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

BonsaiKitten

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

No I don't care what happens, but if your a Minister for ED you do your job. Tough times now admittedly but it is the Minister's job.

Haven't seen or heard a word from Norma Foley on any outlet, has anyone else?

I did see her in the news a few days ago reassuring LC students that the clusterfúck over results in Scotland and England won't happen here. Then there was the update on the school reopenings which was more waffle...but other than that she seems to have gone to ground.

Who wants to bet that the LC results will be as disastrous as the UK ones? Those poor kids.

alroley

i_surge wrote: »

If it was me, I would just resign and look to get one of the private teaching gigs.

I wouldn't accept risking my health for any job.

There's no private teaching gigs for secondary teachers.

Purplewaters

Purplewaters wrote: »

I figure cafes clean between groups so similar idea and it ar least would mean everyone is spaced out. 15 mins in middle of the day extea break for cleaning tables.

As far as this 99percent are fine, anyone can be the one (or usually more) percent. We can't sacrifice 1 percent of our population.

Week on week off would be OK too. Parents have 6 weeks parental leave each so maybe give some extra on this and they could opt for 2 weeks a month of this leave for the months ahead. Parents with more kids get more leave too.

i_surge

alroley wrote: »

There's no private teaching gigs for secondary teachers.

There will be

State failure leading to a classist divide in education.

wirelessdude01

i_surge wrote: »

If it was me, I would just resign and look to get one of the private teaching gigs.
.

Where are these private teaching gigs advertised seeing as you know so much?

Spanish Eyes

Why is Nora Foley so quiet. I understand that it is the silly Holiday season, but this issue is paramount in the times we are trying to cope with.

Get out there Nora and tell us what your plans are. Thanks.

Silence since her appointment AFAIS.

Edit, Norma not Nora sorry.

khalessi

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Why is Nora Foley so quiet. I understand that it is the silly Holiday season, but this issue is paramount in the times we are trying to cope with.

Get out there Nora and tell us what your plans are. Thanks.

Silence since her appointment AFAIS.

Ah now, didnt she sort some stuff out for Kerry before vanishing.

i_surge

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Where are these private teaching gigs advertised seeing as you know so much?

I know very little except I went to school myself but all I need are the basic principles which we all know about the virus at this stage.

Mentioned earlier in the thread by someone who knew their stuff.

BonsaiKitten

gnf_ireland wrote: »

If I had to make the call I would say week on, week off - to allow for a full deep clean at the weekend between the groups, and try keep siblings in the same groups if possible.

I am not sure where half days work with school transport and similar issues.

I think the lack of planning is going to undo years of progress we have made in terms of special needs education, and we will be back to what we had when I was a child, and likely to take years to recover from it

Oh sure the roadmap already allows for SET teachers to be pulled from pillar to post. Covering absent teachers in classrooms, helping with home learning provision, no doubt many needing to help with more duties so that class teachers can take a break...if I had a child with additional needs I'd be very worried about them getting any support at all.

Purplewaters

She only speaks on Friday evening circulars. Seems she thinks they are her only job. The rest is up to us.

Spanish Eyes

BonsaiKitten wrote: »

I did see her in the news a few days ago reassuring LC students that the clusterfúck over results in Scotland and England won't happen here. Then there was the update on the school reopenings which was more waffle...but other than that she seems to have gone to ground.

Who wants to bet that the LC results will be as disastrous as the UK ones? Those poor kids.

Hopefully everyone will get the gig to UNI here, and I would think that the opposite would be a disaster re appeals and so on. I think we are a bit more clever here than UK and will let everyone in. What's the problem?

wirelessdude01

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Why is Nora Foley so quiet. I understand that it is the silly Holiday season, but this issue is paramount in the times we are trying to cope with.

Get out there Nora and tell us what your plans are. Thanks.

Silence since her appointment AFAIS.

Edit, Norma not Nora sorry.

After her debut interview in the Indo she seems to have been put in cold storage.

Newbienoob

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.

