How will schools be able to go back in September? (Continued)

JTMan

NPHET to discuss effect of rise in Covid-19 cases on re-opening of schools reports the Irish Times here.

Asked when interviewed on the 6pm RTÉ TV news if schools might not re-open as scheduled, he said that clearly that topic would be part of Nphet’s considerations on Monday.

The data would be examined, and any recommendations made to Government would be based on evidence and aimed at ensuring that as many people as possible could be kept as safe as possible “from the virus that is still out there.”

combat14

JTMan wrote: »

NPHET to discuss effect of rise in Covid-19 cases on re-opening of schools reports the Irish Times here.

god starting to sound a lot like the leaving cert debacle ppl need certainty schools are opening

jrosen

NPHET may have an opinion but there will be huge back lash if schools done open. Im not sure anyone in government has the neck to stall the reopening. Especially seeing as there is no plan B

wirelessdude01

JTMan wrote: »

NPHET to discuss effect of rise in Covid-19 cases on re-opening of schools reports the Irish Times here.

Was that Glynn?

the corpo

combat14 wrote: »

god starting to sound a lot like the leaving cert debacle ppl need certainty schools are opening

People need certainty schools will be safe to reopen

khalessi

jrosen wrote: »

NPHET may have an opinion but there will be huge back lash if schools done open. Im not sure anyone in government has the neck to stall the reopening. Especially seeing as there is no plan B

Yup you would wonder considering the positie spin they put on the 66 new cases this evening, as they're "133 less than yesterday" not 66 more on yesterday's total and over 200 for the weekend.

Schools will be opening despite their lack of foresight.

Reminds me of Stalin's the trains will run on time.

alroley

jrosen wrote: »

NPHET may have an opinion but there will be huge back lash if schools done open. Im not sure anyone in government has the neck to stall the reopening. Especially seeing as there is no plan B

Imagine the backlash if we end up like the schools in Israel though. We are much more similar to them than Denmark. If schools open here with the current level of cases and no social distancing like they're proposing all the schools will be closed within 4-6 weeks due to the level of infection coming from them.

If we were like Denmark with classes of 10-15 and social distancing we could have them open for potentially the whole year.

Stateofyou

Gee, it's almost like we should have had a flexible opening plan/plan b/online curriculum all along to deal with the unpredictability of it all! :rolleyes:

jrosen

Stateofyou wrote: »

Gee, it's almost like we should have had a flexible opening plan/plan b/online curriculum all along to deal with the unpredictability of it all! :rolleyes:

Well now cmon, thats far too much common sense in one sentence

brendanwalsh

This really doesn’t feel safe.

I can see a lot of teachers with health conditions or at high risk decide to sit this out - if they aren’t deemed “high risk” a good few will go to their GP and claim too anxious and worried to work, and rightly so.

There are a lot of staff and students with underlying health conditions who would get ripped by this virus . Is worth risking your life to teach ? For me, it won’t be.

This is a car crash waiting to happen and we are all slowly watching varadker and Martin smiling at the wheels.

khalessi

brendanwalsh wrote: »

This is a car crash waiting to happen and we are all slowly watching varadker and Martin smiling at the wheels.

While they lecture us from the safety of social distancing in the conference centre.

wirelessdude01

brendanwalsh wrote: »

This really doesn’t feel safe.

I can see a lot of teachers with health conditions or at high risk decide to sit this out - if they aren’t deemed “high risk” a good few will go to their GP and claim too anxious and worried to work, and rightly so.

There are a lot of staff and students with underlying health conditions who would get ripped by this virus . Is worth risking your life to teach ? For me, it won’t be.

This is a car crash waiting to happen and we are all slowly watching varadker and Martin smiling at the wheels.

They have to be very high risk, high risk you get back to work.

combat14

some of the virus experts now expressing concerns about lumping all Irish kids over 9 years of age back together in schools again

one expert says he is aware that there is intervention fatigue but now is the time to double down on our intervention strategies .. wasnt expecting that given that we are 2 weeks to all the schools reopening..

