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.

I don’t know what the answer is but school IS important and parents aren’t selfish for wanting it to continue.

I dont think anyone has said that they want schools to close but better conditions for those who spend their days in them.

There have however been posters who want to shut this subject down and pretend that everything is fine within schools. Or they just interpret peoples intentions due to lack of comprehension? Their own motivations to want to bury this?

Our staffroom is closed to all except one department now. Doesn't matter as noone has time anyway for coffee breaks or lunch breaks.
Our lunch is now less than 15 minutes for teachers. By the time we have sanitised the classroom we last taught in, and moved everything to the next classroom we are teaching in, there's only enough time to nip for a quick wee and munch something at the desk of the next classroom as we get set up.

And it's hardly surprising is it that supply staff had to resort to taking on additional work considering from March until September they didn't have an income.
Supply staff having more than one job is part and parcel of their choices considering no work = no pay.

We used to pay the TA's £200 a day (London sn school). Whenever a job came up, they would be encouraged to apply for the position and security it brings. Not that many would apply.

Blended learning is absolutely meaningless IMO and I say that as someone who had all the resources available to try and make it a successful experience during lockdown 1 and it just didn’t work.

But nobody did blended learning during lockdown 1.

The Government suspended the curriculum (ie schools that did not deliver home learning were doing EXACTLY what the government told them to).

Most schools did, in fact, deliver some form of home learning. Then after June 1st, some year groups were in school (primary) and some year groups (secondary) had brief 'keeping in touch' time in school.

Blended learning is not this. Blended learning is a week in school followed by a week of follow up work at home, followed by another week in school, or 2 days in school, 2 days at home. It's direct in-person teaching to a smaller group than is possible if everyone is in school, followed by a short period of independent work, followed by more direct teaching.

In the last lockdown, the legal position was that schools did not have to - in fact they were told not to - teach. Now, whenever children are sent home - whether for a day or a fortnight - home learning based on what is taught in the classroom must legally be in place.

Planned blended learning would be better than the random 'Oh no, Year 8 Group 2 is isolating for 14 days' situation that we have at the moment , and certainly for older students, would be pretty close to being in school in terms of delivery of education. It is less effective for younger pupils, so i is especially important that we make primary schools as secure as we possibly can in other ways.

(And before anyone asks, of course schools would have certain students who were in full time, doing their 'not in school' week of independent learning using school facilities and supervision. Schools can identify those students easily and would discreetly provide for them - just like schools have supported the vulnerable for years and years without anyone noticing or thanking them for it)

@howaboutholly

People who don’t agree with you are just a bit thick, giraffe

It’s not about people disagreeing with me, it’s about people posting in a tone that suggests that they very much disagree with me while actually agreeing with me (not wanting schools to close).

“If someone had said to most parents a year ago that they would be sending their children into school whilst an extremely contagious disease burns through the population at a rate of 1 in 70, causes 500 (probably soon to be 1000) deaths a day, people would have thought you were insane.”

Not really. You forgot to mention the average age of those deaths was about 82. Clearly if I thought there was any great danger to my children they would be at home. But that’s just not the profile of this illness. Why would it be insane, as a low risk adult with low risk children, to send them to school if it’s open? I’d like schools to be made safer, for the sake of other people, but I don’t feel like a bad parent exposing my children to covid and nor am I worried about catching it myself, which I fully expect to do. My altruism doesn’t extend to unilaterally pulling my children out of school as some kind of one woman protest. If teachers want to strike for safer working conditions or ECV parents want to pull their children out then I’ll support that.

Just read in bbc that Austria are starting a new lockdown including closing schools.

Posted about that at 16.25 up-thread, @Ninbuscl.
Interesting.

I think boris would struggle to shut down schools here until the major euro countries are doing this. France and Germany. Personally I would like blended learning for a safer alternative to closing altogether. But they don’t seem to be able to implement safer schools so wondering if a short shutdown would be better. I just want rates to come down, they are eye wateringly high in some areas

I really don’t think blended learning would work, it’s part time schooling with the hope that the children/ young adults will do the other half unsupervised. They won’t and will loose another 6 months of schooling.

Well they won’t completely miss 6 months. They will get some educating while they are in. Which is actually what is happening now already in some areas due to self isolating

Ninbusl while it’s unfortunate for the students who have had to isolate a lot I wouldn’t wish part time schooling on every child/student. Presumably even with part time schooling there would still be bubbles burst/isolating plus the already part time hours.

If government lifted the restrictions to online learning it would mean that students could still access some work whilst they are SI. And for money to be injected into this without it coming back to bite schools in the arse.

At the moment they are twiddling their thumbs whilst not at school.

Part time schooling really means part time working for parents.

If government lifted the restrictions to online learning it would mean that students could still access some work whilst they are SI

What do you mean? There’s a legal obligation for schools to provide remote learning (note not live lessons) for isolating students.

Not at secondary holly which is what the thread is about.

Not everyone would feel comfortable leaving their secondary school child alone every other week. I think it would be really detrimental to the child/ young adult.

I don’t agree piggy, I’m sorry. I think quite a few parents would hesitate to leave their kids unsupervised for days and weeks at a time.

We were burgled when I was alone in the house at 13 ... was awful.

What are the hundreds of thousands of kids quarantining unable to even leave the house doing?

@noblegiraffe

If government lifted the restrictions to online learning it would mean that students could still access some work whilst they are SI

What do you mean? There’s a legal obligation for schools to provide remote learning (note not live lessons) for isolating students.

Not all schools are providing an education whilst pupils are off due to isolation. I thought this was just in my sons secondary as they are still trying to sort out their network and awaiting those laptops. However talking to others, and it's the same.

Remote lessons aren't happening across all schools. But then it's hardly surprising considering not all students have access and schools don't have the money to constantly print off new resources.

We are in an inner city with high percentages of free school meals.

I come on here, read oh what about the vulnerable and think yes please, what about the vulnerable? We already know those on FSM are already disadvantaged and this directly impacts the learning divide. The current set up is adding to this.

What about their mental health? Yea exactly what about their MH, I'm sure you've spoken to Ed pysch's trying to deal with this. This current in/out, not knowing when you will see your teachers again, not knowing is you will be in school during the mocks etc. Its all stacking up against them.

Last year, the year before and more - lots of threads about the stresses of exams, all the work involved etc and loads of sympathetic posts recounting their exam years dread. Now tough shit, they need to show some resilience.

Do we really want to be going down the road that they are deliberately excluded and forgot about? For them to just suck it up and deal with it? These are our future taxpayers and government leaders.

This issue isn't going to go away. It needs money. It needs the guidelines to be ripped up. Power to go back to LEA/schools in how to manage based on their circumstances. And for the exam boards or whoever to cancel the exams to help reduce all the additional MH issues this is currently having.

They also need to look into proper ventilation. What happens when the temperature outside dips to zero and below?

Sorry about the rant, not aimed at you.

Probably having their parent take some leave, or WFH. There is a difference between part time education for the long term and a couple of weeks.

It is in absolutely no ones interest to have very young people - and some year 7s will only just have turned 11 - unsupervised at home for weeks at a time. You have a Y7 child, don’t you? Can you honestly, hand on heart, say you’d be OK with leaving him home alone for five days a week?

I am genuinely astounded that you’d think I’m a “massive stalker” because of that. You’ve been here years under the same name, of course you’ve mentioned your DS.

It’s a fair question. Would you actually be OK with leaving an eleven year old home alone for five days a week?