Coronavirus: General discussion (see opening post for rules)

[CAM]

And if you get really sick no one to help you? Make sure you have someone to do at least some shopping for you. We all need to remember to care of ourselves.

 

I have that all planned out already. Something you should consider when living alone anyway regardless of an outbreak.

 

Ultimately I am the lowest risk of people in the school. If I can be in so those with children or elderly relatives to care for can stay away during these exceptional times then I am happy to do so.

[Linfit]

I live alone, my train is empty and support staff are spread out. So my risks of catching it are low and if I do catch it, I have nobody at home to spread it to. So coming in is no big deal for me if it comes to that. Not that I would mind a bit of remote working, nothing like making a small fry-up on your lunch break.

 

Very much agree with this sentiment. I am in the same position and I feel I want to carry on working if it helps out the situation generally and keeps systems going. I won't need to come in every day, but would be willing to do so as required as I feel I am low risk in terms of spreading the disease - I drive to work on my own, and an keeping away from friends I know are higher risk than me with existing conditions. I have got friends who are monitoring me and keeping in touch as much as I am doing with others I know, particulalry elderly ones - I think for those of us that live alone knowing there are people who will be checking on you is important in these times.

[elsiegee40]

Not much help for getting to work, though!

 

 

Prays that Mme LeMarchand doesn't see this and decide to pre-empt her crisis contingency plan. BD#1 can be... challenging.

 

Mine are a little younger than yours and don’t currently have other halves or offspring of their own fortunately.

[elsiegee40]

I just got proper cross in a Governor group with the suggestion that “admin staff” could be used in classrooms when teachers don’t turn up.

 

I felt the need to point out that “support staff” are

1) already run off their feet due to their numbers being culled because “budget”

2) undoubtedly covering for other support staff who can’t come in and trying to do their own job as well

3) not paid just to sit on their bums looking pretty all day

[elsiegee40]

To lighten the mood:

[E_G_R2]

We were nominally closed at the weekend, most staff off site but some 'essential' onsite but not happy (no SLT to be seen, all working from home) kicked off big style when the bursar waltzed in and suggested people carry on coming in to work as they can't work from home. Admin staff very very unhappy but sense seems to be prevailing now and were officially off site unless emergency. With the impending national closure a bit of common sense would have saved some-of the tears and anger today.

[Dos_Box]

Stolen from Facebook:

 

[Ditto]

As expected - schools to close but remain open to key workers children.

[FishCustard]

As expected - schools to close but remain open to key workers children.

 

 

Other points:

 

• Vouchers for children on FSM
  
• Exams will not go ahead, other assessment for qualification (predicted grades?)
  

[Ditto]

Exams cancelled too.

[3s-gtech]

I’m getting paranoid about half of the staff getting hold of my phone number. I really don’t want them phoning me on my personal phone - email is fine and I’ll be monitoring that.

 

I’ve a feeling that the head has volunteered my technical support for home working, without the proviso of ‘I will not visit your house to fix your stuff’.

[mikeprice]

UK school to close from Friday - closed for vast majority of pupils until further notice

[jmak]

As expected - schools to close but remain open to key workers children.

Boris just said "GCSE and A Level exams will not go ahead"

 

[emoji44]

[E_G_R2]

UK school to close from Friday - closed for vast majority of pupils until further notice

 

Only my boss has my number, he has his own ring tone. As im a miserable unsociable swine (Network Manager to you and me) I only answer to people in my address book and most have their own ring tone. I will not be answering any other calls - as usual I suppose.

 

My out of office message on my work phone says email my school email address and I monitor it during the day at intervals and use remote access to do anything I need.

 

Thats enough in my book.

 

If they had given me a work phone then I would answer that in office hours. Otherwise its off. I would check email say once in the evening just in case.

 

I think that is more than reasonable

[witch]

I get that GCSEs can be stopped as teachers can assess children's work etc

But A levels? What about University or indeed any course where you need A Levels?

[CAM]

It's possible that predicted grades can be used, but I'm not sure how this will translate to enormous numbers when it's normally used for 1-2 individual cases per school. They are also unreliable and not collected anymore (even if they were this would not have happened by this point). Ironically I was meant to be running mock exams next week to generate a final set of predictions for my Year 11's!

[mikeprice]

found this on the local paper website

 

https://www.runcornandwidnesworld.co.uk/news/18315135.least-popular-items-left-shelves-panic-buyers/

 

love the idea that Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce is left however desperate people get!!!

[the_quick]

The most vulnerable to come in, same with kids on free school meals, as they have not the voucher plan yet running. What about areas where most of the kids are on fsm? And lots of staff are already of self isolating.

It doesn't look like it was well planned, or is it just me?

 

I'm OK to come in and help, but I have no clue how to teach or take care of big groups of kids. Are schools supposed to come with own plans or will there be some guidance from DfE? I'm not impressed !!!

