Secondary schools are fucked, BOFFINS ADMIT

[noblegiraffe]

Latest ONS random sampling data shows that secondary school children in Y7-11 are now the age group with the highest infection rate in England, overtaking sixth form and university students.

In Wales "Schoolchildren are more likely to catch and spread coronavirus than previously thought, experts have warned... It was also discovered that while children were far more likely to be asymptomatic and not become seriously unwell, they were more likely to be the first positive case in any household."

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/schoolchildren-more-likely-catch-spread-19275959?fbclid=IwAR0kpoikv0D_nkwHx3lVyQX_cyDj6Ycy1d6gE3aRx6syxUKzFQsYzMDSqPw

English boffins are a bit slower on the uptake though
"SAGE’s report found that prevalence of Covid-19 in school-age children had “risen significantly” in the first wave, and that the rise in prevalence was “first visible around the time that schools reopened”.

However, it said that while this “may be indicative of a potential role for school opening, causation, including the extent to which transmission is occurring in schools, is unproven and difficult to establish”.

schoolsweek.co.uk/child-infection-rate-rise-began-when-schools-reopened-but-direct-link-unproven-says-sage/

It must indeed be difficult to establish whether there's transmission in a high risk environment where kids are packed in like sardines with no mitigation measures. A real head-scratcher. Especially if you spent the whole summer insisting that it would be fine because the kids are facing forward.

What do we want? Well, one of the major teaching unions has called on the government to:

1. Demonstrate that they are following the scientific evidence and advice.
2. Strengthen the guidance to schools and colleges on ensuring COVID-safe and COVID-secure working practices.
3. Secure the updating and publication of health and safety risk assessments and equality impact assessments by school and college employers.
4. Publish weekly data on positive cases of COVID-19 infections of school/college staff and pupils by local government area
5. Ramp up inspection and enforcement measures in schools and colleges, including more comprehensive use of spot checks and visits by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
6. Take swift action to protect public health in the event of an outbreak.
7. Protect vulnerable teachers and support staff and pupils.
8. Strengthen the guidance to insist on effective social distancing in schools/colleges.
9. Establish a national plan for remote education/blended and distance learning.

10. Provide significant additional financial support for schools and colleges urgently to ensure the safety of staff and pupils, including extra funding for cleaning, personal protective equipment (PPE) and supply teachers

www.nasuwt.org.uk/article-listing/plan-to-keep-schools-safe-during-pandemic.html

Oh OP I knew this would be you yadayada...yeah that's why I chose the same thread title as before etc etc.

Why do we need another thread blah blah: it's because secondary school kids are now infected at the highest rates in the country. This has implications for lockdown. How effective will it be if the most infected subset of the population are mixing freely? And it's also the first hint from scientists that they might have been wrong about exactly how safe schools are. There's also a strong suggestion that kids are bringing the virus home from school which parents should be aware of.

It's also causing chaos in schools, but there's another thread about that.

It’s Ecosse!

I think Madrid has been reading the DFE media blog.

You might want to read this instead:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/13/secondary-school-pupils-now-playing-significantly-higher-role/amp/

That was published THREE MONTHS AGO

Keep trying Madrid.

We are happy to share more recent data and newspaper reports. 🙃

[quote MadridSun]@Duemarch2021

I'm not saying that teenagers can't transmit. What I'm saying is that the benefit of schools being open far outweighs this issue.

The key driver of transmission in schools though is not the DC at all. It is staff and parents gathering in social settings like staff rooms and departmental bases without social distancing.

This will ultimately result in transmission from staff to D.C.[/quote]
That's rubbish Madrid. Countless staff rooms are closed, staff eating lunch in their own car. Staggered lunchtimes and more duties so less time to be with other staff. Jesus it's not the staff room at Grange Hill anymore in schools nowadays... we don't have hour and a quarter lunch breaks as my teachers did in the 80s. You really have a crazy vision of schools.

My son is in Year 10 of a Special secondary school. At his school all pupils and staff wore mask going in to school, in corridors and leaving school up to half term. Since half term all students have been required to wear a mask at all times except for outside PE, including in the classroom. His school has only had 1 6th form student tested positive with Covid. I know it is possible there are.other asymptomatic students and staff but learning has continued without problem. 3 ECV children and 2 teacher who got official shielding letters from March have stayed home since half term and that teacher has given online learning to the children at home. Other schools could follow suit. A phrase my Mum used a lot 'where there is a will there is a way'.

Dr Jenny also said coronavirus wasn’t an epidemic in the U.K.... at the beginning of March. Probably correct at the time, not correct now. Same thing with kids spreading the virus.

[quote MadridSun]@herecomesthsun

I agree that clinically vulnerable DC, staff and DC of vulnerable parents should not be in school.

Otherwise, parents have more chance of being hit by a bus on the school run than dying of COVID.[/quote]
no. no. no.

That is rubbish stats (but can someone else debunk it, I can't be bothered finding the references again, it's too late). BigChoc Frenzy did such a good job of taking that particular load of rubbish apart.

The chance of dying in a RTA is about 1 in 20,000 risk in a year if I recall. There are a lot more vulnerable people that is commonly realised, and quite a few parents in their 50s or 60s. So the risk is a lot higher than being hit by a bus or being hit by lightning. Possibly Jenny Harries getting it wrong yet again?

