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Just had an email that the school are now looking likely to return full time although could change depending on summer which is fair enough - they must have had a hell of a morning with emails :)

Mate's Fortnite league position has probably taken a tumble though.

 

 

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36 minutes ago, aaid said:


Looking at it simplistically, 1m or 2m places a restriction on the number of people you can have in any given space - appreciate its more complicated that that, but that's the general principle.

Lets say for the sake of the argument, at 1m you can get all the kids that would normally be in a classroom with one teacher and at 2m, then you need 2 classrooms and two teachers or alternatively kids can only be in the classroom for half the time.

So if you plan for 2m and it transpires that you are actually okay to work at 1m, then all you have to do is not to use the additional classroom and teacher or scrap the plans for blended learning.  Happy days.

However, if you plan for 1m and suddenly -  because of a local spike or whatever - you need to quickly go to 2m and you don't have the spare classroom and teacher or haven't thought about how you'll do blended learning then you are donald-ducked and you are starting from scratch.

That's what I don't understand about your argument.

OK, let me try again. Most classes I've seen have gone from a capacity of 30 to 9 or 10 under 2m s/d. Under 1m you would increase that to anywhere from 12 - 18 which means bigger class sizes and therefore less staff. The 2 biggest problems with 2m are (a) removing excess furniture and (b) not enough staff to cover all the classes. To go from normality to 2m distancing would require a monumental effort and I believe a total shutdown of a no of weeks. To go from 1m to 2m would still be an upheaval but much more doable quickly. Similarly going from 1m to normality is easier as half the logistics have been done. Staffing would still be a problem but they're looking to cover that with probationers. It's a sensible compromise which allows for some forward planning either way.

As for blended learning, much of that prep has been done and can be called upon if needed 👍

Edited by slasher
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5 minutes ago, slasher said:

OK, let me try again. Most classes I've seen have gone from a capacity of 30 to 9 or 10 under 2m s/d. Under 1m you would increase that to anywhere from 12 - 18 which means bigger class sizes and therefore less staff. The 2 biggest problems with 2m are (a) removing excess furniture and (b) not enough staff to cover all the classes. To go from normality to 2m distancing would require a monumental effort and I believe a total shutdown of a no of weeks. To go from 1m to 2m would still be an upheaval but much more doable quickly. Similarly going from 1m to normality is easier as half the logistics have been done. Staffing would still be a problem but they're looking to cover that with probationers. It's a sensible compromise which allows for some forward planning either way.

As for blended learning, much of that prep has been done and can be called upon if needed 👍

That final point encapsulates much of what I've been saying.    

A lot of the commentary around this change has seemed to imply that the work done so far has been a waste of time, if that wasn't what you were implying then fair enough but that generally seems to be theme here.

I might be missing something obvious but I'm not sure why moving furniture about is such a big deal here - I'd have though sourcing additonal space, teaching cover and plans to go part-time would be much more onerous.

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9 minutes ago, aaid said:

That final point encapsulates much of what I've been saying.    

A lot of the commentary around this change has seemed to imply that the work done so far has been a waste of time, if that wasn't what you were implying then fair enough but that generally seems to be theme here.

I might be missing something obvious but I'm not sure why moving furniture about is such a big deal here - I'd have though sourcing additonal space, teaching cover and plans to go part-time would be much more onerous.

The work that's been done may or may not be a waste of time, we just don't know. It can't be picked apart at the drop of a hat however. 

On your last point you don't see it because you don't have any idea of the scale of it. It's massive and there isn't the manpower to do it quickly. 

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6 minutes ago, slasher said:

The work that's been done may or may not be a waste of time, we just don't know. It can't be picked apart at the drop of a hat however. 

On your last point you don't see it because you don't have any idea of the scale of it. It's massive and there isn't the manpower to do it quickly. 

No, I appreciate that its an intensive activity but you are missing my point which is as follows.

Classrooms have been cleared of furniture due to the 2m restriction for one of two reasons, it's either to create more physical space in the classroom - not sure why you can't every other desk, but I'll accept that's not possible - or its to use the furniture in another classroom.    You're saying that's a huge job and I'll take your word on that.

