The government have fucked up the re-opening of schools

[noblegiraffe]

They have, haven't they?

Back in June their five tests for reopening schools were:

First we must protect the NHS’s ability to cope, and be sure that it can continue to provide critical care and specialist treatment right across the whole of the United Kingdom.

Second, we need to see daily death rates from coronavirus coming down.

Third, we need to have reliable data that shows the rate of infection is decreasing to manageable levels.

Four, we need to be confident that testing capacity and PPE is being managed, with supply able to meet, not just today’s demand, but future demand.

And fifth, and perhaps most crucially, we need to be confident that any changes we do make will not risk a second peak of infections.

I'm pretty sure I know the reason for not reminding people of those five tests this time round, but particularly test 4 - capacity within the testing system.

I was listening to the radio today about how the lack of testing is damaging the NHS's capacity to reopen services as nurses with symptoms cannot get tests and therefore cannot return to work. The same goes for schools - if teachers cannot get tests, either for themselves or for family members with symptoms, then they cannot go to work. This has been the case even with priority referrals.

There also seems to be utter chaos around who gets sent home when there is a positive test. Some schools are sending home a year group, others close contacts. Teachers often have no idea if they'll be sent home if one of their pupils tests positive.

But surely the government are tracking cases in schools carefully? No, it turns out they're not even storing that data. schoolsweek.co.uk/its-official-dfe-doesnt-know-how-many-schools-have-covid-cases

And a survey suggests that covid protection measures in some schools are poor. www.tes.com/news/third-teachers-lack-soap-and-water-school

So with an abysmal test and trace system, less than adequate measures to prevent the spread, and a department that isn't on top of its brief we can expect more disruption to come.

Even if your own kids' school is fine so far, parents really shouldn't be happy with this state of affairs, particularly the lack of testing capacity that will mean children will be out of school or missing a teacher unnecessarily.

YABU: The government have done a sterling job
YANBU: The government have not done a sterling job

You'd have hoped that Johnson would have some credibility and empathy from having suffered so badly from Covid himself, cant.

That was a short-lived hope.

Yup. The testing capability in U.K. collapsed. Tests being sent to Italy/Germany as labs can’t cope. We’re flying blind. No idea how many cases there are currently in England. Total shambles. Hey they opened schools as promised though 🙄!

@Averyslover

I agree with the posts that schools need to be open. Absolutely they do. I’m a teacher and need to be in school. BUT with the shit show that is testing with track and trace it isn’t going to work. I have two colleagues who are sisters, one has been sent home with symptoms. She has all 3 and is feeling very poorly. She can not get a test, even with a code that the school gave her. Now the other sister spent the weekend with her but can’t isolate because there is no positive test. If sister 1 gets a test tomorrow and gets results Thursday that is four days a member of staff who may be infected has been teaching.

As much as we all want students in, if there isn’t the staff to cover them schools won’t be open.

That's very worrying.

I also think sending people back to work when they didn’t have to and then turning around and banning many families from normal gatherings was a total own goal. Of course we need to reduce transmission but this wasn’t the right way. It also hasn’t enabled people’s children to be in school. I’m furious that reporting is only for confirmed cases in schools- what about the thousands who didn’t have COVID but had a week off getting tested.

phased return of schools would take place only when the country dropped from alert level 4 to alert level 3 and that restrictions would be reimplemented if the alert level rose.

It's almost as if they are making it up as they go along, isn't it? That fag packet has been binned and replaced with a fresh one, with GROUSE SHOOT NEXT WEEKEND written on it in Sharpie and underlined twice.

@Newnamenewopenme

I was the only person they could get in touch with (were all teachers so my partner and her mum had phones in bags in lessons). I collected her and we decided I would stay with her so the others can still work.

Why is your partner / her mum not isolating if their daughter has symptoms? Have they not been in contact with her?

@noblegiraffe

France have had 10000 positive tests in one day . And they don’t have such a densely populated country . Their cases are rising every day .but I don’t care about which party is in charge it’s just scary. . Not every single thing is about politics. It’s a worldwide pandemic and personally I think we should have had a coalition government for a pandemic.

Conveniently we will never know how many kids the infected ones have spread it to!
As even if they are SI due to contact they wont get a test with symtoms so gov can still claim the kids didnt spread it....
I dont think even they are quite this incompetent. This is intentional to get herd immunity via the kids.
No mitigation for airborne virus. As we can see handwashing is doing nothing to stop the colds.
We dont need tests to tell us that.

I'm fuming. I'm gutted.

Our schools back one week and more than 50 schools impacted, including both my DS in GCSE years.

I am more anxious over their futures than anything right now.

I think the govt have definitely made mistakes but it seems some people are intent on blaming everything to do with Covid on the govt.

What people don’t seem to grasp is the govt HAD to open schools in sept - safe or not. There was too much pressure for parents returning to work and kids missing out on education-you can’t please everyone.... that thrown in with the sheer volume of people wanting (not necessarily
needing) a test It’s unsurprising we’re in the situation we’re in.

[quote FatGirlShrinking]@MarshaBradyo no the rule that the government laid out was that phased relaxation of restrictions starting with non- essential shops and phased return of schools would take place only when the country dropped from alert level 4 to alert level 3 and that restrictions would be reimplemented if the alert level rose.

