A third of confirmed teacher cases of coronavirus were in north-west England at one point, according to data seen exclusively by the BBC”

[motherrunner]

I posted this in another thread but I actually think it deserves a thread of it’s own.

Worrying article on BBC this morning: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54695618

This is what we teachers are really concerned about - the disparity of continued education. I’m in a Tier 2 area and my school have had 4 year closures since Sept. We are not unique - I don’t know a school in my city that has gone untouched. One school closed completely as over 20 teachers tested positive. This is just the first half term and anyone who works in a school know the real illnesses haven’t started yet. Going to be a tough year.

@Hotcuppatea

Attendance has been 97% at my children's London secondary in the past half term. Normal level for this time of year.

Well that’s lucky for you.

In my city it’s more like the figures quoted in the BBC article. My DS is currently SI as he had been in contact with a positive case last week as school. My school have sent home 4 year groups since Sept. I do not know any school in my city that hasn’t been untouched.

@Hotcuppatea

Attendance has been 97% at my children's London secondary in the past half term. Normal level for this time of year.

Really not sure why you feel that's relevant to a data discussion.

I thought the vaccination relied on people developing an immune response. Looks like we're screwed then.

I really don't think 'levelling down' is the answer. There are disadvantaged children who need their schools to stay open in the South as well. I can't believe anyone thinks that making them suffer more is somehow a good thing.
Covid will widen inequality in many areas of life.

The government did mandate that schools have online learning plans in place by half term so that should have improved since last time.

I think there has to be a way of making assessment fairer and they should direct their efforts to that.

There would not be any support for shutting schools in areas where they don't need to be shut.

I don’t think anyone had suggested that we “close schools” - although this is happening in my city through partial or full closures due to cases. Planned part-time schooling is much better than in/out/in/out.

The immune response developed to a vaccine is different and stronger than that to a natural infection because viruses have defence mechs to reduce the immune response whereas vaccines are designed to stimulate it.

A vaccine is still our best hope and really the only likely way back to normal life.

Immunity is more than just antibodies though. Antibodies are part of short term immunity. Other parts (eg T cells) will also remember it so the picture is not quite so bleak.

My DS is self-isolating at the moment because he was a close contact at break time! So it's not just about the size of classes and classrooms either. My DC say they don't have enough room to distance at break!

This is secondary in NW. My DD has also been off 2 weeks and DS had another 2 days off when he developed a cough. His teacher tested positive although DS wasn't identified as a close contact, I didn't want to risk it so got him tested.

Still don't think planned PT schooling (which is a partial closure isn't it?) is going to get much support in areas where this is not currently needed.

It depends on what you mean by suffer. It is an absolute fallacy to suggest that MH is wonderful if schools are open and only goes to pot if they are closed.

But what is certainly true is MH is massively affected by the current hokey cokey and the high levels of uncertainty.

@DougRossIsTheBoss

The immune response developed to a vaccine is different and stronger than that to a natural infection because viruses have defence mechs to reduce the immune response whereas vaccines are designed to stimulate it.

A vaccine is still our best hope and really the only likely way back to normal life.

I truly hope so.

As a teacher I wish we could be higher up the most of priority for vaccination - obviously HCP and other emergency service workers should take ultimate priority.

I'm in the northwest. We have online learning plans. But the laptops we ordered in round one last term arrived a week before the end of the summer term so weren't much use from March onwards, and the number we were allocated this time was slashed. On Friday at 5pm.
Mandating online learning is all well and good - but it needs to be funded.

So, do you not care about the schools in the affected areas doug? What do you suggest?

@Hotcuppatea

Attendance has been 97% at my children's London secondary in the past half term. Normal level for this time of year.

So what you’re saying is that you’re happy with the gross educational disparity because it’s your DC that are the winners and not the losers at the moment?

That’s the only conclusion that can be drawn from smug posters who come on threads just to say how unaffected their children’s education has been so far.

If covid starts ripping through their school, which it can, even in naice tier 1 areas and their kids end up missing out, I hope they reflect on how they didn’t give a shit when it was someone else’s kid.

Tbf, 97% (which probably masks some X coding) isn't even all that good.

If you dug, you'd probably find it was lowest in years 10 to 13, too : this is certainly the national picture.

@Piggywaspushed

Tbf, 97% (which probably masks some X coding) isn't even all that good.

If you dug, you'd probably find it was lowest in years 10 to 13, too : this is certainly the national picture.

Agreed @Piggywaspushed.

Our 4 closures have been Yr 10 once, Yr 13 once and Yr 12 twice.

Yes I do care. I just don't get how making things worse for other areas makes it better for them.

• online learning needs to be better and better invested in. Give schools in Tier 3 more money for this. Schools in Tier 3 areas could be given freedom to move to PT online learning if heads think that would be better (but I bet they won't because parents will likely not be convinced)
• the assessment system needs to take this into account and probably exams should be scrapped again this year and a different system put in

Online learning is never going to be good enough for schools' exam groups. look at the fuss being made over this at uni level.

I do agree with your final statement though doug.

When there was all the controversy in the summer about exams it made me think that really our education and exam system is unfair the whole entire time and this is just pointing that out.

Children who are privately educated and tutored always have an advantage in exams and the extent to which the results reflect intelligence or aptitude for learning is probably limited.

It made me think that if we move away from reliance on exam results solely eg if unis saw grades as not the be all and end all then that might be a good thing for equality.

@DougRossIsTheBoss Also agree with your last point.

My school is in tier 1. 2/3 of the catchment is in tier 3. Actually asking schools what we need and then supplying it would be a huge help.

Yes I do care. I just don't get how making things worse for other areas makes it better for them.

We could, for a start, have a government that acknowledges that covid can be transmitted in schools and therefore safety measures need to be taken to minimise risks. Would those schools and teachers have been so badly affected if proper mitigation measures were in place?

People keep talking about live learning and school closures without looking to fix the bit before that needs to happen.

Regular testing, for example, would make a massive difference.
Ventilation
Masks

That could start almost immediately and would be a good idea in all schools not just the North.

Agreed @MrsHamlet. “ALL pupils need to be back FULL time” isn’t working for some schools, individual schools need to be allowed to make their own decisions to what works best for continued education provision. This needs to be funded properly but as we know from the promised laptops and tutoring that what is said and what happens can be two very different things!

So true @noblegiraffe. Protect teachers, protect pupils, protect education. Hey, that could be BJ’s new tricolon!

To make schools safer, we'd need massive capital investment, both in increasing teaching space and in adapting current buildings. That would take time. They could get a lot done in, say, six weeks. It's a shame we didn't have a six week holiday before all this where this work could have been done...

Like the summer holidays. Where instead of introducing widescale improvements, the government ignored the experts (teachers) and messed around producing endlessly changing guidance and bugger all real help.