To think this class should be closed?

[Jenster03]

I'm a part time primary teacher and in the space of two weeks, 14 children have tested positive out of 30 in my class.
We've had 2 or 3 return in that time, but more and more are testing positive. Now my teaching assistant has it.
AIBU to think we should be sending the class home and remote learning? How would you feel if you were a parent of a child in my class?
Oh, and I'm pretty anxious about my level of exposure too!

If the CEV group kept themselves separate, schools can operate as normal, with no need for the 10 day isolation policy.

So you’re advocating apartheid @SheikhMaraca ? You do realise that CEV people are fully human, and often very productive contributors to society?

Despicable attitude.

@borntobequiet

I’m staying at home. A shame as I’m an experienced and very effective teacher in a core subject and fully intended to do some supply work once retired. But goodness me, some of these threads have opened my eyes. Much as I love teaching, I’m not prepared to put my health and well-being at risk, especially now I’m fully aware of the contempt and derision piled on teachers trying to do their best in difficult circumstances. Private tuition isn’t as interesting or as much fun, but it’s far less stressful and pays well.

My feelings exactly ! Cannot believe the contempt. Last supply day was March 20th 2020 ( as a retired teacher ) but I too am not prepared to put my health at risk. Have so much respect for my younger colleagues who do not have the choice who, as you say, do their best in difficult circumstances.

@CherryBlossomWinter

Same! Written to TDS here too. Bought hepa filter for sons classroom. Simply can’t understand what’s happening. It’s covered by the convention for rights of child. It’s crazy to think that for the price of some hepa filters, uk and Ireland are ignoring chns rights.

I ve tried. Really tried. But it feels like shouting into the void. And I know it’s a political matter. But it’s a populist one. And there are a lot of people who think let it rip is a good policy, as evidenced by this thread.

But look at the voting numbers, @BeardyButton.
They indicate more people being in favour of closing classes where numbers are high.

Yes! I do gain some comfort from that. But then! Why o why are politicians doing this? Irish dept of education jst stepped in to force a school to re open in similar circumstances as discussed here. I’m so proud of the teachers and schools taking a stand and putting chn and adults health first. But why do they have to go agn guidance / policy to do so?

In 3 days 22/27 of my class caught it. Our school cleaners also had Covid do minimal cleaning was being done too. I tested positive on the 4th day. Im double vaccinated. I thought I would be ok. I knew I'd feel a bit shit but was convinced I'd ride the storm.
Days later I was in hospital, on oxygen and steroids after my oxygen levels dropped, leaving my fingers and toes blue/black.
I needed a second course of steroids and now have an inhaler too. I basically slept through September or was awake in pain.
October has been hardly better so far. I'm not back to school yet.
I feel badly let down by our council/government for leaving the teachers so vulnerable. I am collateral damage and they clearly don't care about teachers. My children caught it and were a bit poorly but mainly fine. Me, on the other hand, I'm not sure I will ever feel right again and I am scared. It is still early days and hopefully I will feel better soon. I should be going back to work next week but I really don't know if I can yet. That makes me sad too.

@allsupsidedown I’m so sorry. You deserve better.

@allupsidedown

In 3 days 22/27 of my class caught it. Our school cleaners also had Covid do minimal cleaning was being done too. I tested positive on the 4th day. Im double vaccinated. I thought I would be ok. I knew I'd feel a bit shit but was convinced I'd ride the storm. Days later I was in hospital, on oxygen and steroids after my oxygen levels dropped, leaving my fingers and toes blue/black. I needed a second course of steroids and now have an inhaler too. I basically slept through September or was awake in pain. October has been hardly better so far. I'm not back to school yet. I feel badly let down by our council/government for leaving the teachers so vulnerable. I am collateral damage and they clearly don't care about teachers. My children caught it and were a bit poorly but mainly fine. Me, on the other hand, I'm not sure I will ever feel right again and I am scared. It is still early days and hopefully I will feel better soon. I should be going back to work next week but I really don't know if I can yet. That makes me sad too.

I am so sorry, that's terrible. I hope you get better and recover. I do think teachers should be better protected in the school environment but not by sending kids home.

However, your circumstances are very very unusual and although terrible we can't shut schools and disrupt education anymore for the few. People catch meningitis, the flu within the school environment and could have the sane result as yours but we don't shut down and send everyone home. We can't eliminate all risk every time.

@BeardyButton good for you, for getting the HEPA filter and being proactive. If there were more like you then schools wouldn’t be in this mess. We, the parents, the children, the teachers have all been let down.

@allupsidedown I’m so sorry. I really hope that things get better for you soon. You should have been better protected. Please take care and hope your recovery is not too long, hang in there.

What's the alternate no school for children means no future at all for anyone. Education is too important. Carry on get it over with as covid is not going anywhere. If you constantly worry about positive cases in school and they close then does this mean years of disrupted schooling dragged out.

