"It is, alas, a fact of the disease that it is readily transmissible between children and adults"

[noblegiraffe]

Says our PM.

So can all those people who spent the entire summer telling teachers that their worries about returning to school without any mitigation measures that it was FINE because children didn't spread it please now start campaigning for mitigation measures in schools because it appears that people's lives are being put at risk.

twitter.com/mikercameron/status/1306246353379569665?s=21

@shittingthreeeyedraven there were GDPR reasons why live lessons were withheld to start with. They took a long time to sort out.
But also not particularly easy for everyone to access live lessons when you have three kids and one laptop between them. Having work assignments to do might be more effective for learning anyway

I’m perfect. I do live lessons. If only all teachers were as wonderful as me we wouldn’t have a shit test and trace system and a government that doesn’t know it’s arse from it’s elbow.

Do they teach you that punctuation and lack of capitalisation in your fancy schmancy school, too?

It really is a red herring and distraction tactic. State school teachers doing their job properly/sitting on their arses whilst you are the only employee in the world with a toddler at home did not affect the transmission of children to adults and did not affect the government's economic decision to reopen schools and workplaces.

My DH is a private school teacher. We both taught online lessons. I did loads of marking. He did none. Lazy private school teachers, all of them.

Kids and teachers are not off because of a surge in covid in schools. It's because they are (nearly) all off with the common cold.

Kids transmit covid, I can't believe any source of note has said otherwise. However, I have read from many sources that there is building evidence that children are not as good transmitters as adults because they are largely asymptomatic. Schools are low down on the list of risk for catching covid.

The problem with school closing is because people are advised to test when they have ONE symptom of covid, not if they think they have covid.

Private school teachers don’t even have to be qualified. Many of them are weak teachers who just couldn’t hack it state schools. Any more cliched insults we can throw around pointlessly?

The problem with school closing is because people are advised to test when they have ONE symptom of covid

This isn't the problem at all. Schools are closing year groups because of positive cases.

Teachers and kids are off because they or their household members have symptoms and can't get tests, but that's not closing schools. Yet.

So covid is indicated by thought not symptoms?

Why do we even bother with smear tests? We could just ask women if they think they have CIN

We have been through the ONE symptom issue. Plenty of people with one symptom test positive. The sense of smell thing was added a while ago once scientist realised this was actually a very common symptom and there were plenty of people for whom this was the only one.

If you didn't test and isolate with one symptom you would be flouting PH guidance.

Scenario: Child has temperature and sudden persistent cough.

Before sending them into a crowded school where potentially over a thousand people can be infected and carry the virus out into their families would you,

a) get them a test, or
b) ask them if they think they have covid?

I am not sure this is a scientific fact, despite the PM saying it. The question is what is the relative infection rate from young child to adult compared to adult to adult. As far as I know this is still a topic of research but the general view is that it is lower, maybe much lower.

Just trivially, young children are mostly asymptomatic and if you aren't coughing you aren't spreading it as much. Also young children are normally not talking at face height to adults who are not their parents for prolonged periods.

Sounds reasonable to me, yes children do spread the virus which is why it applies to the rule of six in general but not in schools as the general public don't have access to the magic anti-covid properties available in school buildings. If we could all live in schools for two weeks then we could eradicate it fully.

@TheHoneyBadger I agree that the hard of thinking will find it difficult. However, for most normal people, it is clear when one has a cold with a cough because one snivels, sneezes and so on. Or if a child is asthmatic and catches a cold which invariably develops into a cough. Sensible people will know what is normal for their child when the common cold is doing the rounds, and what is not. The blocking of test centers etc is a result of the flood of people and children testing when all they have is the common cold.

@noblegiraffe I wouldn't be quick to jump to conclusions until the data comes rolling in. Seems like some schools are closing with one case, other more pragmatic ones are closing targeted bubbles. Most cases seem to come from covid hotspots.

It remains my opinion that all this would be fine if vulnerable people SI for the duration. Zoom learning from SI teachers to SI pupils. All the rest should carry on as old normal. Disease spreads, death rate lower than flu.

Gdpr issues? How? Why did these affect some schools and not others.

Doing work in a live lesson would be hard on a phone, but listening would be OK.
My dd listened to the few lessons she had, before summer hols (about 3 a week).
Other places prepared in case there was a lock down and teachers taught on line days after lock down was announced.

I can't even begin to express just how fucking fuming I was when that shambling twat said those words.

So, knowing that he sent me and many many other extremely clinically vulnerable/clinically vulnerable teachers back into schools where we are not allowed PPE.

Fuck him.
Fuck them all.

@TheHoneyBadger
Scenario: Child has temperature and sudden persistent cough.

Test without hesitation. 2 symptoms. Not at all clear this would be a cold.

Back to you: scenario: blocked nose and 38oC temperature over weekend. Other kids and parents complaining about having a cold. Temp subsides, runny nose continues. Mild cough develops on Monday morning. WWYD?

When this covid took hold it was very mild temperatures. It was unseasonably hot.

We know covid loves the cold, essentially we have not tried our systems in cold weather.. Even now its extremely warm... I dread to think what will happen when temps drop again!

Scottish schools have been back for weeks and we have had no outbreaks in school. Few classes closed due to cases but have been been in the community 🤷🏻‍♀️. Blended learning is catastrophic!!!! How are working parents meant to hold down a full time job and home school. It's not possible.

Well, it's all OK because the government has set up a hotline to advise schools on what to do.

I am sure there will be no political agenda at all to the advice given.

I am sure it will work as smoothly as the test and trace call centres.

I cannot fathom why on earth they didn't stagger school start times, ease children back in, and then do it on a rota... With home learning.

Well, it's all OK because the government has set up a hotline to advise schools on what to do.

School trip to Barnard Castle.

Oh and just to make this clear to all the nasty posters insulting private school teachers.

I work in both a private and a state school. I am a mainstream teacher who teaches 3 days a week in a private school covering all lessons and then the same in a local state school for the other two days.

I worked FAR harder during lockdown for the private school (live lessons, online digitally marking every piece of work, feedback forms, TEAMS parental meetings etc ) than I did for the state school (PowerPoint with attached worksheets sent each week and minimal 'like' comments via Class Dojo)

I find the 'lazy private school teacher' comments insulting and displaying a lack of awareness of what we do.

Oh. And in most private schools we are expected to not only be highly qualified but also have ongoing higher level qualifications to effectively prove our worth. I am 'only' a classroom teacher in my private school but I have an NPQSL and I am a Chartered Teacher.

We are only ever as good as our last set of results and they will replace quickly if they feel they need better levels (grades are often what parents look for when choosing a private schools). The pressures in a private school are very different to state but they are there and they are immense (and should never be underestimated)

I find the 'lazy private school teacher' comments insulting and displaying a lack of awareness of what we do.

That was the whole point of them. Did you miss that?

Ermmm... more that was IRONY.

I don't think all private school teachers are lazy. That is plainly ridiculous. As it is to suggest all private school teachers work harder than all state school teachers.

The phrase ‘hard of thinking’ is really unpleasant. Disappointing that some teachers are using it.

So people truly believed you could get it from a bat, but not from a human child?

I guess this is the result of decades of underfunding of the education sector.