When 21 month old granddaughter needed a test we were given Birmingham as nearest option - 138 miles away. We then went back and said that we didn't have a car and would need a walk in option. This resulted in Bedford - 70 miles. Still not much fun. A 3 hour round trip past her bedtime to have a not enjoyable test experience (In her words after my husband had performed the swab whilst my daughter pinned her down. "Granddad NOT funny"). She tested negative of course. The alternative was for all of us to self-isolate for 14 days as it was a bank holiday weekend so by the time we had received an at-home kit it would have been to late to use it.
If we have symptoms we are not telling anyone, no way are we going to the other end of the country when we are feeling ill putting even more people at risk. If it turns into full blown COVID we’ll call an ambulance.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I see the first fine has been issued for someone failing to self-isolate after returning from holiday in Spain. They went out socialising and then had a positive test result afterwards Other people are complaining that they had to cut holidays short and pay for expensive flights to come home early to avoid isolation that would have meant their kids missing school.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
I heard that David Ike and his followers said the virus was a hoax brought about by the government to make firms go bust. I did actually mee a guy a few weeks back guessing he was early twenties who said the virus was a hoax because he didn't actually "know" anyone who had it!!!
The gov appeared to have the noblest motives when schools were closed and the kids then continuing the curriculum at home with home schooling. The gov didn't want the kids to suffer and the 'lesser' able kids to be left behind.
But hasn't home schooling then compounded that exact issue? Won't kids with 'attentive' parents and homes that could both afford time and resources to teach them have progressed further than those kids, who through no fault of their own, either come from a family where the parents are either less 'attentive' - or through no fault of the parents, just couldn't afford the time or resource.
I assume normal teaching tries to keep the kids all at the same level - and all going at roughly the same speed. Now the kids will be back after a lengthy period and will be at various levels within the curriculum. Presumably the first point is to assess where they're all at - and then try to bring them all back up to the same level before moving on. How is that now going to be addressed?
It seems on one hand that no home schooling may have been better that some 'unknown' level of home schooling - as the kids would just come back and continue from where they left off. But that means that all the kids would have 'n' months learning to catch up on - and the slower kids would also then suffer that way.
It seems like damned if you do and damned if you don't - it was always going to be a mess no matter what.
Until the kids are back there's no way of really knowing where they're at with their learning. Those schools that have used Teams etc do at least know about a basic level of engagement, as they will know who logged in for lessons, who submitted work, and of course what that work was like. The term my kids' school is using for the ensuing interventions is a 'recovery curriculum', which will be deployed as necessary alongside the standard curriculum. We'll see how it goes.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
Posts
If it turns into full blown COVID we’ll call an ambulance.
The figures are bound to go up and down especially as we try and get back to work,school,uni etc.