Secondary schools minimising positive results

[gingerbread88]

I wondered whether this had happened in other schools/areas?
Our local senior school has an outbreak that hasn't been clearly communicated.

😂😂😂😂😂 Jennie Harries have you watched the spoof you tube compilations of her Covid advice??? The woman’s a disgrace to her profession. Everything she’s ever uttered has been proven wrong!!!!!!

[quote Ecosse]@Oaktree55

All schools in the U.K. are COVID secure. There is no evidence that the virus is being transmitted in classrooms.

There is evidence that some teachers and staff have been gathering in staff rooms and communal areas without socially distancing/ clearly this is a risk and heads need to be flanking down on it.[/quote]
So Ecosse the education expert management consultant speaks again from her vast and comprehensive knowledge of how schools are currently operating. Not.

Ecosse. Once again. Staffrooms have been closed. No staff are meeting in person let alone without social distancing - unless they are in a classroom where apparently coronavirus doesn't transmit.
The only reason for a larger than expected (compared to the general population) number of cases amongst education workers is because the children are mostly asymptomatic, while adults are less likely to be asymptomatic.
So you have silent spreading going on in the classrooms, until the adults get infected. Lo and behold they show symptoms and then can get tested.
If mass testing was going on in schools it would pick up even more asymptomatic cases than universities did. Because they are younger. And so more likely to be asymptomatic. Or have different symptoms that can't be tested for.
I wonder why they are not allowing children to be tested for children's symptoms, or mass testing schools when there is an outbreak? Mmm?

Share your evidence please, Ecosse.

Our staff room is not in use. No staff are 'gathering' at all. I really don't know why you're so determined to believe that
(Maybe because the alternative, the fact that schools are woefully un covid secure compared to every other environment, is just too awkward)

Perhaps the time has come for the government to issue a national directive that all staff rooms and subject based must be locked until further notice, with staff instructed to stay in their classrooms during breaks.

Newsflash, we aren't in our own classrooms, we're moving around the kids.

What about PPA time?

Dr Harries said this based on no evidence and 8 weeks ago just as schools were going back. When was the last time she was in an actual school?

Definitely being hidden or downplayed.
A few weeks ago there were a few positive Covid tests in ds’s bubble. Parents were not informed and I only found out from ds this week.

@herecomesthsun

‘Independent’ SAGE is a far-left political group that includes communist party members.

Even if they were ‘independent’ they are a single-issue body. The government has to make decisions based on the fact that COVID is not the only risk in the world.

There are huge issues that come from closing schools in terms of the economy, abuse and DC’s life expectancy.

There are huge issues that come from closing schools in terms of the economy, abuse and DC’s life expectancy.

There are huge issues that come from closing schools. That doesn't mean schools are covid secure.

Ecosse - strawman argument. There are huge issues that come from closing schools in terms of the economy, abuse and DC’s life expectancy.

Noone has argued for schools to close.

You know Ecosse, I do worry that you have stuck to the same party line since early March. As we learn more, gather more evidence, we evolve our knowledge, adjust our opinions. It's very rigid thinking to never change in the face of greater knowledge.

Why do people thing schools are COVID secure? Are we back to the nonsense we had before that COVID could not pass when it is on school land?

Do people still not realise that students travel to school? They do not apparate - even Hogwarts students can’t do that . Lots of secondary school students take public transport.

[quote Ecosse]@herecomesthsun

‘Independent’ SAGE is a far-left political group that includes communist party members.

Even if they were ‘independent’ they are a single-issue body. The government has to make decisions based on the fact that COVID is not the only risk in the world.

There are huge issues that come from closing schools in terms of the economy, abuse and DC’s life expectancy.[/quote]
Independent SAGE are not far Left!

They are very well respected scientists.

The government needs to understand that health and economy are intimately related and the economies in the world that are faring the best are those who follow the science, contained the virus well so far and are currently able to continue a way of life approaching normaliy. (I am paraphrasing Sir David King, eminent scientist from the end of the SAGE broadcast cited above)

I'm afraid that we live in a world where matter obeys scientific rules and we will come to grief if we don't plan intelligently around that.

