Exam invigilation and the furlough scheme.

bradders1983

Ah, so basically your schedule comes down to sour grapes and nothing based in reality. Got it.

Mike_in_Horwich

annabanana82, you haven't stated which day the second Friday in September (Inset day) has been moved to. Has your school changed such that pupils will NOW attend that second Friday with the Inset day being taken in the recess - hence an extra schooling day provided this year?

bradders1983

The school year is a set number of days in England. I think it is 190. They arent going to increase it as a result of this and they certainly arent going to change the school calendar at less than 2 months notice.

Sorry for your loss of earnings but you are peeing in the wind here.

Mike_in_Horwich

bradders1983, with respect to your assumptiveness relating to sour grapes;

the money is irrelevant to me. Every one of my software users who pay me a monthly support / usage fee and who "locked down" received a 100% refund on those fees for the lock down period. I'm flexible and understanding.

My concern is with the disruption to children's education resulting from Covid-19. However, with some flexibility and willingness the teachers could mitigate this by changing the Inset days. Are teachers so inflexible?

bradders1983

Try telling the unions that they should dump inset days and add in teaching days, Mike. I wish you luck, let us know how you get on.

There is a conception that teachers have been sat on their !!!!!! at home for 4 months. I can assure you they have not.

strawb_shortcake

Mike_in_Horwich said:

annabanana82, you haven't stated which day the second Friday in September (Inset day) has been moved to. Has your school changed such that pupils will NOW attend that second Friday with the Inset day being taken in the recess - hence an extra schooling day provided this year?

It's now sometime in November, they are sticking to the 5 prescribed inset days. 
Our Secondary school is opening up from mid August to allow those children that want to go in to catch up. 
I know our school have been quite open about the marking and that it needs to follow previous years result trends, maybe naively but I'm not expecting many shockers this year, for my Son as long as he gets to do his chosen A levels then I wouldn't be advocating sitting the Autumn exams. 

Mike_in_Horwich

Credit to your Secondary anna for opening early. Some students will take advantage of that, many I hope. It will be interesting to see just how many students wish to sit the exam itself. I understand it will be free choice for them and the better of the two results will stand. 20 August is the planned announcement date for the assessments. Strange times.

strawb_shortcake

Mike_in_Horwich said:

Credit to your Secondary anna for opening early. Some students will take advantage of that, many I hope. It will be interesting to see just how many students wish to sit the exam itself. I understand it will be free choice for them and the better of the two results will stand. 20 August is the planned announcement date for the assessments. Strange times.

They have been really good to be fair,  we've had calls and emails from the school checking just not on the children but the whole families welfare. 
Their Yr 12 and 13 pupils have to be in school all day every day regardless of what their schedule looks like. They are also expected to be at school until 16:30 undertaking additional learning so I'm quite happy that my Son will have the opportunity to catch up in September if we don't get him there in August. 
My Daughter on the other hand may well be waiting at the doors for them to be unlocked.

Mike_in_Horwich

In today's press I read that Boris Johnson has linked the loss of easing of lockdown to the aim of getting students back in school in September.

Best of luck with that Boris.

I predict that in September, with the union's assistance, teachers in the main will avoid returning to work no doubt on the basis of safety.

To be fair and open I should point out that I am not a teacher - never have been. I'm a retired software developer and was an invigilator (also now retired from that endeavour) for the past 12-13 years. Invigilation has afforded me an inside view of the state of education at secondary level.

No doubt many on this forum will disagree with me but as a retorical question...."How many teachers will have been abroad this year during the normal, scheduled six or seven week holiday break. Then, in September complain that theirs and their student's safety dictates they should not return to school ?".

Whole sections of the Civil Service are still working from home (and private businesses likewise). Without some attempt to return to normality the economy will suffer such contraction that the 100% salaries enjoyed by ALL public employees will be unsupportable.

Mike_in_Horwich

I know, Rhetorical not Retorical before the instinct to correct kicks-in.