NEU calls for two week closure for secondaries and colleges following leap in infections

[noblegiraffe]

The NEU has called for a two week closure of secondary schools and colleges following a more than 9-fold increase in the infection rate in secondary school children in a month.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-teachers-demand-2-week-school-closures-after-cases-jump

The infection rate in Y7-11 was 0.5% last week, according to the ONS survey of random households, but this nearly doubled to 0.93% in the latest set of figures. This rise cannot be ignored or passed off as relating to university students as has happened so far.

In other, entirely unrelated news, 61% of teachers report that if a student doesn't wear a mask in a school where they are mandated in communal areas 'nothing happens'.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-61-staff-say-nothing-done-if-pupils-wont-wear-masks

And Teacher Tapp data from yesterday had 26% of teachers reporting that their schools were partially closed to students.

In the meantime, the testing positivity rate in 10-19 year olds is 17%, which means that this group is severely under-tested and lots of cases will be missed. The rate should be below 5%.

Yet the insistence continues that in any lockdown scenario, schools will remain open. Idiocy.

@Nellodee

No, I am telling toy that I believe it was a dig at noble that you thought you could make and get away with.

Ah, well you are wrong. If I thought noble hated kids I'd say that too.

But go on, why don’t you prove me wrong by telling her that you think she is a good teacher who does like kids and wants to teach them, as far as you know.

@Nellodee

But go on, why don’t you prove me wrong by telling her that you think she is a good teacher who does like kids and wants to teach them, as far as you know.

I mean, can you read minds or?

Because unless you can I think I know what I actually think better than you do.

Not all teachers are good at their job. Just like every single other profession.

It's funny because now you're trying to start an argument with me over that.

I’m very pleased to hear it, Genie. I, too, think she is a teacher who cares deeply about her profession and the children she teaches.

I don't know noble or you enough to say I think you're good teachers. I can only judge my child's teachers on how good at teaching they are. You might be ace. You might be shit. Only the parents of the kids you teach will know that.

My DC’s school has had two isolated cases in six weeks (out of a total school population of 1500 pupils). There is no need for it to close. The decision to close must be taken on a case by case basis.

@middleager

Opinion on this will be divided based on your own schools and where people live. It's grim here in Birmingham, yet my relatives in the SE and SW haven't had one case and don't have a clue how desperate it is here where at least 10,000 students are "off". Here is one example of the situation here - there has been a mass outbreak with 40 staff affected at this secondary in the region:

www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/willenhall-school-shuts-down-two-19119724

My year 10 son has now had four weeks not in school this term due to various cases in school. There are more than 100 healthy year 10s at home for the second time in a month.

My other son's inner city secondary has many cases too - several in his class have both parents testing positive.

Half the schools I work with have had multiple cases. One primary has closed completely as it has spread across staff.

It's unsustainable here. Schools are on their knees. Teaching IS disrupted.

But on the other hand, my son's home learning has been a mixed bag. A few weeks ago we had two days of no work (this is year 10!). This time it has been much better, but while we have new DfE guidelines regarding the provision robust blended learning, one core subject's work requires them to read the textbook. A textbook that resides at school. The teacher knows this yet all three lessons have required this, which means no lessons. My son won't raise this as he is concerned about the pressure school is under. I found the book on Amazon, but not all parents could afford this.

Now if all his year were at home I think schools could focus on home learning alone.

When he was in school for those few weeks it was lovely to see him with friends, enjoying sport, cadets etc, so I am torn on this.

However, all things considered, I would prefer blended learning/circuit breaker here. It's getting out of control.

Absolutely this.

I teach in the area from this article. We have been back 7 weeks and have one more week to go before half term.

The quality is education we are delivering is sliding all the time. Yesterday 12 teachers were off either isolating themselves or due to family members. We’ve had 3 groups sent home. Each class has at least 3 students with X as their code so I’m teaching the class with the desktop but also have my laptop out so home pupils can access the lessons.

Those of us who are in are exhausted. The constant moving to classes with all our resources, having one break a day due to extra duties, managing pupil’s behaviour is difficult as it’s deteriorating as they have to stay inside all day and on top of all this we are still having learning walks, still preparing for ofsted, marking constantly for Yr 11 and 13 so we have proof incase CAGS are needed again.

My pupils still see ‘happy me’. I put on a front all the time and this is exhausting. We had a virtual parents evenings this week with our form. Parents are happy. They don’t see behind the scenes.

