School closed until September.

[0None0]

That’s it for us. Everything was normal Thursday morning. It all started to go pear shaped Thursday afternoon. Friday the school was half closed. We were told earlier today that after a sudden flood of confirmed covid cases, the school is now closing fully. We won’t be reopening until September

@TeddingtonTrashbag

When the local school closed 2 year groups they were on the beach, in the shops and causing havoc skateboarding around Sainsbury's car park in groups of 20+

Some headteachers seem to be keener to close schools than others and if their pupils are like this you can see why that is…Guess if you are getting paid even if your workplace closes not a lot of incentive to keep it open, and deal with those pesky kids., unlike small businesses going under when they don’t deliver a service.

Head follow advice from PHE. That will depend on the circumstances of individual schools, including levels of ventilation, size of rooms, etc, and we were also asked what percentage of children in each year had recorded with the school that they had tested with a LFT in the previous week. Numbers of children wearing masks in each room

It isn’t anything to do with what the head wants, or the standard of behaviour in the children. Our children are very nice!

It’s to go with the spread of the virus

Yes. Those who were asking. My school had now been hit very hard 3 times.

Once last year, and we still have several young people in the MAT who have not recovered from catching covid in the first wave. They have been left with serious medical problems

The. We sailed through from autumn to Easter with few issues.

Now this. We were closed within 2 weeks of masks coming off. When we reopened, masks were being requested again. Most students complied, many didn’t. here we are again

Staff are getting vaccinated. We have an arrangement with a local clinic. They ring the MAT if they have vaccines left at the end of the day, and any school staff who can reach them within half an hour can go and get jabbed.

Even with this, and with people taking their turn in the national rollout, not everyone has been jabbed yet

And yes, staff who have been double vaccinated are still testing positive and being ill.

Thursday was one of the worst days I have experienced since the start of the pandemic but I’m not going to go into details again here. I described it in a thread at the time, and was comforted by getting a lot of support, abs hearing from teachers who had experienced similar, but there were a few ignorant fools coming into the thread trying to claim stupid things like the children were lying, or I had caused the symptoms in the children by ‘hysteria’ or ‘biting lessons’ - and you have to worry, what if people read posts from such people and don’t know any better, and think that might be what is happening in schools, rather than a dangerous virus is spreading….

*boring lessons, not biting lessons

NHS staff were told to turn the app off from the very beginning.

This situation impacts on all industries though doesn't it ? The hospitality sector are struggling due to staff being ill or having to self isolate or needing to be with children who are positive or have been told to self isolate. It will be the same across all sectors.

There definitely needs to be a plan on how to manage this situation in the future when children return to school after the Summer break. I wouldn't want the responsibility of devising that plan though, it will be unpopular whatever they decide.

I was listening to a Headteacher describing a pilot scheme his school was involved in, the gist of it seemed to be that if a child tested positive, they were sent home to isolate, the other staff and children who were negative, could still come to school ( with consent from the childrens parents ) but were tested every day for x number of days, they also had to isolate outside of school during this time, so could come into school but couldn't socialise outside school.

@frumpety

I was listening to a Headteacher describing a pilot scheme his school was involved in, the gist of it seemed to be that if a child tested positive, they were sent home to isolate, the other staff and children who were negative, could still come to school ( with consent from the childrens parents ) but were tested every day for x number of days, they also had to isolate outside of school during this time, so could come into school but couldn't socialise outside school.

How did they get to school? Interesting. But most of our S children come to school by bus, so how did they get round that?

@0None0

Yes. Those who were asking. My school had now been hit very hard 3 times.

Once last year, and we still have several young people in the MAT who have not recovered from catching covid in the first wave. They have been left with serious medical problems

The. We sailed through from autumn to Easter with few issues.

Now this. We were closed within 2 weeks of masks coming off. When we reopened, masks were being requested again. Most students complied, many didn’t. here we are again

Staff are getting vaccinated. We have an arrangement with a local clinic. They ring the MAT if they have vaccines left at the end of the day, and any school staff who can reach them within half an hour can go and get jabbed.

Even with this, and with people taking their turn in the national rollout, not everyone has been jabbed yet

And yes, staff who have been double vaccinated are still testing positive and being ill.

