How will schools be able to go back in September?

Boggles wrote: »

The global pandemic is virtually gone?

I guess it's wine o clock somewhere.

No, what I said is it's virtually gone (for the moment) in our country where we live. That's where our schools are based and thats what this thread is about.

Wine o clock..... please, your 'guess' couldn't be further from the truth there. Implying that someone is pissed just because you don't agree with what you think you read (because I certainly didn't say the global pandemic is over) how mature.

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

There are counties that haven't had any cases for a while now and outside of known clusters we've been told its virtually gone, the numbers are very low.

Does Covid hibernate? I know some viruses can lie dormant (in an already infected person) but don't think that's the case with Covid.

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

No, what I said is it's virtually gone (for the moment) in our country where we live. That's where our schools are based and thats what this thread is about.

Wine o clock..... please, your 'guess' couldn't be further from the truth there. Implying that someone is pissed just because you don't agree with what you think you read (because I certainly didn't say the global pandemic is over) how mature.

thefasteriwalk wrote: »

https://www.boredpanda.com/privilege-explanation-comic-strip-on-a-plate-toby-morris/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Too subtle for some in this parish.

Mrsmum

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

No, what I said is it's virtually gone (for the moment) in our country where we live. That's where our schools are based and thats what this thread is about.

Wine o clock..... please, your 'guess' couldn't be further from the truth there. Implying that someone is pissed just because you don't agree with what you think you read (because I certainly didn't say the global pandemic is over) how mature.

Absolutely a tactic to play the man and not the ball. In sport that usually happens when the ball is lost.

Mrsmum wrote: »

A different issue there altogether. Those children are always disadvantaged and are even worse off not being at school but since i am advocating for full time back in Sept I am on their side anyway. But that is not following my point at all. When the LC this year was cancelled, people said that it should have gone ahead because all students were in the same boat. As if all children, regardless of other variables, were getting the same attention from their teachers. They were not and no amount of whataboutery changes that fact. Some got four classes for the one that other children got.

My mistake. I thought you might be interested in a genuine discussion on what actually constitutes educational disadvantage.

iamwhoiam

downthemiddle wrote: »

My mistake. I thought you might be interested in a genuine discussion on what actually constitutes educational disadvantage.

Genuine disadvantage of course exists and no one denied that . That fact does not mean that during Covid school closure that parents and students who felt at a disadvantage should be dismissed
Some parents and students felt their school or teacher had not made the same effort that others had . That is a genuine concern and very unfair to dismiss it

It would be the same for me if a parent was upset that her child had appendicitis and I dismissed her because another child had a cancerous tumour

Parents have worries and concern about their own children now and need support and reassurance

Mrsmum

downthemiddle wrote: »

My mistake. I thought you might be interested in a genuine discussion on what actually constitutes educational disadvantage.

I don't disagree with any of the reasons you listed for educational disadvantage. I was among those categories myself as a child so I actually know first hand, and not just as a discussion, only too well, all about it. But you did not mention in your list, educational disadvantage due to lockdown engagement between different teachers and different children and there is a factual disadvantage there also. It doesn't take from the others listed, it is just an extra one. Your mistake is not the one you are pretending it to be.

Mrsmum wrote: »

I don't disagree with any of the reasons you listed for educational disadvantage. I was among those categories myself as a child so I actually know first hand, and not just as a discussion, only too well, all about it. But you did not mention in your list, educational disadvantage due to lockdown engagement between different teachers and different children and there is a factual disadvantage there also. It doesn't take from the others listed, it is just an extra one. Your mistake is not the one you are pretending it to be.

I wouldn't, for one minute, attempt to defend a school or a teacher who doesn't do their best for the children in their care, lockdown or no lockdown.

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Genuine disadvantage of course exists and no one denied that . That fact does not mean that during Covid school closure that parents and students who felt at a disadvantage should be dismissed
Some parents and students felt their school or teacher had not made the same effort that others had . That is a genuine concern and very unfair to dismiss it

It would be the same for me if a parent was upset that her child had appendicitis and I dismissed her because another child had a cancerous tumour

Parents have worries and concern about their own children now and need support and reassurance

There has been plenty of support and reassurance offered in this thread. Not everybody has been prepared to acknowledge it and in many cases it has been blatantly ignored.

downthemiddle wrote: »

.

You know the difference between a County and a Country right?

