Schools reopening

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Sorry if I missed it, but what is happening with the A-levels? or is it all based on interviews and your school in brexit UK now?

[San Bernardhinault]

Idealogical, I suppose.
Mostly it stems from my view that children should be exposed to multiple viewpoints, and home schooling is a way to attempt to limit this. It furthermore limits childrens' interaction with other humans.

I'm of a similar opinion. Although as I have no kids and have never taught., I'm not sure I'm really qualified to weigh in much. I do suspect it's easier to feel the danger of home schooling when you live in the US, and when you see the kinds of people who choose to opt out of the schooling system and their reasons for doing so.

[Bored Of Education]

I initially thought that Uncle Ethan's semantic distinction was a bit harsh - even though it was sticking up for the likes of me - especially when you take into account what parents such as Balderdasha are doing. Indeed, even those that are trying their best but are finding it almost impossible due to lack of or insufficiently dependable technology or just children who flatly refuse to do any work at home. However, I think that UE's distinction is important as, as has been mentioned, there is a belief afoot that we have been sitting on our arse when, in fact, most of us have been working harder due to similarly unreliable technology, the usual slow process of learning and implementing new practices and our own children often to home school (though that isn't an issue for me). Indeed, I heard someone on the radio say that we should have school open through summer as we and the kids haven't been doing anything through lockdown.

We are back tomorrow to set up the classroom and then in with the kids next Thursday and Friday. Only 6 of the 9 kids but have no idea what I am going to do with autistic teenagers no doubt suffering from their own high anxieties about coming back and with social distancing meaning no mixing with anyone else in the school and that we have our class and one space at school to be in. Not only that but they won't be able to do anything really with each other. Could be interesting and I wouldn't be surprised if we see a reduction in numbers as children realise how little fun it is and parents realise that disrupting any routine they have built up at home just for two days isn't worthwhile. Indeed, especially for our children, there is no real value in the children being school apart from childcare.

For the record, I am another one who would make homeschooling illegal but only after I made sure there was enough provision for children who really can't be in mainstream education.

[Bruno]

There are certainly ways to do homeschooling that do expose kids to multiple viewpoints and humans. Not sure how you'd police it, but I wouldn't rule it out for my own kid if I thought the only public options were dreadful.

[San Bernardhinault]

I know that there are way to homeschool well. But it's just so open to abuse and incompetence.

[Kowalski]

Sorry if I missed it, but what is happening with the A-levels? or is it all based on interviews and your school in brexit UK now?

They'll be based on centre assessed grades, which is basically a school department usimg a student's present attainment (coursework, mock exams etc) and their predicted grade to make a judgement about a grade.

Which reminds me, I won't be marking exams for the first time since 2007 so no extra money, but as I won't be doing anything this summer the situation is cosmically balanced.

[Bruno]

I know that there are way to homeschool well. But it's just so open to abuse and incompetence.

So are schools and districts.

[Bruno]

One of my local districts has a thorny racism problem, seemingly.

[S. aureus]

I know that there are way to homeschool well. But it's just so open to abuse and incompetence.

This.

[Kowalski]

I don't see a problem with homeschooling per se, a person can always educate somebody else and a teacher only needs to be "a page ahead of the class" as the old adage says.

On the other hand practicalities like subject knowledge, the access to resources or the preparation for assessments might be problems, but I'm sure that there would be ways around that and / or support networks to lean on, and there's the idea that there's more to attending a school than gaining a formal academic education, but having said that the "informal" side of the school experience may have led to the desire to home-school in the first place.

[That Night In Barcelona]

They'll be based on centre assessed grades, which is basically a school department usimg a student's present attainment (coursework, mock exams etc) and their predicted grade to make a judgement about a grade.

Which reminds me, I won't be marking exams for the first time since 2007 so no extra money, but as I won't be doing anything this summer the situation is cosmically balanced.

Am I right in thinking this disproportionately benefits kids at wealthier schools who are more likely to give bullish predictions for their grades?

[Antepli Ejderha]

Am I right in thinking this disproportionately benefits kids at wealthier schools who are more likely to give bullish predictions for their kids' grades?

Yes. And it will discriminate against BAME students whose teachers consistently predict grades lower than they actually attain.

[Kowalski]

Am I right in thinking this disproportionately benefits kids at wealthier schools who are more likely to give bullish predictions for their kids' grades?

