To think schools will close soon

[hibbledibble]

We may well have as many cases by new year as we did in the first peak. In which case school closures could be a very real possibility.

@thegreenlight I'm absolutely sick to my back teeth of people like you diminishing the effect of this virus by focussing solely on deaths. Do you have any idea of the number of people who have failed to recover and now have Long Covid? Because if you don't (and I believe you don't) you simply don't know what you're talking about.

They need to cancel exams in England ASAP and set up a proper system of teacher assessment with moderation. It's totally unfair to continue with exams when some students are facing more disruption than others. With enough notice given, teachers can prepare other forms of ongoing assessment.

I'm in Scotland too. Sturgeon sold it to the people as a few extra days off, followed by at least a week of blended learning. What she means is she is closing the schools and she has no idea how long that will be for. Not a chance these kids will be back on the 18th Jan.

Behold all this baying for children's futures to be ruined.

I don't want anyones future to be ruined. The U.K. is in crisis with no apparent way out though. I wasn't my children to have a future. If that means some extra time at home then so be it. I'm not baying for their future to be ruined, I am simply supporting any measures needed to tackle this out of control virus.

" more likely to be killed in a car accident on the way to school than Covid"

Interesting to know where you got this statistic from. Difficult to break down car accidents deaths by age, never mind those broken down by journeys to school.

Lots of my colleagues got infected and are still suffering after affects including chronic fatigue memory problems. Some have heart rythm issues but doctors have told them that waiting lists for tests are now months long.

If this new strain is more transmissible there may be even more kids and staff getting ill. Do we even know if having the original strain protects you from the new one for a few months?

@UghNotThisAgain36 but it’s not necessarily the same people ‘baying’ for schools to be shut and breaking the rules. I for one will be keeping the rules and it will be an absolute joke if having done that the government expect us to walk back into crowded schools with no concessions.

Patel still sticking to school open with testing line

@thegreenlight there isn't shielding at the moment. Government says it's safe for ECV to be at work. The numbers taking early retirement is high and anyway, if all in those categories were to shield who do you think would do the work. Teaching remotely when shielding still requires another adult to be paid to be in the room.

We can't just keep closing schools though. Maybe for a short period but half the year my KS2 child was off and it really affected him badly. My children love school so much especially my youngest. Mental health issues will soar.
I don't know what the answer is but we can't have children off school for the length of time they were last time.

Can any teachers explain what their ideal would be?

I'm a primary school teacher. Honestly my ideal would be that we were in school full-time and the virus was managed by restrictions elsewhere. However, I'm in a tier 4 area and infections were noticeably sweeping through primary as well as secondary schools, particularly in the last couple of weeks of term. I just can't see how we can get control of the spread with schools open.

I teach KS1 in a deprived area. If schools close, I know that my class won't get the same level of education. I would be happy to give live lessons a go but we can't because 25% of our families say they can't access online learning. It really is a struggle to find things that work - we already missed 3 weeks of the Autumn term and I did my best with a mix of pre-recorded videos and paper packs for those who wanted it, but there was no way my kids were learning like in class.

My own DC are primary-aged and they were in a key worker bubble before. I can honest say they learned almost nothing because of the difficulty of having a mix of ages almost together.

There is no ideal solution, but I don't see how we will control the infection rate with schools open.

The thing about schools closing is the huge gap of deprivation. Some schools have had loads off and some not. Some have been off but live online teaching, some a PowerPoint or word document sent home. My school, the children have laptops, resources, good WiFi, and will have online teaching. My old school... They sent the children home last Thurs and they don't even have their books. They don't have strong access to the Internet or pens or paper at home. It's this inequality which is so unfair.

[quote GrammarTeacher]@thegreenlight there isn't shielding at the moment. Government says it's safe for ECV to be at work. The numbers taking early retirement is high and anyway, if all in those categories were to shield who do you think would do the work. Teaching remotely when shielding still requires another adult to be paid to be in the room. [/quote]
Not true. Tier 4 ECV workers have now been told to stay home and not go to work. The only things left to close in tier 4 areas are essential shops and schools. Cases still rising. Schools will close again, I'm sure. I've nothing left to give.

@thegreenlight there isn't shielding at the moment. Government says it's safe for ECV to be at work.

Shielding has been re-introduced for Tier 4 areas:www.gov.uk/government/news/advice-for-clinically-extremely-vulnerable-in-new-tier-4-areas

And I love my old life @Themanofmydreams I feel like I’m sacrificing it to keep kids in school, it cannot go on.

Not in Tier 4. And the issue of staffing shielding teachers' lessons still remains.

70% of those who have died have been over 80.

Wow. Is this okay then? Ffs.
That 'over 80' is a fucking person! A person who did not deserve to die alone in a care home or hospital just so you could see your mates etc.

Healthy people have died. I know a 41 year old who died. He was just a normal guy. No health issues. 2 kids now without a dad.

Sooner or later there will be a child with no underlying issues who dies. Thats why we can't allow the virus to get out of control. Its literally to protect lives. Nobody's child is any less or more special than yours or mine. It could be anyone. I for one don't want my kids being the 'example'.