Now where exactly did I say the global pandemic was gone?

Mrsmum

downthemiddle wrote: »

I wouldn't, for one minute, attempt to defend a school or a teacher who doesn't do their best for the children in their care, lockdown or no lockdown.

Actually my point wasn't about teachers not doing their best in lockdown circumstances. I'm inclined to think everyone was doing their best. What I was objecting to was this notion that is out there that even in the case of engaged, advantaged children, some are not way behind others in terms of course covered. When you are facing LC that is a problem as there is no box to tick to say answers are based of X number of classes. .

iamwhoiam

downthemiddle wrote: »

There has been plenty of support and reassurance offered in this thread. Not everybody has been prepared to acknowledge it and in many cases it has been blatantly ignored.

I was replying to your post not the whole thread . My point stands .
I would never dismiss a parents worry because others have bigger worries

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

You know the difference between a County and a Country right?

Now where exactly did I say the global pandemic was gone?

I’ve news for you. It is a global pandemic. Who has told you it’s virtually gone?

iamwhoiam wrote: »

I was replying to your post not the whole thread . My point stands .
I would never dismiss a parents worry because others have bigger worries

Your post was shortly after another post on educational disadvantage. I thought people were genuinely interested in engaging in a discussion about those who will impacted most by schools closing. My mistake.

iamwhoiam

downthemiddle wrote: »

Your post was shortly after another post on educational disadvantage. I thought people were genuinely interested in engaging in a discussion about those who will impacted most by schools closing. My mistake.

Someone expressed concern about the inbalance for some kids compared to others and your reply was “ what about real disadvantage “
My point is that a parents concern is valid regardless of other concerns .
We learned that very early on in nursing that every patients or parent of patients worry is valid and its their child and their worry . The fact that other children might be sicker is not a reason to dismiss a worry . It has stuck with me all my life and probably colours my view sometimes I admit .

Murple

mcsean2163 wrote: »

There's a school course book for the year. It appears they covered just under a third of it before lockdown. Homework last week was a third of the book to do in two weeks. There's several things that happened that were real eye openers for me.

I guess it is difficult for teachers to cover all the work when the have to accommodate kids who are at different stages. In saying that, I was in the class and was really impressed with the children. Again, I don't know but I do remember when I was in school, I knew the times tables by first class and had spelling tests etc., i.e. I felt there was a high level of expectation. It was challenging.

There's a big difference between covering the curriculum and finishing the book. You said in an earlier post that you were given a third of the curriculum to do in 2 weeks but it was in reality to fill in a third of a workbook in 2 weeks.

With many classes that I have taught, they might have a lot of a workbook to do but we have done the groundwork through a variety of activities. I often left filling in a workbook as a revision type activity or as independent work. Certain pages never got fillled in in the workbook as the material wasn't covered in a productive way but we would have covered the same topic through copy work, a worksheet, a hands on activity or IWB activity.

As for knowing times tables by first class, multiplication hasn't been part of the infant or 1st class curriculum in the last 30-40 years, maybe it was before then.
Spelling tests are still done in many schools but there is definitely a move towards doing away with them as they don't do much for actually improving spelling ability.

downthemiddle wrote: »

I’ve news for you. It is a global pandemic. Who has told you it’s virtually gone?

It's more or less gone from the community here in Ireland, where our schools are based. Thats been the case for weeks now.

Known clusters are where our (small number of) cases are now. So yes it's virtually non existent in our community.

Professor Sam McConkey said he is comfortable with the accelerated reopening of the economy as the virus is circulating at a "one in a million" level in the community".

Dr Colm Henry said: "We have seen this virus virtually eliminated from our streets".

Dr Tony Holohan “In broad terms, we have effectively extinguished it from the community in general, right across the country".

Anthony Staines, Professor of Health Systems at Dublin City University, said "a number of other countries, including Ireland, have also made huge progress in crushing the virus".

byhookorbycrook

“Over the last two weeks, Irish data shows that over one-third of all new cases are people under the age of 35. "This is not a disease that solely affects older people. No one is immune, everyone is responsible for limiting the spread of COVID-19," said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan.”
joe.ie

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Someone expressed concern about the inbalance for some kids compared to others and your reply was “ what about real disadvantage “
My point is that a parents concern is valid regardless of other concerns .
We learned that very early on in nursing that every patients or parent of patients worry is valid and its their child and their worry . The fact that other children might be sicker is not a reason to dismiss a worry . It has stuck with me all my life and probably colours my view sometimes I admit .