If we don't want schools to close then we need to follow the science in keeping them open safely. (you may remember what many of us have said about how that would look)

@Ecosse I quite liked Dr Harries at the beginning of all of this... then she started talking about schools and children. Sorry that's when my admiration of her disappeared as quickly as kids swapping items in a lunchbox.

Perhaps the time has come for the government to issue a national directive that all staff rooms and subject based must be locked until further notice, with staff instructed to stay in their classrooms during breaks.

Oh Ecosse. You are at it again! Making assumptions based on knowing nothing about what is going on in schools.

Staff rooms are already closed and staff are already having ‘breaks’ in rooms/cupboards/offices on their own (apart from Break Duty-where we have to be out in corridors and in playgrounds - is the communal areas - supervising children don’t forget!)

Still doesn’t stop positive cases from happening.

You really have no idea and whilst you are entitled to your opinions, please pause and think in the future before posting and acknowledge you don’t know what goes on in schools. It’s like Groundhog Day!

[quote Ecosse]@Hercwasonaroll

Dr Jenny Harries has been very clear that any risk in schools is not from DC to DC or DC to adult transmission. It is from staff coffee breaks and lunch times.

Unfortunately it seems that some staff have not been socially distancing or maintaining the correct protocols during these unstructured social times.

Perhaps the time has come for the government to issue a national directive that all staff rooms and subject based must be locked until further notice, with staff instructed to stay in their classrooms during breaks.[/quote]
What a load of rubbish. Nobody knows about transmission in schools because children seem not to suffer from the same three symptoms as adults so they aren’t being tested!

Jenny Harries has lost all credibility here, by highlighting how little she knows about schools whenever she opens her mouth on the subject.

Our staff room is closed now and all meetings are virtual. That’s not how cases are spreading, so how else could it be happening...?!

I also hope and pray schools stay open but i don't expect teachers to be sacrificial lambs.

@Ecosse: For someone who professes to be a management consultant, I'm a little concerned at your inability to comprehend some basic facts. Let's start with the number of times you have shown yourself to be ignorant of the purpose of teaching unions and how they function. You have had it explained to you countless times on these threads, yet still you persist in peddling your misconceptions.
And let's not even go there with the staffroom/transmission route nonsense.

@Noideawottodo

Why on earth would teachers be ‘sacrificial lambs’?

Unless they are extremely vulnerable, in which case I agree the shouldn’t be in school, teachers will have a cough or even no symptoms at all, spend 7 days in isolation and be back in school on the Monday no ring.

@CallmeAngelina

It’s not me saying that staffrooms are the biggest risk in schools. Dr Jenny Harries- the deputy chief medical officer, has been very clear that schools are COVID secure and there is a very low chance of transmission in classrooms.

Dr Harries has said that transmission in schools is actually caused by teachers and staff getting together in staffrooms and departmental bases and not socially distancing or handwashing.

It's like banging your head against a brick wall here...

And that's been addressed by subsequent posters. Yet, once again, you've ignored it.
And do you acknowledge your misunderstandings about how unions work?

@Cantaloupeisland

It's like banging your head against a brick wall here...

Absolutely!!

In clearer terms, perhaps Dr Jenny Harries is full of it.
Oh, and wrong?

Why would there be a low chance of transmission in a small poorly ventilated room filled with 35 people in close proximity for 6 hours not wearing masks? When you compare that to the rules in place for other environments? Seriously?

@Ecosse yeah and she also said that the WHO advice to Test Test Test was aimed at developing countries without a good healthcare system. Look how that turned out. She also says it is not spread by aerosols....

@Ecosse sorry but Dr Harries is talking bollocks with regards to schools, she really is. Staffrooms are locked, meetings on zoom or teams. Although I think your insistence shows a wider misunderstanding about how much contact we as teachers have with each other, it's not like Grange Hill when Baxter was there you know, all sitting around with steaming mugs of coffee in the Staffroom.... We hardly have any adult contact throughout the day.