Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

SD in my secondary school

46 replies

Mandalalorianna · 06/09/2020 08:42

There is none. Nowhere. Just not happening! Impossible as there simply isn't the space. If there's going to be new wave, this will surely be the start of it. But then I was expecting one after VE weekend and it didn't happen. Not sure what my point is. Just musing I guess. We'll see.

OP posts:

sirfredfredgeorge · 06/09/2020 10:45

Just not happening! Impossible as there simply isn't the space. If there's going to be new wave, this will surely be the start of it.

If everyone at a school became infected due to a couple of cases, then everyone in almost all schools would have been infected in march, when there lots more cases out there than now and no social distancing measures at all.

Bubbles are about identifying and excluding contacts when there are identified cases.

HipTightOnions · 06/09/2020 10:50

Bubbles are about identifying and excluding contacts

Not at secondary school where “bubbles” may have 400 people in them. If/when there’s a case at my school it will be hard to identify contacts when 400 students are mixing freely.

ohthegoats · 06/09/2020 10:51

then everyone in almost all schools would have been infected in march, when there lots more cases out there than now and no social distancing measures at all

Well, we might have been. And since kids are often asymptomatic, they REALLY might have been. Antibody tests for teachers might have been useful this summer? But no money for that obviously. Many schools had started social distancing back in Feb - in terms of not having mass gatherings like assemblies, performance audiences and staff meetings.

noblegiraffe · 06/09/2020 10:51

If everyone at a school became infected due to a couple of cases, then everyone in almost all schools would have been infected in march, when there lots more cases out there than now

No, because cases aren't evenly spread throughout the country, they occur in clusters. Obviously.

walksen · 06/09/2020 10:54

"If everyone at a school became infected due to a couple of cases, then everyone in almost all schools would"

If this logic worked all the food factories, sandwich factories etc (which are probably more infectious than schools) would have had everyone infected in march and April as well, which is clearly not the case.

noblegiraffe · 06/09/2020 10:56

I'd like to think that a sandwich factory has more hygiene measures put in place in normal times than a secondary school.

Otherwise I'm never buying sandwiches again. Secondary schools are grim and filthy places.

Vinoonasunnyday · 06/09/2020 10:56

Not sure about other people’s school but here a lot of the secondary schools are using as an app (don’t know what it is) which arranges students seating in each class and logs it to record all possible contacts

So kids seats are pre determined in every lesson with no flexibility

Vinoonasunnyday · 06/09/2020 10:57

The idea is that in each subject and set it limits the number of contacts so kids in similar classes will be seated together as they move around each subject

walksen · 06/09/2020 11:02

Well of course I'm referring to the well published outbreaks at the one that made them for marks and Spencer where I think there were over 300 cases and the spread might be due to low ambient temperatures etc. Difficult to compare with schools as they won't test everyone in a school outbreak but I figured if I implied schools were as or more infectious due to the "grim conditions" I'd be accused of scaremongering being hysterical etc.

IceCreamAndCandyfloss · 06/09/2020 11:04

Most VE celebrations were outdoors and likely no where near as big as secondary schools.

I can’t imagine cases will do anything other than rise. No SD, large numbers indoors, some will send in sick children as has always been done and add to that many parents not bothering to follow guidelines and now allowing mixing freely after school and there’s more opportunities for spread.

HipTightOnions · 06/09/2020 11:05

the spread might be due to low ambient temperatures etc. Difficult to compare with schools as they won't test everyone in a school outbreak but I figured if I implied schools were as or more infectious due to the "grim conditions" I'd be accused of scaremongering being hysterical etc.

Cant wait for winter with all the windows and doors open...

