Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Yeah, I’m in travel and not doing much, happy to teach teens how to skin up, bump some K and so on.
Re-opening Schools?
- Thread starter ska invita
- Start date
Yeah, I’m in travel and not doing much, happy to teach teens how to skin up, bump some K and so on.
elbows
Well-Known Member
Oh for a country that was not quite so absurd due to centralisation.
How did going back to school lose the plot?
After scrapping the plan for all primary years to return, what happens next for those out of school?
www.bbc.co.uk
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
There are of course thousands of actors, musicians and dancers out of work for months still to come, many of whom would make excellent summer programme providers (dbs and funding permitting).
Steel Icarus
ersatz maven
PGCE SpookyFrank ?I'm due to start teacher training in September. I'm not supposed to be starting placements until January but if they do end up scraping around for anyone with a DBS check I might get sent to the coalface sooner than that I suppose...
e2a: I wonder if I'll get my £9,000 tuition fees back if I end up not getting any tuition
Poot
My wife thinks I work too hard
Do you mean their own personal funding permitting? Because I think Mr Johnson may have in mind a volunteer army of grannies whose only reward will be to know that they were able to help someone. I don't think any pay will be involved as I understand it.
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
No - I meant that anyone doing a job should be paid properly.
Performers, of course, haven't been eligible for furlough - and for many it's very hard to prove what they would have earned.
Spandex
A crazy bulbous punchbag of sound
A volunteer army of mums and dads has been trying to teach kids material prepared by professional teachers since March. That's why catch up sessions have been proposed.
How the fuck can a volunteer army of well meaning strangers trying to teach kids material prepared by professional teachers for a few weeks be the solution?
Poot
My wife thinks I work too hard
Did anyone ever listen to Mitchell and Webb's Old Lady Job Justification Panel? It was a sketch where people justified what they did for a living and were usually told that they would feel better if they opened a nice little shop instead.
I just can't help feeling that we have got things arse about face with regard to which jobs are paid well and which can be done by 'volunteers'. Let's leave our children's educations to the professionals and we can all have a crack at being Dominic Cummings or the Queen or something. I'd do it for free.
I just can't help feeling that we have got things arse about face with regard to which jobs are paid well and which can be done by 'volunteers'. Let's leave our children's educations to the professionals and we can all have a crack at being Dominic Cummings or the Queen or something. I'd do it for free.
Jeremiah18.17
Well-Known Member
The “massive catch up exercise” could well be that old Tory reliable - unreasonable demand on teachers and schools followed by “culture war” on the unions who they will portray as the enemies of the (poor, working class and vulnerable) people. Classic Dom. They will prob ask teachers (and teaching assistants, cleaners, etc etc) to work through the summer holidays......
This will be part of it. Saturday school, anybody?
weepiper
I fix the machines that fight climate change
Some Scottish plans are being footed. We had an email from the council (Edinburgh) today giving a bit of detail (going back on the 12th of August, likely that only a third of the school will be in at any one time, they are probably going to do it by year groups attending different days, Fridays will be home learning for everyone).
Coronavirus: Details revealed for some schools' return
Edinburgh and Aberdeen councils hope to have a third of pupils in school buildings at any one time.
www.bbc.co.uk
Government over here announced on Friday evening without any consultation with stakeholders, that schooling will be available in July for certain SEN kids and they want summer camps in DEIS schools. And they hope schools teachers and SNAs will just volunteer. And they've decider that all of a sudden Special Needs Assistants can be on their own with kids and teach them too. All for free...
I've worked solidly a minimum 10 hours a day during lockdown. Every day. Weekends too. Preparing lessons online. Teaching and assessing online.
I actually need my holidays now asap. Cannot believe how disingenuous the dep of ed is here. And now the public is berating us saying we were off for months doing nothing and should be in classrooms now. I even heard one person say that we deserve all we get.
I've worked solidly a minimum 10 hours a day during lockdown. Every day. Weekends too. Preparing lessons online. Teaching and assessing online.