You have to be in the "very high risk" group in order to work from home. Almost like they want the teachers to have to go in. The criteria for these groups changed in July. There will be a massive number of susceptible kids and teachers in school which is incredibly concerning.

Also the amount of parents saying they don't care once their child goes back to school and oh well kids don't get it anyway. It's actually shocking! Not a good time to be a teacher that's for sure!

Spanish Eyes

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

After her debut interview in the Indo she seems to have been put in cold storage.

Total disgrace AFAIS, but that's FF for ya in the Silly Season. But it will be over soon.

Blondini

Here's a photo of Norma and co. making the big announcement.

Social distancing. Check
Ventilation. Check
Lack of Crowds of excitable youngsters. Check

Spanish Eyes

Looks to me that the teachers are the vulnerable. But fair play to you anyway, support is lacking for you all isn't it.

Well that's what it looks like to me anyway, and a totally silent Minister is not a good look either. Well it is disgraceful at this point in time anyway.

Grandeeod

Blondini wrote: »

Here's a photo of Norma and co. making the big announcement.

Social distancing. Check
Ventilation. Check
Lack of Crowds of excitable youngsters. Check

And a 25k a week convention centre acting as the Dail with social distancing. But it's okay for my child to sit on a full school bus and start first year with 800 others in stuffed classrooms. I'm very close to not letting her start secondary.

freak scence

Blondini wrote: »

Here's a photo of Norma and co. making the big announcement.

Social distancing. Check
Ventilation. Check
Lack of Crowds of excitable youngsters. Check

retards check

Purplewaters

JDxtra wrote: »

My local primary school is very slow to change anything, and they really fumbled up remote teaching.

Despite protests from parents (many who were working), the best they could do was a poorly compiled list of work sent by email and ONE Zoom call per class at the end of the year (which started late and cut off early in some cases).

So, I'm really not keen on any blended learning approach going forward. I accept other schools and teachers put the effort in and made it work for them.

Essentially my children have had little to no formal learning from our school since March.

Not to pick holes but did you respond with work and ask for anything else? Sometimes it was a one way street and then the teacher was blamed when they heard nothing back so could do very little more.

Purplewaters

Blondini wrote: »

Here's a photo of Norma and co. making the big announcement.

Social distancing. Check
Ventilation. Check
Lack of Crowds of excitable youngsters. Check

These socially distanced pictures for the press are really getting to me when I know the situation we're all going into.

ACitizenErased

I'm after seeing the re-opening plan for the local secondary school and I'm actually quite impressed, surprisingly.

KerryConnor

Id be interested to hear the details if you wouldn't mind sharing?

ACitizenErased wrote: »

I'm after seeing the re-opening plan for the local secondary school and I'm actually quite impressed, surprisingly.

Purplewaters

ACitizenErased wrote: »

I'm after seeing the re-opening plan for the local secondary school and I'm actually quite impressed, surprisingly.

You must be easily impressed. No 2 m distanfce and teachers exposed to 100s of close contacts daily. I'm not a secondary teacher but I definitely wasn't impressed by what I saw.

ACitizenErased

KerryConnor wrote: »

Id be interested to hear the details if you wouldn't mind sharing?

This is a school of ~300 outside Cork City.
Here's some of it.


· A number of year groups will be based in classrooms and areas.
· Students will as move room as normal for practical subjects
· Most teachers will not be classroom based
· All students must have their own mask.
· Classrooms will have the appropriate number of desks and chairs to ensure a 1m distance as required by the DES guidelines.
· There will be two breaks of the same duration during the school day.
· The breaks will be staggered for different year groups and each year group will be assigned to a specific area
· Students will have to keep their books, pens, lunch etc. in their school bags and bring the school bag with them to class
· A one-way system for movement around the school will be in place with appropriate signage
· All entrance and exit doors will be used to access and leave the school
· Good hygiene practices are vital in keeping everyone safe. Sanitizers are in place at every entrance and in all classrooms.
· Warm water and soap dispensers are available in all toilets.

pwurple

Newbienoob wrote: »

Also the amount of parents saying they don't care once their child goes back to school and oh well kids don't get it anyway. It's actually shocking! Not a good time to be a teacher that's for sure!