SaltyAndFresh · 06/09/2020 11:08

As arrogantly dismissive as many posters will be, I don't think anyone really appreciates how anxiety-inducing it is to be thrown back in amongst hundreds of big, non-SD pupils after all this time spent living so carefully. There is no regard for secondary school teachers' health and wellbeing from the majority. No doubt, we will also get all the usual shit from parents about how so-and-so's behaviour couldn't possibly warrant a detention, or such and such was doing so much better with her last teacher, or even 'I'm at the bookshop now. I emailed MrsSalty 5 minutes ago and she still hasn't replied.'

I didn't have time to take a piss between 8.15 and 12.15 on Friday. I only managed it then because Year 7 have early lunch so God help me when I have Year 11 (I can be grateful that the heaviest part of my period should have passed by then I suppose - and I don't care if that's TMI).

I'm handling hundreds of books per day, cleaning multiple times a day and tearing between form and class. Everything is staggered so I have to try to keep multiple combinations of timings in mind and I can't spend any time with colleagues. Lunch became a hurried 15 minute gobble in a potentially contaminated classroom because of the cleaning, navigating the one way system and preparing for the next lesson.

It's shit and I want out. I don't care if I'm sacked.

Vinoonasunnyday · 06/09/2020 11:09

Cases will only rise if parents allow their kids to mix with vulnerable

Most kids are asymptomatic so unlikely to get symptoms or even to be tested

If they’re passing it onto the wider community then that’s something that can be limited through personal behaviour and responsibility - parental input

Now my kids back at school they won’t be seeing vulnerable relatives unless with some distancing

We can all help stop that transmission as it’s not the kids getting ill

It’s pretty easy for that link to be reduced but many will use grandparents etc for childcare 🤷‍♀️

Vinoonasunnyday · 06/09/2020 11:12

I do understand teachers concerns as I teach FE but to be fair a lot of it is fear and unbalanced imo

In my college most of the staff aren’t worried at all

Most people I know who worry are the same people say in pub at the weekend 🤷‍♀️

There’s very little distancing going on in most places now - not because employers haven’t put it in place (they have) but because most people don’t care or worry enough to follow it

SaltyAndFresh · 06/09/2020 11:14

I am not unbalanced. I'm trying to work in an unworkable situation. It is extremely stressful.

noblegiraffe · 06/09/2020 11:21

Cases will only rise if parents allow their kids to mix with vulnerable

This is wrong. Cases will rise because of the increase in contacts in the general population due to schools and other places re-opening. We can see this already.

Deaths will rise if contacts increase in the vulnerable population.

Given that vulnerable kids are being sent back to school along with vulnerable staff, and there are many kids with vulnerable family members in their house, there's an inescapable conclusion here.

Heatherjayne1972 · 06/09/2020 11:27

Friday morning was the first morning back for my secondary school kids
Dropped off and drove past the entrance
They (200 or more teenagers) were crowded around the entrance waiting to go in

Then went straight into an assembly

We are so screwed.

Lua · 06/09/2020 11:46

@Vinoonasunnyday: Cases will only rise if parents allow their kids to mix with vulnerable

pray tell how? So kids that have overweight bame parents are not supposed to come home for example?

Many highschool kids have parents over 50 with all kinds of conditions....

zafferana · 06/09/2020 11:49

@middleager that's not what the school told me, that's what DS told me when I asked him this morning what his school is doing. So yes, the school also told us what they had planned, but I wouldn't go off that. Good intentions are no use at all if they're not acted upon.

Whitestick · 06/09/2020 11:56

In my college most of the staff aren’t worried at all
How is this a sensible statement for anyone to make? It is completely unrealistic to think you know the minds of all the people you work with - I'm a union rep so maybe know more than most but still I have not spoken to every union member. I don't share my feelings with work colleagues why would I.

Concerned7777 · 06/09/2020 13:09

Many will use grandparents etc for childcare

If children are being sent home often (especially younger ones) and told to isolate because someone else in their bubble has tested positive then parents aren't going to be able to keep taking time off work so its inevitable that grandparents will be drafted in to help with childcare if the children are being sent home regularly.

Flip

1 2