Are our kids being thrown under the bus

[Pixxie7]

Chris Whitney has said that children are safe to go back to school because they are at low risk of complications from Covid.is this another case of politics being more important than lives?

Are our kids being thrown under the bus?

No but the school staff are.

Israel opened schools, look what happened there.

Teachers were blamed by the media in Israel:

"Oz Arbel told Israel’s Army Radio that for a school project, his daughter’s classmates sat at a table and passed around a mobile phone with a teacher who was showing symptoms."

"One Gymnasia student, Ofek Amzaleg, told Kan public radio that a teacher who coughed in class and joked that he didn’t have coronavirus was among those who tested positive."

“They made a board with nails to hang their masks on, one on top of the other,”

"Teacher At J-m School At Center Of Outbreak Knew He Was Ill But Came To Work Anyway."

Teachers were blamed by the media in Israel:

And the government are already gearing up to blame teachers here starting with pieces in the Times and Telegraph today. Even though we’re not even back at school yet.

Shame on them for once again not taking responsibility for their inaction.

They blame anyone else and never resign.

Clavinova

You are one of the many that will blame teachers for any outbreak.

At the moment it is all over the media, papers and social, that teachers are the problem.

You and others have enabled this to happen.

Just for once maybe you and others should point the finger of blame where it belongs.

And with your DH high up in education you can actually do that in person.

@Newdaynewname1

Polling suggests that the better off families are more likely to send their kids back to school than the disadvantaged families. This, definitely. Kids that went back when schools reopened in summer were predominantly from better off families From what I saw in our town, with private schools (same rules and class sizes at that point!) having almost full attendance And the most disadvantaged schools having very low attendance

I think this can be very linked to pressure to return to work on those parents.

Yep, blaming teachers for the spread of Covid in schools is the narrative path the Gov are using. It's starting already.

Front page of The Times leads with this today. Just when I thought the teacher bashing couldn't get any worse. It's absolutely despicable. The media narrative for the past few months seems to have included:' Lazy teachers.' 'Children-hating teachers.' 'Teachers who've done fuck all since March' and now it will be 'Stupid dead / very sick teachers - it's all their fault anyway.'

I have never been less enthusiastic about returning to school. Not only do I have to worry about getting very ill, it will be all my fault or that of my colleagues despite the fact that we have no real protection whatsoever. Right. Ok. But we also know that children could be asymptomatic and spread it to their teachers and families and never really know where it came from.

How convenient that you can just blame the staff with no real evidence...

The lies, misinformation, contradictory 'evidence' and spin just gets worse and worse.

theluckiest

The sad thing is that this has now been going on since Easter (possibly since lockdown started let alone the usual shit from before all this).

It amazes me that so many people are prepared to send there children in to schools to be taught and looked after by people that they not only have so little trust in, but clearly despise.

You are one of the many that will blame teachers for any outbreak.

I will look at the evidence available at the time.

At the moment it is all over the media, papers and social, that teachers are the problem.You and others have enabled this to happen.

I am not responsible for this headline in Northern Ireland today, which is not helpful at all;

"A leading teaching union has warned that a "rushed reopening" of schools in Northern Ireland could result in the "next care home crisis"."

How can we trust this government. They have blamed NHS staff for PPE misuse, care homes and now teachers.

Clavinova

Yet you have posted it here.

And if a "leading teaching union" said it why not name them?
Possibly because no union has said it?

Looking at several different NI papers they can't even agree if its

A union
6 union leaders
a trade union official

Look deeper and you find that it is an "expressed concern"

Clav

will look at the evidence available at the time

Will you? Or will you just blindly follow confirmation bias?

Your experience of state education during the covid crisis is precisely nil. Your ability to take on board and listen to experienced teachers, all of whom are saying similar things is also nil.

I suspect maybe you aren’t lawyering at the moment (the good ones I know have very hectic work schedules) - and therefore have time on your hands to devote to pouring disdain on public sector education.

Will you?
(look at the evidence available at the time)

I like to think so.

I suspect maybe you aren’t lawyering at the moment

Not directly, no, - my role is very part-time - out of choice.

Not directly, no, - my role is very part-time - out of choice

Then you are very privileged, Clav.

I will look at the evidence available at the time.

Who did you blame for the Prime Minister, the Health Secretary, the Chief Medical Officer and the Grand Vizier getting it?

I don’t remember your posts about the blame for that outbreak?

Clavinova...

I see the knives are out for you today.

I always usually find your posts and contributions really interesting across this site.
Intelligent and fact based most of the time.

Just because I don't always agree with you doesn't make me feel the need to be rude and unpleasant. This is why mn a so brilliant because it's NOT an echo chamber no matter how much certain people want it to be.

Re teachers, I know teachers who were extremely frustrated during lock down because they were working even harder and yet their own dc at different schools, were not given any work or support at all.

It. Just. Stopped.

I think we all know now don't we, some schools simply did far better than others.

As for the private schools going back I'm sure they were able to put measures into place more easily, just as many seemed to teach on line far more easily?

Well the latest news re all the teachers becoming ill doesn't surprise me.

I'd like visors at the very least to be mandatory inside staff rooms and classrooms.
There is also still little understanding of how masks work ie, I wear my mask to protect you, not myself.

I can't understand why visors and masks are not made mandatory then it forces all the disbelievers to wear them... Surely its such a small thing to help the greater good.

I want schools to be open. But I want to feel safe and my dds to be safe.
That includes cutting down on all the usual winter ailments.
Last year dd told me she had a sore throat... Then she said '' mummy look, do I have spots like the ones Jane showed me on her throat ''
Had dd and Jane both been wearing visors then I think, that would have stopped dd coming down with the sore throat at least!!

With the prospect of a no deal brexit, I can't understand why every stop is not being pulled out? Make us wear visors and or masks!! Indoors!

Clav is a firm tory, if they legalised armed robbery, she'd support it, from Brexit to CV and the care homes scandal, nothing but 100% support for the incumbent tory PM/Govt.

Schools have to reopen, that's not in question but not to learn from other countries following their experience is criminal, should it go wrong, looking at the evidence is rather too late.

Lets avoid any CV spread in either teachers or the pupils.

I see the knives are out for you today

Are you denying that Clav is in a position of immense privilege?

I don’t think she would. Or at least, I hope she wouldn’t.

There’s been 10 cases of children getting vivid and no cases of them passing it on.

That should have said COVID.

I don’t think kids are being thrown under the bus, especially those of primary age. Secondary is debatable. Secondary teachers are clearly the sacrificial lambs here. Cross bubble, exposed to up to 2000 people in close quarters. As a secondary teacher, I find it hard to see what’s being implemented to keep us safe when there are plenty of safety measures for supposedly untouchable children.

I can’t believe Chris Shitty is still in a job. If he is chief medical advisor to the government and the government has got their Covid response so wrong, why Is he still in this position? I’m very uncomfortable about the kids going back to school in their bubbles of 350+ with no masks / social distancing. Even in Some countries considered less developed than ours the children wear face masks to school as a minimum.

Children will pass this on to school staff and to their households.

I can't see how this won't happen. I'm homeschooling from now until I feel it is safe as I have that choice and both DH and I have underlying health stuff.

However, what about the children who live in abusive households - school is safe space for them.

I think the whole thing could be better thought through though - poorly ventilated and crowded classrooms (I have been in to see the set up at the invite of staff). I was not reassured at all. I am going back to work frontline but my workplace is taking every precaution to protect those who come into it.

Not schools fault at all - they are over a govt barrel. I think they should have encouraged school at home/e learning but made sure more vulnerable children came to school. Social workers would have been busy sorting that out though!

All the evidence in the papers today suggests that it is safe for children to go to school. It’s the teachers who are getting the virus - see Sundee for example

I honestly don’t believe that anyone knows what will happen when children and adults return to school. We are all just forming opinions and thinking that we are right because they make sense to us. I do think that calling school children the forgotten generation because of missing a couple of months of school is ridiculous after a decade of austerity which made the same children disadvantaged a long time ago. Only half of the 5 months lost was actual school time the rest was Easter, half term and summer holiday. It seems a bit over dramatic to me and probably politically loaded.

I am sorry .... but I think there’s too much complaining and worrying! The CMO’s of all regions of U.K. have said it’s far better for children to be back at school. Schools have had a long time to get ready to take children back both safely and securely....... get on with it! Can we all not act sensibly now and not find fault with everything?