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

Anyone willing to place bets on how long their kids schools will be open for before having to close? Have schools had any money to invest on online teaching over the last few months?
Or will vast swathes of the UK go untaught again?

What’s the Dundee school doing about teaching? Anyone know

MarshaBradyo Teaching? The entire place has closed down. Everyone's gone into quarantine for two weeks.

@TheAdventuresoftheWishingChair

Thanks for posting that story. Decent facts get lost in the hysteria most of the time

@Longwhiskers14

MarshaBradyo Teaching? The entire place has closed down. Everyone's gone into quarantine for two weeks.

Distance teaching? Apparently it’s doable or so I’ve been told on here numerous times

What is the provision?

England schools have had NO extra funding for this crisis period. Just been told about extra things they have to find from an already stretched budget.

@MarshaBradyo

What’s the Dundee school doing about teaching? Anyone know

You could have a look on their website and see?

@TheAdventuresoftheWishingChair

'Gosh there's really no getting through to some people! This is really useful data. It's evidence schools are really safe. If you still want to worry about this, that's your prerogative but I think it's nonsensical not to be reassured by these findings on some level. They are such good numbers given all the fear about the virus.'

I think OP you have to realise that some people really won't listen. Leave them to it. It's their children I feel for. Sadly severe anxiety out of proportion to actual risk is not a nice mental illness. Hopefully, finally they will start to pay attention but some people really do only focus on an outbreak and the very worst news possible

Schools are meant to provide remote learning if required. However isn’t the Dundee a special school so that might be harder to do. And as other PP have said schools haven’t been given any additional funding for COVID, although I am talking from England perspective.

@Nellodee

We hoped that by September we might have a tracking app, and a fully functioning test and trace program. We also hoped that we may have kept cases really low over the summer, rather than opening up as much as possible until R was already hovering around 1. We hoped these things, because that was the best route to getting kids back to school as fully as possible.

We got Dido Harding.

This! Just absolutely this!

The issue with distance teaching. That’s all well and good until all the staff are at home in bed with a fever. If they’ve been signed off sick, they won’t be working.

Whynot had a look it’s not on there, I doubt they’ve had time to update.

It’s not important specifically but I wonder what to expect when schools close. I saw guidance on it here but can’t remember what it said.

I think school staff are going to be this season's equivalent of unprotected health care workers in March. This is literally an experiment with so many unknowns.
Is the virus less virulent?
Is it worth risking your health to work?
I an desperate for kids to return to school having 4 at home for months. But not at the expense of risking ill health on individuals.

@ineedaholidaynow

Schools are meant to provide remote learning if required. However isn’t the Dundee a special school so that might be harder to do. And as other PP have said schools haven’t been given any additional funding for COVID, although I am talking from England perspective.

Thanks Ineed

There's a middle ground between being frightened of covid-19 and ignoring that it's a public health issue.

OP, you can't use data from special circumstances to infer what happens in normal circumstances.

Most pps aren't advocating that schools should remain closed, but your evidence isn't saying that reopening normally is perfectly safe.

Gosh there's really no getting through to some people Yes, you. There is no getting through to you that how schools were in June is nothing like they will be when all children are back in September

Oh yeah I'd forgotten about our app and world beating test and tracing....

Another school in Scotland has had 3 cases, only some year groups are being kept off. Don’t think I’d be very happy sending my dc to school if they had cases even if not in their class.

Well according too phe outbreaks will be due to staff not SD outside of school, or Jenny harries not sticking to sd on coffee breaks ( if you are lucky enough to still have one!). Nothing at all to do with school guidance. So any education staff that end up in intensive care of worse will only have themselves to blame I guess.....🤔

And their holidays abroad, surely.

@MarshaBradyo also if teachers are actually off sick rather than just self isolating they won’t be expected to WFH. Schools can’t afford to pay for additional teachers, so the remote provision may be limited.

[quote Sassenach85]@latticechaos thanks we haven’t been told why the other staff are off I am off due to my child being ill. She’s been back a week and is off with a cough. I guess once someone gets a positive result then we need to be informed. No news on that yet. Schools are a breeding ground for germs. Fact. And even if all these people in my work are off with a normal cold or whatever, it’s happened on a wide scale as we are all crammed back into school. We follow SD as much as poss and have staggered breaks and all that but it makes no difference. It’s crazy.[/quote]
My kids school is also absolutely rife with colds. At least a dozen kids I know of are off (that's only from the families I am friendly with so who knows what the numbers are across the school).

I can't get DD tested as she doesn't have any of the 3 symptoms; helpline told us not to bother isolating. I sincerely hope it's really just a cold and that an outbreak won't be confirmed until a teacher/teachers show proper symptoms.

It's also quite chilling to remember just how quickly bugs spread; just as well Coronavirus is magical eh?!

@JacobReesMogadishu

Well currently siblings of the Dundee school kids can still go to school if they're at other schools. So we'll see how long it takes to spread to other schools I guess.

They're supposed to isolate if they can't SD at home.

@MarshaBradyo

What’s the Dundee school doing about teaching? Anyone know

It's a special school so I would imagine there are many extra difficulties around that unfortunately.

Ah I see Include I wasn’t aware, I only just googled name of school, but I can see it changes the situation.

It may be harder to SD there too? I don’t know but possibly more susceptible to an outbreak if so. (This is very much a question not a statement, I’m not sure what the set up is)