100% but we all know it will be left until after Easter until the department announce it if they do, completely unfair on 6th years yet again.
If you equate doing a good job to doing sweet fcuk all, sticking one's head in the sand and intoning the mantra of "schools are safe" ad nauseam without any sort of actual reasoning/data as to how they can possibly be, then yes Norma Foley has done a top notch job 👍 she's also very good at hiding.
Only fair for the current 6th year thst the hybrid exam/predicted grades model for the LC is used again this year.
Needs to be announced ASAP.
Maybe it's already been said, but what happens with teacher absences and leaving cert kids? Surely the school with teacher absences is at a disadvantage to the school that have less missing teachers at LC level?
Is it tough?
Fantastic post. Bravo.
It’ll be a mad few weeks, and we’ll certainly be under pressure for a while. But that’s life. We won’t be the only sector under pressure.
It’ll be messy with absences and staff shortages. But it has been before with the shortage of subs. We got through it. Some schools will find it hard, classes, years and even schools might be sent home at some point. But they’ll come back, and it’ll be fine. The answer to disruption and pressure isn’t to close down.
I think some union reps and spokespeople have realised tonight they did more bad than good with their staggering plea for staggered returns. The only people seemingly wanting schools to close seem to be a few within the unions, and a screaming mob of ISAG influenced moaners on Twitter and Facebook. If unions are now pandering to the shouty mob then they’ve backed the wrong horse.
In the real world, scientists, public health, children’s advocates, politicians - government and opposition, teachers and kids just want schools to reopen as normal.
And when they speak of ‘measures’. What measures? Not much is going to stop an airborne virus that will probably infect a good percentage of the population in the next few weeks, causing not much more than a bad head cold for a high percentage. Anyone at risk should be vaccinated and boosted if wanted. Distancing, pods, masks under kids noses, staggered starts all seem fairly pointless given the science. Tracing isn’t going to be reintroduced for kids and teachers when the noises are that isolation times and close contact rules in general will be eased. Filters would be useful, but by the time they’d even be supplied, there’s a good chance the wave has passed and they won’t be needed.
Would you believe my daughter nearly went to her appointment on the wrong date! Luckily she checked just before she left the house! I think she only got the appointment because she’s working in a health care setting. It’s actually for today!
Id second it. She is one of the few who has stood up firmly to the unions. Hasnt got everything right but has done a decent job imho.
I'm not sure how many medical vulnerable kida have ended up in hospital from Covid though. Is it amy different to them catching a cold or flu. I wouldnt think its an issue to be honest.
Well if you think Norma Batty is a great minister for education, you have to be one of her Kerry voters. What has she done for education or schools and children with special needs since she has being in office. Feck all.
It's not a question of what's best but what's best under the circumstances. The younger the children the greater the compromise.
Luckily all my children were 2nd and 3rd level so the question of child care / home teaching / working at the same time didn't arise.
3rd level actually found it better. Either pre- recorded or live lectures which were recorded and also downloadable from Moodle later could be rewatched if they wanted to go over a particular point or later for revision. There's not much one to one interaction in a lecture hall with 100+ students in it anyway.
2nd level depended on their motivation. Luckily mine were motivated and attendance to online classes was good but they did need more help with explanations and homework than they would have when school was in person.
Luckily I'm past the primary school children age, that would have been a whole different kettle of fish. I don't envy anyone who was trying to home school one or more primary school children especially if they either had to work from home also or take leave or give up work because they had no alternative childcare .
Spoke to a primary school teacher recently, Dublin based said they have no issues getting subs now that student teachers can do it.
I delighted school opening lots of children have not seen other children outside family since school closed for Christmas.
Children are most fed up with covid at this stage. Let them into school no doubt it will be yoyo students& staff in and out for few weeks.
It seems the people that think remote schooling works dont have children or clearly doesnt know what's best for them.
I misinterpreted your post. I thought you were asking if I knew how schools worked.
It's going to be something of a roller coaster for a while.
That will work to a point but we are dealing with an potentially unprecedented level of both staff and pupil absenteeism. You can only replan so much.
At some point it becomes an intractable problem beyond which the predictability of fully remote may be better as staff or pupils isolating or restricting contacts wouldn't effect their ability to take part in a lesson.
There may be some fixed infrastructure problems e.g. staff or student access to reliable broadband or suitable devices but being fixed, fixed solutions can be sought as opposed to the moving target of what staff are in today, have we enough staff / subs to supervise all classes, etc... and only figuring out on the day that there just aren't enough staff / subs to go around.
I’m not sure if you’ve read the posts correctly. It doesn’t matter if a teacher is teaching remotely or not, there still needs to be a sub in the classroom. Teaching remotely is nothing to do with this.
Edit: You picked up my post wrong, I was agreeing with you saying the other poster doesn’t know how a school works.
Care to educate me or point out the error in my reasoning?
Schools are not a magical virus free place we all knew that from the start, this virus is absolutely nothing to healthy children. If parents that have a risk to bring it back to vulnerable persons, don’t sent you children in but the world must go on.
The meeting today being online is peak Norma Foley.
I think you’re redefining the meaning of the word “safe”?
what’s the danger? We’ve been through Delta, and now we have an even milder variant. So what’s the problem with opening schools?
the omicron wave has already passed through South Africa, there’s no need for hysteria about “cases”. Driving a car is much much more dangerous.
That’s fine, if there’s no subs who supervises the class and sets up the live stream etc? Not being smart but none of that addresses the issue. 24 students won’t supervise themselves in a class room and set up a live class.
I’m all for a full reopening but just scrap this absolute madness that is the testing and isolation requirements. If we don’t do that schools are in trouble between close contacts and positive cases. Something has to give.
In our school the kids attended as usual and the class that the teacher was absent was taught remotely by that teacher at home. He was obviously well enough to do so. Other times there was work sent to the kids to cover in class and they did so.
Clearly someone who doesn’t know how a school works tbh.
There will have to be a bit of scheduling / unplanned changes obviously, but its better then closing them all completely isnt it?
No votes in it, no opinion from SF. That's leadership!
Even SF are giving a wishy-washy response to this which suggests that the union support here is the square root of fcuk all.
What is unsafe about schools? It's a headcold bro ...
Unions climbing down tonight. Opposition with nothing constructive to say.
Well done Norma Foley.
Agree with the opening of schools I mean.
And if the teacher who taught them for the 1st lesson is scheduled to teach a different class for the 2nd lesson or there's nobody available to supervise study classes?
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