Schools/colleges/universities and self isolating

I think the government would do well to plan now for what to do the make-up teaching inevitably required and the 2021 exams season, which all stems from the lack of testing capacity

Boris told Andrew Marr testing capacity may not be there until Spring 2021 (or perhaps less coughs and sniffles going round when the temperature warms up again!)

The BBC comments page on this matter is filled with people saying get on with it like Germany because exams are physical distanced anyway to prevent cheating.

This misses the point Germany recognised early on the importance of test and trace (this country suspended test and trace in April 2020 when there was too many positive results to trace apparently and I received flak for calling this suspension short sighted)

And it is about a student having the required hours of learning to have a fair shot at the exam, not to bundle them into a physical distanced exam setting for the sake of optics

Some people in this world though 🤔
 
I think the government would do well to plan now for what to do the make-up teaching inevitably required and the 2021 exams season, which all stems from the lack of testing capacity

Boris told Andrew Marr testing capacity may not be there until Spring 2021 (or perhaps less coughs and sniffles going round when the temperature warms up again!)

The BBC comments page on this matter is filled with people saying get on with it like Germany because exams are physical distanced anyway to prevent cheating.

This misses the point Germany recognised early on the importance of test and trace (this country suspended test and trace in April 2020 when there was too many positive results to trace apparently and I received flak for calling this suspension short sighted)

And it is about a student having the required hours of learning to have a fair shot at the exam, not to bundle them into a physical distanced exam setting for the sake of optics

Some people in this world though 🤔

You shouldn't have received flak for that, as there were a great many of us here (let alone anywhere else) highlighting how inadequate the test and trace system was, as well as that particular decision. One decision that they also tried to cover at the time as not being practical, but we now know in reality it was simply because they just didn't have the operation in place to manage it.

Miss Mandy, Rusty etc will know what the required hours of learning are for an exam, so I won't speculate on it other than to say I see no feasible way of reaching that target. Even if they cancelled/shortened holidays to try and make up for the shortfall, I highly doubt it will be enough.
 
This government should have at a bare minimum got the secondary school syllabus online for remote learning for all schools over the summer. I know the private sector could have done it easily, they could leverage technology already out there, there is nothing new about elearning, I was building elearning systems for enterprise corporations in the 1990s for Lucifer’s sake. I suspect most schools already use MS Teams or something anyway that could be leveraged. It would have meant teams of staff writing the content but they had months in which to do it.

I live in a small sleepy rural village and have 50 meg internet so most would be fine in terms of access surely. Buying every child in the UK an iPad would have been cheap compared to things they have wasted money on like “eat out to spread it about”. All imho of course lol
 
It would have meant teams of staff [teachers] writing the content but they had months in which to do it.

Yeah, teachers must have done nothing during the lockdown. They didn't go into work, so they must have been sat on their arses all day in their homes doing sod-all.

And what about their summer break? How dare they even think about relaxing and taking time off during their holidays? They could have been using that time more constructively to re-write and recompose ALL their courses at ALL levels to suit remote learning pedagogy, despite having recieved little or no training on how to do so.

Class teachers?

There's a lot more expected of them now and they'd better get on with it!

They're now remote course designers, remote teaching experts ON TOP of whatever they're still expected to do in the classroom.
 
Yeah, teachers must have done nothing during the lockdown. They didn't go into work, so they must have been sat on their arses all day in their homes doing sod-all.

And what about their summer break? How dare they even think about relaxing and taking time off during their holidays? They could have been using that time more constructively to re-write and recompose ALL their courses at ALL levels to suit remote learning pedagogy, despite having recieved little or no training on how to do so.

Class teachers?

There's a lot more expected of them now and they'd better get on with it!

They're now remote course designers, remote teaching experts ON TOP of whatever they're still expected to do in the classroom.

Fair point. But then again, many teachers were isolating themselves so they could have pitched in and overseen others actually writing the content. Also, surely the teachers teach from a syllabus, so the content is already there, just needs formatting - so non-teachers could have been paid to do th bulk of it.
 
