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.

@WouldBeGood

While still working?

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince

And if your school was delivering lessons via Zoom believe me they were contravening safeguarding. But your kids got their lessons, so that doesn’t really matter does it? The fact that the school probably broke safeguarding guidelines?

However, this is really immaterial. Schools are now set up to deliver online teaching,

My DS (y6) is isolating, class bubble not family isolation, they have been receiving lessons via zoom from the teacher , should they not be doing this??

@ 3littleword

As long as the platform has been checked by the safeguarding lead and they are confident that there won’t be any issues. It will be written into their risk assessment (I would hope).

“Remote learning” is just rubbish and not worth it. Fine, close schools. But not pretend that effective teaching goes on without them. So, no work, no pay like the rest of us

I'm not tech savvy but in terms of safeguarding why is teams preferable to zoom?

@WouldBeGood

Good try. 1/10 at best. Please try using more emotive language and facts to support your opinions. Remember to us AFOREST featured in feature posts. Also, a little knowledge of your topic wouldn’t go amiss. Perhaps read around the subject a bit more.

Please re-write an resubmit by tomorrow.

We were told Zoom was to easy to hack into.

School is outstanding in safeguarding.

So, no work, no pay like the rest of us

Except, presumably, the loads of people who did no work and were paid through the furlough scheme.

@BelleSausage that’s very patronising.

I simply don’t agree with you. That’s allowed.

@3littlewords

It’s been specifically tinkered with for educational settings. Zoom is aimed at businesses and families. Teams was Skype for Business but Mircrosoft have pivoted the platform to be aimed at schools and have made specific changes to make it more secure for teachers.

It may have changed now, but using it last term was not adviseable.

@3littlewords It was just an excuse that some schools were using during lockdown. The safeguarding issue was easily addressed by having the camera turned off at the child’s end, which was the approach taken by my DC’s school and that is what is written in their safeguarding policy.

I don’t think online learning is great anyway, but it is better than nothing. And, unfortunately, “nothing” is what a lot of children got in lockdown.

[quote MrsHerculePoirot]@MarshaBradyo I’m a bit late to the thread so apologies if I’ve missed this being answered (tried to flick through the posts) but I think you were asking about blended learning via remote and those at home getting no input when at home.

Our borough has been looking at tier 2 and we are planning for two weeks in then two weeks off. With approx 50% in at any time. Our choices seem to be :

1. three whole year groups in and three at home. We teach those in school as normal and then teach remotely the year groups at home
2. to split down the middle (alphabetically?). We teach those in and at home simultaneously (at least Y10 upwards. We are starting to offer it at the moment - so I open up my lesson on Teams and students can listen in remotely. They don’t get quite the same level of support but they can see my slides and hear us. We put the bulk of the ‘teaching’ at the beginning of lesson and then once the kids are more working independently those at home so the work but don’t need to be listening in. It’s stil a massive learning curve but the benefits would be that when I have half in the room I can SD from them and support them individually much better than a whole class. Those at home ask questions in the chat and I get back to them later if needed. Sometimes other students will answer as they all have access to the chat before me.

Issues for us is that my school is fairly deprived and fuck all money been given for us to address this. Weve done/continue to do our best. We would ensure anyone who could not access at home could come in I think, along with anyone deemed at risk/vulnerable/that we are concerned about.

In my ideal world I’d have two week half term - one just off. One for teachers to plan for tier 2, with clear guidance as to what we’re planning did. Kids just have two week break.[/quote]
Thanks MrsHercule that’s interesting.
Hats off to you for teaching to two different locations at same time! Would take skill.

Do you mean you have been moved to tier 2 already (DfE version) or are you giving it a trial run like our school?

And would you switch between the half that comes in? I’m guessing so.

It sounds good to me

And what about the many children who don’t have access to tech?

Or who have parents who need to work?

@WouldBeGood

You are allowed an opinion. But I am also allowed to point out how goady and misinformed that opinion is.

Fair play, you are trying to provoke an argument. But try to be less obvious next time.

Bunsy the government now legally requires schools to provide comparable education during a school closure so your complaints about what happened last lockdown due to them providing no standards for remote learning are outdated.

I’m really glad my child’s school is run by teachers who want children in school and have a sensible and positive approach.

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince “It may have changed now, but using it last term was not advisable”. That’s a bit different to telling me that my DC’s school was breaking safeguarding.

Ah One more question MrsHercule
What proportion of students would need to be in every day? I think this is where it gets tricker as do other students get half time in?

we are planning for two weeks in then two weeks off

Is there any actual evidence that the government will be implementing the school tier Plan B system in any form?

They forgot about it completely when doing local lockdowns and have only in the last few days remembered to make schools in tier 2/3 have masks in communal areas. I'm not convinced the rota tier will actually kick in at any point due to their 'schools stay open' mantra on the local tiering (not schools tiering) guidance.

@noblegiraffe LOL. So now the Government tells them what to do, those schools that didn’t previously have to get up off their arse. My points are very very relevant. Other posters were arguing about a two tier system. Saying that all schools should close even if there are little or no cases. Lockdown showed exactly why there is a two tier system. Some schools use their iniative and others don’t, waiting to do what they are “told”. As someone who has worked in both the private and public sector in another profession, I have seen first hand that such attitudes are endemic in the public sector.

@WouldBeGood

Hahaha! Nice change of tack. Still not buying it.

Oh dear.

You know, schools are not essential. Most of what goes on there isn't education, it's containment and busywork. I had over 20 years in secondary schools, I've seen it in action.

Life, on the other hand, is fairly important. Health, too. Close the fucking schools.

@noblegiraffe Please keep up your good work here, even though it must be disheartening at times.

We have a 2 week half term anyway 😂. I am watching and giggling as our state comp brought this in few years ago to break up this hideously long term. We add the days on to end of other terms.
I have never needed 2 weeks off so badly. Tired beyond belief and every day is becoming a struggle.

We are in a tier 2 area and head advised to take everything we need in case of a circuit breaker.