The point I made was less teaching happened a conservative estimate suggests a drop of c70% so what were those doing whilst they were still being paid 100% of their salary?

How was it that private schools managed near replication of the in house classroom yet the public sector only managed a fraction? Could it be that because private schools charge they had to step up? Sadly we all pay but that seems to be lost on the teaching profession.

In August the teaching unions were complaining that schools were ready to take pupils back - that's strange - the schools had had 6 months to prepare but actually did nothing for 5 of those months - most teachers enjoyed kicking back, partying etc.

You're so predicatble in your blaming of public sector workers. I actually think you have some sort of personal vendetta. Did a teacher or nurse once knock you back on a date?

The school where I'm based had 60 teaching staff volunteer to come into school, to carry on physical teaching, because they expected hundreds of kids would have nobody at home to look after them in lockdown due to work commitments. When the school was reopened for the kids of key workers and vulnerable children to attend, how many do you think turned up? Bearing in mind the school has a capacity of 2200 kids you'd expect a decent percenatge. The number of kids just about hit double figures. Now, see if you can work out whose decision it was for the other 2190 kids not being in school. The government closed schools to all but key worker and vulnerable kids. They also directed anyone who could work at home to work at home. Some parents could have sent their kids to school but chose not to. Are you suggesting teachers should have been round at kids houses, knocking on their doors and dragging them into school?

Utter claptrap.

The trust where I work set up an online teaching facility and staff taught on a rota. Staff who were not in school physically teaching kids were teaching lessons online. There was a vast online resource set up by staff within the first few weeks of lockdown. Some of our staff were even online teaching kids from other schools. There was an online academy set up for the very purpose. Of course, some kids struggled due to lack of equipment or access to the internet, but equipment was provided where possible. The free broadband was a vote loser for Corbyn. Imagine wanting to provide free internet access for kids up and down the country? The rotten old commie.

If staff were 'kicking back, partying', how did all the stuff happen which has made the safe return to schools possible? Classrooms have been reorganised, corridors have been rerouted, screens have been put up, hand sanitising stations have been implemented, the timetables have been rescheduled, the school day has been adjusted. Who do you think did it, the school fairies?

Our trust put all the measures in place, in line with government advice. It was up to the kids to get onboard with the new way of working. For someone who preaches self-reliance, you don't half want the kids backsides wiping for them.

So given they didn't have any physical kids to teach - from my experience of the drivers that worked for me - it was near impossible to get your kids into school, unless of course you are Keir Starmer - the only people deemed as critical were employees of the NHS in a clinical position - not many of them really so it is no surprise that very few in your school attended?

You ask most parents how much they enjoyed home schooling - not a lot - do you honestly think most parents - obviously not the woke ones - wouldn't have sent their kids to school if they could - seriously?

So your teachers weren't physically teaching - how many structured lessons were recorded and put on social media for the kids?

Perhaps it's because on the whole, the private schools try and keep their class sizes to around 20 and significantly less in the A level classes.
Therefore, they could almost carry on as they were, with a few "tweaks" here and there.

Compare this to the overcrowded local "comp" with 2500 pupils in cramped conditions and class sizes approaching 40.

You do the math, although, this one isn't too difficult.

Also, pupils at private schools have massively more access to on line services and it's way simpler therefore, to offer a very good standard of on line or "mixed" education.

Which teachers, private or state, do you think have the easiest job or, shall we all keep on kicking employees of the state, you know, like you used to do with NHS staff, until the Thursday evening clap became popular

So how was it that given everything you said that lessons were so scant i.e. 6 hours a week? If some teachers were teaching other school kids what were their teachers doing? So an online academy would have required significantly less resource - 1 teacher could in theory deliver a lesson to hundreds of kids - rather than tens of teachers delivering the same lesson to those kids?

So why by August were the schools not ready for pupils to return - they had after all had 5 months to get this sorted?

Kids are kids its up to the adults to show the way surely not the other way round - hearts and minds in management speak?

Are you seriously suggesting all teachers were working equally as hard as they were before lockdown?

I would suggest you are wrong about the class sizes Eton has close to 2,000 pupils in a building that can hardly be called modern as would be the case for the majority of private schools. Bradford Grammar my old school is in a building that is nearly 400 years old.

I take you point about the challenges of educating children - but that is no excuse by your own admission the teachers didn't have kids coming in to school so a good majority just switched off.

On the NHS you show me where I have said clinical staff are overpaid and underworked - if you can't could I suggest you refrain?

Jeez this is getting embarrassing now.

Not a surprise that the poster involved went to a second tier private school. I'm no psychologist but it would explain the insecurity, the seeming lack of awareness that they got a leg up from the start and the apparent lack of exposure to anyone who actually lives in the real world.

How many physical lessons were taught in these schools during lockdown? How many kids physically attended private schools? You seem to be under the illusion that private schools just carried on as normal.

[urlhttps://www.etoncollege.com/blog/lessons-from-lockdown-a-springboard-for-digitally-enhanced-learning/[/url

Just not true. Which alternative reality do you inhabit?!

[urlhttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision[/url

I am not saying this wasn't the guidance - the implementation was a very different situation.

Are you seriously suggesting parents would rather do home schooling than send their kids to school and everything that went with that i.e. not being able to work or interruption to working from home - really? I would suggest it is you that is living in an alternative universe.

Hang on Sal, you are re writing history.
It wasn't the teachers that closed the schools, it was a government decision.

As for private schools being old, maybe.
However, they are generally in good order and most importantly, they tend to have more space and fewer pupils.