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0816/1159506-coronavirus-experts-this-week/

khalessi

COvid causing problems with reopening in US

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/thousands-students-staff-home-nationwide-covid-gnarls-school/story?id=72352489&fbclid=IwAR37v5eZKVwoxBUtJnx3Ia9Z6Nje3OxMjwso-xmdnf5q5-dkgDctBiC38BQ

wadacrack

jrosen wrote: »

NPHET may have an opinion but there will be huge back lash if schools done open. Im not sure anyone in government has the neck to stall the reopening. Especially seeing as there is no plan B

Its looking unlikely that it will be safe. Definitely appear like they may not re-open. Society needs to stop with knee jerk reactions. Theirs no easy way out of this pandemic. It appears atm that not opening the pubs was the correct call. Alot of conspiracy type theories going around now not helping. We need to make logical decisions not ones that are going to put us in a desperate situation in the winter.

alroley

I really feel like blended learning is the best option at this time.

I don't know about primary, but for secondary a week in/week at home would work best. When they're on their week at home they could participate online through Zoom etc. so everyone is being taught at all times.

combat14

khalessi wrote: »

COvid causing problems with reopening in US

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/thousands-students-staff-home-nationwide-covid-gnarls-school/story?id=72352489&fbclid=IwAR37v5eZKVwoxBUtJnx3Ia9Z6Nje3OxMjwso-xmdnf5q5-dkgDctBiC38BQ

"Unfortunately, we are in a situation where parents seem to be sending their child/children to school even when they are symptomatic or possibly even when they, as parents, have been tested and are awaiting the results, later to find out they are positive," wrote Reece Mann, the superintendent of Delaware Community School Corporation in Muncie, Indiana, in an email to parents, according to The Associated Press.

car crash waiting to happen..

i_surge

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

They have to be very high risk, high risk you get back to work.

How do you justify that if one of the high risk people were to die, having been forced to work.

brendanwalsh

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

They have to be very high risk, high risk you get back to work.

Nobody will force anyone to turn up to work if they don’t feel safe , and anyone who has anxiety about school safety won’t have any issues getting a GP to write them a sick cert

brendanwalsh

Nobody will force anyone to turn up to work if they don’t feel safe , and anyone who has anxiety about school safety won’t have any issues getting a GP to write them a sick cert

jrosen

Blended learning is nonsense. What we would see happen is some teachers/schools going above and beyond for their students and others not. Just like we saw pre Summer break. We would see some kids do well because they have a parent at home and we would see other kids fall so far behind because they are home trying to teach themselves. Assuming they even have access to a device.
This is what time should have been spent on since mid march. Working on a plan that enables schools to jump from on site to home learning when needed. But that wasnt done. If kids dont go back to actual school there is no other plan. There is nothing lined up.

Purplewaters

brendanwalsh wrote: »

Nobody will force anyone to turn up to work if they don’t feel safe , and anyone who has anxiety about school safety won’t have any issues getting a GP to write them a sick cert

I foresee the anxiety this plan causing everyone being a huge stress for people. Think of all the people who have taken stress leave during normal times and then look at the situation people are in now. Being asked to basically put your life at risk and defy all public health advice because it's inconvenient for the government to operate schools safely. Do the government think everyone will be happy to live in a parallel universe in their job and rhen leave work and nlt see their friends and families? This being 6 months on from a lockdown where they already were isolated for months. I wish they had given 3 plans based on current situation in septembet and chosen an option. This uncertainty is reallt unfair for staff and for parents who have concerns.

alroley

jrosen wrote: »

Blended learning is nonsense. What we would see happen is some teachers/schools going above and beyond for their students and others not. Just like we saw pre Summer break. We would see some kids do well because they have a parent at home and we would see other kids fall so far behind because they are home trying to teach themselves. Assuming they even have access to a device.
This is what time should have been spent on since mid march. Working on a plan that enables schools to jump from on site to home learning when needed. But that wasnt done. If kids dont go back to actual school there is no other plan. There is nothing lined up.

But blended learning means teachers would be in school full time.

I am only speaking from a secondary school point of view, but I doubt any of their parents helped them while schools were closed, and I wouldn't expect them to. I wouldn't be able to help a child with subjects I don't know.

Purplewaters

jrosen wrote: »

Blended learning is nonsense. What we would see happen is some teachers/schools going above and beyond for their students and others not. Just like we saw pre Summer break. We would see some kids do well because they have a parent at home and we would see other kids fall so far behind because they are home trying to teach themselves. Assuming they even have access to a device.
This is what time should have been spent on since mid march. Working on a plan that enables schools to jump from on site to home learning when needed. But that wasnt done. If kids dont go back to actual school there is no other plan. There is nothing lined up.

