The government is trying to make you think schools will be socially distanced

[noblegiraffe]

The government are currently running a (well publicised) propaganda campaign to say that schools are safe. They are using social media influencers, journalists and friendly scientists (firmly ignoring any unfriendly ones like the Royal Society). Branwen Jefferys of the BBC tweeted “So how high is government anxiety about school return? A PR company acting on behalf of the Cabinet office is now emailing media offering experts to support the “messaging”. Strange way to approach news journalists ..”

And just about every news outlet running stories about schools seems to be rotating stock footage of half empty classrooms with teachers miles away from the kids. There have even been photos of kids getting temperature checks (not allowed). I was watching Sky news where a commentator was saying how awful it was that kids would be sent back to socially distanced schools. The PM gave a rambling speech to carefully spaced kids in a library. And in a visit to a classroom it’s clear that the kids were all shoved down one end in order to give some lovely spaced kids at the other end for the PM to pose in front of.
metro.co.uk/2020/08/27/boris-johnson-staged-school-visit-social-distancing-13188600/

Matt Hancock was on the news saying it was really important for teachers to stay 2m from the kids to avoid spreading the virus between all the bubbles they’ll be working in, despite knowing that this will be utterly and hopelessly impossible.

Why are the government lying? Why are they sending the ‘right’ experts to the press? Why are kids being spread out for staged photo shoots instead of honest pictures?

And why are the press largely going along with it?

Schools are going back, in a lot of cases to an estate that is unfit for purpose. Old buildings, no ventilation, large class sizes. Pupils will be crammed in facing a teacher who won’t be able to stand 2m from them. If it’s so safe, why aren’t they showing and acknowledging the reality?

YABU: what they are doing is fine and there are perfectly reasonable explanations for all the suggestions of socially distanced classrooms and schools in the media

YANBU: the lying liars are lying to us again

Beat me to it motherrunner, including the (ha!).

@HipTightOnions Ha! 😉

I have been teaching for most of this week. I have stood at the front of classes of 34 and have not managed to keep 2m away. The corridors are full and I have stood directly in between students and staff... Yet the photos in the news are of children on single desks sitting far apart from one another.

Story in the Independent. Perspex screens in classes? Teachers able to stay 2m away from the kids? Their own Track and Trace system? This is incredibly misleading.

And given that they admit that kids won’t be social distancing at school, why the fuck are they distancing in the photos?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/schools-back-students-pupils-return-coronavirus-changes-leicester-a9692101.html

@Tyranttoddler

I have been teaching for most of this week. I have stood at the front of classes of 34 and have not managed to keep 2m away. The corridors are full and I have stood directly in between students and staff... Yet the photos in the news are of children on single desks sitting far apart from one another.

Blimey - so I need to advise my daughter not to sit on the front row and all teachers need to keep moving so as never to linger in one part of the classroom! What a blooming farce. If we had had a say Id definitely have voted for part time school with more space any day of the week.

@palacegirl77 Not sure your daughter can chose where she sits. At my DC's School they will be allocated a seat in each lesson.

Friday night TV is rubbish, resorted to watching the Edinburgh Military Tattoo from 2 years ago and reminiscing about life in the old days.

So thought I'd check in to see how the thread has developed, well your presence is consistent @noblegiraffe, but don't think much light has really been shed.

So far - the government lie, no shit sherlock.

Despite not believing the lies, some parents have been informed of the reality for high schools, but still want to send their kids to school.

Where do we go from here? I am sending my kid to school. If you can pull yourself together you are going to school next week? But if not please say home and "stay safe".

I'm having a wonderful bank-holiday Friday night reading the most up to date guidance. Here's a quote.

Based on the advice from the health protection team, schools must send home those people who have been in close contact with the person who has tested positive, advising them to self-isolate for 14 days since they were last in close contact with that person when they were infectious. Close contact means:

direct close contacts - face to face contact with an infected individual for any length of time, within 1 metre, including being coughed on, a face to face conversation, or unprotected physical contact (skin-to-skin)
proximity contacts - extended close contact (within 1 to 2 metres for more than 15 minutes) with an infected individual

I can't comfortably manage 1m distancing in a class of 32, so if at any point, anyone in the front row of 8 (or even the two front rows of 16, going by the 1-2m point) tests positive, that's me off for 14 days. That's 11 classes, so up to 176 pupils who will have to self-isolate. Of course if I test positive, all of them have to SI for 14 days. Repeat ad infinitum (or at least until we have a rethink and reduce numbers so that that 2m distance is actually achievable).

so up to 176 pupils who will have to self-isolate.

What I meant was, if any of those 176 test positive I have to self-isolate.

But I bet there will be many posters in the next few weeks complaining that their children are in the front row!

