Just in case you don't know - if kids in school refuse to take lateral flow test NOTHING HAPPENS

[LaurieFairyCake]

They just go into lessons like normal

Schools not allowed to send them home

Dh has had 30 parents so far email in to say they don't consent for their children to be tested

And as for masks (compulsory now) - yeah, schools are allowed to make it a rule but they're NOT allowed to exclude them if the don't

Are we all reassured by this utter bullshit?

Nope, thought not

Definitely not sarcasm

It's literally been the only highlight in his day over the last few weeks

Obviously some of them have been in school and the parents have gone in to try to give it a go

They will be sent home if symptomatic. Anyone with a mask will be protected if there are students at school while unsymptomatic. The school should have regular touch point cleaning to support this.

Stop panicking.

I really dont get the need for testing school children other than to appease the unions. Virtually all elderly and vulnerable people should have had their first vaccination by now, and if it works then this will not prevent others from getting covid, but reduce symptoms so that people are not seriously ill or die. Isnt that the goal? Not to elimate illness completely but reduce hospital admission. If so, why arent we tackling the fact that huge numbers of people die of sepsis each year ?

Group 6 are classed as clinically vulnerable. Vaccinations STARTED for this group on 19th February. This means that no-one in Group 6 has the desire immunity from their vaccine yet as that takes 3 weeks. And many have not had their first vaccine at all.

@IndecentFeminist

That sounds pretty shit on the part of the school Mooncup. Anyone nigh on vulnerable on our staff hasn't been in at all.

They're not on the shielding lists and their jobs could not be done from home. And if everybody who was CV was at home now, when the kids are all in tomorrow, well, the school would still be closed because there literally would be;

Zero teaching assistants
One member of SLT
No head, no head's PA, no deputy head, two heads of year, no receptionists, no cleaners, no admin, one technician out of six, no catering staff, no site team to unlock the gate or switch on the heating/deal with breakages, 1 person in finance and about 1-2 teachers in per subject from departments of 7-15 staff. The Senco and safeguarding leads would also be absent. As would the exams officer, Admissions and all but one person who holds a first aid certificate. But they'd also need to teach 52 classes a week in the absence of the rest of the department, so they'd be too busy being in three places at once to be leaving classes unattended and taking temperatures and looking after kids whilst they wait to be collected.

We'd still have the IT manager, but great though he is at his job, he really wouldn't want to be in charge of 45 Y9s to carry out a socially distanced lesson on Crop Rotation in the 17th Century.

Oh, and nobody to run the LFTs at all.

They aren't being crap, they're a place who doesn't believe in getting rid of staff who are older, have been ill previously and will employ disabled staff for their abilities, not any perceived affect upon sickness absence rates (which is generally very low).

@crumpet

For the majority of children taking the test will be no big deal and so there is no real reason to take a stand and refuse. Obviously this doesn't apply to those where there is a particular issue. But grandstanding about it where there isnt an issue isn't very helpful

It will be financial reasons. A lot of people cannot afford to take ten days off work if their child tests positive and is asymptomatic. Ignorance is bliss.

That's truly amazing, that that many people have underlying issues to that extent. I work in a school too, which has staff who have been there for in excess of 25 years. But we still only had 3 out of 40 odd who needed to be at home. Not shielding, but concerned enough that the school suggested they stay at home.

@IndecentFeminist

That's truly amazing, that that many people have underlying issues to that extent. I work in a school too, which has staff who have been there for in excess of 25 years. But we still only had 3 out of 40 odd who needed to be at home. Not shielding, but concerned enough that the school suggested they stay at home.

I'm glad I got the chance to work there. A school that keeps their staff until retirement (and past it), one that doesn't insist upon churning their way through bright, young things at a rate of knots - and accepts that having conditions/disabilities doesn't make you (outside Covid, at any rate) a risk.

In the first lockdown, almost everybody was at home and it was essentially run by the Head in as much PPE as they could source, plus a handful of younger and not vulnerable teachers. two of whom are now pregnant

But this time round, it's not a few doctors' kids and some vulnerable children, it's the entire school coming back at once. They have to have the staff in to function.

But we do have significantly more than 40 members of staff.