The government is encouraging covid spread in schools

[noblegiraffe]

Bear with me, because if they're not, you have to explain this:

1. Schools will stay fully open end of. Even when they're not.

1. No masks allowed in classrooms where teachers and pupils spend the most time. The expectation that they would be mandated in corridors is fudged at the last minute to lockdown areas only.

1. Pupils are not allowed to be tested for the symptoms that kids are most likely to get.

1. Teachers (who in secondary will teach all bubbles without masks) are not to self isolate if there is a case in a class they have taught.

1. Fudge any data that may show teachers getting ill at a higher rate than the general population and Chris Whitty lying about it

1. Fudge data that may show school pupils having a higher infection rate than the general population

1. Not permitting / trying / mass testing in schools where there have been cases in case they find out how bad the spread is.

1. Actually sending letter to parents to tell them to stop getting kids tested.

9 Fine parents who try and keep their kids off when in contact with a known positive case.

10. Launch a propaganda campaign to convince parents that schools are safe using data from schools in lockdown, which every news outlet dutifully publicises. Continuing that propaganda campaign by releasing a video of socially distanced school kids wearing masks in classrooms.

11. Hide Gavin Williamson in a cupboard so that no journalist can accidentally ask him how his aim to reopen schools safely is going.

12. Announce that one of the school safety measures will be children in bubbles which will burst when there are cases. Stop this midway through September and start sending home as few kids as possible. Remove the schools remit from PHE control and put DfE in charge to enforce this.

13. Produce a Tiered system of responses to infection levels (rotas, masks, closures) to reassure parents, and shut the unions up. Then never mention them again and in fact state that they are not to be used.

14. When Hull begs for rotas due to imminent collapse of system, send a letter to all local authorities re-iterating NO ROTAS

15. Have some strange control over the media so they don’t mention any issues, or if they do, it must be accompanied by a picture of a jumbo classroom containing max 5 kids.

16. Tell teachers to ignore the app when it tells them to isolate, or to turn off the app completely

17. No funding for schools to implement any covid safety measures

Any other explanations for this list?

It's absolutely standard at lesson change over

@noblegiraffe

3, 5, 8 and 9. I know several pupils who have had tests. I've seen letters from our school plus templates that have gone from the LA to schools outlining when pupils should test.

That's the point. The letter tells parents ONLY to test when the child has one of the three main adult symptoms. Children mostly don't get the three main adult symptoms and actually their most common symptoms are completely different.
So parents are not getting their kids tested when they have child covid symptoms on the instruction of the government. In fact there's pressure not to so as not to waste tests, you can see that on here. The result is infected children in school in close contact with lots of other kids.

This. I was discussing this on FB with teacher friends yesterday. If the government genuinely wanted to reduce cases in children they would have 'followed the science' and given different testing criteria for children as over 50% don't get the 3 main symptoms. That was known several months ago. But if they changed the rules to reflect that then schools would probably all be closed right now and they don't want that (mostly for economic reasons not health ones).

@PrivateD00r

That photo above is horrific, I would hate to be in that corridor in non-pandemic times, never mind now. It honestly sent a shiver down my spine. I showed my dc who go to three different schools and all say they have never seen anything like that thankfully. Schools here seem to be different than in England, hence very little of the points in the op applying to here, thankfully.

Where are you based?

I wouldn't say that all corridors look like that every lesson changeover, but there are absolutely pinch points that do- this is the case in every school I've been in.

Most English schools were built for a far smaller number of students than now attend them.

@WhyNotMe40

herecomesthesun I don't think incompetence explains the hiding/fudging of data though. Or the forbidding of masks in classrooms which would cost them nothing.

There is definitely something ideological at play too.

Or willful ignorance.

I am in NI. Only one of my DC has to move rooms and there are only 18 in their class. There are 4 forms per year and only 2 year groups move rooms. They have tried to consider this in the timetable so there is never a point when all 8 classes move at the same time.

However even pre-covid, my DC say they never saw anything like that. Perhaps we are just lucky with wide corridors, I don't know! I definitely never saw anything like that when I was at school either (I appreciate times have changed though!)

Please don't think I am doubting that this happens, I can see that it does widely. I am just trying to point out a lot of this is an England thing rather than UK wide.

Eg, teachers here are off isolating frequently, entire year groups are being sent home, teachers and pupils can choose to wear masks, there are no fines here (ever), etc. Oh and we did close our schools for a longer holiday at Halloween and I fully expect the same at Christmas (so point one also doesn't apply).

A misspent youth in the mosh pits of punk gigs was surprisingly good teacher training.

Our corridors aren’t that crowded now because of year group zones reducing the number of kids using any given area at once but that would be totally normal pre-pandemic.

@BecomeStronger

Most of that list is simply not true.

You're wrong, it is.

OooOoooh Sian Griffiths of the Sunday Times has just tweeted about the ONS data cover-up.

twitter.com/siangriffiths6/status/1330490792264273928?s=21

@notevenat20

I agree with *@nex18* . You have mixed fact with fiction.

That's not what nex says at all.

...and you're wrong.

