UK schools closed from Friday

[cdgoodwill]

Just announced by Boris, so all UK countries now close schools.

Exams in May and June are also cancelled, however Boris said students "will get the qualifications they deserve". Whether that means predicted grades or mock results, we'll have to wait and see.

Slight asterisk on the school closures as well, children of NHS workers or children with education support plans or similar plans may still have to go into school, just to be looked after while parents work.

[evensteadiereddie]

It all seems fair enough.

[Somethingfishy]

A good way to get around the issue of essential staff not having to go off work to look after kids. However, my wife works in a supermarket and our usual outlet of my daughter going to her nans to be looked after will be frowned upon. Many supermarket workers will now have to come off work to look after their kids..this at a time when supermarkets are running like it is Christmas and it is every hand to the pump.Surely they should be classed as key workers at this point?

[HieronymousBoschHobs]

I know there are a few teachers on here. Have you heard anything on the grapevine about how students will be assessed if exams are cancelled? I heard it could be teacher assessment but not sure what that will involve. I think predicted grades would be very unfair on some A Level students, especially now that the qualification is no longer modular.

[J50]

I would've thought predicted grades would be the way ahead surely? Mocks are irrelevant, revised for in a much shorter space of time and difficult to take seriously for many. Also I know that son's school - which is very selective academically - marks end of year exams and mocks very harshly. Son would be gutted if they used mocks as in a couple of them he was as low as a B so I hope they don't use them FFS.

[Herts Clarets]

Bit of a rocky road ahead. My wife heads up a dedicated autism unit within a EBD school in Hertfordshire. At present they will still open due to the needs of the pupils. My daughter is due to sit GCSEs this Spring and is dyslexic so needs all the support available.

And I manage a team of 30 drivers and delivery vehicles for Hertfordshire County Council delivering to schools, colleges and other council and not for profit businesses. We cover Herts, Beds, Bucks, Essex, Suffolk, Kent as and London with dedicated vehicles. We also acquired the County Supplies business of Nottinghamshire CC and have a team of 8 based there that I manage remotely.

School closures are going to impact all areas of our family life....

[TheFamilyCat]

I did wonder what the impact of having no exams might be; would they be delayed etc. My wife works in the college and as well as the immediate impact I was concerned that this would result in no intake of school leavers in September so it's a relief that they will get their grades and actually leave school.

[barba]

Bit of a rocky road ahead. My wife heads up a dedicated autism unit within a EBD school in Hertfordshire. At present they will still open due to the needs of the pupils. My daughter is due to sit GCSEs this Spring and is dyslexic so needs all the support available.

And I manage a team of 30 drivers and delivery vehicles for Hertfordshire County Council delivering to schools, colleges and other council and not for profit businesses. We cover Herts, Beds, Bucks, Essex, Suffolk, Kent as and London with dedicated vehicles. We also acquired the County Supplies business of Nottinghamshire CC and have a team of 8 based there that I manage remotely.

School closures are going to impact all areas of our family life....

I would hope that you and your wife would be classed as key workers and accommodation will be made at school for your daughter

[Inchy]

Both myself and my wife work in the NHS

Both our kids are in nursery. The Nursery isn’t sure what this means for them as they are not mandated to close. If they do close then the only way they will remain open for essential is if everyone still pays the money to send their kids there, which is unlikely.

If they totally shut shop I can palm the kids off on grandparents but that isn’t ideal. They are in there late 60s and although fit and healthy it will take its toll on them. My wife is a Parkinson’s nurse so will probably have to take time off to look after the kids. As I’m a critical care nurse I don’t expect to have many days off at all.

Boris needs to mandate it for nurseries as well

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

I know there are a few teachers on here. Have you heard anything on the grapevine about how students will be assessed if exams are cancelled? I heard it could be teacher assessment but not sure what that will involve. I think predicted grades would be very unfair on some A Level students, especially now that the qualification is no longer modular.

Teacher assessment I would imagine though nothing has been clarified.

[Rileybobs]

Both myself and my wife work in the NHS

Both our kids are in nursery. The Nursery isn’t sure what this means for them as they are not mandated to close. If they do close then the only way they will remain open for essential is if everyone still pays the money to send their kids there, which is unlikely.

If they totally shut shop I can palm the kids off on grandparents but that isn’t ideal. They are in there late 60s and although fit and healthy it will take its toll on them. My wife is a Parkinson’s nurse so will probably have to take time off to look after the kids. As I’m a critical care nurse I don’t expect to have many days off at all.

