Coronavirus and schools

[Lucas CAV]

Kermit: So presumably you contacted the school after a week or so of this and it was resolved to your satisfaction nearly 3 months ago?

Edited by Lucas CAV on Wednesday 24th June 16:55

[Lucas CAV]

Sheepshanks said:

sim72 said:

The problems we have had have been in Year 10, who also have online lessons but where we've had a much higher percentage (probably some 25%) not engaging. We've tried to get many of those into school in the last couple of weeks, but with mixed results. In the end, we're fairly helpless if students simply refuse to work.

On another forum I visit a teacher was in despair about the Year 10's - her school was doing everything they could to get them back in as 30% have done absolutely nothing at home and mostly the reason given was they couldn't be bothered.

Some of ours are worse than that.
Parents actively making excuses for them too.

[MiniMan64]

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

sim72 said:

The problems we have had have been in Year 10, who also have online lessons but where we've had a much higher percentage (probably some 25%) not engaging. We've tried to get many of those into school in the last couple of weeks, but with mixed results. In the end, we're fairly helpless if students simply refuse to work.

On another forum I visit a teacher was in despair about the Year 10's - her school was doing everything they could to get them back in as 30% have done absolutely nothing at home and mostly the reason given was they couldn't be bothered.

Some of ours are worse than that.
Parents actively making excuses for them too.

Ours were doing great until the return to F2F teaching and then it’s dropped off a cliff. Hard to chase so many as well when parents are at work too.

The hardest ones were early on where parents were quite happy to tell me they couldn’t give a fk if their kids were working or not.

[Lucas CAV]

MiniMan64 said:

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

sim72 said:

The problems we have had have been in Year 10, who also have online lessons but where we've had a much higher percentage (probably some 25%) not engaging. We've tried to get many of those into school in the last couple of weeks, but with mixed results. In the end, we're fairly helpless if students simply refuse to work.

On another forum I visit a teacher was in despair about the Year 10's - her school was doing everything they could to get them back in as 30% have done absolutely nothing at home and mostly the reason given was they couldn't be bothered.

Some of ours are worse than that.
Parents actively making excuses for them too.

Ours were doing great until the return to F2F teaching and then it’s dropped off a cliff. Hard to chase so many as well when parents are at work too.

The hardest ones were early on where parents were quite happy to tell me they couldn’t give a fk if their kids were working or not.

We have y10 back and attendance is extremely patchy. We have none of the ones we really need!

[Kermit power]

Lucas CAV said:

Kermit: So presumably you contacted the school after a week or so of this and it was resolved to your satisfaction nearly 3 months ago?

I contacted the school a couple of weeks in with my concerns plus an offer to donate £250 towards the cost of getting teachers and disadvantaged pupils online if that would help. The response was "Thanks for the kind offer of assistance. We've had many other parents doing likewise, but don't believe we have any gaps in the technology. We're just figuring out how to proceed".

I've followed up twice since, and just got a bunch of meaningless fluff that translated as "we don't really know what to do". Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

ETA - The Spanish teacher did respond to my request. It's the general approach to the overall situation on which they've remained essentially mute in both words and deeds.

[Sheepshanks]

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

[Lucas CAV]

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

[loafer123]

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

True, but why should he have to...these people are supposed to be professionals.

[Murph7355]

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

True, but why should he have to...these people are supposed to be professionals.

One can debate that sort of thing until the cows come home. Pointless.

You get to the people who can change things as quickly as you can, whether you should have to or not.

[Murph7355]

MiniMan64 said:

....

The hardest ones were early on where parents were quite happy to tell me they couldn’t give a fk if their kids were working or not.

And this is the single biggest problem we face in this country.

Our future has parents like that. Shocking but not unexpected.

Pity the govt aren't more joined up in tackling this.

[Lucas CAV]

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

True, but why should he have to...these people are supposed to be professionals.

I'm not sure why this isn't obvious but because like any organisation, schools and their employees are not homogeneous.

[Mining Subsidence Man]

The solution is to get the kids that online teaching is failing back into the classroom PDQ.

Staff and students who are vulnerable, stay home and hide behind the settee.

Everyone else, back to work.

There are A LOT of qualified teachers not working at the moment. Give them an incentive to plug the gaps.

Let's face it, most people use pretty much none of their PGCE on a daily basis.

We need schools open and we need people in them now. We don't need excuses, group think (sheep think) pointing to contracts, etc, etc. These are exceptional times and we need a full effort restart.

Any mucking about, instant sacking.

