Every child in every year group will return to school in September, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said.

[itswhereitsat]

I didn't catch the briefing but read the above comment in the news. The big question is, did he say whether children returning would be part-time or full time? Or did he just gloss over that bit?

DD's school travel on a mixture of school buses, public buses and trains, so they not only break the children out of bubbles, but also mix freely with the general public on crowded public transport.

As a result, their Y10/12 face to face provision in school is very limited, as the benefit over online learning is small compared to the risks of transmission on transport.

I wonder if politicians understand anything about the logistics of school transport? Our kids come on foot, bicycle, by public transport and by private school buses from a wide radius.

Any talk of bubbles is a joke really. There’s also the obvious fact of siblings ergo 2 different year groups living together.

It’s hard enough getting them to at least pretend to wear a cycle helmet as they leave the school. No way they’ll socially distance.

I can only assume they just want business as usual until the hospital beds start filling up again. Not convinced they’ve ever abandoned herd immunity as the agenda. They don’t really care about safety as long as the nhs isn’t overwhelmed

Loads of the kids at DC’s school come on public buses and trains. Hundreds of them-packed in like sardines!

I’ll just leave this here. I’ve put it on a few other threads. Kids don’t spread it..,,,

schoolsweek.co.uk/suspected-covid-19-outbreaks-in-schools-almost-doubles/

Also the Milton Keynes nursery where 20 adults and children have definitely not spread it about.

I thought parents were infected too

I should have put an eye roll, sorry.

I’ll just leave this here. I’ve put it on a few other threads. Kids don’t spread it

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

And the 6 ft, 15 year olds with size 12 feet? Several hundred of them in every high school? They don’t transmit this disease?

Of course they do. Don’t understand what you’re getting at🤷🏼‍♀️

In a secondary there are very small young children to adult 18 year olds. Little ones are ‘thought to spread it less’ than older ones.

I think they all spread it. 2000 people in my school. Ideal for spreading it.

TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince
I’ll just leave this here. I’ve put it on a few other threads. Kids don’t spread it..,,,

There's no evidence that the teachers in Leicester did catch coronavirus from their pupils. Link from your Schools Week link;

"5 Leicester schools closed after positive tests for coronavirus."

"The city council’s strategic director of education and social care Martin Samuels told LeicestershireLive that there had been a small number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 across all the closed schools, and that their governors and heads had taken the decision to close them because they were being cautious."

“It’s no more than 10 staff and there have been a couple of pupils who have tested positive across all of the schools.”

"He added: “There is no evidence that we have seen of transmission within schools and no suggestion that by being at school people are picking it up."

“The schools that are shut have actually gone further than the advice given to them.They didn’t need to close the whole school."

“There has been one case where a school could have just sent that bubble home, but they took the view they wanted to be on the safe side and would send everyone home and do a deep clean of the school."

“Another school where several staff tested positive got the whole school to self-isolate for 14 days."

“That’s beyond the public health advice."

“We are being careful and cautious and it really is safe to send your child to school.”

Leicester had its own BLM protests several weeks ago of course - some teachers may have joined the protests and/or picked up the virus from friends and family outside of school.Teachers should also be careful to socially distance themselves from each other.

*"I’ll just leave this here. I’ve put it on a few other threads. Kids don’t spread it

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

And the 6 ft, 15 year olds with size 12 feet? Several hundred of them in every high school? They don’t transmit this disease?"*

I assume the 300 18 year olds don't spread it either, or the 50 or so 19 year olds who are in year 14? (May be more in Sept after CAG). Do they magically only become susceptible to spreading it once they've left school?

It's funny, because when the sixth formers go out to their Saturday jobs, they're given all the right precautions- distancing / PPE depending on where they work, but suddenly in school, from September, they'll need none. Magic!

Leicester outbreaks linked to Eid, I understand.

Sarahbeans I read the article emoji linked to, and I think her point was the opposite - people are saying kids don't spread it, but here's some evidence to the contrary. I could be wrong but that was my impression!

"Asked whether events like Eid or the Black Lives Matter protests, which have each taken place within the potential incubation period, might have contributed, Mr Browne [Leicester's director of public health] said: “I wouldn’t like to say because at this stage we just don’t know."

“My colleagues at Public Health England are carrying out some retrospective research to try and establish what may have contributed to the increase.”

"Schools also returned in the last fortnight but Mr Browne was quick to rule that out as a contributing factor."

“What we are not seeing is an increase in the number of school-age children testing positive, in fact we are hardly seeing children in the figures at all."

www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/five-key-questions-leicesters-coronavirus-4243715

Wtf?

All kids transmit the bloody thing, including GCSE and A level, and all the ones lower down. I have NEVER said they don’t.

The government spouts shit all the tine about schools going back is safe. They are talking absolute shite. That’s what I’m trying to say.

All school environments are unsafe for adults, teens, down to little ones. ALL OF THEM.

Enclosed cramped overcrowded places spread it. And little ones appear to spread it even though Boris says not🤔

That's precisely what people are relying on, though (I think in a rather unethical fashion) : that no one will 'prove' where the virus was picked up. the point about teachers catching the virus, regardless of whether the children brought it in form Eid celebrations, is that the schools form a nice transmission hub. It isn't about where it was caught.

But if an outbreak then occurs in a school and is tracked back to being spread via the premises, PHE will certainly look at the mitigation measures and shut the whole place down if need be, as happened at a MK nursery. At which point, the school (or whatever) is seen as a vector for an outbreak and advised or investigated. they could be fined. We'd fully expect that to happen, as is happening in factories,too.

In Denmark, schools have to have PH certificates! Interesting that schools need no such thing here.

Only symptomatic people who ask to be tested are being tested. People who are asymptotic or for whatever reason they (or their parents, don’t want a test done are not being tested. If children are largely asymptotic they never will show in the data unless children start being randomly tested.

Scrapping SD in schools but no where else is discrimination. Removing staffs right to choose. So much evidence saying need masks/face shields but no just piss off and die.

Fuck sake we have got to live with this shitty virus for a long time yet. We CANNOT deny this generation an education. This includes the social aspects of education.

If DD or DS ask me what I did to prevent the shut down of their education then I'll be able to show them the petitions, the emails, all the stuff I am doing to get them back to school with no sd.

MrsArch,

As a medically vulnerable older teacher, who is teaching in school currently because I can rely on my employer to keep me [reasonably] safe using current guidance, I find your attitude a little repellant.

To be clear, I want nothing more than all children back in school full time, as a teacher and parent.

I am entirely happy to do this if, by September, incidence of the virus in the community has continued to fall, to a level that it is extremely unlikely that anyone in the extended school community (parents, children, staff - anyone the children are in contact with) is carrying it. I would still expect there to be at least some attempt to allow me to SD, as it is in no-one's interest for me to become ill, as statistically i am likely to be iller and off for longer than average.

I am not happy to do it if the virus remains prevalent or if prevalence increases. Under those conditions, I would prefer partial return (half classes, half time) with more reasonable social distancing.

(I would also say that the second scenario, if the virus remains prevalent, is much more likely to give continuity of provision - demanding that everyone is in school with no SD in that context would simply give a 'boom and bust' scenario of everyone being in, then everyone sent home, rinse and repeat)

@MrsArchchancellorRidcully how do you think school staff should be protected from the virus then?

And if reopening schools leads to serious health complications and deaths amongst pupils and staff will you still be proudly showing your dc how instrumental you were?

No sd = frequent school closures and quarantines for teachers, pupils and their families.