FFS holiday in jeopardy

I would be surprised if they didnt work 9 - 3 30. With regards to the extra time that they do probably not. Reports etc will.still be being written, work does have to be planned for each class. My son has done nothing tbh, I've told him it'll be head down when he gets back to school.

 

Haven't they set him any work to do at all? That's scandalous

 

They succumbed to the pressure of the airlines, should never have come out of the lockdown. Air corridors my arse.

Schapps should be made to quarantine in Spain for life. Slimy little ******.

 

If it is them then we’re fine. They were always an easy species to ignore

 

Thing is, it was always much more likely to happen with a country like Spain because alongside us, they had one the highest rates in Europe in the first place.

If I was to go away, I would be looking for somewhere where the rates were negligible in the first round. Somewhere like Croatia, where they can just about count the number of deaths on their fingers. 133 in total since it started.

 

Honestly, the teachers at mine? 100% yes. Before we knew exams were cancelled, huge personalised GCSE and ALevel revision packs were put together, complete with all stationery, blank flash cards etc. that may be needed and distributed to the students. At the start of every normal lesson for all other students, teachers were sending an email with work and answering questions etc. throughout that hour and providing feedback on the work. They have been calling students weekly to check in (each teacher teaches a lot of students so that’s a lot of calls each). They’ve been doing a weekly bulletin showcase of ‘outstanding work’ that gets emailed out on a Friday. Parents then complained that it wasn’t practical getting an email for every lesson as the student might not have access at that time so it changed to a weekly email from each teacher on the first day of the week they would have had that lesson but teachers were still available all day for questions and feedback and calls were still made (this changed to just year head and pastoral team as there were too many phone calls from too many people that also annoyed parents). That then became live Teams lessons for each lesson with each lesson also recorded and emailed for anyone who couldn’t get online at that time and all work was set on teams. Calls and weekly bulletin continued. Teachers (and support staff) also had to go in on a rota (maximum twice a week) to look after key worker kids, whilst still having to set work/feedback etc. for normal class at home too so that was double the 5 lessons on those days as they had normal classes to provide for plus mixed classes of key worker kids. Anyone who teaches year 11 or 13 had to look at all past work and rate all students on a sliding scale across the class so they can get a GCSE or ALevel grade. Year 10 and 12 students then started to come back one day a week each (only a quarter of a year allowed in at a time so both groups were in Monday to Thursday on separate floors) so then teachers had to deliver work for them in person, key worker kids on the rota and still provide for other year groups at home. They also wrote end of year reports for students that got posted out. Weekly staff meetings, updates on guidance and training on new technology/online teaching methods have been held on Zoom and Teams. Also going on, although not directly by teachers was setting up free school meals vouchers (as the government didn’t do this for weeks), sourcing laptops and dongles for kids without at home (the government ones arrived in the last week of term), general councilling for those suffering a bereavement or from anxiety, allowing a local primary school to use our site for key worker kids at first and then year 6s too once they were allowed back and lots more that I now can’t think of off the top of my head. We also lost another sixth former who was rushed to hospital (from home, not school) with double pneumonia, had to have both legs amputated in an attempt to save their life and then they passed away a few days later so that was another extremely difficult thing for staff to take as that’s our third student who has died this year and it doesn’t get any easier.

 

Well done to your school that sounds excellent under very trying circumstances.

 

Sounds like you've got a good school there. One that sadly hasn't had any luck at all this year too, you've got my deepest sympathies for that.

 

For those unfortunate enough to be caught up in this with holidays to Spain imminent, be aware that "The Foreign Office is advising against all but essential travel to mainland Spain." and "It is unlikely that any travel insurance will be valid where the Foreign Office advice states UK residents should not travel"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53543459

 

not been abroad for a holiday since 1997, and not missed it at all. There are plenty of fantastic places in the UK that we have enjoyed over the years.

 

The term "staycation" has been bugging me recently. As if it's not a real holiday to stay in the UK. As you says have some wonderful destinations in this country.

 

Brother in law has a place in Spain they went for first time this year last week. Both self employed they’re now going to have to self isolate for 14 days, we did ask them not to go we could see it coming but they insisted. Same at work the holiday board is full, Benidorm seems to be the firm favorite. As I said earlier its the kids looking forward to a holiday I feel for.

 

I thought a staycation is where you stay at home but drive to various places for days out? That's how I always use it anyway. We did that last year when we were throwing a lot of money into overpaying our mortgage, we spent the nights at our home and did various activities each day e.g. York Maze, Yorkshire Wildlife Park, various walks, bowling, ice cream parlour etc. It was really fun, we only spent around £200 between us and we had a full week of doing stuff. I wouldn't call it a real holiday though as we spent every night at home.

 

I returned (by car via the Rotterdam - Hull ferry) from a week in Germany on July 7th. I had to fill in (and print out) an online arrival form 48 hours prior, which I did, and I accepted that I would be quarantining at home for 14 days. I'd already stocked up in anticipation of this. As it turned out, the quarantine requirement for visitors from Germany and Holland was lifted with effect from 10th July, but I didn't know that when I booked the trip and I would have been quite happy to stay at home for 14 days.

When I arrived at Hull, I was in a long queue of cars leaving the ferry, and every single car was checked to ensure that they'd got a printed out copy of the arrival form. One German guy did not have his, and he claimed to have no idea about the rules. He pleaded with them to let him in, but to no avail. He was pulled out of the queue with his car and taken to one side. I presume he was held for the day and sent back that evening to Rotterdam.

At the time I was told that about 1 in 5 of the arriving passengers would be contacted during the quarantine and asked to prove that they were sticking to the rules. I wasn't contacted at all, and in fact on 10th July I was able to legally break the quarantine anyway.

 

The biggest supporters of keeping things locked down and restricted appear to be the financially secure and those in secure public employment be it councils, education NHS etc.

What a fair number of them havent realised is that alot of the paymasters especially within local authorities have large sums of cash tied up in property investments to supplement the pension pots. One, Liverpool I think own an airport!

Those investments lie empty or companies leave them eg Office space, Market stalls it starts costing the council. It wouldnt be just a rise in Council tax that will be coming... It'll be getting shut of council staff as there will be massive shortfalls.

And those in work inside the next 12 months will be getting raped for tax as there will be a crippled economy propping up the NHS and other public sector areas.

 

That's exactly what I thought too but it seems to being used just for people staying in the UK. Unless I've got the wrong end of it.

 

I could pick any number of posts to reply to on this thread but there's some absolute blinkered ***** on here criticising teachers and schools

 

I'm assuming you are exaggerating for effect, but if you have three children and neither of you have time for them from "5am til 7pm every day", you have your priorities a little wrong.

 

What are you referencing here? Seen you've mentioned it a couple of times. Tried to Google but no luck.

 

not really, no.

my wife is a doctor.
I employ 200 staff, and I am also an employment lawyer so I’ve been rather busy.
I have kept my children at home because 1) i thought they were safer at home 2) I thought parents that were 2 key workers would benefit more from their place.

I have worked extended hours to fit in the education of my children.

my wife has also taught them before and after working ridiculously long days

im sure you’re right though, and we got our priorities all wrong.

the point I was making, and still stand by, is that the education system has not supported people.