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Schools "Circuit Breaker" Demanded By Teaching Union
Chris Harris • October 19, 2020
The National Education Union Has Called For The Government To Close Schools And Colleges Over The Half-Term Period.
Teachers are calling for the "urgent circuit-breaker" to close secondary schools and colleges for two weeks after a rapid increase in infection levels among pupils, with estimations claiming that coronavirus infection rate in secondary school-age children has risen by more than nine-fold in a month. Even if these children have few or no symptoms themselves, they are still part of spreading the virus to others in their families and communities, as well as teachers and other school staff.
At the government's most recent Coronavirus briefing, Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not rule out a circuit breaker, but said that its triple tier local restrictions was a better approach than any national lockdown; “I don’t think it makes sense to be locking down the whole country when there is such a big difference in the infection rates across different parts of the UK”.
Mr Johnson’s approach varies massively from the Northern Irish approach, which sees schools entering a two-week circuit breaker lockdown from today, along with a whole host of other restrictions including closure of the hospitality sector and close-contact services, such as hairdressers.
This news comes as more Covid-19 cases in schools arise in Northamptonshire, with students at Northampton International Academy, Kettering Science Academy, Vernon Terrace Primary School, and more being forced to self-isolate.
We at Bauhaus are seeing more and more students being forced to self-isolate due to Coronavirus cases in their classes, and continue their studies with us remotely. For any more information on how Bauhaus can help self-isolating students, please contact administrator@bauhaus-education.co.uk.
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We all remember our first snow day. Hearing the approach of snow on the news, and running to the window every morning to see if it had come like a weather-based Father Christmas, only to be let down again and again. Until one day, you rush to the window and there it was; the thick blanket of fluffy white slipperiness that meant only one thing: school closures! You'd run downstairs, listen to the local radio, and sit with fingers crossed that your school would be read out and when it was, it was time to get the gloves and hat on, dig out the sledge (or large baking tray in my house) and get outside with your friends. However, this was all because of the danger on the roads; teachers and pupils alike could not get into school. But in 2021, snow cannot stop the Microsoft Teams or Zoom crowd. With the majority of children already learning from home, and the children of key workers being forced to on this snow day, is this progression a sign that the snow days of old are over? While schools are physically closed today for the first snow day of 2021, teachers are gearing up to teach from home, whether that is delivering full lessons as they have been doing, or setting work on whatever platform they use. Gone is the idea that snow means an automatic day off for both students and teachers, and that idea is replaced with the working adult's attitude to snow; a glance outside, a small tut, and then getting on with work anyway.
The Association of Directors of Children's Services has conducted a survey of 151 local councils across England, and their report suggests that the number of home-schooled children has risen by close to 38%. The ADCS estimates as many as 75,668 children were home educated on 1 October, up from 54,656 a year earlier. Many local councils said that the fear of Coronavirus and safety within the school environment were the top reasons parents gave. Due to this being the primary reason, many families have said that they were intending to send their children back to school once their concerns over the pandemic and its risks were alleviated. Others reported that some parents said they had made the decision because they felt so positively about having their children home during the closure of regular schools between March and July. During this period, the responsibility fell on parents to effectively home-school their children while some schools struggled to adapt to remote and virtual learning. Parents have always had a legal right to home educate their children, and many do this for philosophical, ethical or religious reasons. Others home educate as a last resort due to lack of support for special educational or mental health needs. Parents who home-school are required by law to inform their local authorities on how they are going to educate their child, and councils do give plans and ideas to assist those parents. They must also give regular updates on how their children are progressing. Besides that, there is no obligation to follow the National Curriculum strictly. However, the child will need to be prepared for any examinations and qualifications they undertake at external exam centres. One problem that is often raised with home-schooling is the lack of social interaction students may have. This is combatted in recent time by various internet support groups were you can arrange meet-ups and events with other home-schooling families. We at Bauhaus are set to announce a home-schooling programme in the new year, to support those who home-educate. Follow us for more on that in the new year.
With uncertainty over whether students can be guaranteed a level playing field when it comes to end-of-year assessments due to school closures and self-isolation periods, the Welsh education secretary has deemed that the fairest ways to assess this year’s students are teacher-managed assessments. NUS Wales president, Becky Ricketts said: “This decision will give students certainty about how they will be assessed, and I welcome that students and teaching staff now have the time to plan and prepare. This also reinforces that teachers in Wales are valued and are best placed to inform students’ grades ahead of an algorithm. The summer’s results crisis demonstrated serious shortcomings in how students in Wales and across the UK were assessed.” Following the Welsh assembly’s announcement, Downing Street have said there is currently “no change” to their examination plans, which see the summer exams pushed back by several weeks to cope with any lack of teaching time. The nature of these “teacher-managed assessments” is unclear, but it seems to be a more widespread assessment system that tracks pupils’ progress throughout the year rather than staking their grade entirely on the end of year exams. Could this be a model that continues going forward? It would certainly reduce students’ stress levels and allow a more accurate assessment of their abilities. A concern, however, would be how well the teachers are trained to assess their students in the new manner proposed by the Welsh assembly. These plans are to be implemented immediately, so it could be possible that some teachers would lack the appropriate skills to assess their students in this way. It’s one thing to mark coursework and practise exams, it something altogether different to give an overall grade. The systems used to calculate grades without exams received widespread criticism this year, with U-turns across the UK allowing students to take their initial teacher-predicted grades instead following the outcry. Wales is so far the only country in the UK to announce exams will be scrapped for the second year running. Do you think more will follow? Let us know in the comments below.
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