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

@noblegiraffe

Don't insult the intelligence of parents who have actually read the detailed information provided by schools.

Get a headteacher drunk then ask them what they really think of it all. Of course they are providing reassuring info to parents.

Would they be doing a better job by whipping up hysteria?

Sweden never closed schools and never implemented social distancing

I thought there was social distancing?

[quote Chloemol]@RigaBalsam

What a nasty little poster you are. It’s a free country I AM entitled to an opinion

Anyone, of any profession is allowed to leave said profession at any point if they are no longer happy there

It’s a fact, we don’t live in a dictatorship where once you have a job that’s it you can’t move

If the op is not happy, and she obviously isn’t then she has a choice to leave. There is nothing stupid binary or immature about that comment, nor an I throwing any baby out with any bath water[/quote]
I am nasty! Wow!

Pot.kettle....

Sweden never closed schools and never implemented social distancing and there is no evidence that it has lead to any infections.

Lack of evidence isn't evidence of lack. Sweden famously didn't do any testing of school children to avoid finding evidence.

"Yet Swedish officials have not tracked infections among school children—even when large outbreaks led to the closure of individual schools or staff members died of the disease.
“It’s really frustrating that we haven’t been able to answer some relatively basic questions on transmission and the role of different interventions,” says Carina King, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Karolinska Institute (KI), Sweden’s flagship medical research center. King says she and several colleagues have developed a protocol to study school outbreaks, “but the lack of funding, time, and previous experience of conducting this sort of research in Sweden has hampered our progress."

www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/how-sweden-wasted-rare-opportunity-study-coronavirus-schools

@noblegiraffe

our headmistress

Private school?

No.

Would they be doing a better job by whipping up hysteria?

I'm saying that heads providing reassuring messages to parents isn't actually good evidence for things really being fine.

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@Clavinova as you like spouting out a lot of figures, can you explain why our local MAT only received 20% of the laptops they requested under the Government scheme? I’m sure they are not the only ones. Or are all the schools going to be pleasantly surprised when they go back and find the other 80% waiting for them.[/quote]
www.gov.uk/government/publications/laptops-tablets-and-4g-wireless-routers-progress-data

This has all the data.

The government themselves have tables that show between 30/6 and 26/8 they have sourced 18k more of the needed laptops.

That's 18,000 children who had no access until nearly the end of the summer holiday.

If my DC went to the school I teach in, I wouldn't let them go back in.

Those saying "surely parents know what their DCs schools are like" - I don't think our parents know. The school is curated quite carefully on open evenings and the like, to disguise the problem areas.

The toilets are inadequate even in normal times - school were pulled up on it at the last ofsted and we already knew it was noncompliant with regulations but the agreement with the LA and the DfE was to add toilets at some point in the future when funds available. They haven't been made available yet.

To give you the numbers - we have 1200 students on a split site school. In upper school (the slightly bigger site) there are 2 toilet rooms for girls with 3 cubicles in each and 2 for boys with 1 cubicle and 3 urinals.
There is also a 6th form toilet with 1 cubicle which is also used for the inclusion room students. We have one disabled toilet on each site.

In lower school there is one toilet room for each sex. So altogether we have 12 cubicles for girls and 4 for boys with 12 urinals for a school population of over 1000.

We also have a block of 8 classrooms off a central, quite spacious area. However the ONLY way to access it is down a narrow corridor with one door entry. Potentially that's 240 kids accessing that space at one time.

We also have three blocks with upstairs classrooms - one narrow staircase serves each block with 6 classrooms in each.

It wouldn't pass building regs in any way now, but the problems keep getting glossed over and pushed forward with each inspection because - what's the alternative? There's no money and the school is too big to close.

So it's a very unsafe environment and I don't think parents have a clue.

@noblegiraffe

Would they be doing a better job by whipping up hysteria?

I'm saying that heads providing reassuring messages to parents isn't actually good evidence for things really being fine.

For most children, except the very few who fall into the extremely vulnerable category, things ARE fine.

Where staff are concerned, I accept that is more nuanced. However, I genuinely don’t know what you wish to happen.

Are the Scottish schools socially distancing?

I've only heard of one school that's had to close. Surely all Scottish schools would have closed by now if a lack of social distancing is as black and white as you are all suggesting.

@itsgettingweird that shows what was received, funnily enough it doesn’t show what was requested.

However, I genuinely don’t know what you wish to happen.

Given that this thread is about government propaganda, what I would like to happen here is for the government to be honest that the situation in schools will not adequately protect teachers or vulnerable students and that parents should be prepared for closures and disruption to education.

