cases, the Department or other State bodies agreed to provide some services, reducing the urgency of those legal cases.


But this did not happen in all cases: The Department of Health, the Heath Service Executive and the Department of Education had settled more than a hundred cases between 1996 and 2016, at a cost of more than €11m.

Many other cases stayed on the books – at least a further four dozen. They were never heard in court, subject to judgement, withdrawn or settled. Court records indicate that, in all respects, they were dormant.

But Mr Corr discovered that activity in the background had not stopped...



They have money to payout to settle cases of neglect, basically, but not to actually provide the services in education in the first place?!

km79

Full return going ahead Monday April 12th .

Sharpyshoot

km79 wrote: »

Full return going ahead Monday April 12th .

Fair play to minister Foley for getting that over the line. Difficult task.

irishblessing

There's no way Norma didn't know...

"Everything that you would not want to know about the family living beside you – it was there."

Much of the information was drawn from conversations with doctors. It was transcribed and logged in Excel spreadsheets and shared with the Department of Education and the HSE, he said.

Other documents he discovered helped him understand why all of this was happening. It was not being collected for the purposes of responding to something that had been raised in court – or to prepare for an imminent hearing.

It was to strategise, to understand the mindset and mood of the families – to help them figure out if it would be a good time to approach them to withdraw their legal cases.

At the right time, a family might be willing to withdraw their historic case, rather than to settle it. In this scenario, the Department would not owe the family their legal costs.

But only one side – the Department – was aware the case was still being worked on in this way.

"If you're running a litigation case, it's an extraordinary advantage if you know the mindset of the person who has entered into litigation against you," Mr Corr said.
Once I saw the piece of correspondence from the Department, there was no way I was ever going to let that lie"

Sammy2012

BonsaiKitten wrote: »

I do have to admit I don't care at all about that aspect of books going home...the biggest Covid risk is always the people. I think a lot of the book quarantining etc going on in schools is for show. But we agree, just coming at it from different angles

Haven't been doing any of that at all this year. I take home copies to correct and bring them back the next day. They bring in their readers daily. Whole load of nonsense if you ask me. The odds of catching something from a book is miniscule. If the kids can stand beside me unmasked to read or work on something I can surely manage to correct a copy they are working on. I mean who has 3 days to quarantine a book.

irishblessing

irishblessing wrote: »

There's no way Norma didn't know...

Feck sake, she is a bit of an empty vessel but this happened long before her time

irishblessing

Deleted User wrote: »

Feck sake, she is a bit of an empty vessel but this happened long before her time

Did you read the article? It's been a year and nothing has been done about it. The dept is taking active steps to defend those actions.

TheValeyard

Sharpyshoot wrote: »

Fair play to minister Foley for getting that over the line. Difficult task.

Doubt she had anything to do with it. Probably still playing hide and seek.

Sammy2012

https://extra.ie/2021/03/26/news/irish-news/teachers-from-fee-paying-school-get-covid-jab-from-private-hospital

Have ye seen this?

wirelessdude01

The amount of people whining on social media about a few schools sending home books over Easter is ludicrous. Some of these schools seem to send home books every school break so that rooms can be properly cleaned but now it's being taken as a sign that schools have been told that we are closed after Easter.

I also saw two tweets from people giving out that books weren't sent home yesterday with the reasoning being that the teachers were lazy and could then miss a few days remote teaching on the flip side of Easter until book collection could be organised.

No winning with some is there!!!

KathleenGrant

I very seldom comment on threads like this but i was very angry when i heard Ronan Glynn or whoever mention playdates driving up cases along with Mother's Day visits. I haven't seen my grandchildren for weeks and Mother's Day they left a card and present on the doorstep and i had a 5 minute conversation from 10 metres away.

But the playdates? I live close to our local school and what is going on in there for the last month are the biggest playdates you could have.

I can see why people are frustrated and cross. No outside Easter Camps, no playdates of 2-3 kids but schools are ok? Ok my arse.

copeyhagen

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

The amount of people whining on social media about a few schools sending home books over Easter is ludicrous. Some of these schools seem to send home books every school break so that rooms can be properly cleaned but now it's being taken as a sign that schools have been told that we are closed after Easter.

I also saw two tweets from people giving out that books weren't sent home yesterday with the reasoning being that the teachers were lazy and could then miss a few days remote teaching on the flip side of Easter until book collection could be organised.

No winning with some is there!!!

our school has never sent books home and the kids books are going home. pretty obvious whats going to happen

wirelessdude01

What do people think of this? One of the secondary schools that we feed into are having their entrance assessments onsite tomorrow.