Schools closed until March/April? (part 4) **Mod warning in OP 22/01**

DraftDodger

How many teachers, SNA's,school bus drivers etc.. is there in Ireland? Surely if they are targeted for vaccination the schools could open up before Paddy's day?

km79

acequion wrote: »

Today's numbers have dipped under 2k. That's a very positive sign coming from where we were.

All this hysteria about schools being closed until after Paddy's Day is premature imo. Now I'm well aware that came from MM himself but when have they ever been good at communication and when have they not flip flopped like Olympians!

It could be a different story by next week. Let's try to be more positive!

76 people died

alroley

Lisha wrote: »

I’ve heard some say that if all arent back then LCs shouldn’t go back as it’s not safe. I can’t understand that. Sure 100 in a school is safer than 600... this years LCs have missed a huge amount.

A class of 30 is a class of 30.

Bananaleaf

acequion wrote: »

Today's numbers have dipped under 2k. That's a very positive sign coming from where we were.

All this hysteria about schools being closed until after Paddy's Day is premature imo. Now I'm well aware that came from MM himself but when have they ever been good at communication and when have they not flip flopped like Olympians!

It could be a different story by next week. Let's try to be more positive!

km79 wrote: »

76 people died

And 217 in ICU. It is absolutely positive that the case numbers are coming down but if the real issue is our ICU capacity then that's what we need coming down before we can open safely. At the end of the day that is really what it has been about from day one. Protecting the vulnerable

Bananaleaf

alroley wrote: »

A class of 30 is a class of 30.

In a 'standard' sized space of ... is it 49sq m?

acequion

km79 wrote: »

76 people died

I'm well aware of that. And I think we all know that the high death numbers are all from the crazy high infection numbers of a few weeks ago. Those numbers have thankfully now gone right back down. That's a very good sign.

It's also worth noting that the theory that the UK variant is 30% more likely to cause death has not been categorically proved. So maybe best to treat it as a sensational headline for now.

I'm certainly not advocating opening schools before numbers have gone back down a lot further if indeed they will. The fact is we don't know.

But I don't get why worst possible scenarios must be considered gospel because people think they're realistic. They're not necessarily realistic and I think it's important to have a bit of balance and balance includes optimism.

wirelessdude01

DraftDodger wrote: »

How many teachers, SNA's,school bus drivers etc.. is there in Ireland? Surely if they are targeted for vaccination the schools could open up before Paddy's day?

Norma has repeatedly said that will not be done.

deiseindublin

km79 wrote: »

Leaving certs will be back after the mid term. If not sooner

With an LC in the house here, I really hope not. If it's not safe, the year you are in is pretty irrelevant, apart from you being in more danger age wise in LC year.

It's not as if they can build bigger rooms, or have ventilation systems before then.

km79

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Norma has repeatedly said that will not be done.

With the delay we will be lucky to be vaccinated in time for the next school year !

In other news
ITS SNOWING

TTLF

km79 wrote: »

With the delay we will be lucky to be vaccinated in time for the next school year !

In other news
ITS SNOWING

System making its way across Ireland, idk what county your in but yes! Won't last a long long time but I would go out and make the most of it right now!

jrosen

acequion wrote: »

Today's numbers have dipped under 2k. That's a very positive sign coming from where we were.

All this hysteria about schools being closed until after Paddy's Day is premature imo. Now I'm well aware that came from MM himself but when have they ever been good at communication and when have they not flip flopped like Olympians!

It could be a different story by next week. Let's try to be more positive!

Right now we are not testing close contacts so we can tripple that number as a more accurate reflection of infected cases.

khalessi

km79 wrote: »

With the delay we will be lucky to be vaccinated in time for the next school year !

In other news
ITS SNOWING

Not here sobbbbbbb

And the tree is officially down

But

that makes room for the new tv since the old one died yesterday

km79

TTLF wrote: »

System making its way across Ireland, idk what county your in but yes! Won't last a long long time but I would go out and make the most of it right now!

