Schools reopening 2

[oldbagface]

Old thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/3971862-Schools-Reopening?pg=1

There is a report in The Times today that says there isn't a single documented case of a child (aged up to 15) passing the virus to a teacher (I think this is worldwide).

Frankly, I think this is statistical bollocks but it came from a government scientific adviser so I expect it will be included as 'evidence' at some point.

Piggy, so they can pinpoint exactly where all the teachers and school staff affected caught it from. Should be an interesting article to read.

It isn't ! It's very short!

I am going to look and see if I can find more detail on his assertion.

There is a report in The Times today that says there isn't a single documented case of a child (aged up to 15) passing the virus to a teacher (I think this is worldwide)

I can't see how this would work. You'd need to be sure that the said 15 year old were the only person the teacher came into contact with and was the only possible source of infection. Is it ever possible to definitively say where and who you caught a virus from?

In any case, in a few months we will have lots of data one or the other!

I've followed this thread - very interesting.

It really reminds me of another big, controversial MN topic.

In this case, the interests of children (and their parents) is to some degree clashing with the interests of school staff.

Instead of discussing it, some people just dig in and howl at anyone they see as being
against them. (To clarify, I'm NOT talking about teachers here).

for all the teachers. You are being treated scandalously IMO.

I agree about the howling (and the policing of opposite viewpoints or inconvenient facts), to the extent it appears orchestrated (as it certainly did on the other topic to which you refer!). It's as if some (a very small number) of posters view themselves like missionaries. It's quite Trumpian.

Interestingly I can't find any more about what the scientist said (yet) online. He is Prof Mark Woodhouse , and epidemiologist, who does appear to have an interesting track record of opinions about the pandemic.

Still hunting down a copiable link!

Lots of people are being treated appallingly.
But it’s really not wrong to want children to receive an education - be that at home or in school - some children have been badly let down. Of course teachers/pupils should not be put at risk. If they can’t return - some schools need to increase efforts with interaction/hone learning. Very evident on here- how some schools have provided much more.

@Pomegranatepompom

Lots of people are being treated appallingly. But it’s really not wrong to want children to receive an education - be that at home or in school - some children have been badly let down. Of course teachers/pupils should not be put at risk. If they can’t return - some schools need to increase efforts with interaction/hone learning. Very evident on here- how some schools have provided much more.

I think the issue with home learning is when the school partial closures were announced in March it said in the guidance that there were no expectations to continue the curriculum. Therefore anything schools did was above and beyond that and different schools did different things. The government is now saying children need to be back at school as the curriculum provided wasn't good enough, but that is quite disingenuous. If they'd wanted us to do something specific with regards to continuing the curriculum they should have asked us to. I'm sure all schools would have done it as best they could.

@Piggywaspushed

Interestingly I can't find any more about what the scientist said (yet) online. He is Prof Mark Woodhouse , and epidemiologist, who does appear to have an interesting track record of opinions about the pandemic.

Still hunting down a copiable link!

Mark Woolhouse, I think. I can only find links to the article in the Times which is conveniently behind a pay wall!

There was NEVER a roadmap for schools. When we went into lockdown , everyone presumed schools would not fully return til September (correctly as it turns out) and yet the government never produced any curricular guidance and still aren't talking about next year's GCSEs and A Levels in nay reassuring, pragmatic or helpful fashion. They are clearly determined now never to have another full lockdown but are burying their heads in the sand over nay other disruptions.

Their plans for next year's exams barely even acknowledge that any concession are need to the material examined (except for, mysteriously, in history and art).

Some schools provided so much more, I would imagine as teachers identified and pushed for this?
Some schools didn’t do their best, I could elaborate about our school but I really don’t want to upset school staff who have worked hard. It’s like all professions, some people worked, some did as little as possible .

Yes grandma^ and that article (I have it infornt of em now) has no evidence at all.

I think he may be looking at a French study from the Pasteur Institute.

The trouble is when we went into lockdown, they had controversially abandoned community testing, so ill teachers were not tested. Even if they had been , they would not have known who they picked the virus up from and there was not track and trace. As I have said before, whatever I picked up in March was almost certainly form a girl in my form who was ill after a ski trip. Or another girl who went on every possible school trip one could and then proceeded to cough all over everyone for weeks on end.

