Schools MUST stay open.

[motherrunner]

I hear this a lot on MN.

Schools maybe ‘open’ but they’re not really depending on where you live.

I’m in Tier 2, due to go into Tier 3 next week prior to the lockdown rules.

Since Sept Yr 10 have isolated twice (4 weeks out of a 8 week half term), Yr 12 and 13 three times (6 weeks of a 8 week half term). My own DS is isolating due to being in contact with a positive until next week and I am isolating until next week as one of my pupils tested positive (and before anyone asks why I wasn’t 2m away well let’s just say, that’s school life).

Before lockdown in March my school had to close just to the numbers of staff off, at one point admin staff were supervising classes.

This morning I read a comment from a poster on the ‘lockdown my thread that teachers just have to ‘hope’ they get a mild viral load. Have we become so disillusioned with this virus that because “schools must stay open” then we minimise they health of school staff?

I am happy to be back teaching my pupils, I’m not happy that I feel unsafe. I am not happy that other workplaces have ‘Covid secure’ measures but I have sanitiser and a ‘hope for the best’ attitude.

So, if you really want schools to stay open then please email your MP and voice concerns about safety and hopefully we can stay open in a meaningful way because there’s a difference between ‘schools open’ with us delivering a quality education and ‘schools open’ with a body providing childcare.

@QueenBlueberries

So what, we should just accept that a significant portion of pupils in poorer areas will be at a very high disadvantage for their education and exam results, access to higher education? Yes ok, I'll settle for that...

So the best thing for that cohort is that schools stay open.

I think the best thing would actually be to face the reality of high infection in secondary schools as a vector of Covid cases in the community. Change the GCSEs to be teacher assessed. Take into consideration how many days of absence have taken place for some students. Acknowledge that some schools are crap at online learning and others are very good, and ensure that good practice is shared between schools. Give the f*ing laptop promised to schools and students, which still hasn't been done in many schools.

Give the f*ing laptop promised to schools and students, which still hasn't been done in many schools yes agree with this

Teachers are socially distanced at school
Why do people still believe this shit? How do you think that social distancing is at all possible in a classroom with 30-32 students? How large do you think average classrooms are?

And why is using cash now discouraged, but There’s no issue with handling and marking 160 teenagers exercise books every three weeks?

"Teachers are socially distanced at school."

Once again, for those at the back: NO, THEY ARE NOT!!!!!!

Books are being quarantined at our school. Seems reasonable.

@Pomegranatespompom

Books are being quarantined at our school. Seems reasonable.

Are you a secondary teacher? How long are they being quarantined for before you mark them? How long before you hand them back? How many times a week do you teach them? As i cannot logistically work out for the life of me how to both quarantine books and have the students actually work in their books three times a week.

I’m not a teacher. They are being quarantined for a week.
There was a German study which showed no evidence of surface transmission - I’ll try and find a link.

Anything on paper is quarantined at our school as well.

We've just got back after half term and gone from 25 student cases to zero.

This means one of two things:

Either it absolutely was my school that was driving the spread locally

or

All those positive cases are still there in the school, waiting for us to find them.

Why can't it just mean that you have zero cases at the moment? That's good, right?

If cases have dropped over half term in my school whilst rising in the local area, then it disproves all the people who were saying "How do you know they got it at school?"

I agree that's the better of the two options - that they got it at school and that the break decreased the number hugely. I also think that most probably it's a combination of the two things - cases have dropped due to school closure plus testing has lowered since parents weren't doing it to get the kid and them back to school and work.

Was your half term a week? Retesting is normally done at 14 days if no symptoms. A week would not be long enough to clear the infection.

Blended learning in secondary makes sense. The government had six months to throw money and expertise at this. I believe it’s a wholly political move at this point: keep schools open no matter what and (not so) subtly infer that any teachers who complain are over-unionised snowflakes.