Mayo
Just had a snowball fight!
Young lad still out there

We needed this

TTLF

km79 wrote: »

Mayo
Just had a snowball fight!
Young lad still out there

We needed this

It very much is needed, I'm going to stay up if it starts to snow here in Dublin around 2am if the charts go by anything, will be well needed for me too!

khalessi

TTLF wrote: »

It very much is needed, I'm going to stay up if it starts to snow here in Dublin around 2am if the charts go by anything, will be well needed for me too!

Ohhh If that happens small people will be woken up

jrosen

Not even a flake here. Mine are showered and ready for a movie but no doubt they will be out as soon as the snow falls dog in tow.

Talisman

TTLF wrote: »

Also they've actually announced that they're looking at alternatives for the LC at this point after the big ISSU survey. My dad said they'll probably announce something about it in the next week (he mentioned Tuesday but I'm not sure why) because if you keep delaying that response/clarity people want, it's only going to put people in a worse position and cause more backlash. (Although I do understand they need to talk it through, so I don't mind when stuff is announced, just as long as it's not April or something lol)

Micheal Martin said on Friday that there is Cabinet sub-committee on coronavirus meeting on Tuesday and a decision will be made on a number of issues then. I suspect the decisions have already been made and the meeting will rubber stamp them before an official announcement on Tuesday evening.

TTLF

Talisman wrote: »

Micheal Martin said on Friday that there is Cabinet sub-committee on coronavirus meeting on Tuesday and a decision will be made on a number of issues then. I suspect the decisions have already been made and the meeting will rubber stamp them before an official announcement on Tuesday evening.

ah alright that explains things. Thankyou!

Now the real question is, what is this "Decision to be made next week" going to entail :rolleyes:

All I know right now is, it's not going to be a traditional LC.

khalessi

Talisman wrote: »

Micheal Martin said on Friday that there is Cabinet sub-committee on coronavirus meeting on Tuesday and a decision will be made on a number of issues then. I suspect the decisions have already been made and the meeting will rubber stamp them before an official announcement on Tuesday evening.

I hope he doesn't say schools are safe ..for children again.

Mrsmum

If the state LC exam is to happen, students and teachers need to go back pretty soon. I would say no later than after the midterm. But will students and teachers consider it safe to go back shortly, especially if being told generally it is not safe to be out and about ? Less kids in the school but same number in a class. For comparison very few kids currently in creches but lots of problems there. Also will teachers be able to remotely teach their other classes as well as being physically in school for the Leaving Certs. It means that all children with special needs will be back before long too as imo they can't give LC kids higher priority than them as well as vulnerable kids.

Neagra

History Queen wrote: »

But there are some valid reasons not to. I'd consider it but when I look at it there are issues.

1. Students need midterms, weeks and weeks of school without a break isn't sustainable for most students (and I'd find it hard to be honest)
2. What if we are in a worse or similar situation when holiday time is over?
3. Do you reset the next school year or just start in September potentially running this school year in to the next?
4. What impact will this have on state exams?

we agree to close schools from now until march 22nd and then work right through until june 4th, close for one week and then reopen from june 14th until july 30th.

schools reopen early September

leaving cert to take place early june, to be taken in all the hotels, golf clubs etc currently closed across the country. invigilation to be privatised if necessary.
all exams to be computer based. this is the present, not the future.

every problem has a solution: you just need to discover it.

if schools are to remain closed for the foreseen future and the teachers and unions state remote and online learning works then i think we need to re-evaluate do we even need school buildings and do we need all those teachers.
if you take the social interaction out of schools is AI the answer we need to discover.

teachers and their union should be very careful where they end up pushing this.

History Queen

Mrsmum wrote: »

If the state LC exam is to happen, students and teachers need to go back pretty soon. I would say no later than after the midterm. But will students and teachers consider it safe to go back shortly, especially if being told generally it is not safe to be out and about ? Less kids in the school but same number in a class. For comparison very few kids currently in creches but lots of problems there. Also will teachers be able to remotely teach their other classes as well as being physically in school for the Leaving Certs. It means that all children with special needs will be back before long too as imo they can't give LC kids higher priority than them as well as vulnerable kids.

