Another school one but please read!!

[lealealealea]

I have 2 DCs. Eldest in secondary, Youngest in primary.

Eldest has teachers from 4 of her subjects off isolating. In one of the subjects, the original teacher went off isolating and then the substitute went off isolating and they now have another substitute. The first to test positive was a pupil though.

In one department there is only one teacher left for that subject in the whole large secondary!

She's being supervised to study a lot by teachers who don't even teach that subject.

Three times (!) just in the past week I've had separate letters saying test and trace has been in the school.

My younger child in primary - he has had three different teachers covering this week for teacher isolating, and no homework been sent. Had two letters since schools went back from test and trace.

I've read in the news today about teachers being put under pressure to switch off the app or still come in even if they are a contact of a positive case.

Please be clear that I am not blaming teachers or schools in any way. I feel for them doing what must be an incredibly difficult job. I'm just putting it out there that it seems to be an untenable situation where education is suffering anyway.

I’m not happy that they aren’t getting consistent education right now. I’m not happy that my pupils have supply now, while I am off having to isolate. I’m not happy that my own child can go for a few days without seeing his actual subject teachers. We are all doing our best, but I wish things were different.

I know you are, I know all the teachers are. I just don't think months at home with essentially zero input from schools like happened last time, or zero input from parents despite effort from school, or effort by all but just not enough money and time for basically a year is doable. Esp for the older ones.

For how long should they be without education? And at watch point does their education start actually regressing?

With the current situation this is happening now anyway even under the current guise of ‘schools are open’.

Attendance at DS's primary is in the high 90%s at the moment. It surely can't be right to send hundreds of children home on the basis that schools in other areas of the country are more disrupted. Of course very careful thought has to be given to providing an education for kids who can't be in school, and particularly to whether public exams can possibly be fair this year, but surely it's better for kids to be educated in school where possible? Next month it could be our school with repeated class isolations and other schools fine. Surely it's better to get every child as much school time as possible while they can?

It's just so difficult to keep everyone happy and, more importantly, safe. My DD's school haven't had a single case of coronavirus yet, so no bubbles sent home. As far as I am aware they are running on a full teaching staff as well. We are in a very low incident area so this is through pure luck rather than because the school is doing anything differently from other schools. Until the week before half term, none of the schools in our town had been particularly affected by the virus. However, in the last few weeks I've heard of a day nursery being shut twice, one of the primary schools sending bubbles home twice due to outbreaks (they were 9 staff down at one point and barely able to keep the school open for the rest of the children). In the last day or so, three other primary schools have had to close down bubbles, one of the schools has only got one year group in at the moment due to outbreaks. Other schools are suffering from lack of staff. Covid, and the subsequent issues related to lack of staff/closing bubbles, is creeping closer to my DD's school and I expect it's only a matter of time before we are affected.

My biggest concern about the general situation is the inequality of education. If we close all school then many children miss out on any education at all. If we keep schools open then for some children (like my dd so far) education has been completely uninterrupted and it's business as usual, however, for children in a school in a high risk area then they may have spent most of the time since September either isolating due to their bubble popping or being taught by a stream of supply teachers. Whether schools stay open or not, whether they have online teaching or not, children's education is being disrupted. I literally don't know what the answer is. Well actually I do...the government should be throwing money at this situation and supporting schools properly rather than pretending that all is good because schools are open! It's an absolute mess.

and in nearly half of her classes the teacher/supervisor doesn't even teach the subject! It's crazy, especially since a vaccine is now imminent.

Just because the teacher doesn't teach a subject doesn't mean they can't teach it. My PGCE is computer science but I have much more experience in health and social care and I have taught maths to GCSE level.

I had to isolate for one day whilst waiting for a test. I sent in a lesson, with PowerPoint, video of myself, worksheets, mini test etc.

The cover teacher ignored my lesson and got them to draw a poster.

As a supply teacher can I just raise the possibility the cover teacher didn't have access to a computer and may not have been made aware of the work sent in.

Today we've had an email that a second student has tested positive in my eldest's year. The student was in school yesterday for an hour and a half, and then was sent home with symptoms. Positive test today. How does that happen so quickly?

The school have sent home "those who had contact within one metre within 48 hours of the positive test."

Surely without masks, the virus traveled further than one metre on the day she was in school for 90 minutes with symptoms. Not to mention the several prior days!

The school will have taken advice on who to send home, and that sounds like it's in line with the guidance. As for the speed of the test, the turnaround time does seem to be very good now, at least for some - I know of a couple of people in recent days who've had less than 24 hours from trying to book a test to a test result coming back.

Schools have been back a couple of weeks and we are at over 30k cases. After a nice little plateau/drop when they were shut for 1/2 weeks over a staggered half term.

I see them closing in December. The education that is being given now is not teaching and it’s dangerous. Everyone is on their knees.