But I bet there will be many posters in the next few weeks complaining that their children are in the front row!
If I was feeling silly and cynical then I'd not be surprised if we see threads about:

• why their child is in the same seat all day /same room
• why is the school not bothering to enforce social distancing
• why their child has to mix with lots of other students / why does school have whole year group bubbles
• some complaint about breaks/lunches and how unfair they think the arrangement is
• why it's inconvenient for them that their child's year group finishes early/later than other year groups where schools are having different release times
• any variation on potential problems that teachers on here have mentioned need to be considered over the last few months, but we were told we are horribly unreasonable and need to positively think the issues away
• if any school staff highlight the challenges of opening schools without proper consideration of risks then they must be jumped on, called lazy, and people will claim teachers want the school's closed for months

@Codexdivinchi

Shitfuckoh there are 480 people in hospital out of 55 million . Hospital admissions are not going up - they are decreasing week on week. No healthy child has died of COVID in the U.K.

Im GLAD the government are pushing on with it because things need to get back to normal. No one is forcing you to send your kids in to school - dereg them. If you hand on heart think they will catch COVID and be seriously ill keep them at home.

I wish some posters would learn to read.

I said as far as I know we are ''low risk'' so no, I do not believe my children will be seriously ill.
I said I was sending my children - so no, I won't 'dereg them'.

You say no healthy children have died of COVID in the U.K. - I pointed out my concern wasn't just for children in schools. It's regarding the TA sitting next to my son helping him to write, the TA who helps with his personal care. The teacher who teaches him the correct way of spelling whichever set of words he may be on that week. The teaching staff who help ensure his needs are met by ensuring the EHCP is correct & up to date. The escort sitting next to him in the taxi to ensure he gets to school safe. The driver listening to him talk away 300 miles an hour driving him there. The grandparent of his best friend, the only parent that child has ever known due to his bio parents being unable to meet his needs.

I'm not a teacher, I don't want to have to home educate my children. I'd like for my childrens teachers to be able to educate them - without risk to the teachers, their families & the community.

The Johnson govt rarely tells the truth. Lying is their default.

Right I see - and the logic there is if there is no SD between kids and one tests positive is that they "are unlikely" to transmit it to the other kids (and the teacher has been far enough away?)

What magically happens to the human body between 18 and 21 that an 18 year old 6th former is unlikely to transmit the virus whereas the 21 year old PGCE student is at risk and must be 2 metres away?

The government stuff is all bollocks.

@LolaSmiles there will also be parents complaining why other children got free laptops and some additional tutoring, because although we 'must think of the children' we don't mean 'those children'.

No one is forcing you to send your kids in to school - dereg them. If you hand on heart think they will catch COVID and be seriously ill keep them at home.

And what would be the collective MN view of parents who did that and then went on benefits as a result? I can see the queue of pearl clutchers right now.

Apparently the gov has just JUST released new guidelines for schools. Which open on Tuesday. This being a bank holiday weekend. The fuckers.
We still don't know if teachers count as part of a bubble.
I can't be arsed to read the whole bloody thing at this point on a Friday evening.
Seriously, this government needs a bloody rocket.

@toffeecashews

No one is forcing you to send your kids in to school - dereg them. If you hand on heart think they will catch COVID and be seriously ill keep them at home.

And what would be the collective MN view of parents who did that and then went on benefits as a result? I can see the queue of pearl clutchers right now.

Now you're being silly, everyone knows if they had to go on benefits as a result, they should NOT be able to feed their kids via tax payers money (I'm not being serious with this, although you know it'll be said!)

@WhyNotMe40

Apparently the gov has just JUST released new guidelines for schools. Which open on Tuesday. This being a bank holiday weekend. The fuckers. We still don't know if teachers count as part of a bubble. I can't be arsed to read the whole bloody thing at this point on a Friday evening. Seriously, this government needs a bloody rocket.

Our school opened last week (England, state school) as did 1000’s of schools in Leicestershire. Seems even the government don’t know that not every county follows the same term dates!

Im GLAD the government are pushing on with it because things need to get back to normal.

That's fine. Noble's original post didn't say that the government shouldn't open schools. It said that the government should be honest about what the real situation in schools and classrooms will be, and should stop spreading misleading images of half-empty, socially-distanced classrooms.

If you hand on heart think they will catch COVID and be seriously ill keep them at home.

Many people have said (over and over again) that their fear is not that their child will catch Covid and be very ill, but that opening schools will cause a surge in cases which will affect the vulnerable in schools and in the kids' families.

DfE did the Bank Holiday stunt before.

What a shower of shite.

Many people have said (over and over again) that their fear is not that their child will catch Covid and be very ill, but that opening schools will cause a surge in cases which will affect the vulnerable in schools and in the kids' families.

Schools aren't open in our area yet but the area has gone up from the third highest category on the map you can see via the Zoe app to the second highest. Yesterday it was lower but today numbers have almost doubled over what was showing yesterday. I'm not feeling confident.

Anyone know why Leicestershire follows a different pattern of term dates to most other counties in England?
I've been teaching a long time and I'm embarrassed to say that I never knew this.

If any of the 25 people in my class have a positive test result (likely to be me or the 1-1 TA), we'll all be isolating for 14 days. All of us will have been within 2m of each other for more than 6 hours a day.

These maps.