Coronovirus IS transmitted in schools

[mosquitofeast]

And lots of teachers have died

I am just clarifying this, as I don't know how many times I have read on Mumsnet that this has never happened. I don't know where this misinformation is coming from, but its rubbish

It was transmitted several hundred times in my school (secondary)before lock down. Hundreds of children and dozens of staff were affected. Some have been seriously ill and have been left with long term health problems, such as low lung capacity and loss of hearing.

I am a teacher and I was infected at school. I did not use public transport, or go into any shops or other businesses for the whole of March, and I was living alone. The only time I was in any contact with anyone else was in school

A school near us (also secondary) had to close a week before school closures were announced, as so many teachers were infected.

Thankfully, no staff or student in our school died, although several students have lost parents, and many have lost grandparents. One of my sixthformers has withdrawn her university application as her mum has lost a lung and a leg and now can't run her home and care for her younger children on her own.

However, according to the union, around 200 school staff have dies to date, so we have just been lucky so far.

So please don't repost this fake news that "no one has ever caught covid in a school" - because |I have watched it happen in front of my eyes, and experienced it myself.

accelerated plans to reopen schools to all pupils in England next month

We finished our plans back in July, they might need a tweak when there is new guidance to add tomorrow, but otherwise we're good to go. How can you accelerate plans towards a fixed date? Is he going to speed up time? He's such a plonker.

We have very little planned, awaiting tomorrow's announcement. SLT have done various versions of the plan but Gav will probably have some barnpot ideas.

Onthegoats it's a bit like when Gove said he wanted all schools above average.

And 'more schools need to be outstanding'. If everyone is outstanding, what are they standing out from?

Dickheads.

@Hercwasonaroll

Yes. Though I am not sure that is really the point.

The point is thousands of teachers just got on with it. There wasn't a can't do attitude. Most schools provision was decent and improved over time. A minority were rubbish. Just like when schools are open normally.

What's your job?

It is neither here nor there what my job is, but being in a customer facing role and not having seen anyone since March it is very different. My fellow workers (other settings) have had major changes, and don't even get me started on the pulling of services left, right and centre.

I am not saying that it hasn't been incredibly difficult for teachers and there will be many challenges ahead but the "everyone has had it so much easier" is not helpful.

Haven't read the full thread but I expect the number of teachers that died is in line with the number of teachers and retired teachers in the population. I read somewhere (but haven't verified for myself) that on your death certificate it states your occupation, even if you've been retired 30 years. If so, I'd be interested to know if NEU has gone to the effort of removing that from their stats, or whether it's 200 working age teachers. Even if they did, there's more than 500k teachers in the UK so it doesn't sound to me like they're disproportionately affected. They could have caught it anywhere, not just schools.

Goes without saying that those 200 deaths are obviously very sad, but they don't prove that school is a dangerous place.

Oh. Don't be so rude. They were in school and working during the peak, which was exactly at the point lockdown happened.

@Hercwasonaroll

Onthegoats it's a bit like when Gove said he wanted all schools above average.

Yeah that was a real WTF moment.

The peak hit after lockdown. But you know keep pedalling your BS.

They've also been in school during lockdown with yes, smaller numbers of children, but the children of keyworkers. If any children are potential vectors of disease, I'd imagine it's those with parents that were working on covid wards during lockdown.

Peak deaths yes. Peak infections no.

As an example my secondary school had a total of 150 different students in over the last 4 weeks. Normally we'd see that many students in a day.

@Hercwasonaroll

The peak hit after lockdown. But you know keep pedalling your BS.

The peak of infections was before lockdown. And calling people thick is very rude

Where does the 200 deaths come from

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/datasets/coronaviruscovid19relateddeathsbyoccupationenglandandwales

Has 26 June at around 93 I think (if I am reading it correctly)

@Hercwasonaroll they were right in the heart of it in Feb/March and would have been in school in time for the peak time for cases and deaths

I’m really curious as to why some parts of the world have been so badly affected and others haven’t. It can’t just be poor leadership. Where I live (not the UK) we went into lockdown earlier but people were mostly ignoring the rules and carrying on as normal a few weeks in. We don’t have that many cases, even now that the nurseries and primary schools have reopened. Despite being very careful not to touch anything etc. I am one of the few who were unlucky enough to catch the virus back in March. I caught it in the supermarket. Still feeling the after effects months later!

I’m not sure why thick is appropriate.

It’s useful to consider what was going on at peak, which was before lockdown.

The peak for deaths came 2-3 weeks after lockdown. Usually, deaths occur about three weeks after transmission.

So those who died at the peak mainly caught it before lockdown.

Don't hate teachers but so many people have worked !!!!! And have to work ... you only hear moaning of teachers... resign if you don't want to do it.

Jesus wept. Teachers will be in small classrooms in close proximity with 30 kids and no masks or screens all day. How on earth can you compare that to shop workers etc?

And hey - yeah, let's tell teachers to stfu or resign. Great idea. Newsflash (except this really isn't news) - there already aren't enough teachers. If lots resign, there will be nobody to teach your kids.

It doesn't matter how whiny (some) parents think teachers are. Parents need teachers to educate (and babysit) their children. So why would they be happy with insufficient safety measures which will cause teachers to be off sick in their droves or to resign?

I'd be interested to know the measures being taken by independent schools to minimise transmission.

Eg. Staff/student testing, PPE, SD etc.

Is it planned to return to F2F teaching in September or blended or remote learning? Is there parental choice?

Are class sizes being restricted or are smaller classes, greater space referred to in terms of safety (rather than academic advantage).

There could be a seasonal effect like with flu which might make it look safer to be in schools if the data supporting this was collected entering the summer months rather than the depths of winter.

Even if they did, there's more than 500k teachers in the UK so it doesn't sound to me like they're disproportionately affected.

They haven't been disproportionately affected because schools were closed, and then either they haven't been in school at all or have been in occasionally, and there were very few kids in, so it was much much easier to socially distance. Totally different situation compared with full classes of 30 and 'bubbles' of up to 250!

Well no because all jobs were the same - lockdown and the key worker element changed most things. So the data set can still be compared because everything was different after lockdown

Undoubtedly lockdown affected the number as it did everything else

Private schools do seem to have raised their game. The prep school near me (I looked at their website) seems mightily impressive with their work scheme, online activities and engagement etc.

BUT the elephant in the room is that these kids are all up for it - or at least much more up for it given that their parents are shelling out ££££ for the service.

Some of the local schools? Frankly I can’t quite see how a teacher is going to be able to manage to direct, through a screen, 30 kids to collect bugs and identify them and then find out their names in French...