There is also no place for unions in a first world country within the public sector. Ban them. Teachers and educators enjoy some of the worlds best working conditions.

Cue comments from people in central london wearing stab vests.

[Lucas CAV]

As I said earlier.
There are plenty of full time vacancies.
Step up or shut up.

[tangerine_sedge]

Mining Subsidence Man said:

Cue comments from people in central london wearing stab vests.

This thread is full of interesting and insightful comments from teachers and parents discussing the complexity and problems of teaching within the current situation.

Yet you keep on posting your claptrap and nonsense, which is easily dissected by real teachers facing real problems.

I think your last sentence gives you away, you are inviting a response because you are a troll.

[loafer123]

Lucas CAV said:

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

True, but why should he have to...these people are supposed to be professionals.

I'm not sure why this isn't obvious but because like any organisation, schools and their employees are not homogeneous.

Except the example was a single Academy group where, in theory, the CEO sets the policy, and the head teachers implement the policy.

Of course we both know that the reason will be that the teachers have the ultimate veto on implementation and that, if they don’t want to do it, they simply won’t.

[Antony Moxey]

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

True, but why should he have to...these people are supposed to be professionals.

I'm not sure why this isn't obvious but because like any organisation, schools and their employees are not homogeneous.

Except the example was a single Academy group where, in theory, the CEO sets the policy, and the head teachers implement the policy.

Of course we both know that the reason will be that the teachers have the ultimate veto on implementation and that, if they don’t want to do it, they simply won’t.

Or maybe the head at one school is far better than the head at another. Not everything in multi academy trusts is the same across the board, there’s still good and bad under the same umbrella.

[Lucas CAV]

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

True, but why should he have to...these people are supposed to be professionals.

I'm not sure why this isn't obvious but because like any organisation, schools and their employees are not homogeneous.

Except the example was a single Academy group where, in theory, the CEO sets the policy, and the head teachers implement the policy.

Of course we both know that the reason will be that the teachers have the ultimate veto on implementation and that, if they don’t want to do it, they simply won’t.

Well no, we don't.

I work in a large MAT and the CEO sets the policy and the Heads are free to implement depending on their individual circumstances. All the buildings are different, the staff demographics are different and the student numbers are different.

No member of staff has a veto -- If I need them in then they are coming in (outside of national shielding requirements etc)


But you knew that.

[loafer123]

Lucas CAV said:

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

True, but why should he have to...these people are supposed to be professionals.

I'm not sure why this isn't obvious but because like any organisation, schools and their employees are not homogeneous.

Except the example was a single Academy group where, in theory, the CEO sets the policy, and the head teachers implement the policy.

Of course we both know that the reason will be that the teachers have the ultimate veto on implementation and that, if they don’t want to do it, they simply won’t.

Well no, we don't.

I work in a large MAT and the CEO sets the policy and the Heads are free to implement depending on their individual circumstances. All the buildings are different, the staff demographics are different and the student numbers are different.

No member of staff has a veto -- If I need them in then they are coming in (outside of national shielding requirements etc)


But you knew that.

Why did you suggest he goes to the Academy CEO, then?

[Lucas CAV]

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

loafer123 said:

Lucas CAV said:

Sheepshanks said:

Kermit power said:

Utterly useless, and all the more bizarre when other schools in their own Academy group are doing things very differently and much better.

Go to the Academy CEO?

Precisely.

True, but why should he have to...these people are supposed to be professionals.

I'm not sure why this isn't obvious but because like any organisation, schools and their employees are not homogeneous.

Except the example was a single Academy group where, in theory, the CEO sets the policy, and the head teachers implement the policy.

Of course we both know that the reason will be that the teachers have the ultimate veto on implementation and that, if they don’t want to do it, they simply won’t.

Well no, we don't.

I work in a large MAT and the CEO sets the policy and the Heads are free to implement depending on their individual circumstances. All the buildings are different, the staff demographics are different and the student numbers are different.

No member of staff has a veto -- If I need them in then they are coming in (outside of national shielding requirements etc)


But you knew that.

Why did you suggest he goes to the Academy CEO, then?

To make his concerns about the inadequate work known.
Differences between schools don't have to mean inadequacies should be tolerated.

[Murph7355]

Antony Moxey said:

Or maybe the head at one school is far better than the head at another. Not everything in multi academy trusts is the same across the board, there’s still good and bad under the same umbrella.

I'm not up on the details of Academies, but isn't one of the reasons for them existing to get standards to the same level? Yes there will be some differences in the schools, but over time shouldn't academies be in a position to spread/iron them out/mitigate them?

More reason to let the CEO know...