DFE tells schools prepare for the worst.

[3asAbird]

www.tes.com/news/covid-schools-told-plan-more-remote-learning

Feeling so cross why allow schools to stop masks on may 17th.
When Hancock knew the delta varient was present in April 2021.

School outbreaks my councils 46 this week and a fair few in neighbouring county with some schools fully shut.
Lots senior transition days and inter sports tournament cancelled.

We know from Kent alpha varient took a few months get really bad.
Some say 6 week break act as firebreak.
I am bot so sure as people will travel and mingle and in some cases School maybe mirror community transmission which is on the rise.

I wish having would go for starters.
They said they making education a priority back in march.
This term has been rubbish for many.
I have no faith that autumn term be any different.

No mitigation measures on ventilation
No masks or compulsory testing.
No smaller class sizes.
No vaccines for under 18s.

[noblegiraffe]

They’ve published this framework way too late. Local areas have already been reintroducing measures like onsite testing and masks, and rumour has it that the DfE have been telling LAs to do it, but unofficially. No idea why they couldn’t have had a clear plan of controls available when schools re-opened in March.

Oh yes I do, actually. It’s because the DfE are fucking useless and the government didn’t want to admit it might be needed.

[WaverleyPirate]

The epic failure of Gavin Williamson.

[newnortherner111]

@WaverleyPirate no the epic failure of Boris Johnson, to not put India on the red list. A man who is only ever on time at his own wedding.

The second failure of Mr Johnson is appointing Gavin Williamson to the post.

[StyleAndLasers]

DS’s whole year group is currently self isolating.

[Appuskidu]

@StyleAndLasers

DS’s whole year group is currently self isolating.

My youngest’s whole year is out as well.

[SonnetForSpring]

They say they are going to move to testing instead of isolating.

[4PawsGood]

This is in the case of local outbreaks though. I think your title is a bit alarmist.

[Appuskidu]

@SonnetForSpring

They say they are going to move to testing instead of isolating.

I would imagine that will make the situation in schools a whole lot worse.

[4PawsGood]

And I’m not seeing ‘plan for the worst’. It says

“Covid: Schools told to plan for more remote learning

DfE also asks schools to draw up plans to bring back virus testing sites and to reintroduce face masks.

The DfE have told schools to prepare to restrict attendance, reintroduce testing and bring back masks in classrooms in case it is decided this is needed in their areas
Schools have been told to ensure they have plans in place to be restrict attendance and reintroduce asymptomatic testing sites in case this is needed in their local area to combat Covid.“

[cantkeepawayforever]

We also have to remember that the Government NEVER used the last contingency framework.

It simply kept everything open - with chaotic, widespread and repeated class, year group and school closures that meant some children only had a couple of weeks of f2f education during the Autumn - but no data collection (to ensure that the extent was not made public) - until all schools had to shut after being open for 1 day in January.

The Contingency Plan has an almost-sensible staged response (well- in patches: the statement that primary schools should be open to R., 1 and 2 but close other year groups makes infection control in infant schools a little unusual!). That almost certainly means it will never be looked at again.

[BlackeyedSusan]

Isn't it traditional in these threads for someone to come on and say:

"Well it's alright in my school"

We have just heard about a second case since March, and for a change my kid's aren't effected. (They were in the first) so for a change my school isn't doing so badly. Maybe because it was horrendously effected in the Autumn term and ds lost 6 weeks of education to covid isolation and the school had to close for a week

So: it's ok in my school

but it doesn't mean it's fucking ok everywhere else

[cantkeepawayforever]

Schools are ANYWAY prepared for remote education switching on and off at a moment's notice - every school is a single positive Covid test away from having to provide remote education immediately for anything from 1 (a child isolating due to Covid in their household) to whole year groups of pupils. I have to keep my mobile on my desk at school so that I can get the text that will tell me to e.g. immediately send my class home and switch on remote education, or to deliver remote learning for a child not coming in that day, just as I have since September.

[cantkeepawayforever]

(One of the most stressful parts of this year has always been the double-planning and double delivery - that at any moment, with an absolute maximum of 24 hours' notice and usually less, any lesson planned could have to be delivered in person, remotely, or a mix of the two. Getting an e-mail at 8.30 that a child is absent and needs remote education from 8.45 that day is, for example, entirely normal now)

[WaverleyPirate]

newnortherner

Agree. Epic failure of Boris Johnson too.

They completely stuck their heads in the sand about schools. It's in our school now.

[WaverleyPirate]

I'm not a teacher or in education, but anyone with eyes or ears could see this building up.

[cantkeepawayforever]

Those saying 'there are no Covid cases in my school' will be completely unaware of the children absent due to Covid in the household or contacts outside school, who do not affect anyone within the school BUT who need full time remote education nevertheless.