As of now by their definition we are back at 4

Level 3 A COVID-19 epidemic is in general circulation
Level 4 A COVID-19 epidemic is in general circulation; transmission is high or rising exponentially

I don't want schools to close, me and DH work, we have no childcare options with family as our only family members are vulnerable and work can only be flexible for so long.

However we do need to accept that the situation as it is now is not sustainable, we cannot keep having sporadic closures, no access to testing, high level of self isolating, increase in transmission. It doesn't work.

The only solution is increased capacity for testing and processing of results, that will inform on high risk areas and decisions around closures, it will also support the industries still closed to reopen.

It does however hinge on us having a government that is not incapable of arranging a piss up in a brewery. Which is where we seem to get stuck.[/quote]
FatGirl do you mean we should be re-closing non-essential shops and schools?

I think we’ve moved on now as government have realised economy and education is the priority.

Tbh I prefer a government that is reassessing priorities rather than say re-closing businesses atm. It’s too hard in a pandemic to do otherwise and be rigid.

Many countries have said various things they would or would not do but then the virus prompts reconsideration.

We are not that bad, not as good as Germany, but really we got hit early and it spread fast.

We haven’t got Covid as far as I know at our school. What we do have is a bug which consists of a bunged up nose for 48 hours, a sore throat and, in about half of the kids (and me) earache. It is sweeping through every bubble in our school. Small rural primary with several families with children in each bubble. We aren’t sending anyone home as it is clearly just a cold.
So all the measures we are taking aren’t working with this cold virus. Cleaning everything constantly. Keeping the kids apart and not letting any of the bubbles mix at all. All equipment separate. Minimal sharing even within a bubble (we bought pencil cases and even pencils with each child’s name stamped on it). Staggered lunchtimes so no mixing during lunch. Hand washing every time they come in or out of class, or move around the building (eg from the classroom to the playground and back again). Divvying up the toilets so each bubble uses a different toilet. And it has made absolutely no difference - loads of kids in each bubble have this cold.
If Covid 19 gets into our school, I can’t see that the measures we have busted a gut, and spent loads of money, to put in place, will make any difference, judging by the colds we all have now.

I don’t even know what my point is! I just find it so depressing that we are doing all this extra stuff, it massively eats into any actual teaching time we have, and it doesn’t seem to be helping.

Sadly, many of us, especially in education warned that this would happen. Absolute mess. Schools will be closed simply due to staff having to be isolated whilst they await testing.

Positive cases and the immediate actions needed to contain COVID and keep your children safe isn't happening. HT's ( and nursery leaders/owners) must report every positive case so that PHE can advise on what to do in each school to ensure safety. HT's can't even get through on the PHE phone line to report...so positive cases in children and staff but no one knows that can advise and school continues ....meanwhile more infection is passed around. Shocking.

Can't you all just share one thread?? Does there really need to be multiple new every day covering the exact same things?? You don't want schools open?? Don't use them

[quote FlamingoorPigeon]@noblegiraffe people can't get tests because too many are going for them with snotty noses and sore throats not a temprature or cough or loss of smell or taste.
You need to think about going off with stress I think, you are clearly very stressed about all of this and you aren't doing yourself or your pupils any good.[/quote]
So how long have you had medical qualifications enabling you to assess someone's fitness to teach on the basis of their posts on this forum?

@Unsure33, we certainly don't need men in suits posturing and point scoring .

You cannot be rigid and ignore the devastation closing shops would bring when you’re better off to look to Belgium and consider socialisation rules.

Yanbu I'm furious, 2 local schools have had positive tests today so wont be long until the rest of the schools have them.
Dd is supposed to be doing her gcses in may and yet might be off school for fuck knows how long all because Boris cant run a piss up in a brewery never mind run the country.

France have had 10000 positive tests in one day

I'm guessing that people in France are finding it easier to get a test than here then.

At least those people know they are positive.

I don't get why people are surprised this is a shitstorm. The government haven't exactly filled people with confidence at any point.

Every decision they make, seems to be based on lining their pocket a bit more or their friends.

Teachers were warning what would happen,

I think we’ve moved on now as government have realised economy and education is the priority.

We CANNIOT get education under current circumstances. If 100 teachers have to self-isolate for every 1-5 actual cases (test positivity was

@babybythesea I guess that siblings and hobby groups outside of school quickly destroy any positive measures that schools have put in

[quote cantkeepawayforever]I think we’ve moved on now as government have realised economy and education is the priority.

We CANNIOT get education under current circumstances. If 100 teachers have to self-isolate for every 1-5 actual cases (test positivity was

What people don’t seem to grasp is the govt HAD to open schools in sept - safe or not.

What you don't seem to have grasped is that the government could have made schools safer with more funding but didn't, and instead spent the summer waging an imaginary campaign against the teaching unions.

What you also don't seem to have grasped is that they knew that schools were going to reopen in September so they had plenty of time to make sure that the testing system was up to the job.

@Littleposh

Can't you all just share one thread?? Does there really need to be multiple new every day covering the exact same things?? You don't want schools open?? Don't use them

There is nobody on this thread - or any of the others - who doesn't want schools open .... preferably safely, but hey, even open under the conditions promised at the start of September would be OK for most..

The reality is that at present schools are closing rapidly, and will close even more rapidly when staffing is reduced to critical levels through self isolation without any ability to test