To think the only way forward now for school staff is to strike in Jan

[OverTheRainbow88]

Sadly, I believe, the only way forward now for school staff in to strike in Jan.

Schools are unsafe, understaffed and not ‘covid secure’. This will get much worse in Jan when people are allowed to meet inside in a 3 household bubble and travel freely around ( in England at least).

@MH1111

Yes you do isthstitnow. So if you look at the mortality statistics, the vast majority of teachers have nothing to fear from covid.

Why do you think that a teacher personally dying of covid is the only concern to have?

So if you look at the mortality statistics, the vast majority of teachers have nothing to fear from covid

Simply not true. No social distancing, no ventilation. Hours at a time with no masks spent in rooms with adult sized children. We have cancer and diabetes and obesity and some are aged over 50 and over 60.

Noelgiraffe I don’t

@MH1111 most of the population will recover from Covid too. But they low risk still get to be able to protect themselves and those they live with. Furthermore, their employers can be prosecuted for not keeping them safe from Covid.

Simply not true. No social distancing, no ventilation. Hours at a time with no masks spent in rooms with adult sized children. We have cancer and diabetes and obesity and some are aged over 50 and over 60

Try working in a Tesco Metro!

Ridiculous post and YABVU

@Isthatitnow

The ONS report is clear that there was no more level of infection in teachers than in other front line workers, or indeed any other occupation. Infections in schools in both teachers and students reflects the community and vice versa. So, at this moment in time there is no evidence of extra risk of infection to teachers

Maybe read some up to date data and not data published when very few children were in school and infections rates far lower than they are now?

The report was published today and covers November. Not completely up to date, but I don't understand your comment of very few children in school and infection rates low. The ONS picked ares of high and low infection.

@Isthatitnow

The ONS report is clear that there was no more level of infection in teachers than in other front line workers, or indeed any other occupation. Infections in schools in both teachers and students reflects the community and vice versa. So, at this moment in time there is no evidence of extra risk of infection to teachers

Maybe read some up to date data and not data published when very few children were in school and infections rates far lower than they are now?

It’s not old? Published on 6 November

See, aged 55, overweight, type 1. Single parent, no siblings, parents dead. I am statistically still likely to survive and be fine. But I am also statistically more likely than most to struggle, need hospitalisation and experience long covid. Any hospitalisation and my children end up in care. Any long covid and my income is threatened meaning so is the roof over our heads. Probably be fine. Might not be. Why should my children end up homeless and/or without a parent because some idiot sent in their child with a raging temperature? Or because the windows don’t open?

Published on 6 November

Using data from weeks before? The situation has changed since then.

When very few children were in school? What do you mean?

Try working in a Tesco Metro!

ODFOD. Not the same. By a long way.

See Marsh what I noticed in that study was 'The percentage testing positive for current infection in high and low prevalence areas is shown in Figure 2. Staff and pupils have similar percentages testing positive'

So now that secondary pupils are testing 1 in 48 positive, over 2%, the most infected subset of the population should we expect the same level of infection in teachers? That's pretty bad, yes?

Try working in a Tesco Metro!

So none of your customers wear masks? And nor do you? And you frequently have to be within a metre of them all with no screen?

@Isthatitnow

Published on 6 November

Using data from weeks before? The situation has changed since then.

Data is up to 19th November. Maybe try reading the report?

Seriously, I swear that the posters who are saying teachers are fussing about nothing, wouldn't dare go near unmasked people, especially if they were unmasked themselves.

And if they were asked to spend even a few minutes with 30 unmasked people in a small room with no airconditioning or opening windows, they'd refuse. They certainly wouldn't agree to do that for six hours a day, every day. But of course teachers should, and they should stop making a fuss about it, the big wusses.

So none of your customers wear masks? And nor do you? And you frequently have to be within a metre of them all with no screen

No they did not. Retail workers worked through the whole of spring and early summer, when infection rates were sky high, without any protection. Did they talk about downing tools? No damn way, they got a grip and carried on

@noelgiraffe

No no it is vital, but so is safety!

Then why didn’t they allow Greenwich to close schools and protect families over Christmas.

It’s not flouting to mix three households for 5 days. It’s lunacy, but allowed. The government has no regard for safety because it put in Christmas relaxation then forced the most infected subset of the population to continue to mix freely up to 5 days before Boris’s Christmas Covid Bonaza.

You are right the government should have ordered all schools to shut 14 days or more before Christmas. Especially because of the planned relaxation at Christmas. This should have been announced on the 2nd coming out of lockdown. So plenty of notice.

What Greenwich and more so Waltham Forest tried to do was nothing to do with safer schools. It was just them trying to do a Sturgeon of their own.

Plenty of schools in Waltham Forest recognised that. Ignored the council and stayed open. Some like in Greenwich were forced back open by the government. The ones that have stayed shut were either closed before because of high cases or allowed to stay shut because getting high.

Public health England, the regional regulator and the head teachers should quite rightly be the only ones to make the decision to close a school. It is not and should never be a political decision at local level.

Obviously we are at the mercy of the government at a national level. That doesn't stop schools closing when cases are high.

@Flaxmeadow Teachers aren't talking about downing tools either. They're asking to be kept safer. Just as supermarkets took action very quickly to protect their staff with screens etc.

When shop staff weren't wearing masks, it was because we were told that they made no difference. As soon as the guidance changed, they were protected from their customers with masks. And at the same time, teachers were beginning to teach full classes, with neither they or their pupils allowed to wear masks

No they did not. Retail workers worked through the whole of spring and early summer, when infection rates were sky high, without any protection.

Almost instantly they started with social distancing measures and restricted access to shops. Then came screens, then the mask mandate. Things got safer as time went on and more was learned about what was effective.

Nine months later and we know what is effective, and it is being ignored in schools. Deliberately ignored. Not just rules being flouted like the non mask-wearing idiot in a shop (not exempt) but the rules not being there in the first place.

@Flaxmeadow, be honest now. If Tesco told you you had to spend even an hour in your shop with more than 30 teenagers (whatever would make your shop crowded with some people less than 2m away from you), all unmasked, would you agree to it? Would you agree to do it all day every day?

Utter nonsense.

There was a shortage of any kind of PPE back then and quite rightly, any ppe there was went to NHS staff. There were no screens and no masks or gloves worn in any retail when this infection was raging at its worse and any social distancing was hit and miss, trial and error too. Also not much was known about spread back then

Stop lying about what it was like for retail workers, and step up to the plate yourselfs, and do what so many others have done in th8s last year

If Tesco told you you had to spend even an hour in your shop with more than 30 teenagers (whatever would make your shop crowded with some people less than 2m away from you), all unmasked, would you agree to it? Would you agree to do it all day every day?

Yes I did, 6 days a week, 8 hours a day, and still would because it is a vital public service.

Children need to be in school. Get with it and do the right thing. You are key workers. Accept that and get with all the other key workers

Stop lying about what it was like for retail workers

I'm not saying that it wasn't shit back then. What I am saying is that it was recognised that it wasn't safe and measures have been introduced to improve safety. More of them, as time has gone on.

But not in schools. 9 months later and we're still packing 30 kids into classrooms with no masks, no social distancing and poor ventilation and that is totally allowed. No one to complain to. No guidelines to appeal to.

Children need to be in school

Are you sure? The government now says that children can be at home, remote learning, at least for the first week of January. Face-to-face education isn't vital anymore.