Schools

We shouldn’t be pitting one group of workers against another. Maybe all those laid of from hospitality and travel industries could be requisitioned to do essential work in food distribution or whatever - has anyone suggested that? Obviously no one is going to convince those who think teachers are always skiving, or that teaching is a complete doddle, that it actually is a full on job with 30 or so teenagers to face several times a day, plus all the prep and admin that creates. Teachers will be in the frontline in determining the grades of the children not sitting exams, who else will be doing it? With the advice on self isolation it became increasingly impossible to keep schools open and ensure the safety of staff and children. My own teacher relative has volunteered to go into school to help with key workers children and those on free school meals - she has been told this will run into the Easter holidays. She is prepared for that.

Well posted trisher
I’m impressed by your understanding of our valuable teachers situation. Difficult times ahead for us all. It’s always easy to vilify others when you don’t have full knowledge of the circumstances. Teachers responsibility is to be educators first and foremost.
?

Grandad1943 the surest way to lose a debate is to keep posting information which has been proved to be inaccurate and insisting it is true.
By the way there are two reasons teachers will not be giving the usual lessons to the children in schools. Firstly there would be a huge outcry from the parents about these children being specially educated and secondly the disadvantaged children being required to go into school won't go unless there is something to attract them.

Started reading this thread but haven’t got the time to read 12 pages of comments unfortunately. Of the few pages I have read, I’ve got the drift - same old, same old - teachers are next to God in terms of saintliness etc. Whilst I know there are some amazing teachers out there, my job brings me into contact daily with schools and teaching staff. More importantly. I see reported absence levels and, let me tell you, they are unbelievably, ridiculously, high. Teachers can, and do, take time off for the most mundane and trivial reasons, sometimes (often!) for extended periods - and this all before the current crisis. In my opinion, it’s a career choice that attracts a LOT of snowflakes! And please don’t start on about stress ... everyone has stress in their working life ....

GS and GD are having work set for them to do over the shut down.

GD will have course work which will count towards her GCSEs that she was due to take from next week ( Art and Textiles , earlier than the other exams) I assume that her mock exam results will also count towards her grades, but the teachers haven’t been told yet.
I’m not sure yet how the course work will be marked, their internet connection is bad at the best of times.

BoBo53, in regard to your post @21:04 today, our youngest daughter was an RGN (I think that's the grade term) in an intensive care ward. Due to staff shortages etc, she left that hospital to become a practice nurse within a large GP practice here in North Somerset.

At a Covid-19 practice strategy meeting held this week at one of the surgeries, all the practise nurses were informed that at "stage two" of the outbreak they would be transferred into local hospitals to support the situation they will find in those hospitals.

Apparently, if they can be recruited retired nurses will replace them at the GP surgeries.

I found the above quite chilling when our daughter was telling us.

Trisher made an interesting point that many young teachers are walking away from the job after a couple of years because they don't feel valued. I thought teaching was meant to be a vocation, so why aren't they prepared to stick at the job after the years of expensive training? Maybe they want all the goods bit from a career in teaching and don't realise how privileged they really are.
My hope is that the coming weeks bring out the best in the really committed teachers and that the lazy ones are weeded out.

My word

My daughter's a teacher

She works very hard

It's disheartening to say the least to read some of these comments

Young teachers pay for 'the years of expensive training'. They leave university with large debts to work very hard in a job that demands real skill, dedication and commitment. It's true that some leave after about five years. It isn't that they aren't 'prepared to stick at the job', it's that the work extends into every evening and every weekend. My experience is of teachers leaving home at 7am, arriving home by 6pm, then working 3 or 4 hours most evenings and a day at the weekend. They work during holidays.
As well as teaching, they're increasingly doing social work with children and their families. Vulnerable parents who once had Sure Start are asking the class teacher or the Senco for advice on behaviour management.
Reading some of the comments here, no wonder teachers don't feel valued, and leave their profession. They go into the private sector, they set up their own businesses. Imagine that, giving up what many here seem to see as easy work for massive gains to risk working independently or in the private sector.