[quote MadridSun]@BertNErnie

Dr Jenny Harries has been very clear:

"“Actually in the studies that have been done so far, the risk probably of transmission between staff, rather than to or from children, is the one that teachers perhaps should be focusing on – so it’s going off for a coffee break, you know, dropping your guard down.”

"When it’s their coffee break and they get a well-earned rest in the day, to ensure that they maintain their social distancing, good hand-hygiene, all those sorts of things while they have their break because that does seem to be a risk factor.”

www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/uk/teachers-more-likely-to-get-covid-on-a-coffee-break-harries/amp/
[/quote]
Jenny Harries is useless, can you at least quote someone who makes sense?

The key driver of transmission in schools though is not the DC at all. It is staff and parents gathering in social settings like staff rooms and departmental bases without social distancing

How many staff rooms and departmental offices have you been in? Our staff room is closed to sitting. We are allowed in to get water. Drinks are provided via kitchen staff at break times in the hall were chairs are set out 2 metres a part. We have SLT reminding us constantly we will get sick and the school will close. As a private school, relying on being better than the state sector to keep people paying our wages, we are under a lot of pressure to keep open at all costs. We are eating our lunch one to a table. We only do staff meetings via Skype - we are not allowed to socially distanced to discuss anything. We have to do it in separate rooms.

There is no way whatsoever that Staff at my school can be blamed for driving infection. We are suffering - SLT is working hard to keep us positive but I have about 1% of the interaction with colleagues that I used to have (and it’s a job where you are largely on your own anyway).

Didn’t Dr Harries say that children don’t share lunches, face masks don’t do anything and mass gatherings are ok? It must be the same fantasyland where school staff rooms are open.

Same posters, same phrases, same clueless misconceptions, different user name. I’m embarrassed for you.

@MadridSun

But you said that all schools are COVID SAFE and that it's only the staff and parents spreading it..

..So im just wondering how this works....??? 😐

No Building can be called "covid safe" it's a load of bollocks and also... lets say the building IS 'covid safe' then how are the staff spreading it to the children? Also... if a child does get it from a teacher, they woild then pass it onto anothwr child... meaning it would then spread among the chidlren .. therefore children DO spread it and the school is NOT "covid safe"

Am i wrong??

@Isthatitnow

The key driver of transmission in schools though is not the DC at all. It is staff and parents gathering in social settings like staff rooms and departmental bases without social distancing

How many staff rooms and departmental offices have you been in? Our staff room is closed to sitting. We are allowed in to get water. Drinks are provided via kitchen staff at break times in the hall were chairs are set out 2 metres a part. We have SLT reminding us constantly we will get sick and the school will close. As a private school, relying on being better than the state sector to keep people paying our wages, we are under a lot of pressure to keep open at all costs. We are eating our lunch one to a table. We only do staff meetings via Skype - we are not allowed to socially distanced to discuss anything. We have to do it in separate rooms.

There is no way whatsoever that Staff at my school can be blamed for driving infection. We are suffering - SLT is working hard to keep us positive but I have about 1% of the interaction with colleagues that I used to have (and it’s a job where you are largely on your own anyway).

Sage modelling, published on Friday, indicates that “the transmissibility from children aged 2-11 and 12-16 is no different or very similar to that from adults”.

from the Telegraph article today

[quote MadridSun]@Duemarch2021

School buildings are COVID secure. But clearly schools and heads cannot legislate for parents and staff gathering in large groups in staff rooms when they have been told not to.

Perhaps heads and SMTs need to be more forceful in preventing these types of gatherings and ensuring staff and parents are socially distancing.[/quote]
@MadridSun: ARE YOU NOT READING ALL THE POSTS THAT HAVE POINTED OUT THAT YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS??????

[quote MadridSun]@Duemarch2021

School buildings are COVID secure. But clearly schools and heads cannot legislate for parents and staff gathering in large groups in staff rooms when they have been told not to.

Perhaps heads and SMTs need to be more forceful in preventing these types of gatherings and ensuring staff and parents are socially distancing.[/quote]
it's not parents, it's the kids

"Children are more likely to bring Covid-19 into the household than adults, and for secondary school aged pupils this “increased significantly” after schools opened."

also from the Telegraph article linked up thread

Trolls gonna troll

Pupils gather in large numbers in a classroom how is that COVID secure?

Just ignore me Madrid. Keep spouting your insane drivel.

The reason why many parents want their children at school and not doing blended learning is because do many have experienced a few worksheets coming home and when work sent back to school students got no feedback for improvement or no grade on work. No online learning for so many. If all teachers had put on good online learning in the first lockdown then parents would be more in favour of blended learning now. Many parents now don't trust teachers to teach unless kids are at school. I know some teachers worked hard and did do online learning but they seem to be in the minority.

Unless these naughty staff are breaking in for a bit of 80s nostalgia as they attend a staff room fuddle or pop to the smokers room then I don’t even know how they would manage to gather in a group. Schools are as Covid secure as they are well funded.

@MadridSun but I'm 2 metres away in my Covid secure room as we all are- can't catch it from us.