I will admit to knowing very little about Eton, although I'm happy to take a gamble that their average class size is low 20's and much lower at A level.
Also, the kids, generally, are a little more compliant with the rules, with some exceptions.

Mind you ,even the private schools closed their doors initially, with only the kids of essential workers etc, attending.

As for your point about teachers "switching off" - you stone cold made that up However, I am accepting that there life would be a fair bit easier than their usual day, just as it is/was for most people working from home.

The lucky ones were furloughed and paid not to work at all but, I dont think that teachers were in this category.
I know that this wont stop you having a pop at them though.

I can't speak for parents of older children. I'm guessing many were quite fearful of a virus which was still largely not understood back then, and decided to keep them at home for health reasons.

I worked from home with my 3 year old in tow from late March to September. It drove me half mad, and with 3 weeks to go I'd hit a wall, but the alternative was to send her to nursery where she would be masked up, told where and where not to sit and stand, change her clothes 4 times a day, and have to wash her hands every time she touched something. Myself and my wife both qualified as key workers so could have sent her to nursery, but at the end of the day it was merely going to be childcare for 4 months, and I didn't think it was going to be a good first experience of something she had been so excited for. And why would I make her someone else's problem when I was working from home anyway? She's already advanced for her age. Missing out on 4 months of 'childcare' wasn't going to make a blind bit of difference to her development. Had she been older, we'd have probably let her go to school as a key worker kid.

Sal is another one of those who thinks people working from home were tossing it off all spring and summer. The clue is in the name - WORKING From Home. My job requires an end product to be presented or ordered. If I was getting email requests to produce outcomes, and not delivering them, my employers would soon figure out there was something not right when nothing materialised after the deadline. It seems like he's aiming his pop at people who were actually still working. Maybe it's the furloughed beer and barbecue crowd he should be aiming at?

But the, he would have to take aim at his friends, instead of local government employees. Those who were furloughed were on a good deal, getting paid for doing very little but, alas, many of them are now finding that the job that they had and probably expected to return to, has gone and their "time off" has been made rather more permanent.
Still, lets have a pop at the teachers, it's embarrassing.

Also, would the restrictions need tightening again if "we" hadn't moved circa 2,000,000 students back to Uni, all at the same time.
Yes, they may have missed out on some of the fun of "freshers" but, maybe, the need for tighter restrictions for everyone wouldn't have been so great.
There are literally 1000's of students who have tested positive and although most will be absolutely fine, this really does look like something that could have been done better.
Still, teachers are a soft target

Not that I'm aware of.

The Health Protection Agency was responsible for leading response to outbreaks of infection and planning for outbreaks of infection.

Well as you clearly haven’t bothered to read what I wrote not much point trying to converse with you

When did I say that - I had upward of 50 people working from home and still have quite a number given we have depots in critical infection areas. So I know my people were working equally as hard as if they had been in the office.

My staff were doing exactly the same job, the same hours as they would have been in the office - can you say the same for teachers? Kids access to lessons was reduced by c80% - there comes a point where you cannot defend the indefensible.

I guess that it depends what your staff are doing ??
Is there a direct comparison in their work and that of Teachers or, are you looking for easy targets again

One thing they weren't doing is teaching kids

They are easy targets because most took the money - they were paid 100% not 80% like most on the furlough scheme - and failed to offer our children a similar standard of education they should have expected.

As soon as it was time to return to work they and their union whined like infants about having to earn their money. If the government had done everything the union wanted kids would have never gone back to school.

As I have said you cannot defend the indefensible

The government was asking them to go into an environment of what would be mostly asymptomatic carriers who are at the best of times difficult to instruct. Requesting reasonable improvements to the normal set up is the least that should have been considered acceptable.

One thing I think we can probably guess from this discussion is that Sal's retention rates are poor - he's an absolute sociopath.

Did you want the teachers to hand back their salaries ?
Was it they who put the country in lockdown and closed the schools ?

Are they now teaching in what is deemed a "safe" environment ?

And, lets not forget that, for most of the summer, many schools were told and trying to work out just how they could operate with 2 METRE SAFE DISTANCING (later reduced to 1 metre) - again, this was government advice



As I said, east target for right wing Boris lovers.

You need to take aim at those "running" the country and changing the rules twice a week.

I agree that the teachers had an easy time of it, along with millions of other workers that were forced to stay at home.
Just like the rest of the world, the good ones will have used their time wisely and done the right prep and in the teachers case, kept in touch and taught the more vulnerable kids. There will be others right accross the range who tossed it off as much as they could.
It's hard to teach when the school is closed.

I agree with you the government's handling of Covid has been shambolic at best a dereliction of duty at worst. It seems they have learned nothing - they are going introduce further restrictions which have proved in other areas not to work - its bonkers.

You can't compare teachers to say retail hospitality workers - even with schools closed teaching was still possible not easy to work in a shop/bar/restaurant/theatre that has been ordered to close

Sal, if he schools are closed and pupils and teachers sent home, who do you expect the teachers to teach ?
Some did carry on working, on a rota system to look after the vulnerable kids and those of "essential workers" but, apart from prep and remembering that the summer break was just around the corner, what did you want/expect them to do ?

Instead of their parents trying to home school them - surely teachers could have either prepared work and either been on line to answer queries or even better have zoom lessons or you tube lessons if they were too afraid of the behaviour of the children away from the classroom. There was a lot more that could/should have been done - look at the private school education delivery and compare that to the public sector delivery?