Another bubble closed today at my child’s school. The positive case was in school because the parents sent them in whilst awaiting tests results up.

You could not make the stupidity of some people up.

Not just the stupidity, but the utter selfishness...

So I’ve just seen a suggestion in a paper that isolating students don’t take it seriously and go shopping etc.....so staying at school in bubbles might be better.
This will be next. We will be expected to just keep them in school when one has Covid. Never mind that each time one of the children gets it our risk goes up.
Watch this space. I’d lay money on it.

We already keep kids in school knowing they have covid with the shitty new system of only sending home close contacts.

I know covid is going around one of my classes in particular, I know that some of them will be asymptomatic. I just don’t know which kids have it at the moment. And yet instead of mass testing to flush them out, I’m expected to go in with only a bottle of hand sanitiser and a cracked open window for protection.

It’s basically a matter of time tbh.

This makes me so cross, @noblegiraffe. (On your behalf, but also the sider picture).

@noblegiraffe our dds school only send home close contacts too not the whole bubble. Many parents have expressed concerns over this.

Even worse my two dds have this week met the close contact criteria. No idea how to protect ecv dh if they show symptoms.

@Gigipixiz

Our school isn’t sending staff home when pupils or other staff test positive. As the protective measures mean that no one should be within 2m unless they are wearing a mask. So only students sat next to each other or who have physically touched. So unless you are willing to go to SLT and say yes I broke the rules we all stay in. The reality is that of course we come into contact multiple times a day with students and staff even with the very best of intentions.

This is what's happening in my school too. Even though I'm lucky enough to be able to manage 2m at the front of my classroom, I can only maintain that distance by staying right by the wall. I have to get closer to move round my desk or to pass things across to pupils. They obviously have to pass through the front of the room as they come in and out and some simply can't get it into their heads that they can't come right up to have a chat. What's very much worse is that I know from my many cover lessons that in most classrooms there's not even a metre's space at the front. We have relatively few staff isolating because to admit to having been closer than 2m is to admit to contravening the risk assessment.

Oh and of course I walk in the midst of a stream of pupils every day as I move between classrooms and break duties. Hundreds. I can't avoid it if I'm to be present wherever I'm supposed to be.

@OverTheRainbowLiesOz

Unfortunately, when teachers post about the problems they are shouted down. Schools are going to shut or be massively disrupted. Neither is good for children.

There are two possible solutions.

1. Much better PPE, everyone wearing masks, proper social distancing, possible rota systems to spread kids out.

1. Vaccinate teachers after elderly and vulnerable to allow schools to run properly.

This seems to be opposed so chaos will continue.

I agree with this. Tbh I can’t get over that teachers can’t wear PPE.

And yes to the vaccine.

Watch this space. I’d lay money on it.

Yep @Playdoughbum I agree with that.

@SleepingStandingUp

I know you are, I know all the teachers are. I just don't think months at home with essentially zero input from schools like happened last time, or zero input from parents despite effort from school, or effort by all but just not enough money and time for basically a year is doable. Esp for the older ones.

Whereas months of disruption in school with bubbles and teachers self isolating is doable, is it?

Can you imagine how difficult trying to set meaningful cover without access to a photocopier or texts is? How big an ask it is to ask a science teacher to teach new literature material, or a drama teacher to teach quadratic equations? When I cover other teachers' lessons I'm having to get stuck on and try to teach them badly because they haven't learnt enough to be able to just get on with practice and consolidation work.

The thing is, those people whose children are in schools that are currently less affected are saying 'why shouldn't schools be open', while those parents with children in badly affected schools are saying 'because chaotic unplanned closure / cover is worse'.

The tipping point will be when the majority of schools have been badly affected - by which point it will be too late for all those already affected by the current shambles to salvage anything meaningful.

It will be exactly like the Great Manchester Furlough Fight - no, furlough could not be extended when Manchester went into tier 3, because that was IMPOSSIBLE, but of course it was instantly extended to the whole country for many months when the whole country, including the SE and SW, went into a lockdown that bore a remarkable resemblance to the conditions being imposed in Tier 3....

So schools will stay 'open', with some children being dramatically affected by repeated isolation, until the SE and SW are also affected, at which point everywhere will close, exams will be cancelled, and there will be lots of crowing about how the Government is 'making things fair for all of our young people'.

Great post @cantkeepawayforever

cantkeepawayforever yes this exactly ,I wonder what all those parents who seem not to care about other children who are being affected will feel when it starts to impact on their own child’s education.
It’s so frustrating that people think that because it’s not happening in there school it isn’t happening at all.
Few and far between are those posters who can actually understand that they are lucky and it could be them any time.
And meanwhile school staff are being told their concerns aren’t valid because it’s all ok in their school and maybe it’s something they are doing wrong

And yet we’re not even mentioned on the vaccine priority list...

It is a shit show. I don't know how anyone can blame the teachers they're doing their best in a shit situation.