However, you are also saying that based on 1m, you don't need to do any moving of furniture - or possibly less, I'm not sure - and I can understand that, but you are also saying it would be relatively easy to move to 2m if required and you could do that quickly.   Again unless I am missing something, doesn't that entail moving the same amount of stuff about as you have just said is such an onerous job, so by your own admission I'm struggling to see how that can be something that could be done quickly.

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14 minutes ago, aaid said:

No, I appreciate that its an intensive activity but you are missing my point which is as follows.

Classrooms have been cleared of furniture due to the 2m restriction for one of two reasons, it's either to create more physical space in the classroom - not sure why you can't every other desk, but I'll accept that's not possible - or its to use the furniture in another classroom.    You're saying that's a huge job and I'll take your word on that.

However, you are also saying that based on 1m, you don't need to do any moving of furniture - or possibly less, I'm not sure - and I can understand that, but you are also saying it would be relatively easy to move to 2m if required and you could do that quickly.   Again unless I am missing something, doesn't that entail moving the same amount of stuff about as you have just said is such an onerous job, so by your own admission I'm struggling to see how that can be something that could be done quickly.

You've totally misrepresented what I said in that 2nd paragraph there so I give up. It's a cracking day out there, enjoy if you can 🙅‍♂️

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6 hours ago, slasher said:

On this occasion they are fully entitled to moan. A week ago Swinney said it was unlikely schools would be back to normal before next summer and next year's exam diet was under threat. Thousands of pounds and man hours have been spent on social distancing prep. To give you one example I know of, one school has 1500 items of furniture lying in a gym hall having been carried down 3 flights of stairs that may have to be returned at short notice. Swinney then waits till the last day of term to change tact and I've no doubt he's bent under pressure from the Tories and parents alike. He's put a lot of people under tremendous pressure and if the system buckles he should pay with his job. 

Things change. Teachers don't like change.

 

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Parts of America are second waving already. Dallas Hospital is fuller than it was first time around, Houston has almost quintupled it's admissions last couple of weeks. It's at 90% ICU capacity already. Arizona had a 33% positive infection rate from testing.

Edited by phart
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We have, 6 weeks. Many parents furloughed. I imagine you would have plenty volunteers to put it all back in no time and we now have a plan in place should the worst happen. A fuss about nothing. A phrase repeated daily at briefings 'if circumstances change'.

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I’ve just left my new classroom pretty much all set up for my class to come into. It’s done on the 50/50 plan. Nobody in my school is stressing as nothing has yet changed. We were asked to set up for blended learning, and we have done so. If the SG changes it to full capacity, it literally means moving back the furniture that’s been taken out and we’re good to go. And if you think teachers like a moan, I’d like to introduce you to Mr Janny.

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2 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I’ve just left my new classroom pretty much all set up for my class to come into. It’s done on the 50/50 plan. Nobody in my school is stressing as nothing has yet changed. We were asked to set up for blended learning, and we have done so. If the SG changes it to full capacity, it literally means moving back the furniture that’s been taken out and we’re good to go. And if you think teachers like a moan, I’d like to introduce you to Mr Janny.

I think we've already met Mr Janny on this thread.

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31 minutes ago, Och Aye said:

Many parents furloughed. I imagine you would have plenty volunteers to put it all back in no time 

I think you'd be surprised. Me and only 2 other Dads had to lug 100 odd tables up 2 floors after the last summer fun day at my kids school.

Damn near killed me. I'm with Slasher the knife-wielding Janny on this one. :lol:

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13 minutes ago, Dave78 said:

I think you'd be surprised. Me and only 2 other Dads had to lug 100 odd tables up 2 floors after the last summer fun day at my kids school.

Damn near killed me. I'm with Slasher the knife-wielding Janny on this one. :lol:

That's one of the problems with schools these days. Too much fun no enough work.

A lot of these teachers have just had 9 weeks off and they are about to go on another 7 weeks holiday. They don't know what work is. The worst ones are those folk who leave school, go to university, then teacher training college then straight back into school again. They've spent their whole lives in educational institutions.

If I was dictator of Scotland, I would make them all do four sets of weekend night shifts in A&E before taking up a teaching post just to let them see what real work is. If only we still had deep mines, I'd send them doon't pits for a fortnight.

