Teachers' Strikes

[Guest sibon]

1 hour ago, Chekhov said:

We do loads of extra work with our lad, equivalent to way more than an extra week of school anyway.

 

>>reflects badly on the school's attendance figures<<

 

You are right about the inference, most of the parents I talk to think the schools are most bothered about this.

Don't get me wrong, I think kids should be at school for the maximum time, but, particularly if the child has an excellent attendance record anyway, I think penalising the parents for trying to save many hundreds of pounds on a holiday is disproportionate. Many parents would not be able to afford to take their kids away if paying full price, plus there are holidays (e.g. to the southern hemisphere) which it would be irrational to take in our summer (= their winter) so you would have to take them out of school because you would not go all the way to AUS or NZ for one week.

 

Why is it ?

Either kids have to be in school or people are fined (unless it's for them to miss 7 months of education for a virus which is of no danger to them.....), or not., Why just pick on the parents ?

 

[Annie Bynnol]

3 hours ago, Chekhov said:

We do loads of extra work with our lad, equivalent to way more than an extra week of school anyway.

 

>>reflects badly on the school's attendance figures<<

 

You are right about the inference, most of the parents I talk to think the schools are most bothered about this.

Don't get me wrong, I think kids should be at school for the maximum time, but, particularly if the child has an excellent attendance record anyway, I think penalising the parents for trying to save many hundreds of pounds on a holiday is disproportionate. Many parents would not be able to afford to take their kids away if paying full price, plus there are holidays (e.g. to the southern hemisphere) which it would be irrational to take in our summer (= their winter) so you would have to take them out of school because you would not go all the way to AUS or NZ for one week....

    A 100% attendance record cannot be excelled and is therefore excellent. Anything else is not excellent. It is impossible to  have 'excellent attendance' and be absent for a week. On top of the five days missed through holidays, there will be other days missed through no fault of the child. Starting  children off with a built in disadvantage is unfair on the child.

    There is nothing special about doing "...loads of extra work..." with a child, that is called normal. Parents can do this in many ways and it certainly does not have to be academic. 

     As usual it boils down to money. Because most parents are responsible enough not to withdraw their children from school it makes their holidays more expensive, some parents do put money before their child's education and benefit from saving money, they should consider the effect on the child on losing ten weeks of education in their school life.

     As some parents will put money and their own convenience first they are unlikely to consider the impact on the class -the other children, the teacher and the support workers. Of course it happens that a child misses a week through illness or some other legitimate reason and teacher the support staff will need to work with that child. This takes away from the teacher and the class assistant in performing their normal roles. That is a normal part of their job. But when some parents regularly remove children from school and expect time to be allocated their child to be helped to catch up they do not realize the exponential rise in time allocated to these children. Why should the other children lose out on support and enrichment  because some parents decide that their holidays are more important than their children's education?

 

[Chekhov]

On 27/01/2023 at 13:28, sibon said:

 

 

Troll finder :
"to antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content"
Antagonistic ?  Yes
Inflammatory ?  Probably 
Irrelevant ?  Obviously
Offensive ?  Not really (certainly lacking empathy for the kids and their parents though)
Disruptive ?  Yes

 

3.5 out of 5

[Chekhov]

21 hours ago, Annie Bynnol said:

   A 100% attendance record cannot be excelled and is therefore excellent. Anything else is not excellent.

So a 99% attendance record is not excellent ?

We will have to disagree.

But, using your criteria, with the teachers strike no child will have an excellent attendance record this year will they.....

 

And if 99% if not excellent, during the pandemic (when they shut the schools for a virus that kids were at no risk from), over two educational years, it would have been an average of maybe 65% ?

How bad is that ?

 

How much does it matter if kids are in school ?

The teacher unions (during the pandemic and the strikes) and the government (during the pandemic) were unequivocal : not that much (except when picking on an easy target, i.e. the parents)

[fools]

16 minutes ago, Chekhov said:

So a 99% attendance record is not excellent ?

We will have to disagree.

what percentage of your secondary school education was useful in later life.

[Chekhov]

2 hours ago, fools said:

what percentage of your secondary school education was useful in later life.

An impossible question to answer, particularly if one's education teaches one how to problem solve and/or develop a sense of curiosity and history etc.

On 27/01/2023 at 16:19, Annie Bynnol said:

    As usual it boils down to money. Because most parents are responsible enough not to withdraw their children from school it makes their holidays more expensive, some parents do put money before their child's education and benefit from saving money, they should consider the effect on the child on losing ten weeks of education in their school life

>>holidays more expensive<<

 

MUCH more expensive would be more accurate

 

>>benefit from saving money<<

 

It's not just about saving money, e.g. if one flies to the southern hemisphere.

And you are also forgetting the educational side of most holidays, even going to the States and Disneyland.

[fools]

27 minutes ago, Chekhov said:

An impossible question to answer, particularly if one's education teaches one how to problem solve and/or develop a sense of curiosity and history etc.

that's the sort of answer a teacher might give.

 

Curiosity and problem solving are innate characteristics of most living creatures. 5 year old's problem solve without any instruction

[Annie Bynnol]

1 hour ago, Chekhov said:

An impossible question to answer, particularly if one's education teaches one how to problem solve and/or develop a sense of curiosity and history etc.

>>holidays more expensive<<

MUCH more expensive would be more accurate

>>benefit from saving money<<

It's not just about saving money, e.g. if one flies to the southern hemisphere.

And you are also forgetting the educational side of most holidays, even going to the States and Disneyland.

   Disneyland is not educational. Parents could make a far stronger case for the educational value of a week in Mablethorpe or the Lake District than Disneyland. This just boils down to putting money before education.

[Mister Gee]

2 hours ago, fools said:

that's the sort of answer a teacher might give.

 

Curiosity and problem solving are innate characteristics of most living creatures. 5 year old's problem solve without any instruction

You’ll get there in a couple of years then?

[hackey lad]

2 hours ago, Chekhov said:

An impossible question to answer, particularly if one's education teaches one how to problem solve and/or develop a sense of curiosity and history etc.

>>holidays more expensive<<

 

MUCH more expensive would be more accurate

 

>>benefit from saving money<<

 

It's not just about saving money, e.g. if one flies to the southern hemisphere.

And you are also forgetting the educational side of most holidays, even going to the States and Disneyland.

Disneyland  😂😂😂