Yeah, quite right, when those teachers were self-isolating they were doing naff-all remote learning with their pupils, so they should have got the finger out and done some work.

And yeah, redesigning courses from active classroom environment to passive, remote home-learning "just needs reformatting" of the syllabus.

So simple that non-teachers could do it - you tell them!
 
Fair point. But then again, many teachers were isolating themselves so they could have pitched in and overseen others actually writing the content. Also, surely the teachers teach from a syllabus, so the content is already there, just needs formatting - so non-teachers could have been paid to do th bulk of it.

Why are you assuming that those isolating were sitting doing nothing? At my school the teachers that were isolating were still teaching, they were just doing it from home. That meant they had to prep and plan just as they would to teach in the classroom and then be online at the right time to deliver the lesson to the students.

A syllabus is just the guidelines from the education department and the exam boards specifying what content needs to be covered, this still needs to be translated into a scheme of work or lessons plans that are used to teach the lessons. These cant always be written by others or in advance because they're tailored to the teachers strengths, the resources available, the ability of the students, time available, etc. The formatting as you call it is the biggest and most time consuming part of the job.

I don't think people realise just how much work is actually involved for teachers especially in the current climate. At the moment with large groups of students out isolating the teachers are having to plan online lessons for them, but they're also still teaching a full timetable to those that are in school. Its not uncommon for my staff to be in school before 7am at the moment and not leave until 8pm. That's just to get ready for the next day too and doesn't include all the marking they have to do, staff meetings, phonecalls with parents, etc.
 
Lol, teachers are very defensive. I had no intention of suggesting teachers had to be involved in this at all.

The government could have hired teams of people to do the work if the teachers didnt want any input.

I know that it would have been very easily doable if it wasn’t for bureaucracy, I wrote e-learning systems for blue-chip companies in a former job so am fully aware of how easy converting printed material to elearning content actually is, and I have a secondary school age son so know exactly the extent of the work in the syllabus.

oh, and I have previously written a mobile app for chemistry gcse revision too. I find it preposterous how backward our public sector I.T. is, just look at the farce over missing Excel covid data!

Anyhow, I hope all schools (like my son’s) are planning on delivering all lessons online when the inevitable happens.
 
Lol, teachers are very defensive.
I wonder why? when they are permanently accused of doing Eff all for their wages by people who have no concept of what they really do. That's a general statement, not aimed at you specifically.
 
Lol, teachers are very defensive. I had no intention of suggesting teachers had to be involved in this at all.

The government could have hired teams of people to do the work if the teachers didnt want any input.

I know that it would have been very easily doable if it wasn’t for bureaucracy, I wrote e-learning systems for blue-chip companies in a former job so am fully aware of how easy converting printed material to elearning content actually is, and I have a secondary school age son so know exactly the extent of the work in the syllabus.

oh, and I have previously written a mobile app for chemistry gcse revision too. I find it preposterous how backward our public sector I.T. is, just look at the farce over missing Excel covid data!

Anyhow, I hope all schools (like my son’s) are planning on delivering all lessons online when the inevitable happens.


Teachers get defensive because they're constantly attacked, belittled and undermined. Too many people have no idea what teachers actually do yet think they know it all and can criticise or tell them how to do their jobs.

Teachers need to be involved to ensure the content is actually suitable, its no good asking someone with no idea about the education system to write resources to be used in schools or by students. Its like calling a milkman instead of a mechanic to repair a broken down car. You wouldn't believe the number of textbooks and computer programmes I've seen that the writer thinks is great, but in reality is completely unsuitable or unusable for a classroom environment.

Anyway I'll leave it there before we derail the thread too much. I'm passionate about my job and it's disappointing to see so many people wanting to short change our children's futures. We need to do everything we can to ensure they receive a good education with as little disruption as possible. Too many schools are just dumping worksheets online asking the students to work through them and it's not fair on the children, they deserve better than that.
 
Another student confirmed positive today so that's now a large chunk of year 11s going home to isolate. They're supposed to be doing their mocks next week so that we can gauge where they're at after lockdown, but this has put a spanner in the works.
 
Year 1 was shut at my son's school this morning (just before they were supposed to come in!)