We need to know more about transmission - many of my team were +ve, 2 in itu, but most people in close contact did not develop or test +ve, even partners.

Prof Woolhouse is the Scottish govt advisor on COVID who temporarily moved himself & his family to his holiday home on the tiny Hebridean island of Lismore, population only 150, no doctor or nurse

This was totally against the advice of the Scottish govt for people not to move to 2nd homes on tiny islands

He obviously is risk-averse about COVID when it comes to himself and his own family
and didn't think of others on the island

However, he didn't have to resign - unlike Scottish CMO Dr Catherine Calderwood - maybe because he did this just hours before lockdown
and somehow the media wasn't interested in him.

and that article (I have it infornt of em now) has no evidence at all.

Unfortunately this won't stop certain posters and people off of MN sharing the article as proof that all teachers and school staff are worrying about nothing, and citing it as evidence that it's safe for them to go back to school.

I agree.
--I always cringe when I see my typos c and pd!-

Oh him! I remember that bigchoc!

I can tack back some quotes from early in the pandemic by him and he certainly was a proponent of a quick, hard and full lockdown. I do find the inconsistency of some of these scientists frustrating but they are human and they aren't our leaders. What looks like backtracking to us is obviously just response to new information.

Hello, our primary school has emailed to say that before March attendance was not as good as they'd hoped and therefore they want to make sure attendance improves this next year. Good luck with that considering how often people will be off with symptoms and awaiting test results. Ds is going into year 1. He's not had chicken pox yet, gets viruses regularly when at school and he has two sisters at a huge high school that will be bringing back lots of bugs too. How on earth can they expect attendance to be higher in a pandemic than a year without??

They can't. What an odd thing to do .

Government needs to suspend OFSTED inspections until the pandemic is over.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/school-closures-a-mistake-as-no-teachers-infected-in-classroom-gpppq8r7k

However, he didn't have to resign - unlike Scottish CMO Dr Catherine Calderwood - maybe because he did this just hours before lockdown...

Apparently, it was several days and the press did try to make a story out of it.

www.fr24news.com/a/2020/04/scottish-government-advisor-on-coronaviruses-criticized-for-moving-to-island-holiday-home-with-family.html

Professor Woolhouse is said to have arrived on the island with a population of only 146 people – several days before Nicola Sturgeon advised people to stay away from their second homes in rural communities and to reduce the pressure on front-line services.

A Scottish government spokesperson said, “Professor Woolhouse followed the guidelines because he and his family were staying at their home in Argyll before the implementation of the current foreclosure measures.

“Professor Woolhouse and his family did not return to Edinburgh after the foreclosure began – as directed by the government – because staying at home is the safest course of action in public health, and will help protect our NHS and save lives. “

There was plenty of anger, anxiety and hysteria directed at people staying in the second homes (e.g. Gordon Ramsay, etc) but the reality is quite a few of them did nothing wrong.

"Attendance was already lower than we would expect last year before March so we have a whole school target to improve this. Now is a better time than ever to pledge for high attendance." I think this is unrealistic and unfair pressure on parents who are shielded or with extremely vulnerable children who are more likely to be off sick anyway. The HT has made it very clear that holidays will not be authorised unless very exceptional circumstances. I'm not planning on any but many will be.

@Pomegranatepompom

Some schools provided so much more, I would imagine as teachers identified and pushed for this? Some schools didn’t do their best, I could elaborate about our school but I really don’t want to upset school staff who have worked hard. It’s like all professions, some people worked, some did as little as possible .

What teachers in a school did was probably down to what the leadership of the particular school decided - which will have been based on many factors. So the guidance said no curriculum expectations, some schools continued with the curriculum anyway. We mainly did revision to make it accessible for students at home, and as lockdown continued we tried to do more, but it was very tricky with the short notice of closure so no time to set stuff up in advance (about 40% of our pupils were already off before closure was announced). Many students didn't have technology access at home or had to share with working parents or siblings, some were getting things posted to them but we didn't know if they were completing it. I think one of the main objectives we have in September is to get students trained on his to access things from home, find out who had technology issues, etc so if we close again at least it will be more organised.