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.

If you don't fight for safer schools then it's your fault they close. Not teachers should have been screaming about the need for safety for months. We have tried. Mine is now closing as staff are sick. We lost a 49 year old colleague in May who was fit and healthy. We are all v scared. And tired. So so tired of it all.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones

Well said 😊

@BustopherPonsonbyJones totally agree too.

@mumsneedwine

Are you saying that secondary school teachers don't socalise with other teachers outside of school?

I'm primary not secondary but I haven't socialised with a colleague since the very start of the year.

I've not even had a cup of coffee or lunch in the same room as a colleague since March.

I do have a couple of teacher friends from other schools.

One of them I've seen for a SD lunch twice since March.

Another I have socialised with a handful of times when it was allowed, following all the rules at that time be that SD, masks, outdoors etc.

Due to my CV status I was being careful both inside and outside of school, increasingly so since returning to work in September.

Unfortunately it felt inevitable that I would catch Covid when I was working in close contact with over 250 children each week.

There is little doubt that the only place I could have realistically caught Covid was from school. And due to my role the only people I have close contact with is the children.

@mumsneedwine so sorry to hear about your colleague.

It is unacceptable the risks that teachers are being asked to face. Wearing face masks not only reduces transmission overall but also reduces viral load to the wearer. Viral load has been shown to be very directly correlated with severity of disease (I've linked the lancet paper several times - don't have time right now but it's easy to find).

If we want to keep teachers teaching they deserve at least that small protection. Viral load is related not only to distance from an infected person but also duration of exposure - so if you're in a room with that person for one hour that is much worse, and much more likely to cause infection (regardless of your distance from the person) than if you're only there with them for a few minutes (as in a shop).

Prioritising our children’s education and mental health simply has to come above anything else.

No saving people's lives simply has to come above everything else.

I tell you what I'm sick of... the parents who make grand imperative statements about how schools MUST stay open. Also the ones who then chuck in 'mental health' and 'vulnerable' as if teachers are the only ones responsible for this and then the ones who don't realise we have lives outside of teaching.

I may have had a 🍷

@YellowPostItPad

Prioritising our children’s education and mental health simply has to come above anything else.

No saving people's lives simply has to come above everything else.

Exactly.

"research, carried out by the NASUWT" ...
"reveals that 80 per cent [of supply teachers in their survey] were not able to secure any supply teaching work between March and the end of the previous school year"

That's March to July.

Fwiw we had two supply teachers in school during that time to help cover the bubbles. We had full bubbles throughout so if staff were ill we struggled. 4 of us were u able to be in due to either being CV or living with someone who was CEV. Although working from home, we also had to cover those staff at times to be physically in a classroom as well.

We have used supply teachers and supply TAs to cover staff absences since September due to staff having to SI or through sickness when a bubble hasn't been closed.

For example:
Last week we had four staff being covered by supply teachers/TAs. Next week this will drop to 2 staff being covered, myself included.

We have little choice but to spend money on supply is staff are off but their class is open.

Hate the word ‘boffin’.

@BertNErnie

You also obviously haven't been in a school as there are none I am aware of that have a staffroom open right now. All communal spaces are closed. Shut. Locked. Not open.

So not quite sure who else might be spreading covid - I wonder if it's the masses of secondary pupils who are not socially distancing by any chance?

I work in a secondary school and the staff room is open.

Wearing face masks not only reduces transmission overall but also reduces viral load to the wearer.

When I return to the classroom I will be wearing a mask any time I am not sat or stood by my desk, at an increased distance from the children. Any time I need to have close contact I will don my mask. It's the only key protection I have.

No one can guarantee I have immunity from catching Covid again. I was already CV, my Covid complications add to these. I can't do this again. If a mask is the only protection I can have, in addition to having the windows open, then I need to do it for my own health. The children will manage with me wearing one I am sure.

I think it's disingenuous at best to imply that children's mental health is FINE in schools as they are.

Children, especially older children, are not stupid. They know there are no real safeguards in place in the UK and no extra money. They know (my DD has pointed out to me many times) that there is no real difference between now and February (bar a bit more handwashing). They know that kids in Spain, Italy, France, parts of the US have to wear masks from the age of 6. They may reasonably wonder why that is, and why the UK has the highest number of deaths in Europe, and whether the two are linked.