I was addressing your point about not all children being in the same boat. Carry on, I’m not going down this rabbit hole with you any further. I hope your child overcomes any disadvantage they have suffered.

addaword

iamwhoiam wrote: »

The kids are all out playing and mixing now anyway . In playgrounds , play dates , out on greens and young teens in parks .
Summer camps set up and ready to go and training and matches soon will be played .

And many have learnt nothing over the past 3 months and will not learn anything over the next few months either. We are the laughing stock of Europe as far as schools are concerned. It has been and continues to be very unfair on working parents trying to juggle everything too.

gifted

All Adult Eduacation Facilities are opened from the 29th of this month....How's that gonna work with social distancing in workshops?

khalessi

addaword wrote: »

And many have learnt nothing over the past 3 months and will not learn anything over the next few months either. We are the laughing stock of Europe as far as schools are concerned. It has been and continues to be very unfair on working parents trying to juggle everything too.

We are not the laughing stock of Europe. Europe had to deal with a pandemic too and know what it is like, so we are most deifinitely not the laughing stock of Europe.

addaword wrote: »

And many have learnt nothing over the past 3 months and will not learn anything over the next few months either. We are the laughing stock of Europe as far as schools are concerned. It has been and continues to be very unfair on working parents trying to juggle everything too.

Says who?

addaword wrote: »

And many have learnt nothing over the past 3 months and will not learn anything over the next few months either. We are the laughing stock of Europe as far as schools are concerned. It has been and continues to be very unfair on working parents trying to juggle everything too.

Says who?

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Says who?

Well at least we lived up to our stereotype, a child can get into a pub before they can go to school

Do you not think that's wrong and that more of an effort should have been made around having schools open as a priority?

jrosen

I dont think Ireland is the laughing stock of europe. I do believe questions are being asked but laughing stock no.

It is unfair to working parents.

My new neighbor is a vice principal. She said 3 weeks ago she was convinced it would be blended learning from September with each kid having 2 days at school. She now firmly believes based on her most recent meeting that it will be school as usual come September with isolation rooms for students who need to be picked up and removed from school immediately.
Of course this is just one persons belief.

She did go on to say that there is a push to keep sick kids out of school but that its going to be really difficult to manage as schools generally come winter have huge amounts of kids with runny noses and coughs.

seamus

gifted wrote: »

All Adult Eduacation Facilities are opened from the 29th of this month....How's that gonna work with social distancing in workshops?

Considerably easier to be fair. Adult Ed classes tend to be smaller and adults don't need crowd control.

It's also possible for Adult Ed to easily increase the number of classes to reduce class sizes. Classes can be held in the evenings and weekends. Childrens' schools don't have that option.

Boggles

jrosen wrote: »

She now firmly believes based on her most recent meeting

Who was the meeting with?

jrosen wrote: »

I dont think Ireland is the laughing stock of europe. I do believe questions are being asked but laughing stock no.

It is unfair to working parents.

My new neighbor is a vice principal. She said 3 weeks ago she was convinced it would be blended learning from September with each kid having 2 days at school. She now firmly believes based on her most recent meeting that it will be school as usual come September with isolation rooms for students who need to be picked up and removed from school immediately.
Of course this is just one persons belief.

She did go on to say that there is a push to keep sick kids out of school but that its going to be really difficult to manage as schools generally come winter have huge amounts of kids with runny noses and coughs.

Who was this meeting with or between?

We as an education sector have got ZERO guidance or guidelines yet for reopening or indeed the proposed JP/SS. Anything heard from a principal or indeed a vice principal is just something that they think could happen or ideas that came from a meeting within the school staff.

For stuff with isolation rooms etc this has to come in the form of a circular from the dept as otherwise there won't be a common approach. A common approach for stuff such as this is very important. With regards to isolation rooms, i'm just thinking of our own school which doesn't even have an empty broom closet. Where are these isolation rooms to appear out of seeing as it has already been clearly said by both Joe and Paschal that no money will be made available for temporary school accommodation such as prefabs.

Also just another thought, who is going to staff these isolation rooms?

People can come on and say i'm putting roadblocks in the way but these are the practical realities of the majority of our schools. Most don't have empty rooms that can be used for these isolation rooms and no schools have staff with no assigned work to do.