Some reassuring news about schools being really safe

[TheAdventuresoftheWishingChair]

I know there's a huge amount of (justifiable) worry about schools going back soon and I saw a piece of news today which deserved it's own thread in case people wanted some nice news.

Public Health England has looked at the evidence from June when 1,646,000 pupils went back to 23,400 schools in total. They found just 67 cases of the virus as a result of that. Only 0.01% of schools actually experienced an outbreak. That means that not only are children exceptionally unlikely to suffer any serious effects from catching the virus if they do get it but they are also really, really likely to catch it or spread it around in school. I know that won't reassure absolutely everyone, particularly if you have a child with additional health needs, but it is so lovely to be able to look at the evidence and say that, in terms of this virus, schools are actually really low risk.

Story from here www.gov.uk/government/news/study-finds-very-low-numbers-of-covid-19-outbreaks-in-schools?utm_source=01ce0967-35e6-401b-92c7-8d5c486b1fe3&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate

I have been back teaching my year 1 class since June, nearly full capacity and it's fine

So where do you teach, moretolifethanthis2020, not in the UK that's for sure. How is what you post relevant at all?

Oh, and welcome to MN.

You can't expect teachers to pay for printing off worksheets for pupils and then post them to them

I think you'll find this will be entirely expected by the same parents who pissed and moaned about online teaching provided by teachers, for the most part, out of their own pockets.

@Longwhiskers14

Please don't worry for me about covid if you didn't worry about me for the flu season etc

Here is some information from the WHO.

Mortality for COVID-19 appears higher than for influenza, especially seasonal influenza. While the true mortality of COVID-19 will take some time to fully understand, the data we have so far indicate that the crude mortality ratio (the number of reported deaths divided by the reported cases) is between 3-4%, the infection mortality rate (the number of reported deaths divided by the number of infections) will be lower. For seasonal influenza, mortality is usually well below 0.1%

Bit of a difference!

If you genuinely think people are no more at risk from covid than they are from flu, what do you think the lockdown was about? For fun?

As mentioned it is at risk groups teaching teenagers, rather than you personally I'm concerned for

@moretolifethanthis2020 In June, at my selective indie, it was 25% for years 10 and 12, and even then they didn't all turn up.

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@MarshaBradyo the problem is there is no funding for remote education provision. So if a school wants to provide work to be done via the internet this assumes all staff have laptops to be able to set this and that all pupils have laptops etc to be able to retrieve the work. If this is not the case what can the school do, it can't provide laptops. So it can be back to worksheets, but if the school is closed how would they print them off. You can't expect teachers to pay for printing off worksheets for pupils and then post them to them.[/quote]
Yes the are practical issues but I was looking for what I had read before as it didn’t chime with pp who stated no guidance at all.

Incidentally I know ds’ secondary school will do as they have done, which is as good provision as they can, they were more hampered by the 25% than anything else. So seeing that guidance is there is something.

Cheers @LivinLaVidaLoki knew I hadn't made that up.

I've not read the whole thread. But I'm sure I'm echoing many others by saying, June's classes are not comparable at all to what's going to happen in Sept.

Smaller classes, many many classes held outdoors under gazebos.

Proper social distancing. Over all a very good hot summer which helps to kill the virus.

Today's Dundee school closure, high lights the risks.

However, I can't understand why with a school closed, a teacher can't go in at alloted times to print off work?

Also, how many teachers don't have lap tops. Where I work, every single person has a computer, or lap top!

How come some of schools managed it just fine and others didn't. The deliberate belligerence from some quarters is what ruins it for everyone.

Other countries are providing investment for more distancing in schools via remote learning and/or more building space and temporary extra teachers.

We could do this if the government wanted to. It is possible.

About covid-19 and the flu (again...)

www.contagionlive.com/news/why-comparing-flu-covid-19-severity-not-equivalent
www.bloombergquint.com/opinion/revisiting-how-covid-19-ranks-with-seasonal-flu-and-1918-pandemic

www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu

"COVID-19: There have been approximately 809,349 deaths reported worldwide. In the U.S, 176,809 people have died of COVID-19, as of August 24, 2020.* [That is 8 months]

Flu: The World Health Organization estimates that 290,000 to 650,000 people die of flu-related causes every year worldwide.