All of that is STRESSFUL.

Some children have ECV parents and are desperately worried about the fact they could catch it asymptomatically and bring it home. There was one woman, a single mother, on another thread who was isolating from her son in her own house - because she was vulnerable and there is literally no-one else to look after him, but she needs him in school so she can work. What's she supposed to do? What's the mental health impact of that impossible dilemma? Wouldn't it be better if schools were safer?

What about the children who have parents with long covid or worse- what about THEIR mental health - the lifelong impacts?

People who discuss mental health are only interested in the children who have fit, healthy young parents. They're quite happy for other children's mental health to be ruined, as far as I can tell.

@Feministicon as normal ? Ours is open but can have 6 people in at one time. There are 230 of us. I often have lunch in classroom or my car.

@Merename

Hate the word ‘boffin’.

Thank you for your considered contribution.

I have a mug with ‘Don’t fail me now, boffins!’ on it from the Mitchell and Webb Big Talk sketch and that is probably why it is part of my regular vocabulary.

Quite apart from how to manage the cold in the British winter

With arthritis this is one of my next concerns along with Covid.

I now have a stock of thermals.
I have layers.
I have extra fingerless gloves.
I've ordered some hand warmer things.
I've just bought a new much thicker, longer and warmer winter coat, plus new hats/scarves.

I have also ordered extra pain medication in my last repeat prescription.
If I get a flare up rheumatology have agreed that I can go in at short notice for an extra steroid injection.

Just hoping for a mild winter this year.

[quote mumsneedwine]@Feministicon as normal ? Ours is open but can have 6 people in at one time. There are 230 of us. I often have lunch in classroom or my car.[/quote]
Yes as normal, no restrictions on amounts of staff, we have to wear masks unless we are eating but that’s it

Wow! We can't use ours as normal at all.

We actually had a new staff room built this summer - part of delayed building work from last summer. We finally have a staff room big enough for the staff numbers.

But now we can't use it properly due to Covid.

Only one year group is allowed to use it. Chairs are spaced it at 2m gaps. Half the bubble can use it at a time - they have a time rota.

At present the old staff room exists still so another year group bubble is using that with a rosy. The final tear group have another space to use on rota.

I'm not in a bubble due to my role so I can use one space to make a drink but have to clean everything I touch. I then take my food and drink to my room and eat on my own.

There is nothing normal about our lunch breaks right now.

@Feministicon what could possibly go wrong ! It's either a huge room or your SLT need to read the guidance better. Even DfE say that's a bad idea.

The options are
stay open
home learning

neither of them solve the problem where do they go with it

It is quite big, it’s never particularly full. We’ve not had any teachers fall ill thankfully but we have had two cases amongst the student body (siblings)

@Aragog

Wow! We can't use ours as normal at all.

We actually had a new staff room built this summer - part of delayed building work from last summer. We finally have a staff room big enough for the staff numbers.

But now we can't use it properly due to Covid.

Only one year group is allowed to use it. Chairs are spaced it at 2m gaps. Half the bubble can use it at a time - they have a time rota.

At present the old staff room exists still so another year group bubble is using that with a rosy. The final tear group have another space to use on rota.

I'm not in a bubble due to my role so I can use one space to make a drink but have to clean everything I touch. I then take my food and drink to my room and eat on my own.

There is nothing normal about our lunch breaks right now.

I’m not in a bubble either

We aren't allowed in our staffroom. We've been given work stations around the school e. G. In computer rooms using computers two metres apart or in offices if we have them. I share a large office with one other teacher and she's the only other member of staff I talk to these days. Lunch is at our desks. No fridge or hot water access. Students stay in their one classroom all day and we can't cross a line which keeps us two metres from them. All meetings via Google classroom. It's miserable but we've only had one case so I guess it's effective.

@Feministicon

It is quite big, it’s never particularly full. We’ve not had any teachers fall ill thankfully but we have had two cases amongst the student body (siblings)

Unfortunately we've had a number of staff, several parents and now some of the small children testing positive. Most of the children aren't actually being tested though as don't have the testable symptoms. Would be interesting to know if some of those with 'colds' actually had something more.