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Covid

Secondary schools are fucked, BOFFINS ADMIT

999 replies

noblegiraffe · 13/11/2020 21:39

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.
Secondary schools are fucked, BOFFINS ADMIT
OP posts:
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Viviennemary · 13/11/2020 22:43

What a load of daft scaremongering.

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noblegiraffe · 13/11/2020 22:43

It’s been obvious for a long time older children can spread it

Boffins still baffled though.

It’s like when schools opened and Test and Trace fell over because they were surprised that demand rose.

OP posts:
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SunShinesStill · 13/11/2020 22:44

@TheHoneyBadger

Quelle surprise! Or, no shit Sherlock!

I also came onto say “No shit Sherlock”, surely everyone in the Courtney knew this? The infection graphs were flat until 1st September.
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monkeytennis97 · 13/11/2020 22:44

@Juststopswimming

"Haterz"?!?! I really hope you never teach my children

Grin🍿
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Juststopswimming · 13/11/2020 22:44

Is that the best YOU can do?!

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herecomesthsun · 13/11/2020 22:44

@howaboutholly

And to be fair to the people demanding that they ‘find where giraffe has said schools should close’ its a bit disingenuous, isn’t it?

Or are you seriously suggesting there isn’t an agenda?

I would seriously suggest she is right. Read for fucking comprehension.
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canigooutyet · 13/11/2020 22:45

Thanks Noble for bringing this to our attention and despite the haters you continue to do so.
Some of the attitudes are bizarre - I knew it was you, ugh you again etc - why bother reading then?

It’s hardly surprising is it that there will be endless threads, especially about secondary schools on a parenting site 🤣

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monkeytennis97 · 13/11/2020 22:45

@Viviennemary

What a load of daft scaremongering.

How so?
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howaboutholly · 13/11/2020 22:45

Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

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WhyNotMe40 · 13/11/2020 22:45

@Juststopswimming

"Haterz"?!?! I really hope you never teach my children

Grin all the lolz. Grin
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howaboutholly · 13/11/2020 22:46

giraffe isn’t posting as a parent, though, she is very much posting as a teacher.

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herecomesthsun · 13/11/2020 22:46

@Viviennemary

What a load of daft scaremongering.

thing is noble is generally right. And backs it up with the figures (she's a maths boffin). Which is more that you could do.
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herecomesthsun · 13/11/2020 22:47

@howaboutholly

giraffe isn’t posting as a parent, though, she is very much posting as a teacher.

Well, I'm posting as a parent. And she is entirely right. This shitshow is a disgrace.
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SunShinesStill · 13/11/2020 22:48

I find it bonkers, that when they’ve shown a room will be aerosolised and infect everyone, that they’ve only sending people home within 2m not the whole class. Also 2m for 15mins is bullshit. It takes one hug, 1min sharing a car etc.

Has anyone seen what’s happening in France and italy?

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herecomesthsun · 13/11/2020 22:48

@howaboutholly

Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

Erm as a parent I entirely support the teachers who want a safer working environment.
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SunShinesStill · 13/11/2020 22:49

Also media blackout here on the schools level of infectivity

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Madhairday · 13/11/2020 22:49

@noblegiraffe I've always found your posts nothing but balanced and helpful and am frustrated that you're having to put up with these crazy accusations from people who don't bother to actually engage with what they're saying.

Yep - no surprise. It's just getting intolerable, my DS gets worried every day he will bring it home to me (CEV). I am shielding and trying to stay 2m away but that might not be enough and I don't want him feeling he is to blame if I catch it. But he needs his education. I think blended learning would work for his age group (sixth form).

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mrshoho · 13/11/2020 22:49

@howaboutholly

giraffe isn’t posting as a parent, though, she is very much posting as a teacher.

A teacher who is witnessing first hand the disruption and chaos in schools due to staff absence, classes and or groups in and out. And as Winter comes knowing that the situation is going to get worse.
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CallmeAngelina · 13/11/2020 22:50

"I really hope you never teach my children"

With the dire shortage of maths teachers in this country (coming soon to a school near you, possibly your own kids' school), you may live to regret those words.

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MrsHamlet · 13/11/2020 22:50

@Juststopswimming

Because the OP is like a broken record, desperate for schools to never reopen and now desperate for them to shut.

Kids spread covid, its hardly news is it?!

What a lot of utter nonsense.
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howaboutholly · 13/11/2020 22:51

Problem is, as we can see from this thread, it doesn’t really do anything, does it? Just rows and rows and more rows and mud slinging and I know best no I know best no I know best.

I don’t think there is a solution here. And repeatedly posting what is effectively the same thread week after week after week does understandably cause people to think there is an agenda.

here, you know as well as I do that most of the supporters here are from the long running threads in the staff room.

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noblegiraffe · 13/11/2020 22:51

What’s crazy, madhairday is that if your DS was in college instead of sixth form, he would probably have been blended learning all along. Even though it’s the same age group it’s somehow different in a secondary school.

OP posts:
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herecomesthsun · 13/11/2020 22:52

@Numberblock7

I don’t disagree that schools should be better funded and sensible measures should be taken, albeit I’m a primary parent. I’d completely support parents being allowed to withdraw their children. I have written to my mp, I’ve donated time and money to my children’s school, I’ve tried to be supportive of their teachers, I follow the ever more theatrical but probably pointless school rules without a murmur, I have tried very hard to minimise our exposure outside of school and I test when my children are ill. I’d just like to know what more you expect parents/anybody to do about it.

There’s a lot of these threads. It’s been obvious for a long time older children can spread it. It’s also very obvious that the vast majority of parents think the risk is worth it, otherwise I assume they’d have pulled their child out. I’m certainly not pulling my children out while school continues, we are all very low risk. Since you clearly aren’t going to get the equivalent of a union of parents pulling their children out en masse, I guess if teachers are really that convinced it is so dangerous there is an obvious answer to force the government’s hand - stop facilitating it.

I wouldn't bet on parents not taking their kids out. we are in a low risk area but we now have cases in school. But the school don't seem to be operating a competent infection control policy.

I think parents are going to start opting for the safe option, where of course they are able to, and choose to keep their kids off. Our kids, our choice. Fuck the bloody doublethink we are being peddled.
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WhyNotMe40 · 13/11/2020 22:52

I think a lot of the denial is from people who have trouble reconciling data with real life experiences especially when that goes against what they really want to believe. Cognitive dissonance.
If I say it's fiiiiiinnne in schools enough times, it must be true. And as nothing has happened to me or mine (yet) I must be right....
Wider picture people!!

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bumblingbovine49 · 13/11/2020 22:53

@MadameBlobby

This is all really tedious. It is what it is. Kids catch and spread it, so what? They still need to go to school.

Yes but there is a list of things noble has said could be done including providing schools with money to help them implement proper safety measures . But no we can't be bothered. Sorry this bores you but that really is no excuse for throwing up.your hands and doing nothing which is exactly what the government have done when it comes to schools
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