I actually need my holidays now asap. Cannot believe how disingenuous the dep of ed is here. And now the public is berating us saying we were off for months doing nothing and should be in classrooms now. I even heard one person say that we deserve all we get.
flypanam
Sausage to fortune
Yeah TES is reporting this...
PM’s schools plan had ‘absolutely no detail whatsoever’
Once again, Boris Johnson has won headlines for a schools plan lacking consultation and devoid of detail, writes William Stewart
www.tes.com
Yeah TES is reporting this...
PM’s schools plan had ‘absolutely no detail whatsoever’
Once again, Boris Johnson has won headlines for a schools plan lacking consultation and devoid of detail, writes William Stewart
Ireland obvs copying the UK ....cos they got covid response so right.
Not
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
#NotallofUK
Education is devolved in the UK. Wales seems to be making just as much a hash of things with no real plans, just announcements, and no consultation with unions. No way are they going to get teaching and support staff to work through holidays - neither are paid for them, but instead are paid pro-rata.
planetgeli
There's no future in England's dreaming
Sooo...my school will be doing a token reopening from the 29th but for three weeks, not four as hastily announced by the Welsh government. They did no consultation with the unions and the unions have said no thank you to what in effect would have been a voluntary extra week in July with the 'possibility' of a two week half term in October.
It's still not certain we will even open on the 29th. No PPE has been provided yet, including even basic stuff like marking tape for distancing. Being a PRU we don't even come under the L.A cleaners scheme and our Head is asking for volunteers to deep clean the school. Yes, really. Even to achieve this the volunteers would have to go on a cleaners course and that hasn't been provided yet either. Without any of this, we won't be reopening.
This is how local authorities think of their most vulnerable children. Provide nothing and ask for volunteering from staff.
Our SLT have actually been very good. A timetable has been prepared taking into account the most vulnerable staff. As a result of this, should we open, I will be doing one half day a week (others have two or three half days, the kids one half day each) with year 11 who have already left and who are unlikely to come in, which is a shame as I'd like a final chance to say goodbye to them.
But it's all a bit of a farce and I can see it not happening.
It's still not certain we will even open on the 29th. No PPE has been provided yet, including even basic stuff like marking tape for distancing. Being a PRU we don't even come under the L.A cleaners scheme and our Head is asking for volunteers to deep clean the school. Yes, really. Even to achieve this the volunteers would have to go on a cleaners course and that hasn't been provided yet either. Without any of this, we won't be reopening.
This is how local authorities think of their most vulnerable children. Provide nothing and ask for volunteering from staff.
Our SLT have actually been very good. A timetable has been prepared taking into account the most vulnerable staff. As a result of this, should we open, I will be doing one half day a week (others have two or three half days, the kids one half day each) with year 11 who have already left and who are unlikely to come in, which is a shame as I'd like a final chance to say goodbye to them.
But it's all a bit of a farce and I can see it not happening.
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
Heard nothing of summer school at mine. Closing on the 16th and I’ll be on a plane a couple of days later. They’re not even doing holiday club this year, staff need a break. I’ll be back mid august to open up the place for electricians and painters and to do a bit of fixing stuff before everything starts again. No idea what things will look like in September.
Thora
Differently Ethical
My youngest kids’ school has just sent out plans for September (in the absence of any government guidance) - either all back with hand washing and staggered lunch/break times, or 50% in school 50% online.
Their plan is to split every class in half and they each do Mon&Tues one week, Wed-Fri following week.
Their plan is to split every class in half and they each do Mon&Tues one week, Wed-Fri following week.
baldrick
hmmmmm
Yeah. No one really knows what they mean by "Leicester" though. The area encompassed by the city council is quite small. Additionally the outbreak seems to be confined to a particular area of Leicester rather than the city as a whole, regardless they seem to be pressing ahead with a lockdown that covers most of the district councils. Including the area I used to live which is 10 miles the other side of the city from the outbreak.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Hancock's explanation of the need to re-close schools in Leicester from Thursday seems to highlight the nub of the issue wrt safety. Whilst reiterating that, for the most part, school-children contracting Covid are little affected by the virus, once infected they are an effective means of accelerating community transmission.
