ADs and their very long lists!

[LivinLaVidaLoki]

We were up to 999 posts so thought we needed a new thread!

Do we have anything reliable on that at the moment? In the summer term it was all 'children don't pass it to adults', has that been disproved now?

I used to be a teacher, btw, so I have sympathy. I just think that it's interesting to view it as a legal case. If a primary teacher's work environment is deemed ILLEGAL due to Covid safety, how many other work environments would be as well?

There is more an issue in schools now with the new variant as has a higher transmission rate. Even if schools don't close now, more are going to have a problem with more staff off sick, which I also assume will hit other places of work too if they don't have stringent rules in place.

There are quite a few of us who have been teachers on here.

If only that helped with home learning...

There is more association of teachers spreading to pupils because they talk face on to pupils with a projected voice (plus the inevitable spittle/aerosol)

Apparently DS1's teacher (y5) had a phase of wearing a mask in class which I didn't realise at the time. He couldn't hear her, and his processing is not great anyway. She's switched to a visor, but it still bounces your voice back. I find it draining if I have to talk while wearing mine.

DS2's teacher (y3) has kept her face bare

Both DCs are front row, which I'm glad about because I want their teachers to check that they're keeping up with what's going on (DS2 is on his own planet, I'm not fully convinced that he's NT... mother says he's exactly like me at that age and that gives me no confidence as I'm still on my own planet )

Children are less likely to show symptoms therefore less likely to spread than being symptomatic. They're more likely to show a range of mild symptoms common with any other winter bug rather than the classic temperature/ cough/ taste of adults and testing threshold.

I never was a great lover of the unions... when I did supply, there were several days of earning potential that I lost thanks to the NUT because schools don't take on supply on strike days to avoid being accused of undermining striking staff.
Shame they weren't this vociferous about all the stupid curriculum changes on no budget, and exponential growth of workload.

There do seem to be quite a high number of community acquired cases associated with factor outbreaks e. g. the Coupar Angus one (27 non emoyees) although these could obviously be household contacts.
Most of the factories I have been in this year have pretty good controls, in line with current guidance and staff seemed compliant. They are still catching it though.
However there are often large numbers of employees in shared housing, shared lifts to work (although this is obviously discouraged) and high use of agency staff. So there are additional factors at play.
However ambient factories seem to have mainly avoided it over the summer, but are starting to get cases now.

@ineedaholidaynow

There is more an issue in schools now with the new variant as has a higher transmission rate. Even if schools don't close now, more are going to have a problem with more staff off sick, which I also assume will hit other places of work too if they don't have stringent rules in place.

Which is why I can see a point in localised management-at that point learning is getting highly likely to be disrupted anyway. Better to have a few days notice than yo-yoing in and out without warning at that point.

All of London I can grasp (undermined by the U-turn over areas like Greenwich ) but the rate is not universally hign across the whole blooming country. Our rates are currently back where they were when we went to tier 2 in October. Much of the Midlands and North have already had a peak and subsided so it's not automatic that we immediately replicate the data in London. The virus numbers have behaved differently in different regions.

A couple of months ago, DH had a site visit cancelled that morning... his suspicion was correct as revealed by the local paper some days later.
They manufacture cleaning products including hand sanitisers

I think the teachers in my DC's school are very sane! There have been no masks and visors, no refusing to open water bottles, etc.

DH has told the odd kid who puts on a mask in the playground to take it off!! Imagine what the Ds would make of that.

We've got it sorted that DC can go to school next week in the keyworker bubble (apparently they are having ca. 100/400 kids in). DH has been granted 3 days "extra onset" for planning and prep (they are a MAT do can do what they like...) and then he's going into school for keyworker bubbles so that he gets exempt from online teaching, lol. His school is huge, so his bubble will probably be similar age and therefore he can do a project with them (apparently they're going to do Vikings and get it to take in all core curriculum - though I'm not sure how maths will work, were the Vikings great mathematicians?).

My personal MN highlight of the week has been a D telling me that I can't do risk assessment properly and will therefore probably die

I'm sick of indoors and so are the kids. DH is quite happy, lol, but I've always suspected he might be a vampire or something.

I completely agree @BogRollBOGOF our school had one bubble go because the teacher had tested positive so it couldn't be staffed. Our figures in the community are well below the national average, so why the need to close all schools. Why not take a regional approach?

I assume one of the arguments is that the London Tier 4 Primaries are closed with a selection of other Tier 4 primaries but not all Tier 4, and I guess looking at some areas it went from very few cases to a large number very quickly. If you are is area with very few cases and schools go back as normal then suddenly the cases go crazy, you'll then get people saying why didn't they close the schools!

Tbh, I think we have to accept that schools will probably remain closed for the long term now. Our children's education is now in our hands.

In the spirit of 110APiccadilly's offer upthread, I used to be an osteoarchaeologist so I can teach a bit of human skeletal anatomy if any children are interested.