Thursday was one of the worst days I have experienced since the start of the pandemic but I’m not going to go into details again here. I described it in a thread at the time, and was comforted by getting a lot of support, abs hearing from teachers who had experienced similar, but there were a few ignorant fools coming into the thread trying to claim stupid things like the children were lying, or I had caused the symptoms in the children by ‘hysteria’ or ‘biting lessons’ - and you have to worry, what if people read posts from such people and don’t know any better, and think that might be what is happening in schools, rather than a dangerous virus is spreading….

The vomiting incident was this Thursday just gone?

Oh I'm sorry OP. It's really tough at the moment.

Our primary has not had to close yet, nor DD1's secondary. But we are all really on edge. If we can do outdoor learning we are. One nearby primary has had to shut.

Schools are absolutely nuts in the last few weeks of term. None would close down unless it was absolutely necessary.

Masks for secondary went out in May. They have never been in primary schools unless worn by vulnerable staff.

Younger members of staff (mid 20s) where I work have only just had one jab- as a walk in - so can't have the second for however many weeks.
And anyway, you CAN still get ILL even if you have had BOTH jabs.
Maybe not hospitalised, but definitely ill. So if that includes staff, yes the school may have to close. It sucks but there it is.

Bearing in mind we were told children- weren't supposed to get it at all, then they were not super spreaders, then that they were asymptomatic etc I think it is best to exercise caution.

The head of the local school that's closed said children had all sorts of various symptoms - some had sore throats, vomiting, tummy aches, runny nose, headaches (one or more) etc and had tested positive.
All really common childhood illness that you'd not have batted an eyelid over two years ago.

@cptartapp

NHS staff were told to turn the app off from the very beginning.

Yes because many of them had some form of PPE. School staff have had nothing since the beginning except for masks from March this year to May. M

Much of this could have been avoided if schools had had better protection. I honestly hope that every one of the Us For Them morons have all their kids off isolating and they are on the brink of losing their jobs. They could have put all that effort into campaigning to make schools safer. Instead they pretended they actually gave a jot about children with special needs, children in poverty, any other child at all when really, the whole charade was because their little Cressida was a spoilt little brat with no resilience who didn’t want to wear a mask.

My children go to a private school who have put in mitigations. All classrooms have doors opening onto the playground which are open. They can afford to heat the school with the doors open. All children are dropped off, no one uses buses. Many parents work from home. Classes are less than 20 and often nearer to 10. Bubbles are still less than 20. Guess what??? No cases throughout the whole of the pandemic. I still felt absolutely shitty when we were forced to send our children back to unvaccinated teachers who were told not to wear masks.

Before this pandemic I honestly still had faith in people and, stupidly, in our government. For all their faults, I honestly believed that when the chips were down they would their best to protect us. I will never vote again. They are all as bad as each other. I have quit all my charity roles and volunteering. From now on my job is to put my family first and keep them safe as I’ve realised that people are mainly vile and do not give a jot about each other. Might as well join them.

@Bagamoyo1

I can’t believe we’re back here again, saying that teachers are all dying and the kids are killing them, due to their selfish desire to have an education. Have we really not learned anything? Vaccines are available for over 18s. And teachers are not over represented in the death stats. Never have been, despite the unions assertion that they would.

What strange comprehension skills you have. Can you point to which poster who has said what you allege?

That sounds shit, OP, and I know how incredibly stressful it is when covid is rampaging around a school.

When you say closed till September do you mean the site is closed and you have switched to remote learning?

My friend works at a school in Spain with primary aged children.
For months now they've had masks all the time for kids snd staff, screens at lunch and infra red cameras. So many mitigations.

So much teacher and student bashing, when our schools have been left high and dry without mitigations like those and decent ventilation. Any ventilation in some cases.

DSs sixth form in Greater Manchester closed recently due to multiple cases and I know a lot of children isolating from other schools. Some children have experienced a cruel number of isolations and I cant see how the current situation can carry on.

@frumpety that was happening at my DC school- only positive kids sent home, others doing daily testing but allowed to come to school (nowhere else).
It was one of the PHE trials in preparation for changing the rules over self isolation for bubbles.

Sadly trial has ended so we're back to lots self isolating again.