Or, it's a balancing act because there is more to life and death than Covid.
And whilst everything has been turned on its head for this one virus, as a small compromise with some level of sanity, it's been decided that educating children has some importance.
This. And those schools de facto closing by keeping whole year groups out are egregiously damaging the progress for those children.
Teenagers can’t socially distance -well there’s a revelation! Anyone who expects them to clearly doesn’t have a clue.
But schools need to stay open because far greater damage was caused in the summer term than had been caused by them remaining open. Teenagers simply congregated unsupervised, or withered away at home. I am a teacher and in RL don’t know anyone who are desperate for closing schools the way a minority of teachers or people who claim to be teachers on here are.
And to claim that they want schools to trending open but ‘safely’ is disingenuous. Their version of ‘safety’ is impossible in a school setting, so effectively by attempting to make it a binary choice they are lobbying for school closure

Susan talking bollocks as usual.

Mass testing isn’t impossible. Funding for improved ventilation isn’t impossible. Masks in classrooms isn’t impossible.

@PrivateD00r

That photo above is horrific, I would hate to be in that corridor in non-pandemic times, never mind now. It honestly sent a shiver down my spine. I showed my dc who go to three different schools and all say they have never seen anything like that thankfully. Schools here seem to be different than in England, hence very little of the points in the op applying to here, thankfully.

I walk through crowded corridors daily to get from my form room to my classroom, to do my break duty and to cover other classes. The only way I could avoid walking in crowds is to be deliberately late to every lesson, but then they'd be waiting in an open are for me, which is also someone's classroom.

Bear with me, because if they're not, you have to explain this:

No, I don't have to explain it. You appear to be asking the wrong people if you wish to promote conspiracy theories about the government - try your MP.

I didn't bother to do anything more than skim everything after that line. But you are making a huge assumption. You are assuming the government is capable of planning something of this magnitude. There is definitely no evidence of any such capability on their part.

I didn't bother to do anything more than skim everything after that line

Oooookkkkaaaay.

"You appear to be asking the wrong people if you wish to promote conspiracy theories about the government - try your MP."

What about the posters on here like Susan who, if she really is a teacher, as she claims, needs educating?

schools need to stay open because far greater damage was caused in the summer term than had been caused by them remaining open. Teenagers simply congregated unsupervised,

So as we know, school staff are doing the parenting and paying the price to do so by risking their health. Let's tell it like it is.

There you are with your claim to be teachers line susan.

Remind me of your school setting again? I ask you this on every thread.

Teenagers can - and should- socially distance. The DfE guidelines are actually predicated on a belief that, outside of the enforced non SD in classrooms- they do.

NI also have different schools guidelines : which are MUCH clearer and more sensible.

I love all these subtle digs at my authenticity. ‘Claim to be a teacher’ ‘seem to have an agenda’ etc etc.

It’s really not that complicated. Just read my posts!

Ds school has had to collapse classes due to lack of staff, hundreds of pupils of with either positive test or symptoms & bubbles aren't being sent home. Supermarkets are one of the worst places for transmission but how often is one person near someone who would test positive for more than 10 minutes? It makes a mockery of the rules. I feel sorry for anyone who works in a school, the government are making rules to suit themselves, they don't want schools to close because then parents aren't earning & are liable to claim benefits or the £500 Covid isolation payment. Banning teachers from using the app in school is totally disgusting, it is what the app is there for.

@Piggywaspushed

NI also have different schools guidelines : which are MUCH clearer and more sensible.

It does seem to be much better, Pretty unusual for NI to do anything better, but we definitely seem to have it much better in schools!

The isolation and non testing of children is incredible and completely unjustifiable.

Supermarkets are one of the worst places for transmission

No, this is spin again. 18% of people with covid went to a supermarket in the previous week, no one knows if they caught covid there.

Also look at what they did with their categories.

@Susanwouldntlikeit

Or, it's a balancing act because there is more to life and death than Covid. And whilst everything has been turned on its head for this one virus, as a small compromise with some level of sanity, it's been decided that educating children has some importance. This. And those schools de facto closing by keeping whole year groups out are egregiously damaging the progress for those children. Teenagers can’t socially distance -well there’s a revelation! Anyone who expects them to clearly doesn’t have a clue. But schools need to stay open because far greater damage was caused in the summer term than had been caused by them remaining open. Teenagers simply congregated unsupervised, or withered away at home. I am a teacher and in RL don’t know anyone who are desperate for closing schools the way a minority of teachers or people who claim to be teachers on here are. And to claim that they want schools to trending open but ‘safely’ is disingenuous. Their version of ‘safety’ is impossible in a school setting, so effectively by attempting to make it a binary choice they are lobbying for school closure

Three secondary schools have closed in my county this week due to lack of staff.

In normal times that would be absolutely shocking.

Now, we are supposed to take it as a fact of life?

I want schools to stay open, or at least not shut with almost no warning, hence feeling that changes need to be made.

Three secondary schools have closed in my county this week due to lack of staff. In normal times that would be absolutely shocking.

Yep, and now it rarely gets a mention outside of local news / the community. It's crazy.