And they should remove fines for vulnerable kids and give parents a genuine choice about sending them back into unsafe conditions. They should have alternative arrangements for their education.

They should not have spent the summer filling the newspapers with lies about how the unions were blocking schools re-opening and pre-blaming teachers for any outbreaks.

They should have had a clear, scientifically-based directive on the use of face-coverings and not left it down to heads to make that decision (who it seems are further offloading it onto individual teachers due to parental backlash).

They should not decree that corridors are communal areas where face coverings may be required in high transmission areas and yet inexplicably classrooms are not.

They should have investigated the many, many different options being utilised by governments in other countries to keep their schools safe and been honest about why they are rejecting them.

@noblegiraffe

Don't insult the intelligence of parents who have actually read the detailed information provided by schools.

Get a headteacher drunk then ask them what they really think of it all. Of course they are providing reassuring info to parents.

I have name-changed for this post, as it could be identifiable. I work in a primary school whose Head Teacher is renowned for being a tough, "get-on-with-it," "stop fussing" type. She is passionate about keeping the school open come what may, and we are often the only local school open during heavy snow. She offers childcare in such weather to anyone who can walk to the premises. If the boiler's broken? Wear a jumper. We opened to maximum capacity at every point allowed throughout Covid and parents have received regular cheery "we're so excited to re-open properly this term" emails. The subject of plans for Christmas came up yesterday, when I was in. Her response? "Don't worry about that, we'll all be shut by half term!"

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@itsgettingweird that shows what was received, funnily enough it doesn’t show what was requested.[/quote]
Yeah it it does clearly show that they haven't sent everything requested and needed.

That between end of term and now at least 18,000 students have been without their laptops or tablets.

The government don't choose the experts who appear on the news.
Showing pictures of kids getting temperature checks is allowed.

itsgettingweird
can you explain why our local MAT only received 20% of the laptops they requested under the Government scheme?

The laptop/devices scheme was very ambitious.
From the tables;

Devices (laptops and tablets) delivered or
dispatched to LAs or trusts (as of 30th June)
202,212

4G wireless routers delivered or dispatched to
LAs or trusts (as of 30th June)
47,416

@noblegiraffe

However, I genuinely don’t know what you wish to happen.

Given that this thread is about government propaganda, what I would like to happen here is for the government to be honest that the situation in schools will not adequately protect teachers or vulnerable students and that parents should be prepared for closures and disruption to education.

And they should remove fines for vulnerable kids and give parents a genuine choice about sending them back into unsafe conditions. They should have alternative arrangements for their education.

They should not have spent the summer filling the newspapers with lies about how the unions were blocking schools re-opening and pre-blaming teachers for any outbreaks.

They should have had a clear, scientifically-based directive on the use of face-coverings and not left it down to heads to make that decision (who it seems are further offloading it onto individual teachers due to parental backlash).

They should not decree that corridors are communal areas where face coverings may be required in high transmission areas and yet inexplicably classrooms are not.

They should have investigated the many, many different options being utilised by governments in other countries to keep their schools safe and been honest about why they are rejecting them.

As always @noblegiraffe this is spot on.

The problem is giraffe you know as well as I do that all those actions will have consequences and some of those consequences will be far reaching and even devastating.

Are the Scottish schools socially distancing?

No, there may be slightly staggered starts to allow parents to distance but children under 11 haven't been distancing from each other from the beginning of July.
Doubtful that teens at high school are doing any sort of social distancing either.

@HumousWhereTheHeartIs

The government don't choose the experts who appear on the news. Showing pictures of kids getting temperature checks is allowed.

So, I'll re-post this from earlier on in the thread: 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 ..”

@Chloemol

Who is going to teach your child when the teachers leave?

The government don't choose the experts who appear on the news.
Showing pictures of kids getting temperature checks is allowed.

The tweet from Branwen Jeffreys of the BBC says that the government are offering experts to appear on the news in order to get the 'correct' message across.

Showing pics of kids getting their temperature checked is allowed. Temperature checks, however, aren't allowed. Or rather, the government says not to do them.

The subject of plans for Christmas came up yesterday, when I was in. Her response? "Don't worry about that, we'll all be shut by half term!"

That’s hilarious and sadly, I suspect, going to be true.

@alljustamoopoint

The problem is giraffe you know as well as I do that all those actions will have consequences and some of those consequences will be far reaching and even devastating.

Which ones, and how are other countries coping?

@Enoughnowstop

The subject of plans for Christmas came up yesterday, when I was in. Her response? "Don't worry about that, we'll all be shut by half term!"

That’s hilarious and sadly, I suspect, going to be true.

I disagree, I will be shocked if there are any more closures beyond a few days for cleaning. We shall see of course.