How will schools be able to go back in September?

pwurple wrote: »

They've got 15 children in a portacabin, one teacher and an SNA. The mainstream class is 20 children in a much larger room.

What's the ratio based on?

I work in a large post primary, where are you getting 20 students in a large room from, that's far from reality

emmaro wrote: »

Sorry but the number of posts on various social media/actual people I know in other professions bragging about how they've outsmarted the tracker or whatever on their laptop to make it seem like they're still working by automatically moving the mouse etc. is staggering.

But people act like it was only teachers slacking. I can only speak for myself and my colleagues, but we worked much longer hours than when we were not working from home.

I worked in the private sector for years before becoming a secondary school teacher. I prefer teaching and it provides me with much more job satisfaction, but these last few months have made me want to go back to my previous job. I worked much longer than I normally would as I had to plan, create, edit videos for my two subjects and seven different class groups. I was doing Zoom classes during normal school hours, so creating the resources was done usually between 5-11pm. My friends from my old job were doing the exact same thing as in the office, just from home. Nothing changed.

I am so tired of people saying I shouldn't be paid for working from home. No one says this about other professions when all professions have people who are slackers.

We are also crucified for wanting a safe work environment like everyone else is getting (protection screens etc.)

This, I'm in charge of a load of WFH staff and while some are brilliant and being as productive or even more productive some are trying to trick the system.
I'm aware of what they are doing and we will be discussing it with them when things are more normal but at the moment we are taking what is being offered.

pwurple wrote: »

They've got 15 children in a portacabin, one teacher and an SNA. The mainstream class is 20 children in a much larger room.

What's the ratio based on?

Whatever you are talking about it is not July provision.

pwurple wrote: »

They've got 15 children in a portacabin, one teacher and an SNA. The mainstream class is 20 children in a much larger room.

What's the ratio based on?

Doesn't sound like any July provision that I'm aware of.

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

Our country does not prioritise kids, if anything this whole fiasco has shown exactly how high up (or low down in this case) on the list children are as a priority.

Eye opening I'm sure for anyone who didn't know that before, and its not even over yet.

Children have been treated as pariahs from the minute this started, disgraceful and I'm ashamed of how much they've been let down.

People don't need holidays, again policy makers and politicians out of touch as always.

Kids, the special needs and mentally ill don't vote so politicians don't give a **** about them.
The first thing to be cut in 2008 at the start of the recession was money for special needs and mentally ill.
Hell I remember I think it was 2010 and it was the toughest budget to impact on people and it only hit me for about €400. I was a single lad.
The guy next to me with 2 children was hit for €1500 as were most families.
How the hell was that fair? Even I was disgusted by it.

So don't ever forget and people shouldn't with how FF/FG have treated children, mentally ill and women in this country is that they don't give a damn about you. Its all about the money.

Blazer wrote: »

Kids, the special needs and mentally ill don't vote so politicians don't give a **** about them.
The first thing to be cut in 2008 at the start of the recession was money for special needs and mentally ill.
Hell I remember I think it was 2010 and it was the toughest budget to impact on people and it only hit me for about €400. I was a single lad.
The guy next to me with 2 children was hit for €1500 as were most families.
How the hell was that fair? Even I was disgusted by it.

So don't ever forget and people shouldn't with how FF/FG have treated children, mentally ill and women in this country is that they don't give a damn about you. Its all about the money.

There's sufficient evidence to support that austerity never works and does far greater damage than it solves. I personally think it's our beliefs and understanding, or more importantly, lack of, of fundamental things such as economic theory etc, it's deeply flawed, holes everywhere in it, it no longer truly serves our species, and now in fact is causing great harm to all living creatures, including ourselves

Does anyone else find it strange that a week ago there were headlines about a possible return to Phase 2 due to rising numbers of cases, and now we are waiting for the key announcement on return to schools, everything has magically "stabilised" again ..?

Millem wrote: »

It’s called the summer provision this year. It is school based. Not all schools are running it. Mine hasn’t signed up. If school hasn’t signed up the student can apply for the home based July provision which is 1:1.

Both July provision and summer camps for Deis have been around for a long time. Even for DEIS I’ve never seen ratio of 1:15 and for July provision max I’ve seen is 1: 6 not including SNA support. So 15 seems extraordinarily high for July provision.

ETA not all children qualify for July Provision- criteria has been widened this year but it is for children with special / additional needs and those from DEIS schools. In case people are wondering why their school hasn’t signed up.

Boggles wrote: »

It's pretty apparent at this moment in time listening to what the politicians are saying and more importantly what they are not saying that there is no nuanced plan focused solely on children's education going forward.

When the government talk about getting children back to school being the most important objective, that is fúck all to do with the educational well being of the children and all to do with getting the parents back to work.

