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.

Teachers (and, in particular, teaching assistants) are at significantly higher risk than parents who work from home or in covid secure jobs. They are in close contact with a couple of children - their own - not hundreds a day!

@Nellodee Sorry, I thought you were responding to me. The same person also said the following so I presumed they were a teacher.

“Teacher assessment. You absolutely know the level of every single student in your class instinctively. Every single one.

I could grade them all to the nth degree even if l’d lost all my marks”.

Sorry I asked this earlier but don't think anyone answered..... the 2 week circuit breaker is that effectively another "half term holiday ", 2 weeks of remote learning, or 1 week normal half term 1 week remote learning depending on when the half term normally is?

Top government scientist wades into the debate:

"Sir John, regius professor of medicine at Oxford who advises the Government, resigned himself to backing a circuit-breaker if the country is to get a grip on the surge in cases.

He told BBC Radio 4: 'I can see very little way of getting on top of this without some kind of a circuit-breaker because the numbers are actually pretty eye-watering in some bits of the country and I think it's going to be very hard to get on top of this just biting around the edges.

'I think there will be every effort to keep schools open. If in the end we have to take kids out for two weeks, calm it all down, and then start ideally embedded in a much more rigorous testing regime then that's maybe what we may have to do.'"

My school is planning remote learning for non-half term time that they'd normally be at school.

....anyone still want to argue that it's just the teacher unions calling for a circuit break because teachers are lazy?

Notevenat20. We have had 6 positive cases in teachers in the past 2 weeks and have over 30 staff isolating. Why do you keep ignoring the actual experience of teachers when they are telling you how virulent this virus is in their school?

It is very interesting to hear this sort of thing. The problem is that it doesn't answer the question of how many would have been infected if they had worked in another job.

The question of whether parents are disproportionately infected at least gives us a way to answer the question of whether their children are infecting them. If not, it seems unlikely those same children would be infecting the teachers.

The question of whether parents are disproportionately infected at least gives us a way to answer the question of whether their children are infecting them

Question, noteven? You just stated that parents weren't disproportionately affected. I asked you where you got that data. Do you not actually have it?

We have had 6 positive cases in teachers in the past 2 weeks and have over 30 staff isolating. Why do you keep ignoring the actual experience of teachers when they are telling you how virulent this virus is in their school?

And we have had none, long may it continue. You can't also ignore then that many schools are completely unaffected.

This Edinburgh University study suggests Covid deaths will rise if schools shut

It appears that parents of children at school are not getting covid much more than those without children at school

The ONS prevalence chart for primary aged children and the chart with the adults who might be expected to be parents of primary are almost exactly the same.

I'm not sure how this data can be stretched to say that either 1) primary parents aren't getting it more than other parents or 2) teachers have less chance of catching the virus than other people in their age bracket.

Unless there's clear data by occupation, staff can't be reassured by the figures here with regard to likelihood of spreading / catching the virus at school.

@noblegiraffe

....anyone still want to argue that it's just the teacher unions calling for a circuit break because teachers are lazy?

I don’t think teachers are lazy. I think it’s easy to call for closures if you yourself as a teacher are insulated from financial difficulties caused by it.

I live in an area with very high infection rates in Leicestershire. DC's extremely large secondary (Y7- Y 11) have had no teacher or pupil cases.

I'm incredibly thankful that they have delivered half a term's worth of schooling.

We have now broken up for half term. I can see the benefits of a two week half term, but it feels late to impose it given that it's started!!

@WouldBeGood

This Edinburgh University study suggests Covid deaths will rise if schools shut

Not quite. The linked article says 'However, experts say these actions, which included closing schools and shops, if deployed again could prolong the epidemic and result in more long-term deaths, unless an effective vaccination programme is implemented.'

Question, noteven? You just stated that parents weren't disproportionately affected. I asked you where you got that data. Do you not actually have it?

It's from a Swedish study.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.13.20211359v2

The figure for teachers is not helpful as it doesn't compare it to the normal increased risk of going to work but the figure for parents is very interesting.

You can't also ignore then that many schools are completely unaffected.

And you can't ignore that that number is reducing week on week.

noteven from your link
"At the onset of the pandemic, Swedish upper secondary schools moved to online instruction while lower secondary school remained open..... Among lower secondary teachers the infection rate doubled relative to upper secondary teachers"

and yet you said "It appears that parents of children at school are not getting covid much more than those without children at school so it may really be true that teachers are at very little additional risk."

Doesn't that study show exactly that teachers in schools are at additional risk?

Shut the schools then, just don't pay the teachers for the time they are closed. That seems fair right?

I don’t think teachers are lazy. I think it’s easy to call for closures if you yourself as a teacher are insulated from financial difficulties caused by it

SAGE/other medical experts wouldn't fall into that category.

No other sector works without PPE in a similar environment.

I am not a teacher, but I can see that despite what was originally stated, spread is happening in educational establishments.

A circuit breaker is needed.
A reliable test and track system is needed.
The general public need to accept that unpalable though it may be schools and colleges are causing an issue to society.
Hospitality transmission figures are lower than educational figures.
NMW employees cannot manage on 2/3 pay.

Decisive action needs to be taken to halt the spread. Few of us will like it, but it is necessary.

What's your working situation OP? Are you okay financially right now? Is your job under threat with Covid? If you are gonna sit on your high horse you should at least be upfront about these things.

No @toxtethOgradyUSA there'd be online teaching for the second week I think

Barbie mine did online teaching from march. It worked out about one hour a day of work maximum. Not even comparable.

* SAGE/other medical experts wouldn't fall into that category.*

They fall exactly into that category as their income is not affected and jobs secure

Shut the schools then, just don't pay the teachers for the time they are closed. That seems fair right?
No because I want my year 11 dc to have online learning so she doesn’t get even further behind. Three weeks off this term with being sent home to isolate for two weeks and then being ill and getting tested and waiting for results. Now her friend has gone for a test so that could be another two weeks isolation coming up.
So no I want teachers to deliver online learning thanks.

3, it was only a few days ago so too early to tell.

Not, we're talking about secondary age students. I definitely spend more time in an enclosed space with the kids I teach than with my secondary age kids.