Covid in schools

[Feckers2018]

Am in NW. Family of teachers throughout the area. Schools seemed safe when numbers were low....gradually got worse....in fact am now scared to death. Bubbles bursting every week.... management only tell you on a need to know basis if anyone has tested positive. Staff now getting it....children falling ill in class. Trying to social distance but you can’t and no masks yet you know Covid is in school. I hope it doesn’t get worse for everyone’s mental health.

[quote GirlCrush]@Itisasecret you are rude. Where is the need for that

Covid compliance..... so is anyone even bothering in schools? Guidelines are issued, who enforced them? Checks etc? Who is refilling your hand sanitizers? Someone must care and be ensuring the basics are met!

I’m a retail manager, and our company does do audits, checks, sends in a ton of ppe. We are welcoming in the public as well as keeping employees in store up to 8 hours a day. We have a duty of care. We live and breath covid covid covid right now, trying to balance our normal job with staying safe. Is there any point to this battle if schools have given up? It’s half term and our stores are full of kids right now

Feedback from customers is starting to change and I’m detecting some hostility around children. Not what we want is it!?[/quote]
Not rude, stating the obvious. Your posts are goady, rude and completely clueless. The mor you post, the more obvious it is.

Don't you understand, Girlcrush, schools are following government guidance just like you are following government guidance, but the government guidance for schools isn't the same as for other workplaces.

The situation in schools would be illegal in your shop.

Schools are not allowed masks in classrooms.
Classrooms which are over crowded and poorly ventilated due to decades of increasing class sizes and lack of funds for building maintenance - leaky windows sealed shut. Window restrictors for H&S. Etc.
If you are shoving 30+ people shoulder to shoulder in a room with a single window that only opens a crack - without masks - then anything else you do is a bit pointless really. Other than maybe stop them licking each other?

When my child’s teacher can get them all to successfully manage their own flipping jumpers without wearing them backwards/ losing them/wearing each others then I might think about believing it would be safe and sensible to expect them to manage putting on, wearing and removing masks for six hours a day. Until then....

Why are teachers responsible for ensuring your child knows how to get dressed? Did you bother toilet training, or was that someone else's responsibility too?

@ohthegoats

When my child’s teacher can get them all to successfully manage their own flipping jumpers without wearing them backwards/ losing them/wearing each others then I might think about believing it would be safe and sensible to expect them to manage putting on, wearing and removing masks for six hours a day. Until then....

Why are teachers responsible for ensuring your child knows how to get dressed? Did you bother toilet training, or was that someone else's responsibility too?

To be honest I know lots of people who got the nursery or childminder to do the potty training....

Is there any point to this battle if schools have given up?

Schools haven't given up. Schools are following gov regs.

I teach in adult ed. My average size classroom was deemed safe for 8 people, with windows open and no mingling, to be covid secure.

Do you think the same applies if a school class were in my room....

Schools haven't given up - we just have no power and have to follow government guidance.
For anything to change there has to be a public outcry. But too many parents are horrified at the thought of masks in schools (despite every other country managing it), and start shrieking at blended learning for older students...

Well I’m a parent and I’m not horrified at the thought of kids in masks! I see them come in at work and they are far better at wearing them than your average complaining adult!

@GirlCrush

Well I’m a parent and I’m not horrified at the thought of kids in masks! I see them come in at work and they are far better at wearing them than your average complaining adult!

Sorry, I should have said some parents. But it does seem to be the parents who's voices get heard the most.

Parents should start petitioning MPs for better mitigation measures in schools. They won't listen to teachers.

I would be strongly against DC wearing masks in classrooms- they are an impediment to learning and communication.

biggest danger in terms of transmission in schools is staff rooms and teachers’ coffee breaks.

Our staff aren't mixing in this way and there not in other schools I know of.
The nearest you get is year group bubbles sharing kitchen space. Different year groups using different spaces. Staff sat 2m apart.

I'm currently recovering from Covid.

I didn't sit and have lunch with any other staff. I sat and had my lunch alone in my room. I shared a kettle with one other year group bubble but, as I'm not part of that bubble, I wiped it down with anti bac wipes before and after use, used anti bac gel before and after. I had no close contact with any other adult at school. Only people I had close contact with other than Dh (who was symptom free and hadn't been in close contact with any known positive cases) was children at school.

The doctor who stated that appeared to have little idea of what happens in schools. Didn't she also state that no children would share lunches, or that all children would always be sat facing the front and never turn to talk to one another???