So in all likely hood you will see smaller children having a full return, with some wishy washy bubble like advice, the older kids will go part time with the hope being there is still enough parents working from home to cater for them and if not the parents will take the chance and leave them at home and shuffle back to work.

Teachers, support staff and administration staff will be just told get on with it, teach faster, harder and make the kids learn with far less.

Kids who cannot return because they are high risk or have health issues, will not be getting anything resembling a formal education this school year.

Agree with the work comment, which links directly to my comment above, our whole thinking of economics is dangerouslying wrong now

Wanderer78 wrote: »

This is a very dynamic situation, we ve never experienced it before, so it ll change a lot, and quickly, our government is under a lot of pressure to get things going again, but obviously this is extremely risky

The situation may be dynamic but the health and safety framework set-ups from every other country that has opened up their education system are already there. This is a frustrating sense that the government has just left it up to the DES, which is just not up to the task. In the background, meanwhile, is a wary eye on NPHET's input with a better than evens chance that a surge of any kind will see it all pushed out another three weeks. As politics goes this is the first proper and potentially very damaging challenge for this new government but it is one we want them to succeed in.

Zahir Bitter Cellist wrote: »

The longer this goes on, the more difficult it is going to be for any child to return to education in a proper way. It's already going to be very hard to get them back into the swing of it.

I'd say getting parents back to work would be one of the many beneficial side affects of schools opening but hardly the main objective.

What's the problem with parents getting back to work anyway?

We can't all stay at home indefinitely, someone has to pay for all of this and that means getting as many as possible back into the workforce.

Reading the last few comments, I would reckon that the problem is not parents going back to work, it is that the government does not give a **** about their children in order to get it done.

Boggles wrote: »

It's pretty apparent at this moment in time listening to what the politicians are saying and more importantly what they are not saying that there is no nuanced plan focused solely on children's education going forward.

When the government talk about getting children back to school being the most important objective, that is fúck all to do with the educational well being of the children and all to do with getting the parents back to work.

So in all likely hood you will see smaller children having a full return, with some wishy washy bubble like advice, the older kids will go part time with the hope being there is still enough parents working from home to cater for them and if not the parents will take the chance and leave them at home and shuffle back to work.

Teachers, support staff and administration staff will be just told get on with it, teach faster, harder and make the kids learn with far less.

Kids who cannot return because they are high risk or have health issues, will not be getting anything resembling a formal education this school year.

I completely agree with this post, unfortunately.
How will Learning Support or Resource teaching continue if children cannot be mixed from different pods / bubbles.
In situations where children have ‘shared access’ to an SNA, which child gets priority? Surely it negates the idea of pods / bubbles if a staff member is moving between classes and groups.

What about the students that need frequent movement breaks? I’m guessing the idea of in-class aerobic activity will be discouraged from an infection control point of view (too much heavy breathing). Our children will have to sit for the day, elbow room elbow with their classmates.

Within each class there are at risk pupils. There are also children from families where parents are frontline workers and possibly more likely to be exposed to the virus (1/3 of our cases have been front line workers).

I really want to get back to ‘normal’ but September most definitely not be normal. The health and safety of our children, their families and our teaching and ancillary school staff are no longer a priority as our government worries about what the neighbours might think...

Where exactly are schools supposed to find a place to ‘isolate’ students with symptoms? What happens if there’s more than one student? Who supervises them?

The works many schools will require will need Architects, planning permission and fire certs..... hard to do that on a limited budget and with 5 weeks to complete it.

mirrorwall14 wrote: »

Irish times article https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/news/education/plan-to-fully-reopen-schools-at-the-end-of-august-to-be-unveiled-1.4312182%3fmode=amp

The Government intends to open schools fully at the end of August and will unveil a plan in the coming days aimed at allowing all pupils to return to class safely.

Tens of millions of euro will be made available to schools to fund structural alterations to classrooms and improve bathrooms for hand-washing, along with daily cleaning and hygiene routines, it is understood.

In addition, enhanced supervision and substitution will be provided to cover an expected increase in teacher absences. This is in light of official guidance that states teachers with any symptoms should stay away from the classroom.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin is to meet Minister for Education Norma Foley on Friday morning at the Department of Education to discuss the plans. It is expected the plan will be brought to Cabinet for approval early next week and published afterwards.

...

Detailed guidelines will be issued to schools next week with templates on safe classroom layouts and protocols for a Covid-19 outbreak.

Large quantities of hand sanitiser and personal protective equipment are being contracted centrally and will be distributed to schools.

This was on another thread.

Who called the Bank Holiday weekend for an announcement?

WHere are they going to get enhanced supervision and substitution cover? Is that SET, we find it hard enough as it is to get subs