Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[Gaz]

I've also found it interesting when newspapers have reported things like "a third of pupils not engaging with any online work" and people are surprised at this.

I suspect anyone who teaches at a typical state school will report that it is very common for lots of pupils not to engage in any work when they're sitting at their desk in class and you're standing in front of them trying to get them to engage, let alone when they're stuck at home with myriad distractions.

[Mark Connolly]

Just now, Gaz said:

I've also found it interesting when newspapers have reported things like "a third of pupils not engaging with any online work" and people are surprised at this.

I suspect anyone who teaches at a typical state school will report that it is very common for lots of pupils not to engage in any work when they're sitting at their desk in class and you're standing in front of them trying to get them to engage, let alone when they're stuck at home with myriad distractions.

Surprised it's as low as a third tbh

[Gaz]

Just now, Mark Connolly said:

Surprised it's as low as a third tbh

Yeah, me too.

I can't blame them too much, though. If I was 16 and effectively given an extra three-months holiday, I'd probably have been doing very little as well.

[peasy23]

Strike 2 on the PGA Tour as Cameron Champ withdraws from the Travelers Championship after returning a positive test for Covid19 during the pre tournament screening. 2nd player in the last 6 or 7 days to test positive.

[eez-eh]

Having been in Asda Girvan a few times I can confirm it’s an absolute dive of a “supermarket”. I don’t see much issue with someone from there coming to Ayr for their shopping.

[Fife Saint]

I had a meeting on Zoom with colleagues a few weeks ago about purchasing 2 metre social distancing signage for our outlets when they reopen. I said at the time, ‘Hold off for now,  it’ll be down to 1m soon enough. The virus is in retreat and the economic imperative is far too strong for the government not to default to the WHO guidelines in due course, and where WM goes the Scottish government will inevitably follow.’ 
Sure enough, the 2m signage that loads of pubs and restaurants (and shops) have already invested in can now go straight in the bin - a complete waste of money for those businesses that committed funds too quickly on the basis of quickly-outmoded guidelines in a rapidly-evolving situation. 
Within 5 mins of Boris standing up in the Commons today, I was getting spam emails from the same Covid-19 ‘industry specialists’ (that up until today tried to sell us 2m signage) advising that their new 1m social distancing-compliant stickers and signage was already in stock and ready to order, all at ‘highly competitive’ prices. Suffice to say no refunds offered on all the 2m crap that is going straight to landfill.
It’s fair to say I’ll be almost as glad to see the back of the parasitic Covid-19 ‘health and safety’ industry, which has been on an even steeper exponential growth rate than the disease, as I’ll be glad to see the back of the virus itself. 
On the issue of football crowds, given recent developments, and having just watched John Swinney pirouette faster than Darcey Bussell on the whole ‘blended learning’ bollocks, it looks we’re now moving towards a more realistic view of risk assessment, even in Scotland. If things keep moving in the right direction, socially-distanced crowds in football stadiums won’t be very far away.
 

Cant you just cut it in half?

[Monkey Tennis]

1 hour ago, Skyline Drifter said:

This. Though your opinion as a teacher is probably far more important anyway.

I'm pretty embarrassed by the efforts my kids have made in the last 3 months to be honest. I have particular family circumstances which have made things very difficult but I still don't think they, or I, come out of this with any pride. They have by and large spent the last three months on extended holiday, thankfully mostly in pretty decent weather which let them get into the garden (since we were shielding for the first 10 or 11 weeks of it and not allowed off the property). The school did what they could I think probably but we had real issues really achieving anything and I do feel I've failed a bit as a parent in all this. I'm not uneducated myself. I have a degree and professional qualification but I'm not a good teacher. I don't have the patience for it. The kids don't respect me as a teacher either so try as I might have in the initial week or two especially, they just pretty much refused to do stuff.

The school set them Sumdog tasks to do on a weekly basis and I got them to do those but that's pretty basic stuff and took them a couple of hours a week, and when my eldest was struggling with some of it I really wasn't good at trying to help. Teaching  is NOT my forte. We had real problems with accessing any of the IT resources. Despite an array of devices floating about we never did manage to get them working on Teams. Any device I had was either too old or the wrong operating system to run it.  Glow would partly set up on their Kindles but Teams wouldn't, I don't have parental access to set up their Huawei tablets so I've no idea if they would have worked, and whilst it would install on my youngest's phone, it never appeared to work and he never got anything through it. Eventually we just gave up trying to make it work. I'm not inventive, I didn't set them tasks of my own imagination. I asked them to do reading and they pretty much refused unless it was about Star Wars or football depending on which child I was talking to. They've spent most of the last 3 months playing games and watching videos on their tablets. In some cases while I dozed next to them having not finished work until 4am the night before.

