Berlin schools report infections

[KetoPenguin]

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/21/coronavirus-iurope-dozens-schools-report-infections-berlin-germany-spain some news on infections in schools increasing in Berlin. I want to see schools going back myself, my dd has just been through the GCSE exam grade chaos and wants to get on with her A levels. It's not as straightforward as the government are making out though. I hope they are taking this seriously behind the scenes and have a good plan B for students. I also work in a school and am a bit concerned.

This has nothing to do with the years before COVID and everything to do with schools taking the lead in response to the crisis, not just blaming the failures on other people. There’s more that can and should be done by all involved and if funding is the answer, they need to be shouting more loudly for it like everyone else is. Getting into some kind of stand off between “well we’re not going to do anything until you give us some money” v “well we’re not going to give you any money until you tell us what you want it for” is not going to help anyone.

What's wrong with infections spreading in a group of people almost totally unlikely to end up hospitalized or dying from it?

The issue is whether the pass it on to family members and then out into the wider community.

However, Sweden kept its schools open for those under 14 (upper secondaries for years 10 and above were sent home) and whereas they haven’t had good death rates, infections from schools weren’t enough to cause a runaway catastrophic outbreak. I’m thinking that this is probably because young children are not particularly infectious as well as not being particularly badly affected.

But they are crying out for funding @ConiferGate.

Remember those much publicised laptops the Government were going to give to disadvantaged pupils, guess what, most of them never materialised.

Government guidance stipulates schools need more hand washing stations, but they are not paying for them. Teachers will be putting their hands in their pockets to buy hand sanitisers for the classrooms as the school has no money.

Headteachers were cleaning toilets during the Summer term as schools couldn't afford extra cleaners. This is where our education system is at the moment.

If parents want their school to have a Plan B then I am afraid some parents are going to have to put their hands in their pockets to help fund it.

@ConiferGate

This has nothing to do with the years before COVID and everything to do with schools taking the lead in response to the crisis, not just blaming the failures on other people. There’s more that can and should be done by all involved and if funding is the answer, they need to be shouting more loudly for it like everyone else is. Getting into some kind of stand off between “well we’re not going to do anything until you give us some money” v “well we’re not going to give you any money until you tell us what you want it for” is not going to help anyone.

But they are shouting for it!

So what you’re saying is that parents will have to decide whether to pay for school or kill off granny, or worse - mum or dad? So then it’s going to be parents faults, and the governments fault, that kids didn’t get a proper education but schools are completely blameless. I give up, the inconsistencies between are simply unexplainable.

@ConiferGate have you not read all the threads where teachers are asking for more safety measures in school, Plan Bs etc. They are asking for this from the Government as they know the schools are following the current Government guidelines and are doing all that they can with the funding they have.

What do you expect schools to do?

@herecomesthsun in that case the unions have a lot to answer for. If the real problems are about funding solutions then they’ve dug a grave for everyone by choosing to make working conditions their biggest battle. That’s if they were picking their battles at all, as unfortunately their historic behaviour is such that it just feels like another crusade for them that ministers are worn down by.

It's herd immunity again. No plans, no PPE. Just get the plebs back to work.

@WombOfOnesOwn

What's wrong with infections spreading in a group of people almost totally unlikely to end up hospitalized or dying from it?

How could there NOT be infections in the schools? 825 schools is probably in the neighborhood of 500,000 students at minimum, does anyone think the infection rate in general is less than 1 in every 500,000 people?

Focusing on case numbers with no denominator is a great way to stir up anxiety and a bad way to deal with an epidemic.

This 👍

Yup, I’ve read the threads on all sides of the schools debate including the ones where half the teachers openly admit to having done very little over the last couple of terms, but thanks for asking the blinking obvious. I’m disengaging with this thread now, I think we all agree that we need a plan B, but unlike you I find it justify that it’s ok for some schools to have done really well when others haven’t, despite all being subject to similar levels of resourcing, and I don’t think it’s ok for those inconsistencies to continue.

For those wanting a plan B, I can tell you that most schools have a plan B, and probably a plan C. The SLT have sat down over summer and worked out multiple scenarios.

It's the government who has no plan B, and judging by the way things were handled last time, it will come to needing a plan B and they will then tell us to ignore our plan B in school and go by their one which they drew up without consulting a single person who works in education. Oh, they will want us to implement it the next day.

Schools are doing their best to cover all bases. It's the govenrment who are hell bent on saying nothing else expect a full reopening is an option.

@SqidgeBum

For those wanting a plan B, I can tell you that most schools have a plan B, and probably a plan C. The SLT have sat down over summer and worked out multiple scenarios.

It's the government who has no plan B, and judging by the way things were handled last time, it will come to needing a plan B and they will then tell us to ignore our plan B in school and go by their one which they drew up without consulting a single person who works in education. Oh, they will want us to implement it the next day.

Schools are doing their best to cover all bases. It's the govenrment who are hell bent on saying nothing else expect a full reopening is an option.

I think you must work at my son's school

Sweden had social distancing in place In most schools so you can’t use their experience to predict what will happen in our full un distanced classrooms. There’s also currently suggestions that they didn’t track and trace any cases that did emerge in schools so they wouldn’t know if it had transmitted or not.

I am really baffled at the negative perception of teachers. They have worked through their planned holidays, changed their lesson plans again and again at the behest of the government, they have gone into school and looked after classrooms of kids without PPE.

My children's primary and secondary schools have provided excellent asynchronous learning (which was what we wanted), as much work as the children could do and extensions if they wanted, with great enthusiasm and commitment.

The government has sent them rafts of contradictory missives, have asked them effectively to do the impossible without giving them any extra funding for changes to the school building or PPE and then blamed them for holding back the government's own plans, when the government has planned badly.

Come on, the teachers are HEROES!