PMs message

The serpent? Or did the ? give Adam the pip?

I know the children need to return to school but I don't think it as simple as you suggest, that if one teacher and one ta can manage a class of 30, two classes of 15 is a doddle

But they do that anyway

they dont sit in a class of 30 all day.

one takes the advancing readers into another room and the other takes the non readers in home room.

By year 6 they are RARELY all together in their 30 home class. 30 faces staring up at teacher at the board with handmaiden TA/governess stood off to the side isnt what modern primary school looks like most of the time they are USED to splitting them off into smaller groups.

notanan2 , yes normally children are split into groups even at this age . And teaching is absolutely possible by either a teacher or a TA, but now we are talking about teaching AND maintaining social distancing in an age group that can only be described as ‘ unpredictable! ‘

I was specifically answering the question about who will staff 2 classes of 15 when its usually 30 to a teacher.

Personally I dont think its right to teach social distancing at all. Its too umnatural. I dont want a generation raised that are scared to hug or hold hands. And would like them all kept off until they cam run in and play together normally but thats by the by and not practical.

I was just commenting on staffing. I think not everyone appreciates how much TAs do

I’ve now listened to the speech twice, the second time with DH. We both agree that he told people to go back to work if they couldn’t work from home. He then mentioned Wednesday immediately afterwards but only in the context of being able to take more exercise from a Wednesday. As someone tweeted the other day ‘ this virus thrives on ambiguity’. I’d therefore request that anyone that is adamant that he mentioned Wednesday with regards going back to work listen to it again.

If you have to ask/question/argue, youre not the childcare.

If youre the childcare theres no doubt. Its a job!

The GPs who do a day/sleepover and tell everyone theyre doing it "to give the parents a break" now just have to admit that the arrangement was really "to give ME time with GC" all along.

MayBee yes it was go back to work as soon as possible if its safe and you cant work from home AND youre not from one of the industries who are to remain closed.

Its not a mass Nanny invasion 8am Wednesday like on "who will buy" on Oliver Twist

An asthmatic nanny to clingy toddler twins may not be going back for some time.

A nanny to supervise older home schooling children may go back immediately

sorry mixed up the school and childcare threads. Ignore my last 2 posts

Racheal Sylvester has just written in the Times that Downing Street issued a press release on Sunday advising people to go back to work on Monday and they then said on R4 that the changes would not come into effect till Wednesday. This was after people had already started to go back to work.

I have seen many very capable TAs but they are not trained teachers. They work usually under supervision of a teacher and most use the teacher as the disciplinarian and lots of TAs like it that way. As one said to me "That's not my role and I have a dfferent relationship with the children". It may sound simple to split the children into 2 groups of 15 but if problems arise in the TA's group who is going to sort it out? This isn't a case of a class splitting into groups for most or part of the day the children will have to stay in their groups all the time. Then there are the parents some will want to know why their children don't have the "Proper teacher".

I have seen many very capable TAs but they are not trained teachers. They work usually under supervision of a teacher

working undee the supervision of a teacher does not mean the teacher is there at their shoulder the whole time.

The teacher manages the overall planning but TAs are regularly in different rooms to the teacher delivering or supervising the plan set by the teacher.

and most use the teacher as the disciplinarian and lots of TAs like it that way.
If anything its often the other way round as TAs have more time/freedom to work through behaviour issues while the teacher might have to plough ahead..

Most likely only 15 per class will turn up anyway. Many parents are saying they wont send theirs.
It was down to 9 in one of DDs classes the week before lockdown!

OMG, notanan, You're an expert at education as well as the health service.

Such a blessing to have you here to put everyone right...

Interesting discussion about who will be taking the extra smaller classes. Now can we chat about where we think they will be taking the other half of the class, to keep social distancing from the first half, given that many schools are full already? Not every school has spare capacity.

Maremia with only 3 out of 7 year groups back there'll be space initially but that'll also depend on how much of the building is being used for keyworker childcare

Claws in MaizieD!

Didn't TA's get a large salary reduction a few years ago; I seem to recall various protests. I guess they'll now be found to be key workers along with many others.

Reduction?

I don't think Boris, or his advisors have ever been in a Reception,/Y1 class before. How anyone is supposed to keep young children apart for any length of time, I don't know. A huge amount of learning at this stage is to do with socialisation and play with others. Are you going to have just one child painting, just one child in the home corner, just one child at the sand tray etc. ?Are you going to have the staff in PPE, frightening the life out of the children? I'm not sure you could separate a group of pre adolescent youngsters in Y 6, either, when they've not seen each other in several weeks. Please let's stay at home until September. Oh and can the government stop lying about the figures and statistics ? I'd rather know the truth.

I know this is from yesterday, but I see this first point written up so often. But we all as adults just need to follow common sense. There’s no one realized that’s exactly what causes point number two? People are following their own common sense to allowing them to feel they can do whatever they want.

This is why there are guidelines, not just common sense

* We as gown ups will have to do what we think is right and reasonable, just like we have been doing.*

People will carry on doing whatever they are going to do irrespective of what BJ / the government says. We've seen lots of that already even in lockdown.

Very understandable, but not much changes

I suspect we all know that TAs are sometimes left in charge - but they shouldn't be. I remember all the arguments when TAs were appointed, that in fact what was needed was smaller classes, that TAs would be used as under paid unqualified teachers.

Nanna58 and trisher are correct. My young grandchildren need their lives to return to the best semblance of normality that we can reach, so do their parents. I still remain confused as to how reasonable levels of hygiene and safety can be maintained in a class of five year olds. the idea that the TA can take 15 and the teacher the other 15 is just impossible on every level

The message was clear enough as many on here have already said, so yes, am wonderingly slightly about those who seem to be permanently confused.

Yet the OP, who also thought it was clear, was relaying wrong information re “family” vs “household”. So obviously, not that clear

Yes, I later corrected myself on that.
I wrongly thought that BJ was talking about whole families not just those in one place.

Yes; a few of us have been accused of mishearing things in the PM's speech although, on listening to it a second and third time we did hear correctly. Probably due to him saying things in an ambiguous way.