King Street Cat wrote:Just not true. Which alternative reality do you inhabit?! https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision I am not saying this wasn't the guidance - the implementation was a very different situation. Are you seriously suggesting parents would rather do home schooling than send their kids to school and everything that went with that i.e. not being able to work or interruption to working from home - really? I would suggest it is you that is living in an alternative universe.

King Street Cat wrote:Just not true. Which alternative reality do you inhabit?! https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision I am not saying this wasn't the guidance - the implementation was a very different situation. Are you seriously suggesting parents would rather do home schooling than send their kids to school and everything that went with that i.e. not being able to work or interruption to working from home - really? I would suggest it is you that is living in an alternative universe.

Hang on Sal, you are re writing history.
It wasn't the teachers that closed the schools, it was a government decision.

As for private schools being old, maybe.
However, they are generally in good order and most importantly, they tend to have more space and fewer pupils.

I will admit to knowing very little about Eton, although I'm happy to take a gamble that their average class size is low 20's and much lower at A level.
Also, the kids, generally, are a little more compliant with the rules, with some exceptions.

Mind you ,even the private schools closed their doors initially, with only the kids of essential workers etc, attending.

As for your point about teachers "switching off" - you stone cold made that up However, I am accepting that there life would be a fair bit easier than their usual day, just as it is/was for most people working from home.

The lucky ones were furloughed and paid not to work at all but, I dont think that teachers were in this category.
I know that this wont stop you having a pop at them though.

I can't speak for parents of older children. I'm guessing many were quite fearful of a virus which was still largely not understood back then, and decided to keep them at home for health reasons.

I worked from home with my 3 year old in tow from late March to September. It drove me half mad, and with 3 weeks to go I'd hit a wall, but the alternative was to send her to nursery where she would be masked up, told where and where not to sit and stand, change her clothes 4 times a day, and have to wash her hands every time she touched something. Myself and my wife both qualified as key workers so could have sent her to nursery, but at the end of the day it was merely going to be childcare for 4 months, and I didn't think it was going to be a good first experience of something she had been so excited for. And why would I make her someone else's problem when I was working from home anyway? She's already advanced for her age. Missing out on 4 months of 'childcare' wasn't going to make a blind bit of difference to her development. Had she been older, we'd have probably let her go to school as a key worker kid.

Sal is another one of those who thinks people working from home were tossing it off all spring and summer. The clue is in the name - WORKING From Home. My job requires an end product to be presented or ordered. If I was getting email requests to produce outcomes, and not delivering them, my employers would soon figure out there was something not right when nothing materialised after the deadline. It seems like he's aiming his pop at people who were actually still working. Maybe it's the furloughed beer and barbecue crowd he should be aiming at?

But the, he would have to take aim at his friends, instead of local government employees. Those who were furloughed were on a good deal, getting paid for doing very little but, alas, many of them are now finding that the job that they had and probably expected to return to, has gone and their "time off" has been made rather more permanent.
Still, lets have a pop at the teachers, it's embarrassing.

Also, would the restrictions need tightening again if "we" hadn't moved circa 2,000,000 students back to Uni, all at the same time.
Yes, they may have missed out on some of the fun of "freshers" but, maybe, the need for tighter restrictions for everyone wouldn't have been so great.
There are literally 1000's of students who have tested positive and although most will be absolutely fine, this really does look like something that could have been done better.
Still, teachers are a soft target

Not that I'm aware of.

The Health Protection Agency was responsible for leading response to outbreaks of infection and planning for outbreaks of infection.

Well as you clearly haven’t bothered to read what I wrote not much point trying to converse with you

When did I say that - I had upward of 50 people working from home and still have quite a number given we have depots in critical infection areas. So I know my people were working equally as hard as if they had been in the office.

My staff were doing exactly the same job, the same hours as they would have been in the office - can you say the same for teachers? Kids access to lessons was reduced by c80% - there comes a point where you cannot defend the indefensible.

I guess that it depends what your staff are doing ??
Is there a direct comparison in their work and that of Teachers or, are you looking for easy targets again

One thing they weren't doing is teaching kids

They are easy targets because most took the money - they were paid 100% not 80% like most on the furlough scheme - and failed to offer our children a similar standard of education they should have expected.

As soon as it was time to return to work they and their union whined like infants about having to earn their money. If the government had done everything the union wanted kids would have never gone back to school.

As I have said you cannot defend the indefensible