I haven’t got the answers and will probably be slammed for not having that ‘can do’ attitude. I just know my school and the schools in my region can not carry on like this.

I entirely blame the government. It just so happens that I disagree with further closures, but at the end of the day if the government had done better to begin with this wouldn't even be a thing that needed to happen!

Is it really the Governments fault? its not as if we don't know what Tory governments do is it? but since WW2 we consistently vote them in.......

We ve under valued education, just as we have health for decades, we vote in Govt's that don't invest in infrastructure & staff so we can't do what other countries have done and have far smaller classes.

Also, Govt's have deliberately attempted to downgrade the status of teachers, they used to be respected, like many other professions, now they are not by many in society.

Teachers safety has to be paramount, they want a lockdown, then that must be very seriously considered.

@TrustTheGeneGenie

Of course the government is to blame which is why I find it hard to understand why teachers get so much stick on here

Because Matt Hancock Boris and co aren't on Mumsnet? if they were I am sure we would all be united in having a go at them!!
In all honesty I think some posters language etc just gets parents backs up. Nobody wants to think teachers think parents are palming kids off don't want the responsibility just want rid of them bla bla and that has been said and implied many times by some posters. Also the language used around kids by some posters hasn't been pleasant sometimes. And people don't forget.

I can see it from both sides. The vast majority of teachers do like kids and do want to teach. The vast majority of parents want their child to get a good education but also need to work to feed those children.

It's the small minority on both sides that makes both sides dislike one another, imo.

But you can tell which teachers don't like kids and don't want to teach?

That's quite a skill. I would have thought you could have extended it to knowing how good they were at their job as well.

If you're not referring to Noble, I'm quite at a loss as to which teachers you think have made the other side dislike teachers. She's by far the most outspoken of us.

It's almost as though you want to take aim at the teachers who post on here (and there are not that many of us), but want to avoid the hassle of being seen to attack any one of them individually.

At my DC’s secondary school there have been no positive cases. Not a single one.

First point: no positive cases that you know of. The vast majority of cases in children will be asymptomatic so there could well have been cases everyone was unaware of. Kids may also have been off with the ‘wrong symptoms’ so had it but weren’t tested.

Second: if the school hasn’t had any positive tests then that isn’t down to anything they’ve done. Covid measures (what covid measures..?) in schools are to stop it spreading once it gets in the building, they can’t stop kids catching it outside and bringing it in.

Third: the research that showed that most (70%?) people with covid don’t give it to anyone so schools where it spreads are more likely to have been unlucky with who caught it than be to blame for poor mitigation measures. The ones where it doesn’t spread probably aren’t doing anything much different (except maybe private schools).

I think the higher the community levels, the more kids will be bringing it into schools and the more likely one is a super-spreader. Because schools provide the perfect conditions for transmission (crowded, poorly ventilated rooms with lots of talking), it’s simply a numbers game.

You can mitigate the effect of missing months of education by reducing tuition fees, investing more in night classes, allowing kids to re-do years at school/exams in the long term. It is easier to do this than dealing with hospitals filling up and kids watching videos in lessons because so many teachers are off sick/isolating.

Yes - vulnerable kids, may benefit from a place outside home to do their remote learning and poor households need electronic devices/internet and key workers need childcare.

The earlier you act, the better the long term effect. Hasn’t U.K. learnt this by now?

[quote RubyandBen]@SaltyAndFresh
I've had three pieces of work back from 60 pupils taught online this week
And you're advocating long term home learning????[/quote]
No I'm not. I'm advocating a short closure to sort this dangerous situation out with a sustainable and safer plan for schools to stay open. I know a long term closure won't work for this reason.

School staff knew this was going to happen. It isn't up to us to facilitate parents' work. It's up to us to educate your children which we can't do if they have to keep self isolating and we become ill. I have been in a classroom with a confirmed case for a prolonged period but don't have to self isolate. If the kids has been further apart they wouldn't have had to either.

@jasjas1973

I entirely blame the government. It just so happens that I disagree with further closures, but at the end of the day if the government had done better to begin with this wouldn't even be a thing that needed to happen!

Is it really the Governments fault? its not as if we don't know what Tory governments do is it? but since WW2 we consistently vote them in.......

We ve under valued education, just as we have health for decades, we vote in Govt's that don't invest in infrastructure & staff so we can't do what other countries have done and have far smaller classes.

Also, Govt's have deliberately attempted to downgrade the status of teachers, they used to be respected, like many other professions, now they are not by many in society.

Teachers safety has to be paramount, they want a lockdown, then that must be very seriously considered.