@allupsidedown

In 3 days 22/27 of my class caught it. Our school cleaners also had Covid do minimal cleaning was being done too. I tested positive on the 4th day. Im double vaccinated. I thought I would be ok. I knew I'd feel a bit shit but was convinced I'd ride the storm. Days later I was in hospital, on oxygen and steroids after my oxygen levels dropped, leaving my fingers and toes blue/black. I needed a second course of steroids and now have an inhaler too. I basically slept through September or was awake in pain. October has been hardly better so far. I'm not back to school yet. I feel badly let down by our council/government for leaving the teachers so vulnerable. I am collateral damage and they clearly don't care about teachers. My children caught it and were a bit poorly but mainly fine. Me, on the other hand, I'm not sure I will ever feel right again and I am scared. It is still early days and hopefully I will feel better soon. I should be going back to work next week but I really don't know if I can yet. That makes me sad too.

I'm so sorry to hear this. I really hope you feel better soon.

[quote CherryBlossomWinter]@Hyly68 so yes the above would greatly reduce numbers and also ensure that there wouldn’t be big outbreaks in a school or a class. Because doctors wear pretty much full PPE this is a different scenario - wearing FFP2 masks is extremely effective. If a whole class also wore these masks there would be close to zero risk of transmission within a classroom - however ventilation plus bubbles plus above would also mean a very low risk of transmission.

Schools do not have adequate mitigations now in the UK. Most do not have even good ventilation. Most do not have HEPA filters (which some studies have shown a 90% reduction in transmission). Almost none have masks.[/quote]
Can you link to the studies you're talking about here WRT HEPA filters please?

@legarmpits interested do you eat healthy? Sorry if I'm being nosey just with you not catching anything, my family have been eating less healthy due to a new baby lacl of cooking time and the bugs that the kids keep getting are driving me crazy

@CherryBlossomWinter

Of course you should send the class home. Your instincts are totally right. They all need to self isolate for up to two weeks and do remote learning in that time.

Public Health are absolutely crazy not to advise you to do this. Read about the Irish school that have gone onto remote learning for two weeks, as they also have not had adequate advice.

I’m a medical professional. Vaccinations are a big part of the control of the pandemic, but they won’t work on their own. Children do get ill, do transmit to others (leading to breakthrough serious cases), do get long covid, do sometimes get seriously ill.

It is not a good strategy by any means to just ‘herd immunity’ children in schools. Reducing cases is extremely important still

• by mitigations within school (mostly ventilation, HEPA filters, masks) greatly reduce transmission.
• by sending close contacts of a positive case home (= the whole class) for testing for at least a week.

The best strategy is as soon as a child tests positive, for the whole class to switch to online learning for 5 days, and then daily antigen tests for another week. That is the very least to be done, and is quite an effective way of reducing transmission.

That Irish school has been told to reopen on Wednesday 20th October

@ThirdElephant yes the CDC list it here. However apologies it is HEPA filters plus masking = 90% reduction
HEPA filters on their own reduced by 65% which is still pretty great. So even if kids didn’t wear masks, if there was ventilation plus HEPA plus bubbles plus good contact tracing… like the ‘cheese model’ the slices of cheese with holes. Put 3 or 4 together and you get pretty good protection.
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7027e1.htm

CDC being US Centre for Disease Control

@user1496146479 that has made me quite angry… how dare they insist that the school re open! It’s also only for one day before half term FFS!!!

This reminds me of Greenwich council being threatened with legal action if they didn't reopen schools 2 days before the Christmas holiday when the Govt KNEW that the Kent variant was ripping through teenagers at a rate of knots. The infection rate was something like 1700 per 100,000.

CallmeHendricks

People have been pressured and even shamed by the governement, media and bosses to get back to normal, just to get the economy running. They couldn't care less about the human cost. I live in Kent, I am a few years away from pension age and I am due to start a job tomorrow. The job is indoors and when I went to the interview, nobody was wearing a mask, it is almost as if they think it is all over. I have various health issues, mostly respiratory. I am now seriously considering whether two weeks work is worth risking my life for.
At my DW's place of work they wear masks all the time.

[quote CherryBlossomWinter]@ThirdElephant yes the CDC list it here. However apologies it is HEPA filters plus masking = 90% reduction
HEPA filters on their own reduced by 65% which is still pretty great. So even if kids didn’t wear masks, if there was ventilation plus HEPA plus bubbles plus good contact tracing… like the ‘cheese model’ the slices of cheese with holes. Put 3 or 4 together and you get pretty good protection.
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7027e1.htm[/quote]
Thank you. I was wondering whether to suggest it to our playgroup as an alternative to cancelling sessions over the winter.

@ThirdElephant I’d really recommend buying a hepa filter. They ve come down in price a lot, probably because of the demand. Everything I ve read shows they are very effective.

[quote CherryBlossomWinter]@user1496146479 that has made me quite angry… how dare they insist that the school re open! It’s also only for one day before half term FFS!!![/quote]
Ditto. Hard to believe really.

The simple fact remains that the government is not going to close schools again, this is obvious in the new rhetoric given by Boris Johnson. All the woe is me and anger will not change that. I agree that its an individuals responsibility to assess their own their own personal risk and make decisions accordingly.
I think many have lived in a safe bubble for so long that the reality of this virus has sent their worlds into a spin. The government cannot protect everyone. It's a harsh cold fact but it is reality now.

Have any schools got filters this term from the government?