A lot of the other software resources just wouldn't work on the Kindle Fires I had or if they did work, weren't all that practical with a touchscreen keyboard set up. Or they wouldn't install on the child profiles. An actual pc or laptop they could have used would maybe have solved it but getting them to share time on it would have been difficult too. A little frustrating when I actually live adjoining the playground of the school and could see the keyworkers kids in there every day!

By the time they go back in August they'll have effectively done almost no schooling for 5 months. As a P5 who was near the top end of his class probably when this all started I'm not massively worried about my youngest. He'll go back and make it up. My eldest going into P7 though struggles a bit and is almost certainly autistic (formal diagnosis is in the pipeline). The five months at the start of a huge year for him, his last in Primary, is vital time he may never make up.

For us remote learning just hasn't worked and I genuinely feared for their education if it had been even half of the norm for much of next year. So today's announcement from Swinney is a massive relief. Hopefully it comes to pass as he's predicting. Quite apart from their education, I also faced the very real possibility of having to give up work or at least back it down to part time if I could have arranged it for the foreseeable future to give me 2 or 3 days a week of childcare if they weren't going back to school and grandparent care wasn't going to be allowed for much longer. It was a very real worry and today lifts a weight off in that respect. It's likely the road ahead will still have some bumps though and I'm still working extremely odd hours for the time being to work round childcare and presumably will be till mid August anyway.

All that said, and it really does worry me, I have genuinely valued spending a lot more time with my boys at a great age than I ever would have in normal circumstances. That's valuable time. I just wish we could have done a bit more productive stuff with it.

Christ Man.  Stop beating yourself up.

You'd be amazed how common much of your experience here has been.  You've got teachers on here, saying that their own kids haven't necessarily been doing a lot of work.  I can join them - it's been a bit of a battle at times.

Engagement rates in general are low.  There are so many challenges here, some to do with IT, some to do with motivation and plenty to do with the strangeness of it all, and the absence of the kind of instruction and support, kids are used to in school.

I honestly don't think young kids will be hugely damaged in an academic sense by this at all.  The greatest concern I have is for kids whose homes can be nightmares.  Homes where the chance to spend time with your kids is valued, are not going to have seen harm done.

Relax about it.  Holidays soon, removing that pressure and unfounded guilt.  They're then followed, sooner than usual, by something that should resemble normality.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Monkey Tennis

[D.A.F.C]

Don’t get the teacher bashing on here tbh. Why attack them because they have more holidays than you or call them lazy?

Bit ironic on a football forum where we cheer on guys who spend most of their time playing golf or gambling.

 

[Skyline Drifter]

8 minutes ago, RH33 said:

You’re being very hard on your self. All three of mine have reacted very differently to home schooling. I could leave my P4 and know that she would get her maths and language done without much input. My son Who is P6 needed a bit more cajoling. My youngest has been a running battle to do anything but will then do stuff on a Friday at her dads. We’re just too similar and clash. She will do sumdog though as she’s competitive!
There was no new learning issued, consolidation of what’s been covered.

We’ve done baking to cover weight, knife skills another day and stuff round house that are life skills.

Mine have spent way way more time on Xbox/other screens than normal. The girls absolutely love their dance classes but refused to do the online ones as they just didn’t like it.

IIRC your eldest is like mine and is deferred entry, I was so pleased today as he has dyslexia (and dyspraxia) and needs a solid P7 too. Added in I moved their school in August.

You’re boys will be fine and their emotional well being is far more important than five times table at moment.

Rowan? Long time no speak, didn't know you'd changed your username.

Mmm, maybe. I think what I said was true largely. As I say I'm not massively worried about the younger one. He can do anything he wants academically when he sets his mind to it (getting him to actually do so is more awkward but make it a competition and he's front and centre as you say). I think Thomas' lost months will be costly though. Both boys were deferred, though in Steven's case that's because we just didn't want him in the same year as Thomas). They were only a fortnight off being in the next year though anyway, it's not like they were kept back several months.

I probably am hard on myself because I think I should have done better. I have the academic ability to have done it, just not the teaching skills. Maybe I'd have had a better go if I hadn't also been working it round daft hours when I don't have them. More likely that's just another excuse.

The boys are probably just about young enough that a few months missed isn't going to massively harm them. If they'd been 2 or 3 years older it might but then if they'd been 2 or 3 years older they would probably have been better equipped to actually deal with IT stuff themselves and not rely on me to set things up I don't massively understand myself.

[Gordon EF]

15 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I've also found it interesting when newspapers have reported things like "a third of pupils not engaging with any online work" and people are surprised at this.

