And would you be taking into account those parents who have been told they must work from home, and therefore must try and juggle a 8.5 hour working day, as well as supervising and teaching primary school age children for several hours a day, as well as entertaining and feeding them, in your definition of “Feckless”??
2 Likes
Of course Mr Perfect is
1 Like
No I’m talking about the kids in secondary school (you know the sort we try and lure into the ATC and eulogise about) who should be able to get on with the “homework” being set, but choose not to as they are probably expecting schools to go back over 3-4 months of schoolwork as well as what they need to be doing or this not being included in exams, which is grossly unfair on those doing their best to keep up.
I don’t doubt that some parents are and have been struggling and schools as it seems going down the ‘tech solution’ route will have exacerbated this for a lot of parents. Luckily this has happened now when the ‘cheap’ techy solutions are available to schools (and others), go back not so many years and they’d have been sending out packs of work.
I’ve not said I’m perfect but if this had happened when our kids were at school, (we’d potentially have 3 in secondary school), they would have been doing whatever work was given to them and we’d be helping as much as we could. As I mentioned I know of kids doing much more time wise than the normal school day. But this seems to be just getting the work set done, however long it takes, rather than that’s the hour’s lesson for that. I can’t believe that schools haven’t, aren’t or won’t be giving assistance or support if requested. What they can’t do is anything for kids like the bloke whose daughter isn’t bothering, but I can see it’s ones like this that schools will bend over backward to accommodate.
I know for a fact that without an actual deadline to meet, I would be doing sweet FA right now as a kid.
I know, because that’s my current problem with work!
4 Likes
I would have thought teachers would work on the principle try and keep it as normal as possible. Such that class y have x lessons a week and set work for them, with a deadline of the end of the week. Or set it by lesson, with a day or two to complete. If it’s just being put as work to do and no end point, then it becomes an open season and they can’t tackle anyone for not doing it. In the latter for me it would be get it done, then I could relax, I always did my homework like that as a kid. I had far more interesting things to do with mates. it’s how I sort of do things at work, get it done accurately and as quick as possible. Although as far as most are concerned it takes longer than it does, but I mostly get things done quicker. if an ‘urgent’ request comes in, I get it done and people are happy, but there’s always a caveat that I can’t do this all the time, although I could. Some people say I’m quite disciplined, but the things I don’t like I try and get out of the way.
Locally, it would seem that there is a (small) percentage of youths following that principle, out & about by day for protracted periods, doing b*gger all (apart from some anti-social behaviour, let alone ignoring social distancing).
As to parents, it would seem locally that there are conflicting views - some parents moaning on social media that their kids have been given nothing to do, whereas others (same college) are complaining about over-loading.
However, from staff working at the college, there has been a consistent approach to give a sensible level of work, with guidance / assistance given where necessary. I know who I believe, & it ain’t the moaning parents!
2 Likes
That’s roughly what we are doing; we have carrots but lack sticks. Where parents are unable (or unwilling, but that’s rare) to crack the whip on our behalf - out at work, or working from home but needing space - then the ‘less self-motivated’ ones can get away with doing very little, unfortunately, even at expensive fee-paying schools.
Rare in your school considering how much the parents pay. But compare that to the school my wife teaches at in a rough area and a good three quarters of parents couldn’t give a rat’s bottom.
2 Likes
I was being polite…
3 Likes
Government advice on the running of Out-of-School Setting Activities.
This guidance is for organisations or individuals who provide community activities, tuition, holiday clubs or after-school clubs for children, as well as their staff and volunteers.
Doesn’t seem to aimed at organisations like us.
Interesting though. There was talk of a few local youth football clubs starting training again… I hope they do.
Driving home from work the town rec was packed solid with big groups of kids, all lounging about, likely bored out their minds. Unfortunately around here some of that energy and frustration will end up being a brick through someone’s windscreen.
Getting back to it can’t come quick enough!
I saw 3 teams doing a training session in the rec near the sqn and that was 2 weeks ago.
Good enough for the Premier League so seems that are back at it.
@anon9987823 What’s wrong with kids or anyone come to that just sitting around a rec doing nothing? I’m all for that. All work and no play makes for a very dull life. I would make an observation that they should if it’s during school hours doing schoolwork, but other than that who really cares.
TBH if we do go back tomorrow, it will be as ever a couple of hours 2 nights a week and maybe something at the weekend and in-between there’s a good chance cadets will be in those groups on the rec during the day / getting up to all sorts. But then we may have staff who are not keen on returning due to virus related health concerns, so unable to do anything anyway.
as i understand it the PL are completing “regular testing/monitoring” although I accept the argument “well those lot over there are doing it, why can’t we?” the control measures I suspect are a little different…
that said my wife and I both attend our respective work places and conduct a temperature test so perhaps local football teams are doing the same?
We set 1 hour of work daily (secondary - core subject) with deadlines and a feedback process… I think we get about 15-20% of the kids doing it with any kind of regularity. The rest are AWOL and to be honest I don’t really blame them – we are in a particularly deprived area and frankly most of the kids will have had bigger issues to deal with. I’m still working flat-out full-time but most of my energy is now going in to planning for next year in an attempt to bolster the gaps for all the students and not bore the ones who DID do the work.
Interestingly, we have had a few cases of parents sending rage-filled emails to school because little darling hasn’t got enough work to complete… they’ve ALL been kids who have regularly failed to submit work and been contacted regularly by their teachers but ignored the emails…
2 Likes
Central Gliding School resume operations today.
This is the first step to glider recovery (again) so pleased to see this.
At least we know how to recover from a pause now 
4 Likes
Makes sense, they have to open up to get the glider tech logs ready for the sale…
1 Like
So just having a flick through the ‘Return to Sqn parades How-To guide’ and already amazed to see that we’ll be limited to a maximum of 13 cadets and 2 CFAV at any one time. Also looks like a return to face to face won’t be until October at the earliest, not September.
This isn’t a surprise to anyone.
My cadets will be more upset about canteen not being permitted going forward
1 Like