[quote GrammarTeacher]@thegreenlight there isn't shielding at the moment. Government says it's safe for ECV to be at work. The numbers taking early retirement is high and anyway, if all in those categories were to shield who do you think would do the work. Teaching remotely when shielding still requires another adult to be paid to be in the room. [/quote]
There is if you are tier 4 (England)

www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19#further-advice-at-tier-4-stay-at-home

• WHF: if you cannot do not attend work workplaces
• Do not leave your home except for medical appointments and daily outdoor exercise/recreation
• And that exercise should be in uncrowded places at quiet times of day, solo or with household or bubble members only (no 'one other' person)
• don't go to shops, hub to register for priority supermarket slots and other assistance has re-opened

We are approaching the point in the school I teach in, that continuing with this "everyone in" plan is going to fail anyway.

Four of our teachers took early retirement at Christmas because they are over 55 and incredibly nervous about the prolonged risk.
It's hard to recruit good teachers at this point in the year, so some of those lessons are now being covered by other staff and we've got 2 brand new teachers starting in January who haven't managed to have a proper handover.

All four of those teachers taught GCSE and A Level courses.

Our student services team and finance departments are working from home, which is fine as they can - but it reduces the adult to child ratio on site. For routine events like fire alarms and lockdown, invigilation, support with extra admin, etc (that list is endless!) it's now falling to teachers and other support staff to take up that slack.

Two of our cleaners had to isolate just before Christmas and the site team had to double up on shifts to get the toilets cleaned.

Our repro dept is down to one (the other one resigned last week) and she's CV so resources are going to be a real struggle.

The problem isn't just the concern with spreading and trying to teach during a pandemic. It's all the associated fallout. It's unsustainable and schools are going to close because they can't be staffed.
At least with a blended learning plan, we could legislate for that

@PointyDragonPokingThing I hope not too. One of my dc is disabled and I was dreading the Xmas holidays as it was because he struggles without routine. I don't know how we will cope if it is until Easter. I'm hoping it's just a rumour and they'll be back on 18th as planned but I'm not hopeful

My main concern currently is how the information about this new strain combines with the plan to replace self isolation with daily testing.

Given that the tests only pick up at best half of positive cases, this was bad enough with the old strain, but might just have worked whilst R was low. But if R is higher, and you are only picking up half of your positives, then schools will be a breeding ground.

Worse, there is absolutely no information I can find about how well lateral flow tests work on the new variant. I have looked, and I think this information just doesn't exist yet.

So what we may end up with is exchanging self isolation for a test that finds LESS than half the cases, meanwhile with a natural R far above 2 in the kind of environment schools present.

If the government push ahead with this, it is just a recipe for absolutel chaos, with teachers dropping like flies. Schools will close due to teachers being off sick. People will die.

They need to pause this plan and instead of reducing the amount of isolation for each positive case, increase it. Schools cannot remain open if they promote exponential spread.

Just think - if it's true that schools being fully open means cases will rise averaged out in the country as a whole, how much more will be they be rising amongst children, parents and teachers?

My secondary concern is that we don't know how children are affected by this new variant (or the old one, really, in the longer term), but that does stray into unnecessary worry territory, I think, so I'll keep that to myself.

I feel so sorry for the children from deprived backgrounds who don’t have access to a laptop/tablet and can’t complete any online learning. Or those who don’t even have basics like paper and pens at home. Or those whose parents don’t give a shit and don’t make them do any of the school work.

Ultimately it’s those children who will suffer the most.

I just feel it is so important for our young people. They’ve been out of education for the best part of a year.

No, the kids who were not vulnerable, did not have additional needs, whose parents were not key workers, and were not in the years groups invited back in the summer, learned from their houses, supported, facilitated and monitored by their teachers, instead of being inside the physical school building for a maximum of FIFTEEN WEEKS. Many others continued to have full on-site provision.

I think schools will have to close.

What I can’t fathom is teachers (there was one upthread) who say they aren’t ready for online learning. I think you’ve had a little bit of warning! Obviously primary school teaching is more tricky, and hard-to-reach families have always been a concern, covid or no covid, but for mainstream secondary schools I think it would be outrageous if plans were not firmly in place for what is inevitable.

@Woolff

I just feel it is so important for our young people. They’ve been out of education for the best part of a year.

No, the kids who were not vulnerable, did not have additional needs, whose parents were not key workers, and were not in the years groups invited back in the summer, learned from their houses, supported, facilitated and monitored by their teachers, instead of being inside the physical school building for a maximum of FIFTEEN WEEKS. Many others continued to have full on-site provision.

To a child who couldn’t go inside their school for six months it doesn’t matter how much you spin it.

I’ve already been told that my foster children will still be able to attend in the event of changes of government guidance on schools.
So I’m assuming it will be a mix.
Most kids at home.
Exam years, vulnerable children and key worker children in school.

@HelloMissus

I’ve already been told that my foster children will still be able to attend in the event of changes of government guidance on schools. So I’m assuming it will be a mix. Most kids at home. Exam years, vulnerable children and key worker children in school.

I don’t think that’s an indication