Do you know what else is an impediment to learning, Ecosse? Your teacher being off with covid.

Impediment but not an impossibility

@GirlCrush

Ahah, I am really very cautious, personally.

There is a lot of WHO advice we in the UK is not following.I have put some of the worse omissions in bold as there is a lot here.

The WHO advises:

-Community
• Early detection and isolation of cases; contact tracing and quarantine [not effective]
• Swift public health response to halt spread: Cluster investigation and local public health and social measures
• Physical distancing, hand-washing and age-appropriate wearing of masks
• Safe public transportation, protection of vulnerable groups and other measures as appropriate

School & classrooms
• All community measures, plus:
• Symptom screening by parents and teachers
• Maintaining a clean and healthy environment [ not funded ]
• Ensuring adequate and appropriate ventilation

Individuals at high risk
• Enhanced protection of students and teachers with underlying health conditions
• Coordinated approach to address vulnerable children’s needs (mental
health and psychosocial support, rehabilitation, nutrition [!!! free school meals! ], etc.)

Also

Provide hand hygiene stations at entrances and exits
• Create a schedule for frequent hand hygiene: at school arrival, before snack and lunch, before departure, etc.
ü Implement respiratory, hand hygiene and physical distancing in school buses

Plus

Limit number of students per class
• Increase number of teachers or volunteers to allow for fewer
students per classroom
• Alternate shifts (morning, afternoon) to accommodate fewer
students at a time
• Alternate distance learning with physical presence in schools
ü Limit mixing of classes and age groups
• Staggering: classes start, break and stop at different times
• Cohorting or bubbling: small student groups with minimal
contact
• Limit contact in gym classes, sports, music and other activities;
playgrounds and changing rooms

and

Encourage use of physical barriers to support physical distancing
• Arrange desk spacing and orientation: desks face in the
same direction
• Provide physical guides, such as tape on floors and signs
on walls
ü Ensure crowd control during drop off & pick up
• Clearly identify entry and exits, mark direction of walking, restrict access suppliers, parents)
• Display clear information on
number of people allowed
into each school facility

Plus
ü 6 to 11 years old, the use of mask should be based on:
• Whether there is widespread transmission in the area
• Ability of the child to safely and appropriately use a mask
• Access to clean and replacement masks
• Adequate adult supervision
• Potential impact on learning and psychosocial development
• Specific settings and interactions with persons at higher risk
ü 12 years and older should wear a mask under the same conditions as adults

Plus a lot of advice on ventilation.

There is more.

Our schools don't do a lot of that.

ECosse - I assume you aren't one of the people stood in over crowded, poorly ventilated rooms full of 30+ children with no social distancing either though.

@Ecosse

I would be strongly against DC wearing masks in classrooms- they are an impediment to learning and communication.

Go and argue the toss with the WHO.

Can we do what they say please?

@Ecosse

I would be strongly against DC wearing masks in classrooms- they are an impediment to learning and communication.

Says the expert in teaching management consultant

@noblegiraffe

Parents should start petitioning MPs for better mitigation measures in schools. They won't listen to teachers.

Some of us are. They aren't listening to us either.

@noblegiraffe

Do you know what else is an impediment to learning, Ecosse? Your teacher being off with covid.

Don't forget the 1 in 10 previously for and healthy no underlying conditions people who get Covid mildly, but then get "long Covid" Given that it is starting to become apparent that teachers in England are 200% more likely to catch Covid than the rest of the population, that could be a lot of teachers off for a long time....

I think we need to wait until that (lots of teachers ill with long Covid) starts to happen before jumping to conclusions.

Long COVID doesn’t exist @WhyNotMe40. Post viral syndrome does but is very rare and not unique to COVID.

@Lavendersy

I think we need to wait until that (lots of teachers ill with long Covid) starts to happen before jumping to conclusions.

Whaaat?! You want to wait until we have lots of teachers off on long term sick, before we look at putting in measures to prevent transmission THAT THE WHO HAVE RECOMMENDED and that every other country are doing already?! Do you know how much of a recruitment and retention problem teaching already has? Especially in shortage subjects - like mine...

@Ecosse

Long COVID doesn’t exist *@WhyNotMe40*. Post viral syndrome does but is very rare and not unique to COVID.

So can we listen to the BMJ instead as they are publishing articles and advice about it?