Huffpost - leak on School Guidance

[PatriciaHolm]

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/school-reopening-whole-year-bubbles-full-guidance-covid_uk_5ef9dd4ac5b6ca97091288e4?oo9&guccounter=1

Full document due this week, but some "highlights"...(I use the word advisedly)

• secondary bubbles of up to 240 children (essentially a year group) -No in-class social distancing requirement for primary pupils, with secondary pupils advised to stay 1m apart but not at all times -Teachers advised to keep 2m away from pupils, at the front of the class, and away from colleagues as much as possible as if in a supermarket

• Compulsory engagement with the NHS Test and Trace system, with whole classes or year groups liable to be sent home if a pupil tests positive, but whole school closure not seen as generally necessary

-No face coverings for pupils or teachers, on Public Health England advice, as they “interfere” with teaching and learning -Children seated facing forwards in same direction and not at circular tables, with pupils wearing normal uniform and washing hands throughout the day -Teachers advised to spend no more than 15 minutes at any one time closer than 1m to anyone - Fines of up to £120 for parents whose children fail to attend school. In contrast with the “softly softly” approach taken during full lockdown the message will be “education is not optional”

• Heads told not to put in any staff rota or physical distancing that would require extra space or make it impossible for all pupils to return full-time.

- Contingency plans for some or all of the school being put in local lockdown and any temporary return to “remote” teaching needing to be of a high quality -Some subjects for some or all pupils may have to be suspended for two terms to allow catch-up on core subjects such as English and maths, with a full spread of subjects returning in the summer term of of 2021 -Some pupils may have to drop some GSCEs altogether in Year 11 to allow them to catch up and achieve better grades in English and maths. GCSEs and A-levels to take place as planned next summer but with some “adaptations” - First year pupils at secondary school may have to be re-taught English and maths from their final year syllabus at primary level

As far as the dropping of subjects go how do we think they can do PE / Games safely (including getting changed) so I expect that to be dropped,

My poor DS its the one thing he excels at and may wish to make a career out of it so that is sad (he will be going into Y9 so it may be OK and he does lots outside of school)

I was told when I qualified that if the head teacher was happy they felt you could teach another subject out of your specialism then you could, you didn’t need a specific qualification in it. Obviously the higher up the secondary school, the more subject knowledge you need to teach it, but I’d be pretty confident on betting if extra English and maths are needed for classes dropping non core subjects they would try to juggle timetables so core staff take gcse plus groups and the non core took KS3 classes. Not saying this is right but I can see it potentially happening.

@Kitcat122

A child in my school was in today. Just found out her mum tested positive over the weekend 😡

That's terrible! I assume she won't be allowed in tomorrow. I've discovered from doing my dc's homeschooling that there are subjects I can have a decent stab at and ones I am rubbish at. Not normally a problem as they're not my subject! If I was teaching your dc out of my subject area, you'd need to hope it was one of the ones I can do well with.

@Hercwasonaroll

And an experienced teacher, if they are any good at teaching - instead of just having a degree in a subject they like - can teach S78 English and or Maths. Many do. If you are too rigid and set on your ways even to bother then hardly have an acceptable mindset for teaching anything.

Absolute BS. To be good at teaching Maths, you need experience of teaching maths. Not just experience of teaching. You could probably do an OK job of a one off lesson. You'd make a hash of a terms worth with no training. I'd do a terrible job of delivering an English unit of work, I don't know the subject beyond being able to read and write.

A child in my school was in today. Just found out her mum tested positive over the weekend

These parents need prosecuting. Totally unacceptable. School staff should not have to put up with this.

The dropping subjects bit is interesting- especially given the massive shake up from the DfE of Ofsted. The new framework - due to be launched fully in September- is all about broadening the curriculum and being able to justify why you (at class, department and school level) have made the choice to teach what you’re teaching.

I think a random drop non core to concentrate on E/M is an appalling “solution”. A better one might be less focus on linear assessments, a (temporary if need be) reintroduction of coursework to assess for the next years (possibly more), a reduction of the ridiculous amount of content with the new GCSE specs and children still being offered a broad and balanced curriculum.

It’s the tail wagging the dog to make curriculum decisions in order to squeeze in enough E/M to fit the exams.

I'd also like to point out that secondary pupils are not 'children'. Studies on 'children' tend to go up to aged 10.

Paediatricians argue amongst themselves. The Munro chap admits freely that he is not a virologist, that his research is form locked down countries, that it is metaresearch not his own, and that he is biased.

