Education is not Childcare and Teachers are human too!
As a teacher of 33 years increasingly I am seeing consistently, attitudes of children and parents to education being minimised to the priority being that of childcare and not of learning. I had thought that after this experience their might be a glimmer of hope that appreciation of the professionalism and skills of a teacher would be celebrated but reading the previous comments sadly this does not seem to be the case.
Teachers are working as hard or harder in these circumstances, they have continued to work, they have had to quickly deliver a digital platform, they have their own families, their own worries, they are carers for elderly relatives, they have underlying health conditions themselves or caring for family who do, they have lost loved ones but they are still everyday doing their very best to provide the best education experience they can in an extremely difficult situation. There has been a teacher shortage for years now and it is getting worse. Don’t think for one minute there will be enough staff to support both digital and school based learning. Please also remember the majority of teachers are woman, who will care for their children when they return to school, it’s a complete can of worms!
I would keep schools closed till August, a fresh start. Defer the August P1 and use this as an opportunity to model the Scandinavian system of starting formal schooling at 6 years. Cap class sizes at 25 with areas of deprivation at 20 or less. Focus on developing apprenticeships, not everyone needs to continue their learning at University, promote learning on the job as this is often the best way for many. This links to mental health and promotion of the trades we do desperately need.
Use this tragedy to get things in Education right for the next generation.
Teachers are working as hard or harder in these circumstances, they have continued to work, they have had to quickly deliver a digital platform, they have their own families, their own worries, they are carers for elderly relatives, they have underlying health conditions themselves or caring for family who do, they have lost loved ones but they are still everyday doing their very best to provide the best education experience they can in an extremely difficult situation. There has been a teacher shortage for years now and it is getting worse. Don’t think for one minute there will be enough staff to support both digital and school based learning. Please also remember the majority of teachers are woman, who will care for their children when they return to school, it’s a complete can of worms!
I would keep schools closed till August, a fresh start. Defer the August P1 and use this as an opportunity to model the Scandinavian system of starting formal schooling at 6 years. Cap class sizes at 25 with areas of deprivation at 20 or less. Focus on developing apprenticeships, not everyone needs to continue their learning at University, promote learning on the job as this is often the best way for many. This links to mental health and promotion of the trades we do desperately need.
Use this tragedy to get things in Education right for the next generation.
Why the contribution is important
I think it is important to use the current challenges as an opportunity for growth and development.
by Springdale31 on May 08, 2020 at 02:11PM
Posted by highlandgal May 08, 2020 at 14:21
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Posted by monkey3margaret May 08, 2020 at 14:38
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Posted by bstrata May 08, 2020 at 14:41
I think it would be catastrophic to many kids to try and play catch up.
However I would wish that Education Scotland would exercise some joined up thinking regarding interim delivery - within the same catchment area we have some schools providing direct interaction between teachers and pupils via software such as MS Teams, while other teachers have been demoted to the status of glorified bloggers. While I appreciate that teachers and schools should have some autonomy - "face time" with a teacher seems like a standard all schools should aspire to!
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Posted by Tmy May 08, 2020 at 15:29
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Posted by Julie May 08, 2020 at 16:05
The focus of schools should be education. Decisions should be made on that basis.
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Posted by CMcIlroy May 08, 2020 at 16:13
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Posted by Portert May 08, 2020 at 16:53
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Posted by sjdurban May 08, 2020 at 18:29
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Posted by VCloud May 08, 2020 at 21:34
I totally agree that there seems to be a massive disparity in what councils across the country are offering support wise and there is even a difference within the same council are as to what individual schools are offering. My two primary children use see saw and it is endless worksheets from one teacher which can be quite overwhelming for a child and the other does have a teacher who posts voice notes to explain how to do a task but it is limited in its use. There is also very little feedback on how the child has done in completing the task. At a secondary level my daughters cello teacher wanted to do a live class with her as she does one on one at school but she was told this was not allowed?! Yet other schools are offering virtual classrooms. It does appear that many private schools are virtually zooming into child’s home and I really don’t see what this cant be the case for council run schools especially at a academy level.
I don’t agree with children repeating years as many primary 7s and 6th years are ready to move on with their lives! I think summer holiday should be reduced to 4 weeks this year or if this year it can’t happen there needs to be a looo at reducing the holidays on the next few years to
Make up for this. Many teachers complaining that they will lose their holidays but most people only get 28 days a year and I don’t think there would be anything wrong in brinflging the school year more in line with normal working practices.
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Posted by cherry May 08, 2020 at 23:02
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Posted by pwr6666 May 09, 2020 at 00:00
Defering children or repeating years is not a credible answer to any of this.
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Posted by pwr6666 May 09, 2020 at 00:01
There is plenty of respect for teachers however that debate to be sidelined to focus on the bigger concerns just now on health of our population and avoiding a meltdown of our economy through lack of work and the real potential for MASS unemployment.
Defering children or repeating years is not a credible answer to any of this.
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Posted by MissM May 09, 2020 at 14:45
If you don’t have anything nice or supportive to say don’t say it at all!!
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Posted by Bek2020 May 11, 2020 at 20:37
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