Of course it's the government's fault. I have certainly never noted for them.

They have done so much wrong.

Of course it's the government's fault. I have certainly never noted for them
They have done so much wrong

You might not have but the UK as a whole has and the problems that CV is highlighting now, is what happens when you don't invest in public services and has an over reliance on so called more efficient private companies.

But you can tell which teachers don't like kids and don't want to teach?

There have been certain posters in the last who have said particularly vile things about kids.

That's quite a skill. I would have thought you could have extended it to knowing how good they were at their job as well

Without meeting them? I mean I can tell you I think you're all shit because you seem to want me to??

If you're not referring to Noble, I'm quite at a loss as to which teachers you think have made the other side dislike teachers. She's by far the most outspoken of us.

Im clearly not going to name anyone because it will get me banned.

It's almost as though you want to take aim at the teachers who post on here (and there are not that many of us), but want to avoid the hassle of being seen to attack any one of them individually

It's almost as though you have ignored everything I've said and just want to start an argument with me....

The problem here is that people want the impossible; to bring the virus under control without ANY effect to their social or economic status. It can't happen. - So then people try to justify their own wish not disrupt their lives by quoting - quite frankly- nonsense that has no relevance to the science. It doesn't matter if your school 'only had one or two' cases. Because children are largely asymptomatic . So unless you are testing every child every week - you have absolutely no idea how much Covid is in your schools .

What IS known is that there is not a single area of the UK where cases are not increasing. Some at a faster rate than others - but none the less, still increasing.

It's pretty clear from the evidence in the states.
Maine
Delaware
Mississippi

All low rates. Stable. Schools not 'open' but Hybrid mix of Face 2 face and Virtual. To allow social distancing.
Universities on line. For While of Fall semester.

North Dakota
South Dakota
Montana
Highest rates. Schools and Universities open. (But some starting to close or move to hybrid now)

It's a bizarre situation we are in.
The question being asked is ;
How can we control this virus ?
The answer is to control schools and universities. By closing or Hybriding them. But people don't WANT that answer ..

@AldiAisleofCrap-would you leave an 11 year old home alone all day?? I would not. No she has no special needs. She though is a normal child who needs some company during the day! I wouldn't dream of leaving a child of that age for an entire day.

@noblegiraffe

There have been certain posters in the last who have said particularly vile things about kids.

Yeah see this has been one of the accusations thrown at me but then no one has ever managed to point to where I’ve done this and lots of posters have said ‘hmm, I’ve never seen this’ so I’m calling this out as a billy bullshit post again aimed at me but vague enough to give plausible deniability. Just like the ‘some teachers actually like kids and want to teach’ which has also been thrown at me and as Nellodee pointed out is about as subtle as a brick when you pretend it wasn’t me you meant this time.

Im clearly not going to name anyone because it will get me banned.

No, you’ll just throw accusations without the names and hope that the mud will stick.

Despicable and cowardly behaviour.

They are all doing this, then throwing around accusations of temperament, etc, etc. Not quite blatant enough but it is.

Literally spending the whole week, every day, day and night doing it too.

It’s all a bit tragic really.

im advocating a short closure to sort this dangerous situation out with a safer and sustainable plan for schools to stay open

I doubt many would argue against that tbh, I guess the same fear comes in from both parents and teachers is what happens if that short closure doesn't work? Where do we go from there?

If the government have had months to come up with a safer opening plan and failed is it optimistic to think they can come up with a new safer plan in just a couple of weeks?

Is a 2 week closure enough to solve all these problems?

[quote loulouljh]@AldiAisleofCrap-would you leave an 11 year old home alone all day?? I would not. No she has no special needs. She though is a normal child who needs some company during the day! I wouldn't dream of leaving a child of that age for an entire day.[/quote]
What will you do if (when) she gets sent home to isolate?

Ah right, I can see the bullying and piling on has started. I mean this kind of behaviour will totally change people's interpretation of teachers. Bullying someone who hasn't actually said anything bad about you, hasn't aimed any comments at you, hasn't personally attacked you, hasn't blamed teachers at all not even once.

Is a 2 week closure enough to solve all these problems?

Who knows? But continuing as is sure as hell isn’t going to solve them and the situation will get worse. The infection rate in Y7-11 has doubled in the last week.

If people are worried that if we shut schools for two weeks and it might end up being longer because things are really bad, then isn’t that an argument for shutting schools for a circuit break sooner rather than later when things are even worse and will take longer to solve?