Going by noises being made by my union I expect LCs back pretty soon. The fine detail regarding how that'll work regarding other classes, safety etc. will be interesting but I hope it does happen if at all possible.

khalessi

https://amp.rte.ie/amp/1191602/?__twitter_impression=true

This morning the Taoiseach said there was a failure in how the reopening of schools for students with additional needs has been handled, but he said "unions acted in good faith".

I await apologies from all those slagging off teachers and from Norma and Josepha.

Hopontop

deiseindublin wrote: »

Some schools are being ridiculous about online classes. One of my kids had a double PE online during the week hwere they chatted. We had to cancel a walk planned for the middle of the day because it. By all means check in with pupils but that's akin to online detention. Followed by a double woodwork where they drew pictures of the various tools. I wish they'd let the 1st years pick options now and drop the extra ones. They are going to be squared eyed otherwise.

I’m a P.E. teacher and I’ve been doing live circuits with the juniors and TYs, I’m doing it really just so they have the option of exercise if they want to. I’d hate to think my holding the class would be like detention for kids and I think communication is key, if they don’t log in that’s fine (and if they don’t log in and are still exercising by going for a walk I think most teachers would be delighted!).

On the other side of it I had a parent of a TY email about not doing anything for their SPHE class! (This student hasn’t been present for any of the classes all year, neither had most of the class by the way as it was the last class of the day so most went home early!)

km79

History Queen wrote: »

Going by noises being made by my union I expect LCs back pretty soon. The fine detail regarding how that'll work regarding other classes, safety etc. will be interesting but I hope it does happen if at all possible.

Asti or TUI ?

History Queen

Neagra wrote: »

we agree to close schools from now until march 22nd and then work right through until june 4th, close for one week and then reopen from june 14th until july 30th.

schools reopen early September

leaving cert to take place early june, to be taken in all the hotels, golf clubs etc currently closed across the country. invigilation to be privatised if necessary.
all exams to be computer based. this is the present, not the future.

every problem has a solution: you just need to discover it.

if schools are to remain closed for the foreseen future and the teachers and unions state remote and online learning works then i think we need to re-evaluate do we even need school buildings and do we need all those teachers.
if you take the social interaction out of schools is AI the answer we need to discover.

teachers and their union should be very careful where they end up pushing this.

Teachers also correct the exams as well as invigilating. Where is the computer infrastructure coming from?

Every problem may have a solution but yours doesn't appear to be workable.

As regards do we need school buildings and "all those teachers"? Are you for real? No teacher or union I know of is saying online is perfect but it is certainly better than nothing.

You didn't address what we do if numbers are still an issue when you plan on reopening? Or if there's a fourth wave?

Where do you think teachers and unions are pushing this?

History Queen

km79 wrote: »

Asti or TUI ?

TUI

Neagra

History Queen wrote: »

Teachers also correct the exams as well as invigilating. Where is the computer infrastructure coming from?

Every problem may have a solution but yours doesn't appear to be workable.

As regards do we need school buildings and "all those teachers"? Are you for real? No teacher or union I know of issaying online is perfrct buy it is certainly better than nothing.

You didn't address what we do if numbers are still an issue when you plan on reopening? Or if there's a fourth wave?

Where do you think teachers and unions are pushing this?

anyone can invigilate. problem solved
computer infrastructure? the law society and ACCA are doing CBE exams, the ACCA to thousands of students world wide.

forgot to add i will not leave my life by what ifs.
what if there is fourth wave? what if there is not. the numbers of deaths is remaining low but more importantly the positive figures will drop dramatically very soon. well before middle of feb.


all is needed to achieve anything is the will.

Clouron

I was thinking more middle July, with 5 or 6 week break....its only 1 year....

There is absolutely no way a 7 yo doing 90mins max home school is the same as 5 hours in person, in classroom....5 days a week. Cmon.

It would only be a slightly shorter summer break, for just one year....in a pandemic

Bananaleaf

khalessi wrote: »

https://amp.rte.ie/amp/1191602/?__twitter_impression=true

This morning the Taoiseach said there was a failure in how the reopening of schools for students with additional needs has been handled, but he said "unions acted in good faith".

I await apologies from all those slagging off teachers and from Norma and Josepha.

Actual footage of khalessi waiting on that apology :pac: