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?

I think primaries should open to everyone but I think more funding should be provided so they can be properly cleaned and staffed enough so staff can do their job properly and get appropriate breaks with time to be properly prepared to educate our children.
One teacher to 30 children in many cases, also doing cleaning and often supervising lunch. Also trying to ensure children “Catch up” . Children absolutely need an education , it’s so important. So why are schools having to struggle so much to provide this safely? Schools were stretched before and now there is lots more being thrown at them.

SmileEachDay
You are - of course - within your rights to post what you like, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

The other thread closed - why are you posting in AIBU if you don't want non-teachers to reply? Don't you have your own exclusive forum on mumsnet?

If they were thrown under a bus, it was when schools were closed, or when it took sonling to reopen them, not now.

I'm still not convinced that herd immunity, whilst protecting the most vulnerable wasn't a good plan. Not perfect of course but better than living like this for however many years it takes to get a widely available vaccine.

The other thread closed

And yet you want to continue arguing.

Got it.

finny me too. Have you seen the projections for cancer fatalities from delayed surgery? I actually want to cry

SmileEachDay

In effect you were banning me (or trying to shame me) from posting on matters related to teaching in AIBU - not on really. There is another forum on mumsnet reserved for teachers - AIBU is for everyone.

They opened pubs before schools.

The Govt guidance is woefully inadequate.

The number of kids being abused during lockdown according to an NSPCC report today has rocketed.

Schools are a safe haven. They aren’t just education establishments, but provide food, shelter and care for our most vulnerable kids.

Even parents of the least vulnerable who have juggled working from home With educating our kids have been pushed to the limit.

It is utter travesty to see the gulf between private and state school provision.

They must open and they must stay open. Kids have been disproportionately affected.

Clav she didn’t say you couldn’t post, in fact she explicitly said that you could.

What she did suggest was that you be mindful of the fact that you have no personal skin in this game and therefore what might seem like a fun day’s debate on MN for you is actually a source of intense anxiety and sleepless nights for people who do have skin in this game.

If emotions seem high, it’s because they really, really are.

The government had since March to work out how to reopen schools safely. What have they been doing?

@SallyB392

Difficult one...... I believe that children NEED to get back to school, but I do not believe that this need is based upon their safety, but more about the economy, and the need for the country to get back to some degree of normality.

That said, of course returning to education is essential for our children, but I do believe there may have been other methods of return which might have been safer. Maybe our politicians could learn a lesson or 10 from our experiences during WWII?

Schools remained open, they only shut if they got flattened by a bomb, in which case the children went to another one that was still running.

noblegiraffe

I have several "skins in the game" albeit not one I am wearing personally.

Kids can get sick and die of COVID. They can also get run over, but I still let them cross the road. They can get flu and are much more likely to die from it, I still sent them to school all those years they could catch it. Being alive is a series of risks, many of which increase as we age, until we die of one of them. Yes, teachers are at a tiny risk. So are 100s of other professions. So let's just all pack up our lives and scratch around in the dirt, digging up radishes for food, is that better?

Clav, you’re not a teacher and your kids go to a private school.

So what direct personal risk is there to your family in from inadequate safety measures for teachers in secondary schools?

So let's just all pack up our lives and scratch around in the dirt, digging up radishes for food, is that better?

Or improve safety measures?

i have several "skins in the game" albeit not one I am wearing personally

You said that you engage in these threads as something to do whilst listening to the radio.

Now. Either you were being facetious to wind me up. Or that’s true and it’s just a pleasant pastime for you.

Either way, it’s not about you deeply caring what happens to teachers and students in state schools.

Then you came onto another thread to continue to argue with me. Again - your right, but I wonder if you ever interrogate your motives.

What did he have to say about the eye test for the foetus Cummngs, puppet

"That said, of course returning to education is essential for our children, but I do believe there may have been other methods of return which might have been safer. Maybe our politicians could learn a lesson or 10 from our experiences during WWII?"

Interesting, what lessons, specifically could education learn from WWII, that could be useful in the current situation?

I have to admit, I'm no expert in 1940s education but I think schools carried on with reduced and unqualified staff, as they lost people to service overseas or tragedy, often in inadequate, overcrowded buildings, as neighbouring schools were damaged or they accepted evacuated children from high risk areas.

A lot of schools didn't remain open fully during ww2.
In evacuation areas often they were doing half time to cope with the numbers of children.
In areas where children were evacuated out, they were often closed even though people remained, and some areas the children returned quite quickly due to there not being air raids at the start.
In some areas they were short of teachers. Although teaching was a protected profession, many chose to sign up. So schools there were left with a shortage of teachers, and even if they replaced them it was often with teachers that had been out for decades or who hadn't taught before.

A lot of children got very little or very poor teaching during ww2.

"Now on the news it is even being reported that teachers must take every measure possible not to bring coronavirus into school !!!"

This makes perfect sense to me. I am increasing cross frustrated with colleagues who have decided there's no point following any rules through the summer because they'll be in school from September.

Of course the best chance we have of opening schools safely and keeping them open is if everyone, staff and parents, takes every possible step to ensure the lowest possible levels in the community before we go back.

Not to blame teachers, obviously, but it is very frustrating that some, supposedly educated, intelligent people are being so childish about it and refusing to take any responsibility.

noblegiraffe
Clav, you’re not a teacher and your kids go to a private school.

Ds1 is off to university next month. DH has contact with schools in both sectors...

My most consistent point (for weeks, if not months) has been that measures should be taken to avoid staff to staff transmission in schools as a priority - and yet there are still teachers on other threads denying that this should be a priority. Last post on another thread this morning;

"their conclusion that it was staff spreading it was based on a report where more staff test positive.You have to be symptomatic to get a test. Kids are largely asymptomatic....."

You said that you engage in these threads as something to do whilst listening to the radio.

After you were trying to shame me/ban me from posting.

@Clavinova

Can you explain what is wrong with that statement?

Also: school has closed the staffroom as from the yr 10 return last term and the workroom. There are no staff laptops (funding). There will be no way to work in school and we don't have full access to everything remotely (nor should we - eg SIMS).
Schools HAVE implemented rules to stop staff to staff transmission - except the one that is everywhere else because it is not allowed. Masks

Also - you say your DH "has contact" with schools.
Has he genuinely been in an inner city comp corridor at lesson change over or in one of the many over crowded classrooms with windows that are glued shut - and can honestly, hand on heart, not see the problem with an airborne pandemic virus?

See

WhyNotMe40
Can you explain what is wrong with that statement?

I thought you were minimising what the experts currently believe is the main source of infection in schools - staff to staff transmission.

Has he genuinely been in an inner city comp corridor at lesson change over.

Possibly - he's not here to ask.

can honestly, hand on heart, not see the problem with an airborne pandemic virus?

Yes, I can, but I'm not a scientist - I generally have to listen to the experts.

I have read the expert's report.
It is based on incomplete data because when there has been an outbreak in schools only the symptomatic are tested.
If you look at data and reports from countries where mass testing occurs then you see more evidence for more student - student and student - staff transmission. There still will be some staff - staff though as it is airborne!
We will be entering and teaching in a room where the previous teacher exhaled any possible virus for a whole hour, and doing the same for another hour. Even if we never actually lay eyes on each other there will be some teacher - teacher transmission. But you cannot assume it is the main route on incomplete data!