Boris needs to mandate it for nurseries as well

I’ve just had an email this past hour confirming that my child’s private nursery is closing from Friday in line with schools.

[nil_desperandum]

My daughter is due to sit GCSEs this Spring and is dyslexic so needs all the support available.

Just to clarify - all exams are cancelled. There's no perfect solution but the idea/ proposal that predicted grades based on mocks should be used is a terrible one.
Many students especially boys really "pull their socks up" after the mocks and many of the pupils attend booster sessions between mocks and the final exams and raise their grades significantly. There are many such pupils who have put in lots of extra time since Christmas and they would get no reward.
The other point is that Yr 11 pupils have been on a journey for 5 years now. Many of them love school and have made many friendships with pupils and staff. There's no continuation beyond Yr 11, and for them school life will end abruptly in 2 days.
Of course, schools may reopen before the summer, but if they do, how can you motivate these hardworking children when their results are already pre-determined?
I'm very concerned about this, and even more concerned about the significant number of children who are not cared for or fed properly at home and come from abusive backgrounds with feckless parents. School is their safe space and they are fed and supported there. I'm getting emotional just thinking about this.

[KateR]

it's going to be difficult for most teachers I would imagine, bad being coop up with young children needing attention and then those who have worked hard for upcoming important exams is a different challenge altogether.

I see the gamers appear to be in there element and several reports of games going down due to far to many users, of course this will be a mix of adults and school children off world wide. I was looking at a strange game on my sons computer last and he wasn't touching the key board, at the weekend he mention him and a few friends were going to load there own game on U-tube. I mentioned the game he up and that it looked like someone was playing it, yes of course he said, I'm just watching, I was confused and he said, I own this game!! I was really impressed, graphics were terrific, and mentioned it further about how proud I was of him, then he told me he meant he had bought the game so could watch while others played!, deflated me lol.

sorry about the rambling and the best of luck to all families with school age children and teachers, could definitely be the spring/summer of discontent

[jdrobbo]

Give me a normal day in my classroom, any day of the week. This is so desperately sad, albeit necessary.

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

Think everyone of us longs for a normal day at the minute.

[nil_desperandum]

Give me a normal day in my classroom, any day of the week. This is so desperately sad, albeit necessary.

Why are you so convinced that it's necessary? I can see arguments both for and against. On balance I'm against especially considering the devastating effects on our most vulnerable children. We already know how bad things are for them during the holidays. This will clearly be worse.

[HieronymousBoschHobs]

How are predicted grades calculated these days?

[arise_sir_charge]

I think the schooling for those of NHS Staff etc will be some form of pooled resource. It would make no sense to leave all schools open to accomodate smaller numbers.

I expect that this will all be clarified in the coming days.

Whatever your party politics, the government should be applauded for their handling of this under extreme pressure.

[ksrclaret]

I'm in shock to be honest. I expected closure but I wasn't prepared for exams to be cancelled. I've worked my A Level students so hard over the last 18 months and they'll be left thinking what was the point. Despite everything else going on, this will be a huge deal to them.

Johnson has still left us in limbo though. Are we definitely giving students a grade? If so, will it be a predicted grade? Will it be a target grade? Will it be a grade from their mocks? They are 3 very different things and will produce 3 very different sets of grades. Who knows. Hopefully we will get more information tomorrow.

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

Why are you so convinced that it's necessary? I can see arguments both for and against. On balance I'm against especially considering the devastating effects on our most vulnerable children. We already know how bad things are for them during the holidays. This will clearly be worse.

Social isolation can’t work if you still have teaching staff coming into daily contact with hundreds of children and their parents.

[Caballo]

Kids being unable to sit exams is not a new thing, it's just the scale that is unprecedented, they'll already have tried and tested methodology. My lad is in his final year at uni and I'm confident they wont let him down. Not sure about his employment prospects come June though, I feel a masters may be on the cards.

[HieronymousBoschHobs]

.

Whatever your party politics, the government should be applauded for their handling of this under extreme pressure.

Please don't politicise the thread. I will refrain from criticising the Tories if others refrain from praising them.

[KateR]

I'm in shock to be honest. I expected closure but I wasn't prepared for exams to be cancelled. I've worked my A Level students so hard over the last 18 months and they'll be left thinking what was the point. Despite everything else going on, this will be a huge deal to them.

Johnson has still left us in limbo though. Are we definitely giving students a grade? If so, will it be a predicted grade? Will it be a target grade? Will it be a grade from their mocks? They are 3 very different things and will produce 3 very different sets of grades. Who knows. Hopefully we will get more information tomorrow.