So that's Year 1 and 2 and breakfast club since Sunday.

Incredible that my school has only shut one bubble. Although I suspect that the vast majority aren't testing their children, just keeping them off until symptoms pass.
 
Year 1 was shut at my son's school this morning (just before they were supposed to come in!)

So that's Year 1 and 2 and breakfast club since Sunday.

Incredible that my school has only shut one bubble. Although I suspect that the vast majority aren't testing their children, just keeping them off until symptoms pass.
Same with my 8 yr old granddaughter (I don't know what year). My daughter was dropping off her 2 children at school today, before going to work.... only the eldest could attend.
It's a mess.
 
I think @iamsludge's heart is in the right place about giving an iPad to every school child and funding home broadband, even if there is insufficient depth to the idea. Teaching and learning are different things, or rather different parts of the whole. If you are not involving primary or secondary school teachers then what is proposed is effectively a higher education undergraduate course that involves lots of reading i.e. a history or law.

Referring to company employees is not a good example or analogous to apply to primary and secondary age schoolchildren. Adult employees have a narrow perspective of professional development relevant to their role and the financial motivation to maintain professional knowledge

A revision app is presumably a tool for testing knowledge and to reinforce learning for the examination. The actual 'teaching' would have happened [in the classroom] before the revision stage.

For planning how to implement distance teaching in schools it is more relevant to look to actual distance learning courses that exist today, rather than corporate courses or electronic revision tools.
 
Based on today's report, the ONS aren't particularly convinced that the education sector was working at full pelt when the schools were shut:


Healthcare and social protection were the main drivers of the overall inputs growth, while the larger contributions to the output fall was observed in healthcare and education.
 
I think @iamsludge's heart is in the right place about ...

I totally agree. I certainly wasn’t implying teaching could be replaced in any way with eLearning and yes my background is mostly in corporate (before then I did tutor (not teach) I.T. courses - but again they were adult and further education courses not for children).

I think this year has been a missed opportunity for education in this country to have been stepped up if nothing else as a failsafe supplement and second best option (better than the emailed worksheets we have had from many schools) against the next lockdown. There is of course far more to learning than fact memorisation and learning how to pass a test.

This year has also highlighted how it’s not a case of not being able to adequately fund education, it’s more a case of the politicians not wanting to.

all imho of course.
 
Daughter goes to Durham Uni and they have started (since Monday) to post weekly figures in their community.

Total reported cases

Students - 76
Staff - 3

Hopefully, things will be kept under control...
 
Birmingham Uni have announced today 307 cases for students and 8 for staff.

If immunity is gained from having the virus then by the time Christmas comes a lot of students around the country will be able to safely go home.
 
The son of one of my colleagues has been confirmed to have it along with his 5 housemates at Uni. One of them is really quite poorly unfortunately and had to be admitted to hospital last night.
Its understandably very scary for them all as being away from home means they miss the support of their family's. They're only first years too so it's hard enough already.
 
My daughter is also first year, but she's in the same hall/block/ bubble as her boyfriend. I don't think she's feeling that lonely at all. :cool:
 
That's a real shame to hear that. It's a shame for someone so young going to enjoy one of the best parts of their lives only to end up in hospital.

I wish them well, and do let us know, Miss Mandy, how they do in hospital.
 
I wasn't intending to be flippant BTW, I'm just happy that she's there with someone she loves and she cares about. I echo the post above about anyone who is out there alone.
 
My daughter, also in her first year (but staying at home), has just opted for all the first term lessons online. This option was circulated yesterday and she opted for it because of me being sickly.
 
Williamson has announced that exams will go ahead next year...but 3 weeks later than usual to make up for the best part of 5 months lost / erratic learning. And it's unthinkable to say those children won't be missing at least 2 more weeks - possibly many more - between now and June 2021.

Crazy.

 
No one can say for sure that the exams will go ahead next year.

If fact, no one can say anything is for sure that far ahead into the future.

Read it more as "With the very best of intentions, should the situation not markedly deteriorate, we would expect the exams to happen next Spring."
 

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