Scrutable

OffTheRock wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 03, 2021 3:39 pm

Unison are backing the section 44 walk out for non-teaching staff. The NEU are pointing out that you don't have to be a member and can use their letter with a few adjustments. NASUWT have advised their members not to walk out because they might get sacked if they do. The onus is on heads to prove the schools are safe and the NAHT seems to be telling members not to because they aren't going to be able to prove it. Birmingham have told schools that they will have their backing if they do shut and Brighton and Hove have told their schools not to open. Add that to parents deciding to keep their children at home and the whole thing is a complete mess.

Difficult to see how they are going to get out of this without a u-turn. Either a really last minute one or one after all the schools are shut anyway.

mediocrity511 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 03, 2021 9:18 pm

Our council have said no fines will be issued for attendance right now. So relieved!

OffTheRock wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 03, 2021 4:15 pm

It doesn't give parents, employers or schools much time to plan. It's ridiculous that we're having this conversation at 4pm the day before the start of term. The 2 week holiday ought to have allowed much more notice given school closure was inevitable.

raven wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 03, 2021 10:54 pm

OffTheRock wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 03, 2021 4:15 pm

It doesn't give parents, employers or schools much time to plan. It's ridiculous that we're having this conversation at 4pm the day before the start of term. The 2 week holiday ought to have allowed much more notice given school closure was inevitable.

It is ridiculous. We caould all see this coming before the break.

It would've been even better if, at the start of December when we came out of that half-arsed lockdown, they'd told schools to put contingency plans in place for staying closed after Christmas, just in case. But then someone might have started asking about where all those laptops are.

One nephew's school is definitely back tomorrow, despite half a dozen teachers and a couple of pupils testing positive over the break. The other nephew's school is closed, his teacher has tested positive, but his sister's school (infants, right next door) is currently still planning on opening this week. Which is the school my sister also works at, so she has to juggle work, one kid at home, one kid at school. She spent today checking news sites. Very stressful allround to leave it all so late.

Although Johnson didn't seem that stressed on Marr this morning, the waffling git. Entirely reconciled to doing what we need to do to get numbers down, my arse. If he was reconciled to doing what was needed, he'd have been announcing a proper lockdown.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 03, 2021 9:05 pm

I feel like this might be a good opportunity for Labour to start openly realigning themselves with the great and the good: teachers, nurses and the like, and to support them directly, rather than just focusing on the safety cost/benefit aspect.

Instead of being pressured into opening, Headteachers should be supported to make decisions which they believe are right for their children, school and community.

We will continue to make this case to the Government.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 04, 2021 10:17 am

Talk about the people who work at the schools, don't just talk about schools as vessels that children get sent to to be educated by anonymous drones.

bagpuss wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 04, 2021 11:59 am

discovolante wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 04, 2021 10:17 am

Talk about the people who work at the schools, don't just talk about schools as vessels that children get sent to to be educated by anonymous drones.

I'm constantly angered by the way that politicians (of all colours, although the government are particularly appalling) talk about schools as if they are solely populated by children. Even if children don't spread the virus as much (which is very much not clear with the new variant), there are a lot of adults in schools. Not just teachers but teaching support staff, office staff, caretakers/building maintenance/cleaning staff, external PE and music teachers who teach in multiple schools. And that's before we even get into the huge amount of mixing (albeit outdoors) of parents, grandparents and childminders at the school gates. And, as with any population of adults, many of those people will have underlying health conditions that make them especially vulnerable. The risks they are taking need at the very least to be acknowledged, not ignored as if they (the people) don't even exist.

That said, so far in our local schools, although we've had cases we haven't seen a lot of spread within schools that I'm aware of. I know of a lot of class and year bubbles being sent home to self-isolate due to individual cases, but I have not yet heard of any cases of onward infection within schools. I'm not sure whether I would necessarily have heard if there'd been just one or two cases but I definitely would if there had been many - the bagkitten's childminder is gossip central.

I cannot, however, understand why the government did not take the obvious approach. We know that mixing will have happened at Christmas as there will have been people who ignored the rules in Tier 4 plus there are plenty of people who are now in Tier 4 who were allowed to mix to a small extent at Christmas because they were in a lower Tier then. The obvious, obvious thing to do would have been to extend school holidays to a full 2 weeks post Christmas. Just 1 additional week of holiday. They've done it for secondary schools, where the impact will be greater on kids, especially those in GCSE and A level years, but not in primary schools where the impact on kids will be minimal. It makes no sense at all. I can only conclude (for approximately the 874th time) that our government are fuckwits.

Sciolus wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 04, 2021 8:53 pm

I wonder if eight months is enough time for them to devise an alternative to exams which won't work and has to be replaced with something else a week later?

OffTheRock wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 04, 2021 9:01 pm

With their current record presumably they’re going to try the thing they dropped a week later first. And then drop it when it surprisingly turns out not to work.

FlammableFlower wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 04, 2021 8:54 pm

Sciolus wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 04, 2021 8:53 pm

I wonder if eight months is enough time for them to devise an alternative to exams which won't work and has to be replaced with something else a week later?

With Williamson's track record.... no.