Govt catch up plan

This tells you what this government thinks of the children in this country.

IFS.
Report on funding per pupil

USA £1600
Netherlands £2500
U.K. £50 quid.

We need Rashford to step in.

How pathetic, £50. I wonder what they will achieve with that? How embarrassing when you compare it to the US and Netherlands.

We have been made aware that Johnson makes decisions/u-turns as a result of what is the current headline so I suppose we must now await for a u-turn on the funding for schools.

What a way to run a country.

The fact that Kevan Collins, who was heading up the programme, has resigned says it all. He is brilliant, principled, really really knows his stuff and as he has left then they have seriously messed up here!! Kevan does not do dramatic departures, he is straight down the line professional and they seriously need his expertise for the job!! Such a shame

Gavin Williamson must be the dimmest education secretary ever. I know he was fireplace salesman of the year, but maybe he needs some education catch up.

The whole point to take from this is that it is NOT that the treasury can’t afford it but that this is political policy.

Funding for education, both schools and higher has been cut in real terms year on year since the Tories took office. (IFS)

They do not value our children and the future educational standards of the population.

Good report on how the pandemic has affected young people throughout Europe in the Guardian today.

It bothers me that this whole thing is being spoken of as only children who academically behind an expected result who will need help. Children aren't sausage machines and simply providing tuition for some won't deal with some of the very real problems. There will be children whose families have suffered losses and who are grieving, there will be children who have lost parents or have parents suffering from long covid, there will be others who have worries about returning to contact and socialisation. Schools need proper funding for providing support for learning difficulties, mental health problems, grief counselling and socialisation skills. It won't happen of course and all of these problems will as usual be left to teachers to cope with. We are failing young people in so many ways.

Robert Halfon, the Tory Chairman of the Education Select Committee said ministers must “decide their priorities in terms of education” after their catch-up tsar quit in a row over funding.

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/robert-halfon-schools-funding-ministers-yacht-b938546.html

I would like to see them employing more teachers - not assistants but teachers who could teach the children particularly the youngest couple of years and reduce the class size to between 15 and 20. It will do no good extending the school day for them as they will be too tired and for teachers to have smaller classes will benefit both staff and children. Anyone who has taught young children will tell you that any children over about 24 in a class is like having double that number and over 30 like an extra three for each child.
The children need constant teaching from the same person and even better if they know each other already.
Smaller numbers will allow for extra help where needed.

I don't think there are extra teachers out there. I can't speak for England and Wales, but there has been a shortage of supply teachers in Scotland for a number of years.

I see catch-up tutoring has been outsourced to a Dutch company, so money in the pockets of a private company rather than being put towards the children’s education.

This is a disgrace. Do we not have enough teachers, lecturers, retired teachers and lecturers, graduates and professionals, unemployed or retired to take on this tutoring.?

I am not a teacher or retired teacher but have always liked maths and so have been tutoring my four teenage grandchildren in maths.

Quite apart from Grannies, there must be so many other folk in the UK who could do this tutoring.

Why on earth should the UK not be using its own well educated folk?

Can anyone, (secondary school), explain to me why the year 11s have now finished school until September?

I watched PMQs yesterday, he basically said 'hard working' parent had managed to tutor or privately tutor their children and they will have to deal with those children who hadn't got parents like that!

Thousands of children have not yet been able to learn to swim as a result of the lockdowns, why not use the summer for swimming, and all the other kinds of sports, music and art activities they have missed?

They need to spend time playing with friends they couldn't meet up with. That would go a long way towards healing fractured friendships and hopefully ease some mental health issues.

Exactly Ginny42.

JaneJudge

I watched PMQs yesterday, he basically said 'hard working' parent had managed to tutor or privately tutor their children and they will have to deal with those children who hadn't got parents like that!

Just shows how out of touch he is. Many of the "hard working" parents like those in the NHS and essential workers had children in school most of the time, schools were open. The problem was that schools had to send children home when there was a reported case and those hard working parents were out there, so liable to be in contact with cases themselves. He doesn't live in the real world at all, does he?

No, he doesn't. I thought it was rich from someone who sent all their children to boarding school. We did our best with our set of circumstances during the pandemic, along with everyone else. A lot of people will have lost their jobs and be unable to pay anyone to do anything - let alone pay for private tutors for their children!

Ellianne

Can anyone, (secondary school), explain to me why the year 11s have now finished school until September?

Because they have finished their GCSE assessments and there is nothing left they can usefully do. In a normal year, Year 11s would have finished lessons by now.

Thank you growstuff

There is nothing left they can usefully do.
That is what I don't get. Considering the time they have missed, isn't the next 6 weeks precisely the time to be in school? Not just from an academic learning point of view, but socialising and mixing as a year group?
Why can't they be doing team building stuff, projects, critical thinking etc.
I'd almost go as far as saying, why can't they be useful tidying the school up, helping the younger year groups, sweeping playgrounds, serving in the canteen, painting the building etc? Or going into the community (assuming their work experience was cancelled anyway).
IMO it's no good asking for extra tuition if the schools aren't using the time and resources they currently have to hand.

I think there is an element of trying to limit the amount of pupils in schools too

maddyone

I agree with every word you have written MawBe and GrannyGravy. Children need to get back to normal now, not to be stuck in school learning about fronted adverbials! Outside activities and social activities are what they need. The mental health of many children has been adversely affected by the lockdown and fronted adverbials aren’t going to help them recover, but social activities and fun outdoor activities will do.

Totally agree. I taught languages fir many years and had never heard of a fronted adverbial!

To me a lot of the targets, milestones etc are completely arbitrary. What law of nature decrees a child must be able to this that or the by a particular age ?

All the dramatic pronouncements about how children will never catch up ……. Think of refugee children who arrive here with no English And end up qualifying as doctors, lawyers, plumbers etc.

Ellianne

Thank you growstuff

There is nothing left they can usefully do.
That is what I don't get. Considering the time they have missed, isn't the next 6 weeks precisely the time to be in school? Not just from an academic learning point of view, but socialising and mixing as a year group?
Why can't they be doing team building stuff, projects, critical thinking etc.
I'd almost go as far as saying, why can't they be useful tidying the school up, helping the younger year groups, sweeping playgrounds, serving in the canteen, painting the building etc? Or going into the community (assuming their work experience was cancelled anyway).
IMO it's no good asking for extra tuition if the schools aren't using the time and resources they currently have to hand.

What do you think they would do? Many of them will be moving on to other educational establishments. All will be dropping some of the subjects they've been studying up to now. They have no purpose to be in school.

Who exactly do you think would organise them to do all these worthy tea building activities? You might not realise this, but secondary school teachers are on their knees. They had assessment, moderation and reams of paperwork dumped on them at the last minute to award GCSE grades.

How many 16 year olds do you actually know? How many have you come across in a school setting? At this time of year, they've had enough. They've been the guinea pigs in a chaotic assessment programme and just want to chill out. They won't go litter picking (or anything useful) unless somebody is following them around with a (metaphorical) big stick.

Many parents and pupils have voted with their feet and are refusing to go into school and I can't say I blame them. This is just more posturing from Williamson, so that parents and schools can be blamed for whatever.