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.

Agree great post from @cantkeepawayforever. When large numbers of kids in the South of England are on their third period of isolation the government will consider it to be an issue. By then there will probably be kids in Manchester who've spent months in isolation, but government policy is based on what works for the South of England.

Lilypond2 yes this

Back again just to update I posted early in this thread. Today another year group had 40 odd (not giving exact numbers so it’s not outing) students sent home in a separate year group to the one I posted about yesterday and another 2 members of staff sent home.

@starrynight19

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

Just posted this on another thread:

Yesterday I read that schools who are closing regularly are ‘lazy’. My colleagues and I are not lazy, in face we have never worked harder. It is soul destroying when we learn of yet another positive, it’s hear breaking sending the letters home saying we can not open to a year group due to staff absences.

I started a thread linked to a news article in my area where the director of PHE said being out was ‘hazardous’. The article was dismissed as click bait and scaremongering, yet I am actually seeing the evidence in my school.

I wish there hadn’t been a blanket approach to ‘get all in’. Schools were told in Sept we would move to a tier system according to restriction measures - this has been er been mentioned again and my school is having to take action ourselves to move to a rota purely because we don’t have enough teachers to teach.

Yup it's a total mess.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/554316

If we all want improvements in schools during the pandemic then school staff should be vaccinated after the immediate priority groups imo.

Yep it's got so bad here that my dds entire year group is off next week due to a lack of staff and because most of the year group is now isolating due to 4 cases in a week. Apparently one idiotic family in half term had a party and a lot of other idiots allowed their kid to go hence there was 250+ off isolating due to contact or being at said party.
Before that they've had a rota for year groups being in school or learning remotely due to staff absence.
It's stupid now and I think will be another Boris U-turn. Elsewise he can say he will unlock in December but numbers are still growing rapidly and now mostly in school settings so he won't have a choice.

@LilyPond2

Agree great post from *@cantkeepawayforever*. When large numbers of kids in the South of England are on their third period of isolation the government will consider it to be an issue. By then there will probably be kids in Manchester who've spent months in isolation, but government policy is based on what works for the South of England.

I think this is true.

I'm a supply teacher and could work 5x over every day. I turned up yesterday and the other teachers were shocked that they'd managed to find someone to come in.
I will say this though. Some schools are much more thorough with Covid measures than others. Some require masks in corridors some don't. Some have hand washing facilities in class some don't. (This cant be helped obviously) Some use those facilities several times a day some don't. Some use sanitiser some don't. Some have windows open some don't. It varies so much school to school.

We lost half of y11 this week (close contacts only) plus 1/4 of the 6th form. I am head of a core subject. We have y11 mocks in 3 weeks and I am now teaching 10 of my class in school, plus the rest live via teams. I have also transferred all of our work for the next 5 weeks onto accessible revision guide lessons and recorded myself "teaching" these so that all members of my department can assign these to students on teams.

We have been wearing masks full time from the beginning of the year. Duties have gone from 2 a week to 6+. I have been physically in school for 12 hours a day every day this week. I am doing everything I possibly can to keep things normal for the kids and the rest of my team and then shutting myself in my office for a cry every couple of hours. I am not sleeping, and I am actively worried about the mental health of a number of my team.

The government has thrown us to the wolves. We are having to petition to get the govt to DISCUSS funding schools for the necessary changes. We dont even have COMPUTERS any more because we spent all summer/lockdown delivering them to our very deprived community so they could access work.

But I just need a can do attitude and to find solutions not problems...
Off for another "pressure valve cry" and then back to school. Left at 7.45 last night...

@Evvyjb

We lost half of y11 this week (close contacts only) plus 1/4 of the 6th form. I am head of a core subject. We have y11 mocks in 3 weeks and I am now teaching 10 of my class in school, plus the rest live via teams. I have also transferred all of our work for the next 5 weeks onto accessible revision guide lessons and recorded myself "teaching" these so that all members of my department can assign these to students on teams.

We have been wearing masks full time from the beginning of the year. Duties have gone from 2 a week to 6+. I have been physically in school for 12 hours a day every day this week. I am doing everything I possibly can to keep things normal for the kids and the rest of my team and then shutting myself in my office for a cry every couple of hours. I am not sleeping, and I am actively worried about the mental health of a number of my team.

The government has thrown us to the wolves. We are having to petition to get the govt to DISCUSS funding schools for the necessary changes. We dont even have COMPUTERS any more because we spent all summer/lockdown delivering them to our very deprived community so they could access work.

But I just need a can do attitude and to find solutions not problems...
Off for another "pressure valve cry" and then back to school. Left at 7.45 last night...

THIS!!

Thread on twitter here about conditions in another school twitter.com/bornsocialist1/status/1326643484544167945?s=21

Bloody awful.

But not at all surprising.

it's so variable. We not had any pupil cases in our school, 1 teacher and 1 person who worked in the kitchen have tested positive.
I am thankful that children are still receiving an education, there is no reason to close some schools, but agree re blended learning should be implanted in high risk areas, plus money for cleaning, ppe etc

And thought by the government for the children who have missed a lot of school. How can we even the inbalance?

From BBC news:

There is a higher percentage of secondary school pupils testing positive for Covid-19 than any other age group, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

Based on a national survey, the ONS said an estimated 1.65% of Year 7 to Year 11 students tested positive on 6 November, compared to 1.05% for primary pupils.

It comes as the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) examined more than a thousand outbreaks of coronavirus that have occurred since schools reopened in September.

Reopening schools means children aged between 12 and 16 played a "significantly higher role" in spreading infections in households, the scientific advisors said.

But they said there was no clear evidence for or against the claim that infection rates among children were driven by them catching the virus in school.