He has also been asked about teachers : and has no good answer to this.

Isn't it delightful that whilst every single other comparable country has closed schools to reduce cases and only reopened once infections in community far far lower than here, with functioning test and trace, social distancing of some form in place, here we're going to send 'em all back as a massive experiment probably without functioning test and trace and without infections being particularly low (they're not that low now compared to rest of Europe, we've come out of lockdown far sooner with far less precise testing and tracing systems in place).

I'm sure the teachers are delighted that they are going to be the experiment which determines once and for all whether children spread it.

But, anyhoo.
How infectious a child is once they have it
This is almost impossible to tell at the moment, as we have no direct experiments comparing exposure to an infected child to exposure to an infected adult ...
An issue with this data is that given schools were closed early in the outbreak, it is possible that this had an impact on the likelihood of a child becoming infected outside of the home and therefore becoming a household index case. Children rarely mix outside of the home other than at school.
These studies cannot tell us is why this is the case. We have seen above that children appear less likely to get infection, and that fewer children seem to have the infection in the community. There could be fewer cases just because there are fewer infected children. What we don’t know is how many infected children brought an infection into their home, but didn’t give it to anybody – as these cases would never be discovered (and won’t until we have sero-surveillance). Children may be less infectious or not, but we do not have any evidence for that at present.

Which nursery had 23 positive patients @Piggywaspushed? Numbers going up could be from the increase in testing. It's not the same as the research studies done in that link.

Schools have not been closed during lockdown.

And...

Specific evidence in regards to transmission in schools is lacking, due to rapid shutdown at the start of the pandemic. A systematic review of the impact of school closures on the transmission of SARS and COVID-19 found only equivocal evidence for their impact in controlling transmission.
A study from an outbreak around a French secondary school has received some attention, as they found 40% of pupils and staff became infected with no difference between the two groups. What is important in this study, is that almost all the students in the study were aged 15-17 years of age, who appear to have similar disease characteristics to adults. We cannot derive useful information from this study about younger children at present.

@Helloitsmemargaret

Again the word "seems" is pertinent to your point.

It wasn't done though malice, because she is asymptomatic (she had a random test). She thought her child would not catch it 🤔🙄

Schools have not been closed since lockdown... depends on whether you think we are still in lockdown. Plenty of schools in Leicester closed.

A nursery in MK had 23 cases. It didn't shut.

My understanding is that as children have shallower lungs than adults, and the infection develops deep in the lungs, this is why they are thought to be less susceptible.

Anyway, thanks for the link. I have actually enjoyed posting the bits that debunk your assertion.

BAME teacher, been going in with a visor. Worried.

I was told when l did my PGCE that you can teach any subject that you have an Alevel in.

I was told when l did my PGCE that you can teach any subject that you have an Alevel in.

I’m a maths teacher, I’m shit at teaching MFL despite having A-level and a year abroad.

The skills and training for teaching maths do not prepare you at all for an MFL classroom. Entirely different way of teaching.

@serenada that’s ever so kind of you to put your notes online, where would I find these once you’ve done it?

I think my children are going to need all the help they can get and likely be me who provides it!

I think teachers wearing visors and/or teaching from behind Perspex screens would be eminently sensible for those who wish to do so.

Oh, I’m also crap at teaching anything that requires the teacher to facilitate discussion. Again, not a maths teacher skill.

@BighouseLittlemouse

I’m wondering how this will work for the children that need more support/SEN. Exemption from the 1 metre 15 mins? But then you are asking some teachers to take greater risk.

My son has SEN (autism) & has 1-1, social distancing isn't possible between him & his TA. He's been in throughout & I had to sign a risk assessment to say I was happy for his 1-1 to continue as normal with him (ie shadow him!) She also had to sign to say she understood that social distancing isn't possible and she had to continue to be hands on with ds.

As with most things in teaching these days, it will be “do this if you can but if you can’t no one really gives a damn’. Simply not enough room to fit 2m between myself and the first row of kids as there are 36 kids in many of my groups. They are not going to stop me teaching for that, nor would I want to. I’m concerned about the bits that mention suspending non-core subjects though!

@Piggywaspushed

So why have the number of outbreaks in English schools tripled in the last few weeks Margaret? Why were there 23 cases in one nursery school?

They cannot base research on locked down countries.

I think the only way to do research though is to unlock and monitor. How else could it be researched other than watching other countries and what is fair about that. Why should they take risks and not the UK?!

I really really worry for TAs.