Is a change beginning to happen regarding schools?

[Covidfears]

I’ve been noticing more articles lately in the mainstream press about the difficulties in schools (which will come as no surprise to most people). There’s also been some research which has basically confirmed that schools are driving infections. So, along with it looking like this lockdown has been a waste of time (due to schools being kept open to continue the spread) and people in power calling for Hull schools to be closed do we think that schools will be closing early for Christmas?

Is there any chance that blended learning or rotas will be coming in after the Christmas holidays?

We are a vulnerable family with children in primary school and the risk that sending them every day with no safety measures poses to our family is causing me huge amounts of stress.

@WhyNotMe40

3 cases in the year sounds like it is spreading - just mostly asymptomatically.

Since September? All very spaced out ? 1 right at the beginning the latest being now?

*(He prides himself on being a teacher who could do the job even if the internet shut down.... some would really struggle!!).

Yes, that's a great skill he has there.*

I actually value this a lot! We ahd a primary teacher in y5 who was 2 years into the job from retraining from doing something else. His math knowledge was so obviously lacking that he used youtube videos.

After a few months I made a point in marking the teacher's marking. He had a test where teacher gave him 10/40. In reality (math, after all, and y5) it was 40/40. I showed the head as this is unacceptable. He still is a teacher at that school because they cannot find another teacher.

So yes, solid, deep subject knowledge is -in normal times- more important than knowing how to use technology! In these abnormal times these teachers should be given massive help.

We're now down to 29% of y11 - 7 form entry. Lost 2 forms of y7, about 20 y8, and about 150 of our 450 6th form. Doing close contacts only.

And yes, all staff have been instructed to turn off track and trace app not only in school but out of it. Student in my form tested positive this week, but I absolutely don't need to isolate. Obviously.

Spaced out - no probably not then!

Ah 3littlewords ... we can't have staggered days because of public transport. We do have year group specific toilets - but that does mean 130 sharing 3 girls' cubicles and 130 sharing 3 boys' cubicles.
We've had to send 3 different year groups home so far - but only once.

I'm sure there's a good answer for this - but when they tell you to turn off test and trace app, can't you just say 'no'? And continue to isolate when requested by the app. Where are the unions on this? It seems an obvious and blatant attempt to throw an employees safety at work out of the window.

It's an incredibly irresponsible suggestion. Apart from anything else if you turn it off outside of school and you are in contact with someone who tests positive, you could bring covid into the school (if not there already). Seems like they're putting having staff in over public health - it's a pandemic.

We had to send a whole year group home because an infected child had been coming to school for a week and close contacts didn’t really cut it.

Frankly, I would refuse to turn my app off. They can fuck off to the far side of fuck.

And continue to isolate when requested by the app

It’s not a legal requirement to isolate when told by the app and can be overridden by an in-school risk assessment confirmed with the local health people.

Where are the unions on this?

NEU is advising members to not turn off track and trace unless phone is in locker.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/seven-greater-manchester-schools-shut-19315686
Seven Greater Manchester Schools to shut early for Christmas - to stop families having to isolate over festive period
At least one local authority in Greater Manchester is considering extending the festive break by a week

Seven Greater Manchester schools will be closing a week early for Christmas to prevent families from having to isolate over the festive period.

Amid growing concerns over the number of families that could be forced to isolate because of positive cases, Focus Trust says all 15 of its schools - seven of which are in our region - will close on December 11, instead of the original planned date of December 18.

Families were initially told that during the week, pupils would be be expected to work from home - with teachers offering paper-based and online work for them to complete - but it will now be classed as a normal holiday.

If Boris had any sense he’d realise that having the most infected subset of the population mingling freely up to a week before Christmas then setting them off to criss-cross the country visiting various relatives is probably the best idea since sending students off to uni.

Toilet situation - 12 for each gender, across the ENTIRE SCHOOL, for students.

@Evvyjb

Toilet situation - 12 for each gender, across the ENTIRE SCHOOL, for students.

We used to have something like that. We've installed portaloo type things. It means we'll be cutting the TA time significantly next year though from shit to very shit. But hey, we're open! 🤷‍♀️

@Evvyjb

Toilet situation - 12 for each gender, across the ENTIRE SCHOOL, for students.

I hate to open this can of worms again after the (literal) shit-show of last time, but how often throughout the day are those toilets cleaned?

Toilet situation - 12 for each gender, across the ENTIRE SCHOOL, for students.

Christ, they must be building new toilets all the time. If I'm up to date that means 1344 toilets this year.

We have 2 toilet blocks. 1600 students. 12 for each gender, cleaned before and after each break (so 4x daily)

I posted back towards the end of October that my large secondary had case rate ten times higher than the surrounding town. I live not far from hull and at the point at which I started saying how bad things were, we hadn’t really made the news.
Initially, my school was being told only to send home close contacts, but at some date before half term the advice switched and we started sending home entire classes. Apparently, this was because the number of links between cases had increased sufficiently to suggest that spread was occurring within, rather than outside, of school.
Recently, we seem to have done okay with staff absences. Our classrooms are quite large, we have achieved a large gap at the front (at the expense of crowding students together). All our windows open and are opened. Our rooms are freezing but we allow students to wear coats and some even bring blankets.
Whilst staff cases have remained manageable so far this half term, on any given day we have 10-50% of students from each year group absent. This is actually better than before half term, but we had a two week break which seemed to bring cases right down. They are sadly building back up again now.
Staff are absolutely exhausted. We’re normally planning each lesson at least three times, once for in school, once online, and once with paper copies for students without internet access. Behaviour is poor. Students in classes with less than ten kids in school don’t feel like they should have to do any work. Half the students in isolation aren’t doing anything at all and we simply don’t have the time to chase up after all of them. Besides which, we’re now being told that work sent home should mirror what we’re doing in school, but kids seeing circles theorems for the first time without a teachers guidance aren’t going to do well. I’m trying to find useful YouTube videos, but usually just end up setting yet another lot of work, going over useful prerequisites rather than doing the same as their classmates.
I’m feeling really tired now and I know the rest of my department are finding it hard too.
No real point to this post, just really thinking of all the people saying their school hasn’t got many cases, there’s no evidence that spread is within schools, etc.
They can all fuck off, to be quite honest. I need all my energy to get through the week and have none left to be patient with morons and trolls.