I suspect anyone who teaches at a typical state school will report that it is very common for lots of pupils not to engage in any work when they're sitting at their desk in class and you're standing in front of them trying to get them to engage, let alone when they're stuck at home with myriad distractions.

I was the kind of kid that always did reasonably well at school but if this had happened back then, absolutely guaranteed I would be treating this like a months long holiday. I'm surprised it's as high as a third as well.

[Jupiter Jazz]

14 minutes ago, peasy23 said:

Strike 2 on the PGA Tour as Cameron Champ withdraws from the Travelers Championship after returning a positive test for Covid19 during the pre tournament screening.

Swing and a miss Champ.

[Skyline Drifter]

3 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Christ Man.  Stop beating yourself up.

You'd be amazed how common much of your experience here has been.  You've got teachers on here, saying that their own kids haven't necessarily been doing a lot of work.  I can join them - it's been a bit of a battle at times.

Engagement rates in general are low.  There are so many challenges here, some to do with IT, some to do with motivation and plenty to do with strangeness of it all, and the absence of the kind of instruction and support, kids are used to in school.

I honestly don't think young kids will be hugely damaged in an academic sense by this at all.  The greatest concern I have is for kids whose homes can be nightmares.  Homes where the chance to spend time with your kids is valued, are not going to have seen harm done.

Relax about it.  Holidays soon, removing that pressure and unfounded guilt.  They're then followed, sooner than usual, by something that should resemble normality.

I didn't really mean to massively beat myself up, though as RH also responded that way it's clearly how it came across. I think I could and should have done better but I'm not massively worried about it, I just fear it's a bad time for Thomas to lose several months. I also absolutely acknowledge that I've spent more time in the company of my boys in the last 3 months than I would in a year in normal circumstances likely. I've had more custody than I would have had normally as it suited respective commitments for them to stay with me more, I've had no significant football distractions and have been forced to be absent from work for long spells.

My main point was that online resources / home schooling / blended learning / call it what you will just didn't work for us and clearly wasn't going to work for us, and that's not because of deprivation or poverty. It's because of lack of motivation and discipline probably, combined with over-commitment elsewhere and issues with IT compatibility. A return to proper schooling cannot come quick enough in some respects but I'll miss the extra time which is heading towards a conclusion now.

[Gordon EF]

14 minutes ago, Jupiter Jazz said:

Swing and a miss Champ.

[Mistermark 75]

1 hour ago, Hauzen said:

If kids are having to home school more and more in the future then where are they going to go to get laid and find future spouses? Statue guarding demonstrations?

Kelvingrove park

[Mistermark 75]

1 hour ago, Todd_is_God said:

I hadn't realised until now that today's daily briefing from Downing Street was the last one.

A lot of the younger generation may one day look back on them  in the same way some of us recall John Cravens Newsround. 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Mistermark 75

[Thereisalight..]

1 hour ago, eez-eh said:

Having been in Asda Girvan a few times I can confirm it’s an absolute dive of a “supermarket”. I don’t see much issue with someone from there coming to Ayr for their shopping.

Aye it makes the Ayr one look great, which takes some doing! 

[KingRocketman II]

5 hours ago, Mistermark 75 said:

A lot of the younger generation may one day look back on them  in the same way some of us recall John Cravens Newsround. 

look back and be amazed at the Government's (and "independent" health officials and scientists) spin, use of misleading statistics and bias at a "briefing" every day in the middle of this shit show. Future generations will consider how those gullible idiots believed everything that an inept Government were saying to hide their mismanagement of the whole situation. 

"Wait was that the PM in 2020 who was advocating a herd immunity approach and was boasting about shaking hands with Covid infected patients, days before imposing lockdown and admitting he had contracted the virus (which nearly killed him)? and then he showed up for (some) briefings talking about being led by the science at every turn?"

Edited June 24, 2020 by KingRocketman II

[Guest SJP79]

10 hours ago, Todd_is_God said:

I don't think so.

For the average male in Scotland aged 35 on the day lockdown began, by the time the schools go back they will have given up 1% of their expected remaining life expectancy to life under Covid-19 restrictions.

It's perfectly reasonable for @Bairnardo to want to spend as much of his time, and time with his family, in the way which makes him happy.

With statements like this its a good job its only a virus we are fighting

[doulikefish]

 Whats going to happen is when schools open and the first member of staff/pupil test positive for the virus those shouting for the schools  to open will be shouting that the schools should never have opened imo 

[101]

16 minutes ago, doulikefish said:

 Whats going to happen is when schools open and the first member of staff/pupil test positive for the virus those shouting for the schools  to open will be shouting that the schools should never have opened imo 

Hopefully the press don't make an arse of themselves like they did after the Nike Conference and wait for the source of the virus to be identified.

But I suspect Carlaw won't be able to help himself.