It's not particularly shocking that parents want their children educated surely. The harm long term lack of education does to a generation is what worries me, especially with the inequality it brings. Huge difference between an only child home with a laptop, broadband and a motivated parent, and a child on the kitchen floor with no broadband, 5 elder siblings and parent (s) out working on the front line. All those efforts to make our society more equal opportunity might as well be flushed down the toilet unless they get back into the schools.

Purplewaters

ACitizenErased wrote: »

This is a school of ~300 outside Cork City.
Here's some of it.


· A number of year groups will be based in classrooms and areas.
· Students will as move room as normal for practical subjects
· Most teachers will not be classroom based
· All students must have their own mask.
· Classrooms will have the appropriate number of desks and chairs to ensure a 1m distance as required by the DES guidelines.
· There will be two breaks of the same duration during the school day.
· The breaks will be staggered for different year groups and each year group will be assigned to a specific area
· Students will have to keep their books, pens, lunch etc. in their school bags and bring the school bag with them to class
· A one-way system for movement around the school will be in place with appropriate signage
· All entrance and exit doors will be used to access and leave the school
· Good hygiene practices are vital in keeping everyone safe. Sanitizers are in place at every entrance and in all classrooms.
· Warm water and soap dispensers are available in all toilets.

I get that it's the best they can do but 1m is not said to be enough and the poor teacher is surrounded by hundreds of teens that have not been distanced all day. The masks being compulsory is good.

Bananaleaf

ACitizenErased wrote: »

This is a school of ~300 outside Cork City.
Here's some of it.


· A number of year groups will be based in classrooms and areas.
· Students will as move room as normal for practical subjects
· Most teachers will not be classroom based
· All students must have their own mask.
· Classrooms will have the appropriate number of desks and chairs to ensure a 1m distance as required by the DES guidelines.
· There will be two breaks of the same duration during the school day.
· The breaks will be staggered for different year groups and each year group will be assigned to a specific area
· Students will have to keep their books, pens, lunch etc. in their school bags and bring the school bag with them to class
· A one-way system for movement around the school will be in place with appropriate signage
· All entrance and exit doors will be used to access and leave the school
· Good hygiene practices are vital in keeping everyone safe. Sanitizers are in place at every entrance and in all classrooms.
· Warm water and soap dispensers are available in all toilets.

How many in a year group? Because that will essentially be a pod.

That school is about 300students, so probably 50 per year group? Not a bad number compared to my school, which is doing the same except we have year groups of between 180 and 200. But do bear in mind the creches (which a lot of folk seem hell-bent on using as an example of how there will be no problems in schools) have pods of between 8 and 15 in the examples I know of.

Well done to your school for doing their best and for getting the plan to parents as quick as they could

ACitizenErased

Purplewaters wrote: »

I get that it's the best they can do but 1m is not said to be enough and the poor teacher is surrounded by hundreds of teens that have not been distanced all day. The masks being compulsory is good.

Anything other than 1m and you can't open school, there isn't an alternative.

ACitizenErased

Bananaleaf wrote: »

How many in a year group? Because that will essentially be a pod.

That school is about 300students, so probably 50 per year group? Not a bad number compared to my school, which is doing the same except we have year groups of between 180 and 200. But do bear in mind the creches (which a lot of folk seem hell-bent on using as an example of how there will be no problems in schools) have pods of between 8 and 15 in the examples I know of.

Year group is 40-50. I had 20 in my class, 40 in my year group, when I was there.

JanuarySnowstor

If schools don't go back it will be devastating for kids and society in general. This virus could well go on for another 12months and some risk of restoring normality is justified. If kids don't get some sort of normality it will leave a permanent scar on their childhood memory.
I understand the fear that parents have but what's the alternative? A further year without school? Sure that would be devastating..