It’s spread like wildfire in our local secondary too. At the beginning of last week there were no cases at all, by Friday they had sent 250 children home and closed a whole year group too.

@Bagamoyo1, Why are you so determined to believe that teachers are deliberately dragging their feet over vaccinations?
Everyone I know has been desperate to get theirs as soon as humanly possible, and of course, we all know that we were slated on here and in Real Life for wanting to be jabbed earlier than the governments roll-out plan. Selfish us, eh? Wanting to be able to continue to provide education to our pupils.
That said, two of my current colleagues, one in mid-20s and the other early-30s, only received their first jabs last week. They signed up the minute they received notification that they were eligible, but there was a long wait. No walk-in centres here.

@Swishswish26

It’s spread like wildfire in our local secondary too. At the beginning of last week there were no cases at all, by Friday they had sent 250 children home and closed a whole year group too.

It doesn’t take many cases to send hundreds home.

1 case over 100 here

And in secondary full PCR testing revealed very low amount. I was quite surprised as it was in a bad enough place for PHE to intervene

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/hundreds-children-isolating-sutton-coldfield-20921187.amp

My school has been horribly affected, but somehow we are still standing!
From a handful of cases at the start, by the end of year 8's 10 days isolation, over 50 kids had tested positive from year 8 alone. Some were still testing positive on day 9 of isolation. Imagine if they had just carried on at school - I believe the numbers would have been enormous!

So I open the thread again this morning, as as expected read from the same posters that there is no issue in their children's school, that teachers are just being selfish and should get on with it and that kids have suffered enough.

Then I read from many posters, from various parts of the country that cases are flying through the roof in their schools. Those people calling for all close contact isolations to be scrapped, for the return of after school clubs, proms and sports day, for the right of children to mix with whoever they want, whenever they want and for as closely as they want out of school - do you not see any connection here?

The reason why so many countries do not want UK residents to fly over there is because the Delta virus is spreading so rapidly here. We can't have our cake and eat it. We either accept that schools are vectors of transmission, and do all we can to limit that, or we accept that the virus is rapidly spreading and that we are willing to sit back and let it happen.

Thank goodness schools will be shutting for the summer break soon.

@iamtopazmortmain

So I open the thread again this morning, as as expected read from the same posters that there is no issue in their children's school, that teachers are just being selfish and should get on with it and that kids have suffered enough.

Then I read from many posters, from various parts of the country that cases are flying through the roof in their schools. Those people calling for all close contact isolations to be scrapped, for the return of after school clubs, proms and sports day, for the right of children to mix with whoever they want, whenever they want and for as closely as they want out of school - do you not see any connection here?

The reason why so many countries do not want UK residents to fly over there is because the Delta virus is spreading so rapidly here. We can't have our cake and eat it. We either accept that schools are vectors of transmission, and do all we can to limit that, or we accept that the virus is rapidly spreading and that we are willing to sit back and let it happen.

Thank goodness schools will be shutting for the summer break soon.

Thank goodness by September the process will be different. Should be anyway

At least 2 schools in Sheffield have closed for this next week due to increase in cases, I'm fully expecting more to follow, 2 year groups at ds school have closed down up to now.

@TeddingtonTrashbag

Bizarre all these ‘whole year groups sent home. In my school we have had a handful of children isolating waiting for PCR results, no staff cases and all the reachers who want one have had one dose and most, including 32 yo colleague have had two. We are in London.

Bizarre that different places have different circumstances or do you think we are lying?

Glad you aren't affected. Meanwhile in Not London things are ready bad. Our vaccine programme started really well and we were leading in the number of doses delivered until the government decided to redirect vaccines earmarked for North East and Yorkshire to other areas, primarily London. Now we are behind on vaccines and the infection rates are the worst in the country. Northern lives dont appear to matter to the government, we have been screwed every way possible. We were locked down when our rates are low but the south was high. We have been locked down when London had a much higher rate and could carry on. We have barely been out of restrictions in the last 15 months. Despite being in a hotspot area the walk in sessions have only begun in the last week or two and are very limited. It would only be those with medical conditions who would be double vaxed under 40 or 45.

do you think we are lying?
No, just the picture is more complex.