To ask if you are happy with the protection levels at school?

[MissMissICantDoThis]

I am a teacher so feel that I have some insight into what is going on in schools and I am feeling increasingly worried about the 'second wave'.

We have guidelines at our school and they mainly protect us adults. In reality, I couldn't do my job without breaking the guidelines and putting myself at risk. I accept this and felt that I accepted the risk in general. In my circle it is generally 'brave face and no complaining' attitude so I do not hear anyone talking about it.

I have mixed feelings for my own children. My son seems genuinely scared for the adults in the family and I am doing my best to support this.

I do not think that they will close schools again. The damage that the last lockdown did is evident. However, I am increasingly in favour of closing them again for a circuit breaker at least. The scientific evidence is so mixed that I do not know what to believe and wonder if the government are purposely being vague to avoid lockdown. Death rates are inevitably down compared to the first wave now that they only count deaths within 28 days yet they announced that it can take several weeks for someone to become critically ill.

My friend has a worried child too and she has said that if necessary, she will take her child out and face the fine. Is anyone else's child really worried? How do you feel about this?

I am genuinely prepared to accept that I am on half term and have spent more time watching the news than I normally would. Am I allowing myself to be scaremongered?

My dd is in 6th form I wouldn't say she is worried but she said she is glad she has the separate areas and timetable of the 6th form and doesn't have to go down packed corridors with the younger children who often don't wear masks. She tried to avoid touching things as much as possible e.g. bannisters.
At the same time she is glad to be in school, she actually started out going to the college in the town but wanted to change back to school as the college did a lot of their lessons online and no socialising was allowed when they went in, they just did the lesson and went home afterwards. She was finding this a bit lonely.

You are not being scaremongered. We are being gaslit that schools are "Covid secure" when they have none of the mitigations that make a difference and are compulsory everywhere else

Yes this is how I feel. They keep referring to numbers not being as bad as before but from what I can gather, they have changed the criteria for both testing and documenting.

Tbh would there be a way to make schools Covid secure? It's a genuine question. Obviously home learning would make the school more secure but a lot of children's education just won't happen if we go down that route.
My children aren't worried but perhaps that's because there has been no cases in their large secondary school. I think once they do get cases, especially in their bubble, they might be more worried.
Truth is there are some jobs where you are more at risk and nothing you can do about it. I'm just thankful to still have a job.
The virus is scary but we have to try and keep things normal and not show our fear as that's what they pick up on.

I'm a teacher and in the same school as DD. Not in the UK
Currently cross because the govt (Italy) has moved us to 75% online.
I am convinced schools here were the safest places in the country. Temp checks on entry, once during the day, on exit, masks, classes with more than 22 halved. Desks sanitised at every change of teacher. Toilet trips logged so if child A was in the loo at the same time as child B from a different class who tests positive, tracking is facilitated. One positive case since September. Whole school was closed for 2 days for deep cleaning and that class plus all the teachers tested.
It's almost overkill.
We have more chance of picking up Covid in my house which is a germ ridden tip.

No. It's very obviously not safe. I don't know why you're not all out on strike by now.

I realise that lots of kids won't get enough to eat, won't get any education at all and will face real hardships if they're not in school. But my son won't, so why am I forced to send him in and provide another vector in your classroom?

I can't afford a fine so we can't avoid the risk of him bringing it home to a vulnerable parent. How many bereaved kids will you be teaching next year? What will be the impact of that on their education?

It makes me feel like I’m going slightly mad when I see complaints on here or Facebook about groups of teens ‘congregating’ and why do their parents let them and it’s so unsafe.

What exactly do they think is happening in schools every day?

I think people who are used to social distancing, masks, reduced numbers etc would be pretty shocked to see inside a secondary school.

@flaviaritt

There is no such thing as “Covid secure”.

"Covid secure" just means that a risk assessment has taken place, and thay effective mitigations have been put in to reduce risk. In schools all we have is hand sanitiser. The evidence shows that fomites transmission is less than 20% and aerosols and droplets are the rest - schools risk assessments do not tackle aerosol spread due to government guidance. Yet they do everywhere else???

No, I don’t think they are safe. We have masks in shops, transport, many workplaces etc but then children and staff go into one cramped room with no protections. Washing hands is all well and good but it’s airbourne so handwashing is a small small part of it.

With all the disruption of isolating and the cases rising from spread, it would be far better to switch to remote leaning (plans had to be in place by 22/10) so it’s safer and a more stable education.

No I'm not, there has been quite a few cases at my child's large secondary school, 8 confirmed cases in the week before half term alone.

I think it's spreading in school and I'm becoming increasingly concerned, I'd rather my child was at home but I have the luxury of being able to home school effectively.

I don't know what the answer is but I do think that schools are fuelling the rise in numbers.

Schools aren't Covid secure but I think DD's school have done a good job of separating the year groups. Mask wearing is strictly enforced in the school corridors etc. I think the teachers are able to sit some distance from the pupils (DD has commented on their tables being pushed back away from teachers). There have been a few isolated cases in the school but no spread to other pupils. I think the pupils themselves have been pretty good at staying off school and getting tested if they have any symptoms that could potentially be Covid (there was a cold/cough going round a few weeks ago).

Tbh would there be a way to make schools Covid secure?

There are lots of things that could be done to make schools safer but the government won’t spend any money.