Realistically the goverment should have divided the school week into morning or afternoon slots, halved classes, and teachers would teach all topics then provide work for the remaining 3 hours. For parents who are at work during the second slot, each case would be assessed, if it is a one parent household where there is no one there, their child would be supervised by auxiliary staff who (cost money) but supervise the work like a homework club. If a parent is working from home they have veen given 3 hours of child care and work that the child should be able to complete independently. Teachers have additional children in their class doing work anytime there is an absence and jt does not require the parent to be actively helping rhe entire time. The homework club style supervision could also be extended for SEN and disadvantahed families who would benefit. 4th year teaching students could be asked to participate one day a week if they were paid like a student nurse. Realistically options like this would work but nobody wanted to have to organise and pay for it. So don't believe this whole full reopening is all we can do rubbish.

Purplewaters

Purplewaters wrote: »

Realistically the goverment should have divided the school week into morning or afternoon slots, halved classes, and teachers would teach all topics then provide work for the remaining 3 hours. For parents who are at work during the second slot, each case would be assessed, if it is a one parent household where there is no one there, their child would be supervised by auxiliary staff who (cost money) but supervise the work like a homework club. If a parent is working from home they have veen given 3 hours of child care and work that the child should be able to complete independently. Teachers have additional children in their class doing work anytime there is an absence and jt does not require the parent to be actively helping rhe entire time. The homework club style supervision could also be extended for SEN and disadvantahed families who would benefit. 4th year teaching students could be asked to participate one day a week if they were paid like a student nurse. Realistically options like this would work but nobody wanted to have to organise and pay for it. So don't believe this whole full reopening is all we can do rubbish.

By the way I called it child care because the issue os childcare if we are all to be honest. If a parent is available at home and able to turn on zoom or check rhe child is working etc then online could work and has worked.

i_surge

Purplewaters wrote: »

Realistically the goverment should have divided the school week into morning or afternoon slots, halved classes, and teachers would teach all topics then provide work for the remaining 3 hours. For parents who are at work during the second slot, each case would be assessed, if it is a one parent household where there is no one there, their child would be supervised by auxiliary staff who (cost money) but supervise the work like a homework club. If a parent is working from home they have veen given 3 hours of child care and work that the child should be able to complete independently. Teachers have additional children in their class doing work anytime there is an absence and jt does not require the parent to be actively helping rhe entire time. The homework club style supervision could also be extended for SEN and disadvantahed families who would benefit. 4th year teaching students could be asked to participate one day a week if they were paid like a student nurse. Realistically options like this would work but nobody wanted to have to organise and pay for it. So don't believe this whole full reopening is all we can do rubbish.

Thanks

It seems like nobody wanted to even try thinking of workable options and went with the hail mary route as someone else called it. Very weak for something they had 6 months to come up with.

Purplewaters

i_surge wrote: »

Thanks

It seems like nobody wanted to even try thinking of workable options and went with the hail mary route as someone else called it. Very weak for something they had 6 months to come up with.

I agree. There was no creativity whatsoever and no consideration that there are numerous situations in each home varying from stay at home parents to work from home two parents households to shift work households to unemployed households etc. Why was none of this accounted for in the plan. All the children would benefit from some routine and in class time bur it could have been done in a variety of ways.

i_surge

Purplewaters wrote: »

I agree. There was no creativity whatsoever and no consideration that there are numerous situations in each home varying from stay at home parents to work from home two parents households to shift work households to unemployed households etc. Why was none of this accounted for in the plan. All the children would benefit from some routine and in class time bur it could have been done in a variety of ways.

Because they knew the teachers would complain on boards but still turn up for work, such is the docile Irish way.

I am also shocked by the lack of creativity, I already have about 10 ideas I was going to list but what's the point.

If there was ever a reason to strike this is it.

byhookorbycrook

brendanwalsh wrote: »

Nobody will force anyone to turn up to work if they don’t feel safe , and anyone who has anxiety about school safety won’t have any issues getting a GP to write them a sick cert

Teacher sick leave is quite limited, if you miss a Friday and Monday , the weekend is counted as 4 days .

khalessi

brendanwalsh wrote: »

Nobody will force anyone to turn up to work if they don’t feel safe , and anyone who has anxiety about school safety won’t have any issues getting a GP to write them a sick cert

Gps have told teachers to go to Medmark and Medmark will judge it by the lists of very high risk and high risk.