Thanks for that case study nellodee. I hope sceptics read it , and reflect.

@Nellodee

I posted back towards the end of October that my large secondary had case rate ten times higher than the surrounding town. I live not far from hull and at the point at which I started saying how bad things were, we hadn’t really made the news. Initially, my school was being told only to send home close contacts, but at some date before half term the advice switched and we started sending home entire classes. Apparently, this was because the number of links between cases had increased sufficiently to suggest that spread was occurring within, rather than outside, of school. Recently, we seem to have done okay with staff absences. Our classrooms are quite large, we have achieved a large gap at the front (at the expense of crowding students together). All our windows open and are opened. Our rooms are freezing but we allow students to wear coats and some even bring blankets. Whilst staff cases have remained manageable so far this half term, on any given day we have 10-50% of students from each year group absent. This is actually better than before half term, but we had a two week break which seemed to bring cases right down. They are sadly building back up again now. Staff are absolutely exhausted. We’re normally planning each lesson at least three times, once for in school, once online, and once with paper copies for students without internet access. Behaviour is poor. Students in classes with less than ten kids in school don’t feel like they should have to do any work. Half the students in isolation aren’t doing anything at all and we simply don’t have the time to chase up after all of them. Besides which, we’re now being told that work sent home should mirror what we’re doing in school, but kids seeing circles theorems for the first time without a teachers guidance aren’t going to do well. I’m trying to find useful YouTube videos, but usually just end up setting yet another lot of work, going over useful prerequisites rather than doing the same as their classmates. I’m feeling really tired now and I know the rest of my department are finding it hard too. No real point to this post, just really thinking of all the people saying their school hasn’t got many cases, there’s no evidence that spread is within schools, etc. They can all fuck off, to be quite honest. I need all my energy to get through the week and have none left to be patient with morons and trolls.

Great post. So sorry, it's completely untenable.

@Nellodee

I posted back towards the end of October that my large secondary had case rate ten times higher than the surrounding town. I live not far from hull and at the point at which I started saying how bad things were, we hadn’t really made the news. Initially, my school was being told only to send home close contacts, but at some date before half term the advice switched and we started sending home entire classes. Apparently, this was because the number of links between cases had increased sufficiently to suggest that spread was occurring within, rather than outside, of school. Recently, we seem to have done okay with staff absences. Our classrooms are quite large, we have achieved a large gap at the front (at the expense of crowding students together). All our windows open and are opened. Our rooms are freezing but we allow students to wear coats and some even bring blankets. Whilst staff cases have remained manageable so far this half term, on any given day we have 10-50% of students from each year group absent. This is actually better than before half term, but we had a two week break which seemed to bring cases right down. They are sadly building back up again now. Staff are absolutely exhausted. We’re normally planning each lesson at least three times, once for in school, once online, and once with paper copies for students without internet access. Behaviour is poor. Students in classes with less than ten kids in school don’t feel like they should have to do any work. Half the students in isolation aren’t doing anything at all and we simply don’t have the time to chase up after all of them. Besides which, we’re now being told that work sent home should mirror what we’re doing in school, but kids seeing circles theorems for the first time without a teachers guidance aren’t going to do well. I’m trying to find useful YouTube videos, but usually just end up setting yet another lot of work, going over useful prerequisites rather than doing the same as their classmates. I’m feeling really tired now and I know the rest of my department are finding it hard too. No real point to this post, just really thinking of all the people saying their school hasn’t got many cases, there’s no evidence that spread is within schools, etc. They can all fuck off, to be quite honest. I need all my energy to get through the week and have none left to be patient with morons and trolls.

This sounds so difficult.

Surely anyone with half a brain could see that this isn't providing a good education for anyone and is unsustainable?

If the policy around schools was being driven by science or common sense, they would see that a different solution is needed for schools in this sort of situation? But it's being driven by ego instead.

Where the hell is Gavin Williamson?

Sounds awful @Nellodee. I posted that we’ve had no cases(small, village primary) but I’m no sceptic. I’m just amazed as are pupils are from the nearby town which has a high case rate and is increasing.

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that people saying they had no cases could fuck off - only the ones that insinuated that because they had had no cases, everyone else was exaggerating the problem.

@Nellodee
You could try using Khan academy. Because it's US syllabus it's structured differently, but I find that if I google "math thing name khan academy" It'll get me to the right place easier.
They also have a button to link to google classroom which makes it easy to add it there and comment.

I personally find their videos well structured and easy to understand.

And you don't have to have an account to see the videos, so it doesn't have to be another resource that you log in, set up, etc.

Danmask-19’ trial results are out. They used about 6000 people and half wore masks and half not. Just about no difference which probably show the government was right in the UK earlier in the year not to require mask wearing (and is wrong now) and why the government is right not to force school pupils and teachers into them.

www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-6817

www.spectator.co.uk/article/do-masks-stop-the-spread-of-covid-19-

Interestingly even though this is a proper study facebook or its automatic tools have apparently been stopping links to it two academics said.