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.

3littlewords, "To insinuate that any child that didn't engage 100% is a product of bad parenting is total bullshit."

You have misunderstood. My point was nothing to do with engaging in schoolwork, but amassing in large groups around town when supposed to be in lockdown.

Ah, so @CallmeAngelina I should assume that the teachers at my child’s school are actually seething with resentment at being in school and not really keen and positive?

This thread is nuts. I genuinely do not understand why it’s goady to express a view contrary to others on a thread 🤷🏻‍♀️

@CallmeAngelina

Leaving aside all the other reasons for and against, do we really have people suggesting that schools should remain open and driving infection rates sky-high, just because some parents can't control what their kids do if they close?

This is just so unfair. Not all parents can afford to me nor are able to be home all day with their children.

Families don’t all live in a world where good internet and tech exist either.

@CallmeAngelina sorry misunderstanding x

"I should assume that the teachers at my child’s school are actually seething with resentment at being in school and not really keen and positive?"

You can make whatever assumptions you like.

I'm not resentful in the slightest at being in school. I enjoy it and much prefer it to the hell that remote teaching was/is/will be. But that doesn't mean that I don't have entirely justified anxieties at the risks that I see all around me, in a school that is, like others, held up as being Covid-secure when it quite blatantly is not. And my colleagues and I are within our rights to attempt to inform others about that on here without being accused of scare-mongering.

@CallmeAngelina you told me I was wrong to think the teachers were positive 🤷🏻‍♀️

Expressing concerns is perfectly reasonable. My point is I don’t think it’s reasonable for schools to close and I’m bored of teachers’ unions calling for this. I do think it’s much easier to call for this when there’s no financial loss to their members.

@TheEmojiFormerlyKnownAsPrince my DC’s school is not subject to Ofsted, thank goodness 😁 They didn’t use Zoom either.

My point is I don’t think it’s reasonable for schools to close

But they are closing, randomly and unpredictably due to uncontrolled infection spread.

What do you propose to stop schools closing?

Some schools were great but as evidenced by lots and lots of threads some schools did nothing at all remote learning wise. So for some, furloughed teachers would be exactly the same service they recieved last time.

Yes exactly. In all conversations about schools it's really important to remember that the variation in schools in this country is like the difference between night and day. DCs school had 6 out of 420 children in and provided exactly nothing until the very end of the summer term. They had various reasons for this which would all seem to still apply if there is another school lockdown.

If under pressure from the new rules they were to provide some education next time round that would piss me off even more in a sense as it would mean all their excuses were bullshit last time.

@noblegiraffe most schools remain open and I would propose trying to keep it that way by isolating close contacts and keeping everyone else in school.

It’s not perfect but best solution in all the circumstances. And seems to be working wrll at my child’s school.

@WoodBeGood I completely agree. I have just seen the same thing with my county council. They have moved us to tier 2 (even though cases are much lower than most of the rest of the country) without a second thought to the businesses they are destroying. It’s the same with teaching unions.

@PheasantPlucker1

I know 7 teachers who have tested positive at school I work in, but we have been told we arent to worry the kids fuck up attendance figures by telling anyone. We have been warned not to admit it to anyone. Nor discuss the fact no ones self isolated, and no cleaning (basic, not deep cleans) have been done following positive tests.

I wonder how many of those parents are on this thread claiming theres not one case in their schools?

I know a college which is behaving in exactly the same way. It is almost as if there is a 'stigma' to having cases in your establishment.

most schools remain open and I would propose trying to keep it that way by isolating close contacts and keeping everyone else in school.

The proportion of secondary schools partially or fully closed is increasing every week. Isolating close contacts only isn't working.

My whole argument on this thread was that there doesn’t need to be a blanket closure of schools. It is beyond ridiculous that some teachers think that schools with little or no cases should close. I NEVER said that all schools should remain open. But I was attacked anyway.

Seems it needs pointing out that it is not the Unions' decision whether schools will close, but the government's.

[quote BunsyGirl]@WoodBeGood I completely agree. I have just seen the same thing with my county council. They have moved us to tier 2 (even though cases are much lower than most of the rest of the country) without a second thought to the businesses they are destroying. It’s the same with teaching unions.[/quote]
What have teaching unions called for that would destroy businesses, please?

"But I was attacked anyway."

Who attacked you?
And which teachers are saying that schools with few cases should close regardless?

@WouldBeGood

By ‘not the perfect solution’ do you actually mean not a solution at all. You are fine with massive job losses, increased poverty and an increased death rate in under 60s? It is very clear those of the consequences of blanket full time school.

Are you saying that not even sixth forms should go for blended learning?

Do you really believe that all children with both parents out of a job (and you are cheering on more job losses) won’t be worse off?

Expressing concerns is perfectly reasonable. My point is I don’t think it’s reasonable for schools to close and I’m bored of teachers’ unions calling for this.

Why are you bored?

I believe there are many people who have been calling for a circuit break - SAGE, Starmer among them. Are you bored of hearing them, too? Are you bored of hearing about the numbers and deaths in the pandemic? It's a very strange choice of word to use.

"If under pressure from the new rules they were to provide some education next time round that would piss me off even more in a sense as it would mean all their excuses were bullshit last time."

No, it wouldn't necessarily mean that. It might mean that guidance has changed and safeguarding concerns resolved. Or that schools have organised funding (somehow, God knows how) to improve access to online facilities.

It is beyond ridiculous that some teachers think that schools with little or no cases should close.

Do you think that they will continue to have little or no cases? What do you think they are doing that makes them different to schools that have had to send groups home/fully close?

I teach in a school of 1700 students plus 200 odd staff. We have had one confirmed case of COVID. Students who were in close contact self isolated. None tested positive.

School should not close IMO. The effects of school closures during first lockdown were enormous in a school like mine, which serves a deprived area. The education gap has widened hugely and even despite an excellent online provision, many of our students were not engaging.

We are still, seven weeks in, repairing the academic, social and emotional damage caused by the first lockdown.

Keep schools open I say.

@noblegiraffe

most schools remain open and I would propose trying to keep it that way by isolating close contacts and keeping everyone else in school.

The proportion of secondary schools partially or fully closed is increasing every week. Isolating close contacts only isn't working.

My ds secondary school has had 2 cases (not related too far apart timescales) only close contacts sent home. You'd think if it wasn't working there would have been more children showing symptoms. Im in tier 3 area aswell so high rates all round. Of course the children could have it asymptomatically but you'd expect more than 2 pupils out of 800 to show symptoms if infection was rife in the school.

Teachers unions aren't calling for a full on closure. One of them is suggesting an extra week added to half term to calm infections down.

Personally I'd be fine with that being unpaid if it was genuinely an extra week off and I wasn't expected to do any remote teaching. But I wouldn't be fine with a pay reduction if I was expected to teach remotely since this requires just as much if not more of a time commitment.

Sending only close contacts home is the problem. I posted earlier about a class where almost two thirds of the class were sent home. Me and the few remaining children had been in a poorly ventilated room with 20 potentially infectious students for an hour. Since they're taught in bands they'd been in classes all day with at least 3 or 4 other potentially infectious students. Surely those kids (and the teachers that taught them that day) should be isolating too?

You are fine with massive job losses, increased poverty and an increased death rate in under 60s? It is very clear those of the consequences of blanket full time school

No, they are consequences of the virus and the inept government. It's not a direct result of schools opening. And another lockdown is only going to increase poverty and job loss.