1600 paediatricians have written to the prime minister

[havefunpeleton]

Demanding schools reopen or risk scarring a generation. Reported in Times today.

I am hoping this will be the push needed to ensure this madness ends and all our children can go back to school full time in September.

The staff problem can be overcome by getting new graduates on apprenticeships for whom the job situation is dire to work alongside experienced teachers

What exactly do you think a PGCE is? Hasn't exactly enticed hordes of graduates for the last x many years to enter the teaching profession so not entirely sure why you seem to think it will now.

Funny that a number of schools have been able to follow the guidance and bring back these years and so far I have heard no reports of lots of outbreaks (couple of isolated incidents) or children or teachers dying from COVID.

ONS data on deaths up to 20th April by occupation. This was a report updated on 11th May.

At that point, 66 women who were carers, had died of COVID. 32 men who were carers had died of COVID.

They are not the largest occupation group by deaths, but they are comparable for school staff - particularlt LSAs/TAs or nursery staff, or special school staff.

Anyway, that's 66 women. 12.7 deaths per 100,000.
At that point, there had been 43 deaths of woman who worked in schools - 11.6 deaths per 100,000.

For men with those 32 deaths, 32 deaths per 100,000.
For men in schools 17.9 deaths per 100,000

You can't blame teaching unions, or school staff unions for trying to protect their members with those numbers in mind - we're not very different to care home workers, and they are wearing PPE and are NOW very much in the public sphere of concern.

Of course we don't know where school staff catch it, but same could be said of doctors or care home employees.

@OliviaPopeRules having 3 year groups back is quite different to having 7 year groups back

Every single teacher I know just wants their class(es) back. Having a small group is really hard work, especially when the protective measures guidance makes certain things that are part of normal school life impossible. Delivering remote lessons and assessing children, whether live or asynchronous, is a PITA compared with being in class.

The longer this goes on, the bigger the hill all will be climbing next year, and the bigger the disadvantage gap.

This is not what teachers want. They want normality. But they also want to have working conditions where they are exposed to a reasonable level of risk, not an uncontrolled level.

Hearing children read, helping with pencil grip, dealing with tears, fights, cuts, soiled underwear etc are part and parcel of primary teachers’ days. This is not a job in which you can keep yourself in a bubble and so teachers have gone along with the 15 kids in a bubble strategy. That this strategy has been rolled out in parallel with crowding outside the Nike store, increasingly liberal interpretation of increasingly relaxed rules means even with just 15 children, a teacher is in contact with a huge slice of the community.

I never said having 3 years back was the same as 7. I said if schools aren't willing to bring 3 years back there was no chance of bring back 7.

Nevermind - schools and unions are perfect, all the people expecting there to be zero risk before they send their kids back to school are right and no-one should have any personal responsibility. Lets just all blame the government for everything.
Meanwhile a generation of kids are not getting an education and are suffering from mental health problems.

Should have known better than to vaguely criticise schools or union on MN - they are of course all perfect.

@OliviaPopeRules

*What actually happened is that the government got ahead of itself with a totally unplanned-for pledge to get all primary children back by the summer.

They then rowed back because they realised that this was not remotely feasible under their own guidance. Guidance they have chosen not to change - presumably because they see all the data about the virus. The unions aren't stopping them. They're really not.*

Funny that a number of schools have been able to follow the guidance and bring back these years and so far I have heard no reports of lots of outbreaks (couple of isolated incidents) or children or teachers dying from COVID.

Olivia, which years are you talking about? I was referring to the plans to get Years 2-5 back as well - a great many schools are accommodating Years R,1 and 6 and that's a good thing.

If some schools have also got years 2-5 back within government guidance, well fantastic - they obviously have more space and more staff than most.

Why aren’t they contacting schools to find out how much extra space they need and then contacting councils for help providing it?

Nevermind - schools and unions are perfect

No one has said that but it is only right that posters who write factually incorrect statements are told, no?

all the people expecting there to be zero risk before they send their kids back to school are right and no-one should have any personal responsibility

Again not been said

Lets just all blame the government for everything.

Well, they are making the decisions that must be followed, no?

Meanwhile a generation of kids are not getting an education and are suffering from mental health problems.

Have a scroll back and have a read of the quote from Katharine Birbalsingh

Should have known better than to vaguely criticise schools or union on MN - they are of course all perfect

Fine to criticise but only fair to know facts first, eh?

Chloe
It is a fact, whether or not you want to dispute it, that unions did not want schools to open June 1st.
It is a fact that a number of labour run councils refused to let schools open on June 1st.
It is also a fact that the same people now come out to criticise the government because kids are not back in school.

Unions go out of their way to oppose measures by a Conservative government. If this were a Labour government the response to re-opening schools would have been very different.

This is a link to the Unions "demands" ...
under those circumstances teachers can choose never to go back... unless there is a vaccine.

www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/health-safety/coronavirus-guidance/requirements-for-reopening-of-schools/requirements-reopening-schools-england.html#SelfAudit

But now it is clear every single child needs to go back in September so the gov need to be moving heaven and earth to ensure that happens. What are they doing?

@OliviaPopeRules

Chloe It is a fact, whether or not you want to dispute it, that unions did not want schools to open June 1st. It is a fact that a number of labour run councils refused to let schools open on June 1st. It is also a fact that the same people now come out to criticise the government because kids are not back in school.

Unions go out of their way to oppose measures by a Conservative government. If this were a Labour government the response to re-opening schools would have been very different.

To reassure you, I live in a conservative run LA - they advised schools not to open on 1st June.

OliviaPopeRules

Apparently neither did the government. They where not aware of the date until Boris announced it in the brief.

Frankly I don’t give a shit. What are they doing NOW?

Ylvamoon

That would be a unions "demands".

I posted the NEU checklist up thread.

Both are in line with the DfE guidelines for opening schools.

That’s just guesswork though isn’t it olivia? That’s the problem here - too many posters equating ‘feelings’ and ‘beliefs’ with facts!

AppleSaf
Frankly I don’t give a shit. What are they doing NOW?

From what I can tell, they are pissing about fucking up the summer for everyone by putting forward another unworkable plan involving tutors, retired and ex teachers.

and leaving everything too late.

It is a fact, whether or not you want to dispute it, that unions did not want schools to open June 1st.

No it is not. It is a fact that the unions asked the government questions. Multiple times but didn’t get answers from the government.

Councils making decisions are still not teachers and unions making those decisions. And you wrote ‘The government tried to get kids back to school before summer holidays and they had pushback from unions and teachers.’

It is very important that the correct references and terms are used when talking about this because otherwise, the wrong people get the blame. And it’s usually teachers....

@Xenia

We need a 3 pronged approach - everyone back in school as normal in September without social distancing. A new piece of legislation that you cannot sue the state, teachers, employers for CV19 issues. Then we need the third element - parents required to send children back (unless they want to lose the school place) and teachers required to go back in Sept.

And, as usual, Xenia has it

@Bohemond

Agreed! Sadly she isn't pm and we have an incompetent right wing BoJo running scared of unions.

Chloe - how about you stop selectively quoting what I said and maybe include the next sentence where I talk about councils

A new piece of legislation that you cannot sue the state, teachers, employers for CV19 issues

Why should any employee have to give up this right to workplace protection? If an employer is negligent and an employee suffers harm as a result why shouldn't the employee be able to sue for compensation?

A new piece of legislation that you cannot sue the state, teachers, employers for CV19 issues.

There is a lack of thinking there.

Can you sue currently for catching an infectious disease at your place of work?