And similarly I am not very familiar with the workings of a special school. However I can tell you at my kids creche today there are 8 children in the room with 2-3 staff. They are there from 8am-6pm. They will be changing nappies, feeding them, picking them up when they cry and everything else you would expect. The kids are coming from 8 different homes, so I’m not sure the bus issue is as great as you portray. The one major difference is the creche staff would be on furlough if they were not at work
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Government and unions hammering the shit out of each other on all airwaves today. We’re at breaking point lads
In fairness if this goes on much longer its a strike and they should be on strike pay. It would definitely get sorted very quickly if teachers weren’t on full pay. That’s just human nature. I’d actually say the vast majority of teachers would have sucked it up and gone ahead on Thursday if they had to.
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But those teachers are providing online teaching to the special needs kids. Say the government opens the schools Thursday, does that mean all those in SNUs have to go back? If parents want to keep their child at home, does the teacher continue the online teaching? But goes in to do face to face with those in school? What about the teachers who do mainstream with special needs kids? Do they need to do face to face too? Or online while the kid is in school?
That’s fair enough. I was talking about teachers generally as opposed to special needs when talking about the risks to creche workers.
Online is a waste of time at primary level. It’s a cop out really.
The special needs kids should come in for an hour a day each.
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I disagree. I’ve a young lad in 5th class and he Is getting plenty work. Keeps him and at least one parent busy from 9 to 1 or 2. Varied and imaginative stuff being covered. Not as good as real school but way better than nothing. His teacher is obviously putting a serious effort into it.
On a less positive note the whole class were in a Google Meeting yesterday and it was hacked. As far as I can gather it was an Indian Couple going hard at it while an Indian accented voiceover said something along the lines of “fuckety, fuck, fuck, fuck.” No more Google meetings.
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Fucking teachers.
Don’t forget Naby lad
Home schooling is not really a runner for a lot of kids with autism. Everything in my fellows world is very compartmentalised. He does his schoolwork no problem in school, he’ll do the small bit of homework he gets from time to time in the 10 or 15 minutes straight after he comes in the door after school, other than that home is not associated with school work so it doesn’t happen.
We’re not particularly concerned about the academic (if you want to call it that) side of things over a short to medium term period. That will sort itself out. Its the structure and the routine which the school environment provides which leads to the complete breakdown in behaviours and their lives in general.
There is little or nothing to provide structure in his life with swimming pools and nearly all other outlets closed. Plenty of walking with the guide dog, but that’s out the window when its pissing rain non stop for two days. Other kids suffer as well, as he’s effectively one and one 24/7 at the moment, because he’s so out of sync, disoriented and upset, so home schooling is only happening on a very minimalist level with the other two.
Loss of life skills invariably follows on when they’re highly stressed and pressurised. Loss of toileting is probably not too far away at this stage.
In my book, SNA’s and Special Needs teachers provide an essential front line service. The longstanding advice from NPHET and the medical experts (despite their prophecies of doom just about everywhere else) is that the schools are safe to open and children provide a small risk of spreading. That should be the start and the end of it. Do we shut down other front line services like hospitals, creches or even minimum wage workers in Tesco and Dunne Stores?
John Boyle and all those other dickhead union leaders in the INTO should be front runners for next January’s COTY.
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Fair enough there is a very varied quality being provided. It’s a waste of time for younger kids definitely.
A court challenge may have to be brought at this stage. Government in blatant breach of constitution on this one.
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A couple of thoughts:
@binkybarnes correctly points out the raison d’etre of the Unions is to maximise their power to force decisions their way and to elbow their way to the top of pay queues etc. Fair enough. The “think of the kids” stuff out of them the whole time whether it’s this, pay/conditions etc is fairly vomit-inducing though. It only ever is about self-interest for the teachers. Everything else is noise and quickly thrown overboard if it doesn’t fit with their needs.
Obviously that’s the unions and lots of teachers would be far less cuntish then the unions. You’d often hear that opinion expressed by individual teachers and I’d suspect in staff-rooms that it’s the same hardline headbangers who set the union ideas. That being said, if you’re a member of a union and you’re happy to go along with what they do and how they do it then suck it up - thats how you’ll be perceived rightly or wrongly.
While the teaching unions do what the teaching unions do it doesn’t absolve the department civil servants and the minister (and the previous minister) who have been behind the curve on this since the start. The level of both operational and political ineptness seen over the last year is setting a standard even by Irish levels.
Which brings me to my solution - seeing as the Dept are clearly shit at their jobs and seeing as the teachers are always keen for money - why don’t they sack the entire dept, formally place the unions in charge (seeing as they’re running the show anyway) and spread the cash around. Simples.
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Hopefully your young lad can enjoy the aussie open when it starts. I remember you detailing he enjoyed the tennis.
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Don Thornhill was a very strong and long serving Secretary General of the Department of Education. There’s been a real leadership vacuum there since he departed. A succession of hopeless Ministers hasn’t helped either.
education was also recently stripped of some very capable staff as theyve been sent to harris’ new makey uppy dept.
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I’d say if you were a capable or ambitious civil-servant you’d run a mile from the likes of Education if possible. I’d say they’re openly mocked by the likes of finance etc
theyd rank ahead of the likes of culture, health, social welfare and worst of all, the fart sniffers in iveagh house
I’m nearly sure the INTO leadership was very close to agreement on reopening this week but changed stance from pressure from grassroots members. I believe tension was palpable at the department webinar this week. I think the INTO may become more militant after this.
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I never said anything remotely like that