Ventilation
Masks
Regular testing (or at the very least testing bubbles when there’s a positive case to flush out asymptomatic cases)

Im in a tier three area. The vast majority of students wear masks in the corridors. A small amount keep them on in class. Teachers all wear masks or visors on the corridors. Lots wear visors in class. Some wear masks in class. We tell each class to put their masks on before they leave the room. I don’t challenge a child with no mask on as so many have exemptions, but i always challenge those not wearing a mask properly.

There is no social distancing in school at all. But year groups are kept totally Separate all day, split Lunches, own toilet blocks, own classrooms. However, they then go and sit on mixed buses...

Two of the classrooms im in have air quality things On the wall. Thats always fun when they go red!

I'm a teacher and in the same school as DD. Not in the UK
Currently cross because the govt (Italy) has moved us to 75% online
I am convinced schools here were the safest places in the country. Temp checks on entry, once during the day, on exit, masks, classes with more than 22 halved. Desks sanitised at every change of teacher. Toilet trips logged so if child A was in the loo at the same time as child B from a different class who tests positive, tracking is facilitated. One positive case since September. Whole school was closed for 2 days for deep cleaning and that class plus all the teachers tested
It's almost overkill
We have more chance of picking up Covid in my house which is a germ ridden tip

As a teacher in the U.K. this makes me want to weep. They have closed your schools and we are remaining open with none of these measures in place with small rooms of over 30+ children

There is a whole thread on the many many ways schools could be made less of a transmission risk - but most of them cost money, and for some reason the government will not allow masks in lessons despite the rest of the work coping fine.
Maybe because then they have to admit aerosol spread is a thing in schools? I don't know.
The stupid thing is that they've taken evidence from other countries showing that schools are not drivers of infection, to open basically as normal. But they missed a few words - schools WITH ADEQUATE MITIGATIONS are not drivers of infection. - reduced class sizes, social distancing, masks, ventilation.

I keep seeing on here that schools are making kids wear masks in corridors. That hasn't been the case in any of the local schools including the one I teach at. I do wear a mask (two other members of staff do too) and whilst the kids respect that, I have lots of moaning about windows open etc. It's impossible to teach from the front when you have an 11 year old asking for help. Or a yr 11 student with head in their hands saying they don't understand something. It goes against everything teaching is for me. Least when it was online I could spend the time to annotate their work and explain and the kids understood that that wasn't instant (TBF it was as instant as I could make it). Its different in a face to face lesson.

At the same time, I am happy for my own DC in their small village school, to be there. I think the schools open is the right decision for all the reasons discussed on here many times over. I just think that the level of protection is a scandal and the fact that there is so much reluctance to change that is outrageous. I have friends who have caught covid, very likely from their teaching jobs, and have been very seriously ill. One ended up in hospital. I know of one on a ventilator. It's alright the pp saying about the risk being small etc. But as a clinically vulnerable 40 year old I feel like I'm being set up to be collateral damage.

WhyNotMe40

I know what it ‘means’, but it is misleading, as you say.

Oh and im freezing. I have raynauds and ive just git some turtle doves hoping this will help.

@flaviaritt

WhyNotMe40

I know what it ‘means’, but it is misleading, as you say.

But what I'm saying is that even under the government definition of Covid secure - schools aren't!

Another secondary teacher here. Just started maternity leave so have worked all the way through this up until now.

For me, the issue is that for so long, the government insisted that schools would be COVID secure, despite everyone that worked in one saying that this would be impossible. This led the some media outlets to a “lazy teacher” bashing scenario as the concerns were being translated into is not wanting to go back to work. This of course for the vast majority of teachers, and certainly in my circle of friends, was not true. We could all see the damage that pupils being away for so long had done to pupils, and not just academically. Most teachers I know were very keen to get back to school and do as much as they could to reverse the lack of schooling. As a PP has already said, this year’s year 11 will be much more disadvantaged that last year’s, yet the allowances given to them by the exam boards are tiny.
However, the false claims of the government of this COVID secure environment, led many into a false sense of security I feel. This, for some, has meant that the rules aren’t being as taken as seriously as they might be because the risks aren’t acknowledged by all. Indeed, there are still a lot of parents who are shocked by the lack of social distancing that is happening at break times, in corridors etc. There was a video that a pupil took at a break time that made it into a local news outlet ( I can’t remember where). The parent sent it in because they were worried about how close the pupils were etc but to me, it looked like that vast majority of break times in secondary schools up and down the country. This should not be shocking, it needs to be common knowledge so that people are aware of the potential risks and encourage their children to take less risks elsewhere in their lives ie getting really close to elderly grandparents or other vulnerable relatives.

Tbh would there be a way to make schools Covid secure

Daily or at least weekly testing for all
Small numbers so part time rota and SD in place then
Masks at all times bar eating/drinking
Ventilation
Zero tolerance on children being in school with any signs of illness
No fines for parents who choose to keep children home - vulnerable staff could work from home setting work for those children so safer for them

In my school we don't even have masks in corridors - and they are like a mosh pit at lesson change over

Yanbu. DH and I are both vulnerable, and I know that dd worries about passing something on. However, she is in year 11, so she needs to be in school. It's another layer of stress for all of us.

I worry for teachers, too. Must be really hard for those who are vulnerable/have vulnerable family members.

But what I'm saying is that even under the government definition of Covid secure - schools aren't!

I know. That was what I was saying, too. We are saying the same thing.

There should be random testing in schools. Why the hell is that not a thing?! All this capacity for testing and it's not being reached...but no one has thought to do this? Total shambles.

@flaviaritt

But what I'm saying is that even under the government definition of Covid secure - schools aren't!

I know. That was what I was saying, too. We are saying the same thing.

Doh! Sorry!