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DFE & Media vs Schools

Started by Twit 2, December 10, 2020, 08:16:27 PM

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Twit 2

https://censoredhead.wixsite.com/website/post/open-letter-to-the-press-of-the-uk

QuoteOpen Letter to the press of the UK
I would like to start this letter by sharing my disappointment in the reporting stands of the UK press in all forms - written, radio and TV. The levels of misreporting, clickbait headlines and twisting of stories to paint a picture is downright embarrassing. As a profession, I believe teachers have been unfairly treated for years by the press, and this has intensified over the course of this pandemic. We are classed as lazy, work shy, cowardly, lefties... the list could go on. This has not been helped by the constant undermining and drip feeding of information from the Department for Education, who seem to belittle us at every turn. The Unions have not helped in this either - they either take too firm a line (NEU) and say silly things to the press which is then reported as fact and something all teachers want, even if it has not been consulted on, or they do not take a strong enough line (NAHT). The dressing up of yesterday's announcement as a success is nothing short of embarrassing.

What has particularly annoyed me, is the way yesterday's announcement has been reported in the press. The Daily Mail's Headline of "Schools are allowed to have December 18 off so 'stressed' teachers get a 'proper break - after unions called for last two days of term to be 'work from home' so staff can spend Christmas with Granny without worrying about Covid" is nothing short of defamatory and embarrassing. I have heard a similar headline on LBC this morning and seen other elements of this story in other press releases.

I would like to do the journalist's job for them, as they clearly have not done any research prior to writing these reports or headlines.
We did not ask for this. This is possibly one of the worst solutions to the problem. It does not do anything to mitigate against us taking the disease home, we will still need to Track and Trace for 6 days and not many schools have the flexibility to change Inset days with such short notice. It is a Department for Education decision, so please report it that way.

The first we heard of this was when Nick Gibb spoke. This was not something that we were even aware of as an action. The last we heard is that schools must stay open to the end.

This is not to give teachers a break. It is an Inset day, and as such, school staff will be expected to work.

This is to reduce Track and Trace times. Schools have been doing Track and Trace's job for months now. Your time would be better spent looking at where the £12 billion has been spent, because it clearly has not been on a working Track and Trace system. Is it really a school's job to be doing that work, with no extra money, up to Christmas Eve?

Your story should be:
Schools, who have been conducting Test and Trace for months, with no recognition or additional funding, have been asked to continue this work over the Christmas period. The Department for Education, without consultation of school staff, made an unworkable proposal for schools to change their INSET days so that Friday 18th December is a day children do not need to attend, although school staff will still be working. This decision was made by the DfE so that schools can stop the Test and Trace process on December 23rd, instead of 24th. However, most schools will not be able to do this, as their INSET days have already been set in advance and they do not want to cause stress to parents and families by asking them to find child care at the last moment.

A DfE spokesperson mentioned some bullshit about record levels of funding and caring about the school staff. When we called them out on this, they just regurgitated the same rubbish. When challenged on why schools are having to do test and trace, when we have a 'World-Beating system', the spokesperson mentioned something about the £12billion was being put to good use as unnamed companies needed some money to increase their profits, which can only be good for the UK.

So my plea to the press - please do your jobs properly, ask the right questions and stop having a go. We are not making these ludicrous decisions - we are having to work with them.

Yours sincerely,

Censored Head

bgmnts

Have the press or public ever sided with teachers, ever?

Fambo Number Mive

QuoteThe government is using its emergency powers under the Coronavirus Act to threaten to use legal action against headteachers in England who want to allow their pupils to learn remotely in the run-up to Christmas.

The Observer understands any schools that were planning to move most of their teaching online during the last week of term, to ensure none of their pupils would have to self-isolate on Christmas Day, are being ordered to remain open.

One headteacher in Hertfordshire was sent an official letter last week from the schools minister, Nick Gibb, warning him that the government was prepared to deploy its new powers under the act to ensure his secondary school remained open for all pupils until Friday.

The school, Presdales in Ware, was planning to teach the majority of its pupils remotely for the last week of term, while continuing to provide socially distanced, face-to-face lessons for vulnerable pupils, children who need extra support and any other students who wished to come into school. Only about 25 pupils were expected to come in, so they could all sit 2 metres away from each other in class.

"We've had nearly 50 [positive] cases since September and a significant outbreak in one year group," said the headteacher, Matthew Warren. "There is no chance, in the last week of term, that we're not going to have any cases."...

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/dec/12/minister-threatens-school-heads-over-pre-christmas-online-lessons

Bernice

Quote from: bgmnts on December 10, 2020, 08:19:48 PM
Have the press or public ever sided with teachers, ever?

I'm amazed at the level of opprobrium teachers regularly get from the press in this country, apparently because of widespread union membership and an unwillingness to replace history with empire appreciation hour.

I worked in a school in one of England's most deprived areas fresh out of uni, when I was considering going into teaching. I was soon disabused of that ambition. The amount of work schools do, unsupported and underfunded, to mop up the shit that spills out of the gaping hole where social services, a fair economy, or a less than indifferent state should be, is astounding. And then should they dare speak out, they get shat on for having holidays. I do wonder if they get quite so much stick in other countries.

finnquark

The current regime wants to empower local communities to have locally run school by locally backed mega trusts. Except for when local communities make a collective choice that the govt doesnt like. The shit-for-brains mob in England who lap up the narrative that the Tories are the party of freedom and choice wouldn't even begin to understand the amount of centralising that's gone on in education.