Probably, but this is the "normal" attainment gap that we try to bridge in normal circumstances and in all probability they would get higher grades anyway due to a number of factors.

Theoretically the data provided by the Fischer Family Trust can provide a independent view over a longer period. There's also the idea that a motivated student should have been able to show their ability over 18 months, especially as the students will have been doing work of the right standard over that time.(past paper questions, exam style questions etc).

That's that a theory anyway. AE has pointed out other drawbacks.

[Uncle Ethan]

I think Uncle Ethan's point (and correct me if I'm wrong) is that if you call it Home Schooling then it looks like the teachers have had their feet up for the last few months. I, like many others, have been very impressed by your home-schooling exploits (and have also been very tempted to buy Animal Crossing) but it is not to say that the teachers have been doing nothing

Yes, exactly this. Parents like Balderdasha and her partner have dome amazing work. Teachers though (at least in our jurisdiction) have had to teach face to face and at the same time prepare work for online or hard copy delivery, all whilst the usual suspects accuse of them of wanting schools shut because they are lazy people attracted to the profession only for the long "holidays".

My defence of teachers does not in any way diminish my respect for Baldersdasha, Eggchaser et al, but Home Schooling and online lesson delivery are two very different things, all be it that the latter can only be successful with high levels of parental support. That tends to be the exception not the rule which is why here at least schools have always been open to vulnerable students and those whose parents have to continue to attend their "workplace".

[ChrisJ]

I've read all of your posts, especially on the lockdown diaries, and seen how much you've done with and for your kids. They are so lucky to have you doing all of that for them.

It's tough for everyone and I've no idea how people can work from home and provide childcare for their kids, let alone actively help them with their schoolwork or spend their whole day with them. There are so many people who've done so much, and that goes for most of the people on here. We'll get through this but things have to change, especially the UK education system. All we're doing is testing kids, chunking and banking information and not teaching them any real skills. I have failed my students on an almost daily basis and I fucking hate myself for being part of this system.

I'd agree with nearly all of that, except the penultimate phrase which I've bolded.

Of course, I don't know your teaching so you may be bleeding' awful (smiley thing) but I'd hazard a guess that you're not. Teaching is like parenting in many ways. Everyone fails a lot of the time and you won't know whether you succeeded until the kids are old themselves. If you're constantly feeling you could/should be doing better, maybe it's because you care about doing it properly. I have worked with some astonishing, humblingly good teachers in my time who pretty much unanimously shared the belief they were frauds, constantly getting it wrong. I've also worked with some fucking charlatans. Guess how they felt about their practice?

The system is shit. Every decision made in the last 25 years* has been made to meet the needs of politicians, not the needs of children. I left teaching because the conflict between what I knew the children needed and what my role required to deliver was leading to insane levels of stress and anxiety. I was fighting for the good stuff, smuggling real education in alongside the official curriculum and was lucky enough to have sufficient seniority and standing within the school and community to be able to stand up for it. It wasn't sustainable and gets harder with older kids. I am now poorer but slowly recovering.

Take care of yourself, do what you need to and don't judge yourself by DFE metrics any more than you would judge your students as people by their ability to recall a date out of context.

*Random number. Probably longer.

[ChrisJ]

Re: homeschooling. I used to have zero tolerance for it. ("Fucking hippies!") I've now much more sympathy, especially when children are younger and have needs that the system just doesn't recognise or care about. I still have some caveats in the UK though.

I hear increasing anecdotal evidence of parents opting for home education to avoid or minimise welfare scrutiny - children on the at risk register who were no longer being monitored by school - with no additional monitoring by children's services.

Obviously, home schooling is intended to provide for children whose parents don't want them in the system being judged by PISA criteria. However, there's no system for monitoring the quality of home education on its own terms. You can 'home educate' your child by sitting them with a PS2 all day, every day. IIRC there's an annual visit but the parents are under no obligation to let the visitor in or let them see the child(ren). They can even arange to meet them at another place if they want.

Funny story. A family MrsChrisJ was chasing for terrible attendance announced they would home school, despite significant literacy issues with both parents. About a fortnight later, one of her office staff, S., met said parent in ASDA. The following conversation is pretty much verbatim.

S: "Hello. How are you? How are the children?"
Parent (angrily): "Shirehall [LA HQ] is fucking shit."
S: "Oh. Sorry to hear that. Why?
Parent: "How are we supposed to home school them when they won't send us any fucking lessons?"