 

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It's all a good laugh on here till you criticise Scotgov. Going from saying schools 'unlikely to be back to normal before next summer' to business as usual in 6 weeks is a massive 'u turn' with massive implications like it or not. 

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Went into school today for the first time since mid-March.  Taught a four hour lesson to 8 sixth form students with one quarter hour break.  Then went home, dealt with emails, did some marking, and have still got some lesson preparation for tomorrow.  I reckon we had about 1/10 of our students in, year 12s and key worker/vulnerable children.

It was a strange an slightly eerie experience but nice to see people again. I think I was probably the only teacher who wore a face mask and I didn't see too many students wearing them either.  I had kicked up a little bit of a fuss earlier in the week and ended up moving from my normal room to a substantially larger one which had far better ventilation.

As far as I'm concerned 1m or 2m doesn't make a lot of difference.  2m you get 1/3 of students in school, 1m you get 1/2 students in, whether its 1m or 2m there's still a substantial problem.  I know there's been a big fuss in Scotland but a similar thing has happened down here. Whilst the UK/English Govt hadn't said anything about blended learning I think most of us anticipated that's what would be happening in September.  So it was a surprise to hear Gavin Williamson announce over the weekend that everyone would be back full time at the beginning of September.  Admittedly Scottish schools will go back a couple of weeks earlier than English counterparts but Scotland appears to be in a far healthier position than England in terms of Covid deaths and circulation of the virus among the general population.

What I would say is the skills teachers have acquired over this period and the practices that have been followed mean that we could switch to blended or remote learning quite quickly if necessary.

 

 

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4 hours ago, Dave78 said:

I think you'd be surprised. Me and only 2 other Dads had to lug 100 odd tables up 2 floors after the last summer fun day at my kids school.

Damn near killed me. I'm with Slasher the knife-wielding Janny on this one. :lol:

If only, I'd kill for the 'stresses' they cunts have got 🤣

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1 minute ago, killiefaetheferry said:

We are keeping ‘blended’ in a way anyway. Our homework is now going to be on Google classroom and nae jotters 🤓

I've got to put in a big order for exercise books/jotters tomorrow.  Had a big discussion the other week, the consensus of opinion was it would be useful for students to have  a book to help them to help them organize their work.  In the space of just a few short weeks they've turned from being dog eared stained innocent compendiums of learning to potential vectors of a deadly disease that we might bring into our homes!

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15 hours ago, Och Aye said:

We have, 6 weeks. Many parents furloughed. I imagine you would have plenty volunteers to put it all back in no time and we now have a plan in place should the worst happen. A fuss about nothing. A phrase repeated daily at briefings 'if circumstances change'.

I have to agree, ita a fuss about nothing. It seems like another reason to attack sturgeon. This is hardly crime of the century but people are jumping on it.

 

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18 hours ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I’ve just left my new classroom pretty much all set up for my class to come into. It’s done on the 50/50 plan. Nobody in my school is stressing as nothing has yet changed. We were asked to set up for blended learning, and we have done so. If the SG changes it to full capacity, it literally means moving back the furniture that’s been taken out and we’re good to go. And if you think teachers like a moan, I’d like to introduce you to Mr Janny.

Jannys are always right creepy bastards

3 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

I have to agree, ita a fuss about nothing. It seems like another reason to attack sturgeon. This is hardly crime of the century but people are jumping on it.

 

Yep, anything to have a go. It doesn't look the best but at the end of the day things are changing constantly and it could change again in a week or 2 when the second phase hits, maybe not so much up here but down south looks like its going to be fucked again, beaches are rammed at 8am

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1 hour ago, Kirk said:

Jannys are always right creepy bastards

Yep, anything to have a go. It doesn't look the best but at the end of the day things are changing constantly and it could change again in a week or 2 when the second phase hits, maybe not so much up here but down south looks like its going to be fucked again, beaches are rammed at 8am

Nah oor janny is ok. He gives me sweeties and lets me sit on his knee. I am a teacher though 🤔😆

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The virus in Scotland has been suppressed to the same level as Ireland.

But that's irrelevant because of the great union dividend that is being shackled to Tory England....

 

 

cov.jpg

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