[Edu-IT]

Suspect there will be some DfE guidelines to follow but will be down to school leaders to plan as they know the schools, children and families best.

 

A one size fits all approach from the DfE wouldn’t work.

[elsiegee40]

Might be useful

[woodham]

this is about to get very interesting, especially when a lot of us had there job roles re evaluatd a few years ago and lots of stuff removed

[Edu-IT]

this is about to get very interesting, especially when a lot of us had there job roles re evaluatd a few years ago and lots of stuff removed

How do you mean?

 

I think at the moment it's 'muck in as best as possible' where reasonable.

[LeMarchand]

love the idea that Lloyd Grossman pasta sauce is left however desperate people get!!!

 

They're actually pretty good, especially the chilli, bacon and puttanesca ones. Only get them when they're £1/jar though!

[6Foot2]

This from our Headteacher this evening:

 

 

That may be difficult to read:

 

Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, has asked for this message to be passed to all those who work in the education sector

 

The government recognises the huge importance of the role you have played in maintaining the education, training and social care of our children and young people during this challenging time. I recognise that you will have the same anxieties as the rest of the country about your health and that of your families. On behalf of the Prime Minister and the entire government, I thank you all for all of your work so far, and your continued support. I am deeply grateful for the civic spirit and dedication of everyone working in education, and I will continue to provide my full support throughout this crisis.

 

Next steps

 

It is clear that education and children’s social care settings are increasingly finding it difficult to continue as normal, as illness and self-isolation impacts on staffing levels and pupil attendance. To provide parents, student and staff with the certainty they need we are announcing that schools, colleges and early years settings will be closed to everyone except children of key workers and vulnerable children from Monday, as part of the country’s ongoing response to coronavirus.

 

Examples of these workers include NHS staff, police and delivery drivers who need to be able to go to work. Vulnerable children include those who have a social worker and those with

 

Education, Health and Care Plans.

 

A full list of key worker categories will be published by the Cabinet Office tomorrow.

 

Children who do not fall into these groups should remain at home with appropriate care.

 

Where schools are unable to provide this reduced provision, local authorities will work with the Department for Education’s regional teams to ensure an alternative option is available.

 

We are expecting early years providers and sixth form and further education colleges to do the same. We are working with Her Majesty’s Treasury on the financial support required.

 

We are also asking that independent schools and boarding schools follow the same approach.

 

Where possible, we would encourage settings to stay open for this purpose throughout the Easter holidays.

 

Many universities and other higher education institutions are already taking necessary steps to keep their staff and students safe and where possible keep providing education. We are confident vice-chancellors are making the right decisions and the Department for Education continues to support them in doing so.

 

Temporary suspension of Ofsted inspections

 

Ofsted is to temporarily suspend routine inspections of schools, colleges, early years settings, children’s social care providers and local authorities to reduce the burden on staff who are providing vital services to the nation in response to coronavirus.

 

Update on assessments and examinations

 

We can confirm that we will not go ahead with assessments or exams, and that we will not be publishing performance tables for this academic year.

 

We will work with the sector and Ofqual to ensure children get the qualifications they need.

 

My Department is working closely with local authorities, representatives of early years, schools and head teachers, regional school commissioners and bodies such as Ofsted and Ofqual about how to deliver this change as effectively as possible.

 

And we will do whatever is necessary to support local authorities, settings, schools and teachers through the weeks and months ahead.

 

Free school meal provision

 

We will give schools the flexibility to provide meals or vouchers to children eligible for free school meals. Some schools are already doing this, and we will reimburse the costs. As soon as possible, we will put in place a national voucher system. 

 

Thank you once again for everything you are doing at this difficult time.

 

The Rt Hon Gavin Williamson CBE MP

Secretary of State for Education

[keyboards]

First off so frustrating nobody has got any credit for bringing in strategies like Google or Office 365 so successfully that the kids and staff can work from home Same with a voip(3cx) phone system, so they can answer calls at home on any device

 

I think if tomorrow if we get told teachers aren't in and we are, there will be big problems. You can't value people over others, my friend works for a massive conglomerate and on the walls and the motto/ethos is treat the cleaner the same as the CEO, school staff could learn a lot from that. If we get told we have to come in, I will seriously consider my position, contact my union and potentially a few lawyer friends, even worse I've seen skeleton support staff mentioned, what does that mean then, we don't even need the rest of support staff normally.

 

I have no problem going the extra mile, we all do constanty, but a bit of gratuity and thanks sometimes would go a long, long way

 

Also if I get one my request asking for a laptop or they can't afford one, I might respond by the same logic, when we can compare pay packets, I can barely afford to travel to work then, will work pay for my travel

Edited March 18, 2020 by keyboards