Practise and district Nurses being willingly "requisitioned" into hospitals for the duration of this unprecedented crisis symbolises the true spirit of Britains NHS and other essential services and industries at this time.

Just wonderful, and puts the actions or non-actions of other professions very much to shame in this crisis.

No idea what your point is, Grandad

My teaching was the most difficult work I ever did. I put in nearly as many hours at home (unpaid) as I did at work.

Lesson preparation, marking, course design and exam preparation notes don't magically appear from thin air!

The only opinions of teachers that I'd find valid (or take any notice of) would be from fellow teachers. All my other jobs were a real doddle by comparison!

Iam64 many employees in various trade sectors and industries have jobs that encompass working early mornings, evenings, nights and weekends. However, in those industries and trade sectors no one hears them constantly whinging and whining about their lot.

Grandad

How would you feel about teachers if one of your children took up the profession?

How would you feel if your grandchildren became teachers?

Would you be proud of them?

Or ashamed?

What does that make you?

Our granddaughter is absolutely devastated! Due to sit A levels, Geography, History and Politics, and has absolutely worked her socks off!
Although her parents and us try to tell her , it will all sort, she feels cheated in a way as she really wanted to sit her exams!!
No doubt , in the future, she will look back on this horrendous year and then it will all be in perspective .
I really feel for all of the truly committed students.

I'm not sure I want to comment any more on this thread. It's making me angry to see the words 'non action and shame' used against hard working teachers like my daughter.

She will be in school as usual next week. There is much to do.

And don't think for one moment they don't realise how great is the work done by NHS professionals. DD said she didn't care what she had to do to make a contribution.

It's not a bloody competition, Grandad1943

It's not a bloody competition, Grandad1943

Thank you, merlotgran

I too am angry and upset to read such nastiness about teachers ... teachers!

You'd think they were criminals to read some of these ridiculous comments

And to compare nurses with teachers.

Well that's just puerile

If this is how the current situation is making some people react to other members of society then I fear greatly for how this is all going to turn out. I think we need to leave Grandad1943 to just fester in his own hatred from now on....

I think we need to leave Grandad1943 to just fester in his own hatred from now on....

I agree

I think he's enjoying this and I'm not going to rise to the bait.

I am sure that many will have seen the news report on the truck driver situation in regard to roadside service areas closing down there food outlets and even their toilets due to this crisis. They were interviewing the drivers in one service area about the situation, to which a group of them just shrugged their shoulders and said: "well all we can do is just get on with it as best we can".

What an attitude in the face of extended hours of work, no hot food and no toilets. One of the drivers had even been "requisitioned" into supermarket delivery from car delivery transport. He just said, "well, this is where it all seems to be happening and there never is a dull moment at this time."

The above makes all the whinging and whining by the education profession even when they have no live classes to look after truly pathetic.

I am hearing that there are volunteer groups at Sedgemoor Services tonight handing out ready made up rolls and drinks to the HGV drivers coming in there as an appreciation of what they are doing in this time of crisis.

Oh just shut up Grandad

What really amuses me is the idea that when children are not in school they will be wandering around generally causing trouble possibly because their parents can't or won't take charge of them and yet teachers have 30 of these children to care for and are not only controlling them but educating them as well. Could you please post evidence of the "whinging and whining" Grandad1943 because I think this is actually a figment of your imagination and teachers are just trying to discuss the problems that will arise and work out ways of dealing with a situation they certainly never asked for. But carry on with your hatred and lack of understanding and teachers will carry on caring for and educating the next generation, dealing with problems and situations you really have no knowledge or experience of.

'we are not on lock down! The schools are open for key workers and only wider closing due to staff shortages, not risk of spreading the virus. Try being more understanding of people’s situation, kids can’t stay locked in the house for next x amount of weeks'
..this is what we're up against, though. This is from a local facebook page. Children are knocking on their friends doors asking them to come out and play. When older people are querying whether this should be happening they are getting abuse.

I would just like to say Grandad
You are intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity
and maybe its past your bedtime again