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.

Fewer than 2k people a year in the UK die in rtas.
50k dead so far this year from covid.

Oh Madrid who are you trying to fool with the same staffroom and mass teacher gathering lies?!!!!

Where is your evidence of this? WHERE?

Don't countries who have masks in schools still have high numbers though ? What else are the who recommending

So how does the DC catching it from teachers make a school COVID secure? You are talking in riddles

@MadridSun /Ecosse that number has been disputed in a previous thread as well you know.

@caringcarer, Not this again.

Teachers got 48 hours notice of schools closing back in March, hearing about it on the 6 o'clock news along with everyone else. They then had to plan work to send for the next fortnight, whilst still doing their full-time job.
It was the Government that closed the schools, the government that suspended the curriculum, the Government that did not fund online learning, nor guarantee safety (e.g. DH was told that he would be personally liable legally if any safeguarding issues arose from using Zoom).
It is the Government that has now had many months to put in place plans for schools to remain open safely, and for an effective blended model. They have done nothing.
Your anger is directed at the wrong people. Teachers didn't choose ANY of this.

"A large part of this, as Dr Harries says, is unfortunately likely to be due to staff rooms and social gatherings of staff."

The Dr Harries who claimed they were following the science when asked why the UK were not stopping mass gatherings?!

I'm flabbergasted hay you continue to peddle this line when it's been repeatedly said by those actually in schools STAFF ROOMS are CLOSED. We also can't have social gatherings as we are in bloody lockdown!

@noblegiraffe is correct. Trolls gonna troll.

WHO main recommendations.

Caringcarer schools now have a legal duty to provide online learning. Back when schools were closed in March there was NO obligato do this - we were simply childcare for essential workers.

noble you always make well thought out comments.

There is what I would call gaslighting going on at the moment. I commented on the thread about vaccines to say that I didn't expect priority - I think one person said they did - many others agreed with the OP. But then the thread was full of nasty comments about teachers being lazy, thinking they were special & so on.

Many of us teachers want school to stay open. I really would prefer to see my students. Again the rhetoric is that teachers are lazy & want schools shutting. Even when we say that we don't want schools shutting it's met with nasty comments.

I feel quite down about all the negativity on here. I am trying my best with streaming live lessons while I try to deal with the rest of the class. It's hard when you're moving rooms every lesson.

I think there is also a line head teachers have been given - to tell everyone school is safe. It's not safe as there's no space. I find it bizarre that everywhere else I go it's 1 in at a time with lots of safety measures. I wasn't allowed to wear a mask until after October half term.

I do wonder what job these people do that hate us so much 🤷🏽‍♀️

@MadridSun
@noblegiraffe

Yep! I'm starting to think that Madrid is just trying to get attention from trolling now

Madrid... what you keep saying makes NO sense.... you say schools are covid secure.. so how do the 'staff spread it to the children' then???? I thought schools are 'Covid secure'

[quote MadridSun]@herecomesthsun

Yes, and it is highly likely that DC are catching coronavirus in school form teachers and other staff (or teachers and staff are passing it on to DC, who will then pass it to others).

A large part of this, as Dr Harries says, is unfortunately likely to be due to staff rooms and social gatherings of staff.[/quote]
"t is highly likely that DC are catching coronavirus in school form teachers and other staff." Then schools aren't Covid-secure then, are they?
"A large part of this, as Dr Harries says, is unfortunately likely to be due to staff rooms and social gatherings of staff." As Dr Harries said 3 MONTHS AGO. Where is your CURRENT evidence?
And your acknowledgment of posters informing you that staffrooms are, in many schools, closed?

I don't know why we can't have mass testing in schools. I think this will help immensely as those asymptomatic cases will be identified and those students can self isolate without spreading it around.

madrid

A large part of this, as Dr Harries says, is unfortunately likely to be due to staff rooms and social gatherings of staff.

I don't know when or where these teachers are socialising. We're not allowed in our staff room & there's barely time to eat & go to the loo!

Even when we say that we don't want schools shutting it's met with nasty comments.

Converse Even when we say that we don't want schools shutting we're told that we secretly want schools to shut and it's the hidden agenda behind our 'keep schools open but more safely' posts. It's mad.

I think heads have to tell parents it's safe. They're not allowed to be political and saying that it's not safe would be in direct contradiction to what the government is saying.

I think parents who are cross that teachers are putting on a game face to them don't understand the pressure to be 'professional' here.

[quote MadridSun]@herecomesthsun

Yes, and it is highly likely that DC are catching coronavirus in school form teachers and other staff (or teachers and staff are passing it on to DC, who will then pass it to others).

A large part of this, as Dr Harries says, is unfortunately likely to be due to staff rooms and social gatherings of staff.[/quote]
If there are, say, 1400 pupils and ? 100 teachers in a school, the odds are the kids will pick it up from another (possibly asymptomatic) child.

Even SAGE agree transmission is vis children now.

Harries as always way off the mark.

Well our staff room is closed so I don’t think that is where the virus is spreading here. As I mentioned earlier it seems to be rife amongst support staff - currently more are off than teachers.

@BertNErnie

I don't know why we can't have mass testing in schools. I think this will help immensely as those asymptomatic cases will be identified and those students can self isolate without spreading it around.

This would be a major improvement. At least test the bubble when there's a case in the bubble to flush out the other cases we know are there.

Instead the govt have taken the route of encouraging parents not to get their kids tested. Bonkers.

[quote MadridSun]@monkeytennis97

It's an official NHS figure. 315 people under 60 without comorbidities have died.

[/quote]
lets just refer you back to the other thread.

Staff spreading to staff is just as likely to be down to work related conversations as social ones. I think some people believe teachers have no need to communicate with other staff whereas we do this - and need to do this - on a daily basis.

Staff aren't going to spread to staff any more now that they've been told to switch the app off...

Noble I've pmed you if that's ok.