How will schools be able to go back in September? (Continued)

Smacruairi wrote: »

I'll be brief because I do agree with you, and that's why I posted parents as partners. What I meant is, you don't post 1/2 of a plan. You say we are working towards x and then communicate again if there are road blocks that we can't overcome or when it has been achieved.

To give an example, we published our provisional response after the guidelines were issued. We were then given a laundry list of questions from parents about x y z scenario. Some of these couldn't be answered yet as they required time to work out (Eg our own mask policy which parents were divided on as you can see from this thread itself). We put 3 days into the legalities of changing policies for masks etc, how they would be implemented and supplied, and then the govt went and just changed the rules publicly, despite giving us no warning that they would do so.

Thus all im saying is, people sometimes want a snap answer. And I can understand why, but that snap answered ruined the leaving cert this year,affecting many many students futures this year, and in my opinion, not for the better. Sometimes,you just need some trust and to give schools some time,especially when there are things going on that you're told you can't announce yet. Channels of comms are vital I agree, but when the DES are brutal with schools, we are trying our best with parents, and they need to direct more of that frustration on their td and the DES imo.

Thanks for the reply. I think most if not all parents would of course direct their frustration where it's more due, but what I'm trying to point out here is parents are literally in the dark about the challenges here. School principles by the sounds of it and certainly in our case, aren't communicating to parents at all. A little reassurance would go a long way for starters, as you say they're vital and even more so especially when its becoming clear (from this thread, not from communication to parents) that the plan is unworkable in schools. So parents don't know this yet. And the only frustration right now is the lack of communication which is down to the principles not stepping up that "vital" part.

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

small cramped classrooms with 25-30+ students in them so zero social distancing really. Students are to move from class to class so no social distancing in between classes in tight corridors. Practical subjects are going ahead as normal so all the equipment will be shared. No plan in place for a lot of high risk students and staff. Up until yesterday PPE was not happening, but i think its sort of happening now maybe. Full numbers in schools as normal. School buses are going ahead but students must wear masks. No plan in place for temperature checks or testing of staff/students. This is all post primary and i am sure there are other holes in the 'plan'

Isn't it more than this, though? I'm hearing and learning mostly from this thread - thanks to the teachers and administrators on it - that there is a shortage of teachers and substitutes. We also know that there is no nationwide developed school curriculum for online or otherwise. Sickness will happen on top of existing vulnerabilities which will leave our children at a major disadvantage. Think some teachers can't/won't return and some students too.
The letter forwarded from the school late last month from the DES says there has been a 376 million euro package to support the changes needed. We've heard from people in the school system on this thread that the requests for this money to make the necessary changes are supposed to go through an online app system which isn't even in place yet. Do I understand that correctly? There won't be time to make the necessary structural changes or anything else such as installed sanitisers or hand washing sinks. It allowed money for hiring extra teachers but it sounds like there are no extra teachers to be had.

So if I understand it right, the guidelines that have been released can't be implemented because the money that was announced for it is still tied up, and there is not enough time to meet the guidelines even if the money was there. There aren't enough teachers to support this plan and when the sickness starts hitting and necessary quarantines there is also no nationwide school curriculum to fall back on.

I also think that studies are showing that younger school children can pass on the virus at same rates as adults, they just tend to be more asymptomatic and struggle less with their own health. But that means the teachers are very vulnerable as are the homes they go back to. Yet no masks required for primary students, classrooms are not big enough for social distancing, and there is no blended learning curriculum developed so at least parents of vulnerable children or who are vulnerable parents themselves can homeschool.

Please correct or add to anything in my post if I've gotten it wrong or left something out! This is my point- struggling to understand what our challenges even are if we the parents are left in the dark. You can't advocate for what you don't know.