In the U.S., from Oct. 1, 2019 – Apr. 4, 2020, the CDC estimates that 24,000 to 62,000 people died from the flu. (The CDC does not know the exact number because the flu is not a reportable disease in most parts of the U.S.)"

@Windyjuly if a school is closed because a bubble has burst everyone in the school will be self isolating so will not be allowed to go anywhere.

A number of teachers in our local Primaries struggled with school laptops and had to use their own when working from home and also had to use their own phones, which has safeguarding implications.

Lweji and that death toll is with worldwide lockdown.

moretolifethanthis2020
See attached. HTH

My secondary school moved to laptops from desktops about 6 years ago. All teaching staff and some support staff have them. The local primaries have desktops in classrooms - not so easy for remote teaching.
When we were closed, the site was completely shut down. Popping in to print wasn't possible - that would have meant getting site staff in specially. Many staff also travel a decent distance to work, again making popping in when everyone was being told to stay at home not very practical.
I'm not sure it was deliberate belligerence which caused some schools not to provide the same distance learning as others. We are lucky in that we had laptops to take home, and we had MS Teams already, so we were able to get up and running quickly. Other schools didn't have that chance. Next time, should there be one, we know what the pitfalls are and might be able to better deal with them. How we support those students who didn't get a laptop from the government or from us when we worked out who else needed one, I don't know. We have a whole new y7 and y12 starting next week and we don't know which of them might fall into this category.

I have been back teaching my year 1 class since June, nearly full capacity and it's fine

I find this very difficult to believe. How many children were in your class before and since June?

I will repeat again - in Dundee EVERYBODY who has been on the premises has been tested. Not those with symptoms. Not the contacts of the first positives. EVERYBODY.

Has the 2 week incubation period passed @pandafunfactory?

@pandafunfactory

I will repeat again - in Dundee EVERYBODY who has been on the premises has been tested. Not those with symptoms. Not the contacts of the first positives. EVERYBODY.

Doesn't that then indicate that children don't spread the virus in the same way adults do?

Bonkers to state that schools are 'really safe" when it's the middle of a pandemic and schools have people in them. Some have over 2000 teenagers in them plus staff

"I will repeat again - in Dundee EVERYBODY who has been on the premises has been tested."

How do you know this? Are the news articles and press releases say tests are available to all staff which seems a strange thing to say if they have already been tested?

TheAdventuresoftheWishingChair
Gosh there's really no getting through to some people!

You are quite right thos ethat take this entirely at face value will not change their minds.

They will ignore social distancing that went on.
The smaller class sizes.
That fewer pupils and staff shared facilities.
That temperature were taken for everyone every day.
etc. etc.

You will also be ignoring
all kids back
30+ kids in a classroom
not being able to enforce hand washing
etc etc.

But you do you boo.

How is this reassuring?
We aren't worried about kids being ill, it's them transmitting it that's the worry.
They are the spreaders, especially under 5's who have between 10%/100% more viral load than 5-17 year olds, that have the same as adults.
it's the nurseries opening that will be the problem, as well as schools. But we need the economy as people need their stuff, lol.

@Devlesko

How is this reassuring? We aren't worried about kids being ill, it's them transmitting it that's the worry. They are the spreaders, especially under 5's who have between 10%/100% more viral load than 5-17 year olds, that have the same as adults. it's the nurseries opening that will be the problem, as well as schools. But we need the economy as people need their stuff, lol.

This is not definite. They are studies in the other direction.

These data all suggest that children are not significant drivers of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear why documented SARS-CoV-2 transmission from children to other children or adults is so infrequent. In 47 COVID-19–infected German children, nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 viral loads were similar to those in other age groups, raising concern that children could be as infectious as adults.15 Because SARS-CoV-2 infected children are so frequently mildly symptomatic, they may have weaker and less frequent cough, releasing fewer infectious particles into the surrounding environment. here AJP

And the good news keeps coming - I hope schools are safe because
www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/24/coronavirus-home-test-kits-run-out-in-england-and-scotland

@pandafunfactory

I will repeat again - in Dundee EVERYBODY who has been on the premises has been tested. Not those with symptoms. Not the contacts of the first positives. EVERYBODY.

But by the time the tests are all done, Asymptomatic cases who had it first are likely to be now testing negative. They could get round this by also doing antibody tests. I haven’t seen them say they did that.