All our kids are coming back next week, a year group per day. So Year 11 Monday and all there by Friday. Have no idea how the testing will run but there's an inset day about it tomorrow. I won't know till Monday though as I don't work Fridays so the unexpected will be fun.
Re-opening Schools?
- Thread starter ska invita
- Start date
Covid: Gavin Williamson 'looking at' longer school day and shorter holidays
A range of measures are being looked at to help pupils in England catch up, the education secretary says.
www.bbc.com
"Gavin Williamson 'looking at' longer school day and shorter holidays"
Alternatively headline is presumably "UK teachers 'looking at' telling Gavin Williamson to 'eat shit and die'"...
Indeliblelink
\......👁&👁......./
Are they going to pay higher wages for longer days and extended term times? At least teachers mostly get paid for holidays and have full time contracts, lots of support staff are on term time only contracts. If the government/schools want them to work more days then they're going to have to increase their pay.
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exactly this ^^
after all the stress of the pandemic and how the government has managed its response to education they are considering longer school days?! Numbnuts!
after all the stress of the pandemic and how the government has managed its response to education they are considering longer school days?! Numbnuts!
weepiper
I fix the machines that fight climate change
My 15 year old has been back in three afternoons a week for drama, music and computing only, for a fortnight. He says it's been fine so far, their whole class is in at one time but obviously only some kids from 4th, 5th and 6th year are there so the overall volume is way less than normal. He says everyone is wearing a mask in class pretty much without complaint which is good. My other two (12 and 17) are supposed to be having a phased return from the 15th. The school sent a letter saying that because they're still focussing on the exam year kids' practical assessments they have priority, and given they have to keep 2m distancing until the Easter holidays, in practice this will probably mean they all only have a half day a week in school until then. Then everyone goes back without the 2m rule but still with facemasks in class after Easter.
I imagine there will be countless stories like this. The more you test the more you find.
Yup.
So far SisterBadgers has had two staff sent home tested positive. That was before the entered the school or interacted, so testing is helping. However is does not bode well.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Told you so.
Fiddling while Rome burns
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Staff briefing at my school last week:
"We really need to be keeping on top of uniform standards. I know shops haven't been open and some kids may have grown out of their clothes, but still we need to make sure we're enforcing proper uniform."
So he hasn't even got the excuse that he hadn't thought about difficulties kids might be having. He's said right there that he's aware but just doesn't give a shit. He didn't bother to expand further on how teachers enforcing things is supposed to change the material reality of the situation.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
I don't know where they find these ghouls for head teacher jobs. You'd think somewhere one would slip through the net who saw school uniforms for the demented 19th century anachronism they are but it just never happens. Doesn't bode well for evidence-based practice elsewhere in education tbh.
elbows
Well-Known Member
Maybe they recognise their role in preparing kids for the wider world. A world where arbitrary authorities figureheads are often inattentive to the real needs of people, being more interested in customs and conformity than actually having the right priorities. The festival of the petty and absurd never stops. Every pupil must come to learn that here we worship at the church of the thinly veneered half-arse, and the pandemic proves this time and time again.
baldrick
hmmmmm
I don't understand why you would even do that job if you think petty bullshit like that matters in these circumstances. Uniform isn't on anyone's radar at my school except where it might indicate families are struggling to provide suitable clothes. We have a kid whose family are refugees starting on Monday, his parents were worried about uniform, bless them. We gave them a blazer and a tie and said don't worry about the rest of it. I can't imagine why any school would be doing anything else right now.
Our staff briefing was basically an hour of pastoral stuff - encouraging everyone to always use positive language about kids learning despite what they may or may not have achieved over lockdown, what we might be doing about Y11 & Y13 mocks and finally to get everyone in the mood a full briefing of all the many safeguarding issues our children have experienced since we were last in the building. Sometimes I feel really really lucky to be working where I do.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
In general my school is great at looking after kids. Support might be a bit ham-fisted in places but the genuine concern for wellbeing is there in spades. Which only makes the uniform stuff even harder to grasp.
We've been told to be sure to issue yellow tickets for uniform
Are those equivalent to a a telling-off?
miss direct
misfungled
It was yellow slips at my school in the 90s. The fear. Something to do with yellow cards and red cards.
Those hadn't yet departed from the football pitch when I was at school .... a longer time ago than you!
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
It was Saturday detentions in my school. So, given my lifelong hunt for windmills to tilt at, I responded with defiance to the restrictions (not that I had any choice - I wore the shoes my mother gave me to wear, and her interpretations of the uniform code might be best described as "creative"), and then defied authority by refusing to attend the Saturday detentions. They (eventually) gave up, but it was a miserable few years. And no, I didn't tell them my mum chose my shoes - bit too much shame in there for that.
Which is probably why I get particularly exercised when I see, FORTY FUCKING YEARS LATER, that schools are still, essentially, bullying pupils who may have no choice or option as to what they are wearing to school.
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
I managed to dodge most of this as my secondary had no uniform. My primary had no uniform for a while but when it did come in they made it super lax. dark bottoms, white shirt, red jumper. No specific styles or manufacturers. Also you didn't have to wear the jumper if you don't want to and shorts were fine in the summer (possibly winter too but this was before I realised I could do that).
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
They claim uniforms prepare you for work but if this happened at work you would be having a pointed meeting with HR and your union rep.
existentialist
Tired and unemotional
They're right, in a way. In the sense that forcing children to accept pettifogging and pointless rules as the norm is the perfect education for the kind of workforce our governments want - compliant, beaten-down, frightened people forced to conform to arbitrary rules, and constantly reminded that there's plenty of people out there who'd love their job..."oh, and have you see what it's like claiming benefits these days? You wouldn't want to find yourself there, now, would you?"
Not to mention that shovelling them back into school with indecent haste, during a pandemic , is an ideal preparation for their likely experiences in the workplace when it comes to other health and safety issues. They will only have to look at their teachers to see how that pans out...
Shippou-Sensei
4:1:2.5
Cheerful thoughts eh?
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Yeah I'm trying to be cheerful around the kids today. To be fair it is good to see them back. They're making less fuss than the adults around here. A good crowd, all things considered.
rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
My son's school did 1000 tests with not one positive result.
My daughters go to a different school and had one positive test. But that person didn't go into the school itself so others in their year haven't been sent home
My daughters go to a different school and had one positive test. But that person didn't go into the school itself so others in their year haven't been sent home
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