Twit 2

Quote from: Bernice on December 12, 2020, 02:50:08 PMThe amount of work schools do, unsupported and underfunded, to mop up the shit that spills out of the gaping hole where social services, a fair economy, or a less than indifferent state should be, is astounding. And then should they dare speak out, they get shat on for having holidays.

This is correct.

Quote from: Bernice on December 12, 2020, 02:50:08 PM
I do wonder if they get quite so much stick in other countries.

Don't think so. Another aspect of teacher hate in Britain is a strong current of anti-intellectualism.

jobotic

It's not only teachers that work in schools, although you wouldn't know it from anything you read anywhere ever.

Teachers are maligned and slandered all the time, but at least they exist. Unlike TAs, midday meals supervisors (where they still exist and their job hasn't been handed to TAs) and admin staff. Oh and cleaners, usually outsourced to some cunt company.

Among all his crimes I will never forgive Starmer for his demands that schools go back - he was backed by my union Unison (or at least by the NEC - there was no consultation with members) and happily sent the message to the members in schools that they could fuck themselves and die for all he cared.

Twit 2

TAs basically prop up the country. Paid like shit, but without them schools wouldn't run, any more than hospitals would run without nurses. Absolutely criminally under-appreciated.

Bernice

Aye, I was a TA in the aforementioned school. At times fulfilling work, but very often treated like a dogsbody and the wage was nigh-unlivable (at least, for a pampered middle-class kid like me).

Fambo Number Mive

Government threatening to take legal action against Greenwich Council for moving to online learning.

For some reason the BBC included this sentence

QuoteAll three councils are Labour-run.

Not sure what the relevance of that is or why it was included.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55311573

QuoteHead of Ofsted Amanda Spielman told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We're in a really difficult situation where people are having to weigh up short term concerns about health risks, and long term concerns about children's education. It's very difficult to do that.

"It's so easy to call for closures and forget the long-term price which children pay which our visits show so clearly...

idunnosomename

Quote from: bgmnts on December 10, 2020, 08:19:48 PM
Have the press or public ever sided with teachers, ever?
they have their own special paper which they can correct the spelling misrakes in over their breakfast of museli and mung beans before they put their sandals on to tearch our kids to hate their country

Blinder Data

Greenwich Council have now "backed down" according to the BBC and will keep the schools open. they can't afford the legal fees.

What a joke of a country the UK is. Why is the secretary of state getting involved in the early closure of schools in ONE borough during a pandemic? Any other similar-sized country would simply trust the local authority, no big deal.

Fambo Number Mive

Labour seem behind the government on this one:

QuoteShadow minister for early years Tulip Siddiq has said that councils must "keep schools open" until the official end of term time, saying past evidence shows "the impact is quite dire" when they are not.

Shouldn't it be up to the relevant council? I'd also argue that headteachers should have a say.

Nobody's rumbled that their household mixing plan is purely designed to keep infections high whilst schools and universities are on holiday. Letting the schools close early threatens to expose everything.

This government will do anything to keep us in work and holding our kids' education hostage is exactly how they'll do it.

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on December 15, 2020, 01:29:33 PM
Labour seem behind the government on this one:

Shouldn't it be up to the relevant council? I'd also argue that headteachers should have a say.

If the government are threatening to sue councils that step out of line, they've little choice but to keep them open. As David Allen Green pointed out, the government don't have a leg to stand on, but councils are so broke they can't afford to waste the little money they have in court.

George Oscar Bluth II

Craziest thing about all this is that we all surely remember that school the week before Christmas was absolute bullshit, no-one could be arsed and the teachers would literally just put on films. Nothing would be lost at all.

Fambo Number Mive

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on December 15, 2020, 02:20:53 PM
Nobody's rumbled that their household mixing plan is purely designed to keep infections high whilst schools and universities are on holiday. Letting the schools close early threatens to expose everything.

This government will do anything to keep us in work and holding our kids' education hostage is exactly how they'll do it.

If the government are threatening to sue councils that step out of line, they've little choice but to keep them open. As David Allen Green pointed out, the government don't have a leg to stand on, but councils are so broke they can't afford to waste the little money they have in court.

I agree that councils don't have a choice if the alternative is costly legal action, I just don't understand why Labour aren't criticising the behaviour of the government, but I don't understand many of the decisions Labour have taken during the pandemic.

finnquark

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on December 15, 2020, 04:31:30 PM
I agree that councils don't have a choice if the alternative is costly legal action, I just don't understand why Labour aren't criticising the behaviour of the government, but I don't understand many of the decisions Labour have taken during the pandemic.

It's disgusting, even the resident New Labour mob couldn't muster a defence in the staff room today. Pathetic. Fortunately attention was diverted by how odd Williamson looks. How we laughed in our small staff room with inadequate social distancing and no mask wearing.


jobotic

Surprised Kier "I demand that schools go back" Starmer hasn't backed his Labour comrades on this.

Any deaths that originate in Greenwich schools are on Williamson from now on. Like he cares, fucking death cultist.