[ICECream821]

They need to keep kids in school and close contacts do daily LFTs. With vaccine rates high and low hospital admissions they really need to push to the end of term.

I’m so fecking pissed off with the PM and Gavin Williamson - hopeless bunch absolutely hopeless - all the pressure is on the LAs

[ChloeDecker]

I feel ever so much for the young people who are currently having to self isolate and receive remote learning and for the staff self isolating and delivering. They are victims of poor decision making from the government, from poor guidance delivered by Gav and his civil servants and from a community who couldn’t care less as long as it doesn’t happen to them.

If I hear one more time ‘children are at zero risk from Covid’ so let’s continue as normal there is no zero risk with the complete lack of acknowledgment of the disruption closed schools and self isolation causes our young people’s education…..

We want to keep children in school. Help us achieve that!

[cantkeepawayforever]

@ICECream821

They need to keep kids in school and close contacts do daily LFTs. With vaccine rates high and low hospital admissions they really need to push to the end of term.

I’m so fecking pissed off with the PM and Gavin Williamson - hopeless bunch absolutely hopeless - all the pressure is on the LAs

LFTs have a false negative rate, in the best case, of 50% (ie those who have Covid and would test positive on PCR would only come out positive on LFTs half the time).

Early in an infection, or in a case that will be asymptomatic throughout, that false negative rate is much higher - in fact it is thought that some asymptomatic cases would NEVER test positive on LFTs despite it being known that they can still spread the disease.

In a class of 30 in a primary school, say case 1 actually infects 4 children (a conservative estimate, given that i think the estimated infectivity rate for Delta is over 6). 2 of these, at best, may test positive on LFTs on Day 1. The undetected 2 can then infect 4 more each, so you now have 10 infected children in school. 5 of these will test positive - if we are REALLY lucky, the original 2 will have higher viral loads so they may now test positive, so let's be really optimistic and say 6 test positive - both the original 2, plus half of the new cases.

4 are left in school - remember that school is a ovid-unsafe environment, and these chidlren spend 6 hours a day in close proximity, sharing the same space and oten physically ouching one another when seated due to space constraints.

They infect 16 more (4 each), of which in the most optimistic case, 8 will be detected...

You can see how this goes. If LFTs had a tiny false negative rate, then they would be really good in this scenario ... but sadly they don't, having a HUGE false negative rate, especially early in an infection which is when you most need it to be accurate in order to nip infections in the bud.

The MHRA declared the original DfE plan to test instead of isolating far too dagerous to consider, and there are no new tests and little new evidence to change that position. There have been trials running, through a period of low community infection, but that is not the scenario we are now in.

[sirfredfredgeorge]

We want to keep children in school. Help us achieve that!

Then we need to close pubs etc., close the places there are community spread, it's not possible to have schools open if there are any appreciable number of cases in the community.

The accepting of community spread, but isolating entire schools and groups is the problem.

[borntobequiet]

We want to keep children in school. Help us achieve that!

Now now, Chloe, you know that a number of people will read that and the words they hear in their head will be we want to close schools forever. Then they will accuse you of saying that.

[ChloeDecker]

@borntobequiet

We want to keep children in school. Help us achieve that!

Now now, Chloe, you know that a number of people will read that and the words they hear in their head will be we want to close schools forever. Then they will accuse you of saying that.

Bring it on

[noblegiraffe]

They need to keep kids in school and close contacts do daily LFTs.

They’re not approved for that purpose. People are pushing for this without evidence that it won’t actually make things a lot worse.

It is notable that in outbreak areas LAs are insisting that all close contacts (and sometimes all pupils) take PCRs. They know LFTs aren’t sensitive enough.

(Requesting close contacts take PCRs is something I’ve been going on about for months…it’s like they finally read my posts)

[cantkeepawayforever]

I suppose what I am saying is that schools have HAD to prepare for the worst, every day, from the start of September.

No-one has stopped preparing for the worst, because no-one actually working in a school could be unaware that they are 1 case away from remote learning, or that they work in a Covid-unsafe environment.

The DfE, by updating the contingency framework, are simply admitting publicly what everyone in schools has always known, and already been doing.

[ChloeDecker]

@sirfredfredgeorge

We want to keep children in school. Help us achieve that!

Then we need to close pubs etc., close the places there are community spread, it's not possible to have schools open if there are any appreciable number of cases in the community.

The accepting of community spread, but isolating entire schools and groups is the problem.

Spending money on appropriate ventilation from the start and building/site spaces for some sort of distancing, increasing members of staff to help more cover/take over etc and not removing the mask requirement in most schools could have gone a long way to keeping more children in school, even with pubs open in their current guise.

Better to spend billions on failed and unused PPE to their mates though. Not sure what we expected though, when our government runs the country via Whats App.