Leicester has all the hallmarks of looking like a 'pilot' for many other potential local 'lockdowns' that will see school closures.
Leicester has all the hallmarks of looking like a 'pilot' for many other potential local 'lockdowns' that will see school closures.
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
That’s the least of it. It seems highly likely that the solution to the attainment gap is going to be “don’t let any kids who might underachieve in core subjects do any creative or practical subjects until next May. Or if it’s easier, make that the rule for all the kids. And that’s explicitly also true for gcse students, who don’t really need to do any enriching subjects, regardless of what that does to their total GCSEs count/ breadth of options at A level.”
It looks suspiciously like instead of there being any mitigation in how gcse and a level are examined next summer, the answer is to “drop weaker kids from less academic courses and give them more maths and English” - a timetabling impossibility, acknowledged by the guidance that schools may choose to do this to all the kids (allowing, I dunno, dance teachers to teach extra maths?). And while I have hope that my very arts orientated school will stand its ground, the fear of taking a dip in annual gcse progress tables (and therefore local league tables) and thereby triggering a punitive ofsted inspection, will undoubtedly motivate huge numbers of schools to play it safe and sacrifice arts education (and other practical and vocational courses).
It’s all looking pretty fucking grim. Notwithstanding my medical vulnerability having been dismissed by central govt as not something anyone will be worrying about any more.
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Jeremiah18.17
Well-Known Member
Interesting to see the propagandising of the Tory apologists underneath Zoe Williams (I know, I know) latest article on the attempt to turn school reopening into a frontline in the “culture war”. They go from “kids can’t catch it” to ( when called out on that bullshit) “kids don’t transmit it” to (when pointed to the lack of evidence for that) the rather more honest Cummings-esque line of “OK, so some teachers/TAs/Lunchtime Supervisors /cleaners are gonna die, tough, it’s a price worth paying for re-starting the economy”
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baldrick
hmmmmm
I don't know how dropping subjects is going to help anyone with league tables given that the measure is Progress EIGHT. Sometimes students are given leeway to drop a subject they struggle with to help them do extra study for the others but that takes them from 10 to 9 or 9 to 8, not 10 to 6. Ten mediocre grades are better than six good ones in this context.
And I know this is not something anyone here will be particularly bothered by but exam boards turnover will be hugely affected by the number of entries dropping by a third or more. Plus the shit show this year, lots of schools have paid full whack initially with the expectation there will be significant refunds. What the effect that will have on the future of qualifications I don't know, but it's unlikely to be good.
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
aka the Harris approach - who unsurprisingly are not shy to endorse this, since that's what they've been doing for years anyway:
GCSE choices will narrow next year, says academy chain
Harris Federation questions if it is possible to maintain a broad range of subjects after lockdown.
www.bbc.co.uk
I believe that there is some level of consultation on changing/adapting next year's exams though.
My first thought was that I'm going to end up teaching English next year - languages is always the first to get dropped (although my school are very good about insisting on a broad offer, so I'm hoping for the best). I have seen it mentioned elsewhere that any non-desk practical based subjects will be at risk too from a logistical point of view.
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spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
What I’ve heard unofficially is that the exam boards want teacher assessment to play a part but dfee aren’t happy and have thrown it back to them.aka the Harris approach - who unsurprisingly are not shy to endorse this, since that's what they've been doing for years anyway:
GCSE choices will narrow next year, says academy chain
Harris Federation questions if it is possible to maintain a broad range of subjects after lockdown.www.bbc.co.uk
I believe that there is some level of consultation on changing/adapting next year's exams though.
My first thought was that I'm going to end up teaching English next year - languages is always the first to get dropped (although my school are very good about insisting on a broad offer, so I'm hoping for the best). I have seen it mentioned elsewhere that any non-desk practical based subjects will be at risk too from a logistical point of view.
gaijingirl
Well-Known Member
Consultation opened today:
Proposed changes to the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A levels in 2021
Proposals to modify the assessment requirements for some GCSEs, AS and A levels in response to disruption to education caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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