COVID-19 Think this whole thing may go on a while...

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

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Well after our uni saying last week we would be business as usual for students from the end of September... today we were advised that probably most teaching will be online until January and could we please follow the "contingency decision making tree" (whoever designed that and thus named it needs a gentle slap upside the head I believe) to outline how we intend to deliver our courses online for half a year!
I feel this is really unfair on the students, they've been told it will all be fine and now staff are being told its not fine and btw could we plan how to perform 4 months worth of lab classes and field trips on video from our living rooms at our own expense and have that all in place in 6 days please?
Erm... only if you want me to teach "guinea pig feeding in plus-size sweatpants while drinking tequila" management bods :( which I doubt is worth £9k a year for an accredited science degree :(
 
Merab's Slave said:
So what you're saying is that the guidance is as clear as mud?
Click to expand...
Yes guidance from uni management is even less clear than from the government...
We are "business as usual" for any students wanting to pay £9k a year, but as a disclaimer in the small print this may involve "blended learning".
For academics, "business as usual" requires us to invent ways of doing our job from home in some way that will satisfy 300 students expecting laboratory classes and field trips, and "blended learning" seems to involve mixing enough coffee, alcoholic beverages and snack foods to give us the fortitude needed to reinvent applied science degree programmes we can deliver entirely from our living rooms...
I have ordered a new lap top and some new "business attire" consisting of baggy loungewear but aside from that I am struggling a bit with how to create an immersive graduate level laboratory experience in my kitchen! I could possibly recreate a virtual zoo trip consisting of guinea pigs, a tarantula, giant snails, and some garden insects...? And one of my colleagues has a horse and some sheep... Staff may be able to access campus facilities, but we have been told don't count on it, or if we can it might be for a couple of days only, and not if there is a second wave!
 
My advice to anyone sitting (sorry - NOT sitting) their A Levels this year would be to take a gap year. I’d hate to be a fresher paying all that money for a very poor experience.
 
VickiA said:
My advice to anyone sitting (sorry - NOT sitting) their A Levels this year would be to take a gap year. I’d hate to be a fresher paying all that money for a very poor experience.
Click to expand...
That would be my advice too, anyone considering uni could take a year out and do some community focused key work or volunteering, in the NHS or the social care sector or on a farm or in IT services, even take a job in a supermarket as they are all hiring and its secure employment the country desperately needs- then see how things look towards the end of 2020 if you want to go to uni and start in 2021!
Which isnt the official uni recruitment advice at all but I really dont think we should enroll any new students until we can prove we are delivering to the ones we already have...
 
Completely different but I've been into our school today, I work in reception/KS1. we've had to remove any soft cushions, toys, rugs, blankets etc, we've moved as much furniture as we can, turning it around etc as the children won't be allowed to use their trays etc. We've moved the tables to see how we can accommodate 15 children and it is tight, we've got them sat far enough apart but the teacher will be in the furthest corner of the room, I then asked where does the TA work from? If you walk between the tables you are in danger of breaching the 2mtr guidance. What if they need the toilet, how do we deal with them walking past each other? They won't be allowed to bring in a bag, only their lunch bag, coats will go on backs of chairs as they can't be spaced far enough in the cloakrooms. It looks like a badly laid out exam situation, I took a photo and the first thing my husband said when I got home was, how do you help them if they are stuck, eg maths, this number goes here and then this one under it, well you can't, it will all be taught from the front of the room and that's it.
It feels really wrong, we were taking everything away that makes a primary school the welcoming place it should be.
 
This sounds crazy and quite daunting especially for the children. If someone is vulnerable and shielding will the children go to school? I really hope this pandemic doesn't last forever.

My wedding is in July, I think a socially distant wedding will indeed be interesting and some masks to, a whole new look for a 2020 wedding. It's just as well I'm not crazy about the wedding situation and that everybody was accomadating to the 1st cancellation. Will it be 2nd time lucky or perhaps it'll be Third.
 
And an update from Liverpool primary schools, letter sent out to parents at 6pm today: they will NOT be reopening on June 1st nor in the forseeable future until they believe it is safe to do so!
In Liverpool the R number is still not below 1 despite what politicians are seeing in London so at the request of concerned parents and on the advice of the regional Mayor, Liverpool council have decided to move to Wales which is much nicer than London anyway and we should all STAY HOME STAY SAFE not go to school or work :) so there Boris!
 
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