I hear you but surely it's not the PM, in this case he is listing to scientific and medical advice, which up and till now was keep schools open but has changed. He is not an expert on schooling and I would expect that certain defined school experts will be forking out the details of how exams will be managed, yes there is an argument to say that they should have known this time was coming and that the experts should have had the answers ready. However I expect it will be relatively soon hopefully by Friday so it can be disseminated within school time, this years exam takers will be a year that is well remembered. I would hope that the nurses being drafted in from there final year will all just be given a pass for actual work experience coupled with there previous learnings. Those in final years at UNI will have similar issues if not more for having a degree or doctorate awarded.

[TVC15]

I'm in shock to be honest. I expected closure but I wasn't prepared for exams to be cancelled. I've worked my A Level students so hard over the last 18 months and they'll be left thinking what was the point. Despite everything else going on, this will be a huge deal to them.

Johnson has still left us in limbo though. Are we definitely giving students a grade? If so, will it be a predicted grade? Will it be a target grade? Will it be a grade from their mocks? They are 3 very different things and will produce 3 very different sets of grades. Who knows. Hopefully we will get more information tomorrow.

At the moment the priority is of course the strategy to manage the virus. This means that in cases like closing schools and cancelling exams they haven’t worked out yet how it’s going to work. Even when they do because it will be something they will be pressured to come up with in days so there’s a good chance there will be scenarios or knock on impact they have not thought about.

I’m not sure there is any alternative than this crisis type policy making so don’t think we can be too critical. Many times in the past politicians have taken years to come up with policies and still make a complete mess of it.

[nil_desperandum]

Social isolation can’t work if you still have teaching staff coming into daily contact with hundreds of children and their parents.

Why would they need to come in face to face contact with parents?, and at present we're not having total social isolation with a significant number of people still going to work.
And as many have pointed out, not just me, it could lead to more problems than it solves.

[TheFamilyCat]

Both myself and my wife work in the NHS

Both our kids are in nursery. The Nursery isn’t sure what this means for them as they are not mandated to close. If they do close then the only way they will remain open for essential is if everyone still pays the money to send their kids there, which is unlikely.

If they totally shut shop I can palm the kids off on grandparents but that isn’t ideal. They are in there late 60s and although fit and healthy it will take its toll on them. My wife is a Parkinson’s nurse so will probably have to take time off to look after the kids. As I’m a critical care nurse I don’t expect to have many days off at all.

Boris needs to mandate it for nurseries as well

Like Rileybobs, I have also had an email informing me that my child's private nursery is closing. On reference to their cashflow, we have been advised not to amend or cancel direct debits and that the government have announced there will be financial support but there is no further details of this.

[arise_sir_charge]

Please don't politicise the thread. I will refrain from criticising the Tories if others refrain from praising them.

I think the clue is in me saying “whatever your party politics”.

This is no time for anyone to politicise any aspect.

My point is that the Government are, in my opinion, doing a great job under extreme pressure.

[J50]

How are predicted grades calculated these days?

When the lad started at senior school they did several tests (maybe Midsys or something like that) and from performance in that they were given expected grades for each subject... something about your level of results in the test being similar to others at the school previously who have gone on to achieve those grades. Every report has shown whether he's working at a level to get that grade or not.

I would've thought that if called on to predict grades now then they would use whatever info they have - exam performance at the end of last year, mocks, general work level etc. Plus there has been a couple of coursework type stuff already done and handed in, in music, history, language orals etc.

[HieronymousBoschHobs]

I think the clue is in me saying “whatever your party politics”.

This is no time for anyone to politicise any aspect.

My point is that the Government are, in my opinion, doing a great job under extreme pressure.

How is that not politicising the issue? If lots of people disagree because they have a different political view, then surely what you’re saying is political. ‘Whatever your party politics’ is just a rhetorical flourish. If you want to praise people, praise the health workers, the schools, even the cops. Just leave the Tories out of it because they are inherently controversial. I don’t want to derail threads but it’s not on and not the time to browbeat anyone who has a different view.

[aggi]

Why are you so convinced that it's necessary? I can see arguments both for and against. On balance I'm against especially considering the devastating effects on our most vulnerable children. We already know how bad things are for them during the holidays. This will clearly be worse.

There were various options for vulnerable children to stay at school (although I would suspect it won't capture all of them).

[Reb]

At Childline we are still going, albeit on a reduced service from 9.00am to midnight. For lots of kids this whole thing is very scary and can increase their vulnerability in other areas so please remind everyone that they can call/contact us online to chat through any worries.