Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) General Secretary Michael Gillespie
This morning.
About that Leaving Cert…
“Our expectation is that the exams will go ahead – we think it’s very important that the exams go ahead.
“Maybe the mocks should be delayed and they do not need to be as big a priority given the situation we find ourselves in. They are a moveable feast.”
“Orals and practicals take place much later in the year and we would hope that by that time, the very high risk students and teachers will all have had their vaccinations.”
Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) General Secretary Michael Gillespie on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland earlier.
Meanwhile…
A proposal to close schools for the rest of January, due to rising Covid-19 infections, will be considered later this afternoon by the Government’s Cabinet sub-committee on coronavirus.
The three Coalition leaders and at least six ministers will participate in the deliberations.
However, a final decision will only be taken at a full Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
TUI expects exams to go ahead, says mocks are ‘a moveable feast’ (RTÉ)
It is a sign of yet more government incompetence that they did not react to last year’s cancellation by introducing more continuous assessment for this school year. Had they done so there would be less pressure on the need for final exams.
If the schools stay closed for the next few weeks they should stay open in the summer so students can catch up.
So teachers take their holidays now? No remote learning for two months and then stay open for July and August? And then straight back into school for September ?
What if they are physically closed but teaching online?
how much of that actually happened in April and May ?
I have no idea. Do you have information on it? Any reports from the Dept. of Education for example?
I know my own kids had school work every day through the first lockdown and I imagine that schools have more experience with the online learning tools now than they did back then.
I thought so too and expected the school go straight into remote learning mode.Not so.Principal wads asked today can we expect schooling to continue remotely. He replied “Thank you for your email. We are awaiting government announcements about schools reopening & will be communicating following any announcements.” They are sitting on their holes for now.
I know my daughter’s school were sending work through to mid June via email and Seesaw last lockdown. It has been policy in her school since October to make sure each student is doing one piece of homework online/via Seesaw per week, just so they remain familiar with the practice of it.
I’m hoping if the schools do have to lockdown again that it won’t be such a difficult transition.
They are lock downed since yesterday.I presume your kids are in ET
The schools don’t know anything yet Morning George. They don’t get to make the call but I wouldn’t be so sure that they are sitting on their holes. I know teachers who are prepping work just in case they need to go back to online learning. They’re not going to say that publicly of course because that suggests to parents that the schools staying closed is a done deal and they just don’t know if that’s what will happen.
Schools are currently locked down.
The schools are not locked down since yesterday and are not currently locked down.
They are locked down Josephine.Currently closed.
Kids weren’t meant to be back in school til 6th Jan, which has since been pushed back to 11th Jan. So no, not locked down.
And in case I’m not being clear, by locked down I mean the schools are closed for months, as was the case from March 2020 to September 2020.
Yup, our school has been using seesaw since September to send homework home, and accept (some) of their homework.
In March we got daily YouTube videos done by the teachers.
I expect our school to contact us tomorrow once a decision has been made by the Department about what happens next week.
The schools are on their Christmas holidays, not locked down.
They were due back tomorrow but the holidays have been extended by 3 days.
Ok Josephine
‘A moveable feast’ is a pretty great line, in fairness
I suppose the only silver lining to this cloud is that it’s too cold for teachers to sit in their back gardens getting a suntan.
And with all the pubs and restaurants shut they can’t pop out to enjoy a nice lunch being waited on by staff whose children are unable to attend school because it’s too dangerous for the teachers to work.
You reckon the teachers are going to give up a single day of their summer holidays ?
As an Englishman you know full well the Brits and Irish usually opt for the healthy glow of a decent spraytan.