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

Thats fine. Delay opening the schools again. Missed education will have adverse impacts on children esp disadvantaged children for decades!

History Queen wrote: »

TUI of the view that the JC needs to be called off to accommodate the LC.

https://www.tui.ie/news/urgent-decision-needed-on-junior-cycle-examinations-.14050.html

I would have thought that was an absolute certainty and they'll do school assessments like last yr

gansi wrote: »

Well what if a parent wanted their child to repeat because of all the time lost already between this year and last year. If this goes on much longer it should be an option because realistically some children will have already lost out on so much that they won’t catch up. Won’t be all children of course but as another poster mentioned children from disadvantaged backgrounds etc. once a child falls off the education path it’s hard to get back on.

I'm a post primary teacher so not best placed to answer your question about individual cases, but I'm pretty sure there is narrow enough criteria for repeating a school year now. There was also a study about the damaging affect it can have on children. Now I know you're asking in the context of the pandemic but I just can't see it being an option in a wide sense.

gansi wrote: »

My question is a hypothetical one and yes I do know that the grounds for repeating a year/ class are very narrow.

My question is as you say very much pandemic related as we’ve never found ourselves in this position before.

Just dealing in the hypotheticals of looking at it as an option, some issues I see are; disparities between people wanting their children to repeat and those that don't. The issue of what to do with children due to start school/ecce. The issue of space, lots of schools are at capacity and couldnt afford to have say 50% (just an arbitrary number) of their 6th class or 6th year students not move on. This isn't just a physical space issue but a teacher numbers issue. Our classrooms are already largely overcrowded and under resourced.

The school can just refuse though, and would have to if pushed for space. At second level usually if a student repeats they do it in a grind school like the institute. And they pay handsomely for the privilege

gansi wrote: »

What I’ve said in this hypothetical scenario I’m using is that the challenges faced by the school are not the problem of the parent to solve. Regarding separating children yes definitely adverse affects. Two periods of being separated from their friends already within the last twelve months.

As I said, I can't see it happening. Given what I said do you still think it should?

Edit: challenges faced by the school affect the children regardless of whose ossue it is to solve. I just think your proposed solution will further affect children.

The adverse effects I mentioned are in relation to repeating.

emo72 wrote: »

If I hear that word "clarity" again I think I'll go nuclear. "Clarity" is always a week away.

Again I hate to reply to my own post. But it's still a few days away! Clarity! It's coming, soon!

NeuralNetwork wrote: »

Just an idea. Why not keep the schools closed a bit longer but open summer schools?

1. Weather would be much better so windows could be left wide open most of the time or classes could even be held outside.

2. The numbers would have had more time to drop.

3. The vaccine programme would have covered much more of the vulnerable population. It’s worth remembering we are about 4 to 6 weeks behind the U.K. on vaccines, so taking any cue from there is totally inappropriate.

It’s not like anyone’s going to be going on summer holidays anyway this year.

We could take 2 weeks in August as a summer holiday and take the rest of the summer holidays now.

Like...what to do you think teachers do all day? Are you working from home? Would you like it if next year your bosses said remember that time you were asked to work from home..yeah well we think productivity is down so we are cutting your holidays by 80% to make up for it or we are going to force you to take 80% or your holidays now.

We might not be in the class(not our fault) but we are workings from home and (most of us) are doing the best we can.

The HorsesMouth wrote: »

Like...what to do you think teachers do all day? Are you working from home? Would you like it if next year your bosses said remember that time you were asked to work from home..yeah well we think productivity is down so we are cutting your holidays by 80% to make up for it or we are going to force you to take 80% or your holidays now.

We might not be in the class(not our fault) but we are workings from home and (most of us) are doing the best we can.

They said take 2 weeks in August as a summer holiday and take the rest of the summer holidays now.

Nothing about taking away any holidays from teachers just restructuring them.

I honestly don't know why this is not an option being considered. Even if Easter holidays were taken now and some restructuring of the summer holidays was done it would be better for students.

I see one of the new safety measures is that "Parents of children returning to school will be asked to sign declaration forms stating that they have no reason to believe their child has an infectious disease such as Covid-19".

I wonder how often the declaration will need to be done and what the consequences are for people who lie on it.

We also have groups that have sought legal opinion which states the blanket closure of schools — including online learning — is unconstitutional.

Going to be an interesting week.

tfeldi wrote: »

Not sure if this is the best place to post this:

With all the discussion on opening up primary schools in March, I have not seen anything about creches for non essential staff. Was there any announcement/ indication that I missed?

Not as far as I’ve seen/heard actually