Thank you to those of you who have offered your expertise to be shared with the rest of us, that is very kind especially when one of you has a newborn baby @110APiccadilly! I have been to Poundland today to buy yet more arts and crafts stuff as my nursery and reception age children go through it like nobody's business! I have already had words with my year 6 child that she can not ignore her lessons like she did before- it's very difficult as obviously the younger 2 require so much more supervision.
Have muted another person on Facebook, I think she's a really nice person normally but her constant doom posting about schools is draining. @Jourdain11 that's a disgusting thing to say to anyone, I am sorry that they said that to you.

My son's school has had no burst bubbles and no cases that I'm aware of. We live rurally and its luck more than anything else that we've made it this far I suspect.

Still, I agree with the previous poster. It seems inevitable now that all schools will close at some point soon. We just need to make the best of things and not blame our children's teachers as it isn't there fault!

So how am I supposed to educate my children while at work all day?
It's not that simple thousands of people are still having to work.

The schools thing is going to highlight even more the division between those that have no childcare issues and those they can work from home with older DC versus those that simply cannot work at home given the age of the child and those that have to work outside of the home.

I don't have DC so this does not affect me but I can see the shit storm for my colleagues and friends that are impacted.

The thought of schools closing again makes me so very sad. I am tier 3 so still waiting to hear our fate after being told on Wednesday that our primaries are open as usual. I have a DD in reception, she's settled so well. You can't even begin to replicate reception online. I had DS1 (9) and DS2 (8) out of school last March to September. From June onwards I would drag a tearful DS1 out of bed every morning for yet another day of BBC Bitesize. DS2 disengaged from it all entirely. They just wanted to be in school. I also have to work 22 hours a week. I hopefully have a childcare bubble on standby this time which will maybe help in that they can mix with one other family. We have had no disruption in school from covid cases. We can muddle through two weeks, maybe even January at a push, and then it's not far off half term. Anything longer than that is unthinkable.

I am very lucky in that I can quite easily home educate. But I would like to know if you lovely lot have any ideas on how I can help those you mention, @2020BogOff.

Tbh I will not even attempt to home educate my reception age DS. There is no way I can make him log onto that seesaw app and engage with his teacher while also trying to work from home. It's impossible and I won't waste my time trying. It will be fine, we'll read and colour etc and that will have to be enough.

Ime, that is what they do in reception. Just add counting and you'll be fine

It's the uncertainty of it all that's driving me insane. As far as I know my child's school is back on Monday but there are so many rumours that it could all change at the drop of a hat I don't know what to think. Likewise nursery for the smallest, again it's opening as planned but we are all living on edge waiting.

If the smallest goes to nursery and the big one doesn't go to school I at least stand a chance of homeschooling. I never worked days anyway and now I'm on furlough I'm not working at all. However, if they are both off I stand no chance of homeschooling, I can't supervise a 3 year old and try to teach a 5 year old. So that's my child further behind than someone who has just one child and doesn't work. God knows how working parents are supposed to manage, we all know how "schools aren't childcare" but that aside, if someone is working they can't do that and educate so the kids aren't getting any kind of education. If supermarkets are essential then why can't schools be?!

If anyone gets stuck with "how the hell have they changed Maths" for infants - my knowledge is pretty up to date (despite being told I was a worthless supply on Another Place) and can probably explain what the fuck the worksheet is on about to people in words that make sense to people born in a previous century.

I think kids should be home schooled, but I'll outsource it to someone who knows what they're doing, and it'll be more efficient if they're in a room with, say, 29 other kids doing it all together.

I do have a maths question. I have a 5yo learning times tables. Is it better to teach like 3, 6, 9 etc. Or get her to say 1 x 3 is 3, 2 X 3 is 6 etc? DH thinks the latter as itll lead to quick responses on questions like what is 8 times 3.

It's physically getting two children to sit at the kitchen table in front of computers for any agenda that is not their own...

DS1 is pretty much up to my chin now, at 10 although he is slightly built I am definitely reaching my limit on carrying him and certainly not if he's not obliging for a laugh. DS2 is taking a bit of muscle power too.

I'm not sure how the logistics of them sitting in front of computers simulatneously works either. They both need hawk like supervision.
When they were doing Bitesize (because the work DS1's teacher sent was farcical) it doesn't matter about doing it in real time, whereas school's proposition about remote learning now, does.
If i had one isolating, it's much more viable. Both off? Pfft!

I can teach packs of y9

@Timmytimeout teach them as 1 x 3 2 x 3 etc, and once they get that do them in random order, they will recognise that 2 x 3 is the same as 3 x 2.

For those who struggle with the 'modern' way of teaching maths I got the book "Maths for Mum and Dads' to stop DS going 'we don't do it like that nowadays Muuum!'

@Timmytimeout I agree with your DH on the times tables question. Otherwise I'd say it's counting in 3s, which might be a useful skill, but isn't really times tables. I'm not an actual teacher though (not a school teacher, anyway) so this may not be current received wisdom.

I just feel sorry for the primary teachers and parents of primary children not knowing what is happening next week. I'm sort of fortunate to have secondary age (albeit one in exam years) and they are not back till the following week, and week after anyway. Fingers crossed.