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?

@monkeytennis97

Thank you *@noblegiraffe* for the thread. COME ON JOURNALISTS, WAKE UP!

The only way you get redress from the situation is to leave. Teaching is not going to get better. Journalists can't help you in your job.

[quote Hailtomyteeth]@noblegiraffe. I believe you. So much so that I am becoming concerned for your welfare. Speaking the truth doesn't always make people popular with those in authority.[/quote]
Agree. It's a lost cause.

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

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.

DH's head has had a strop about the app but not got as far as forcing staff to switch it off. We are allowed it. Most of our students old enough (huge sixth form) have apparently disabled it because they didn't want to SI. Lots of ill students take 3 days to a week off, claim they are getting a test and then don't 'because they felt better'. Understandably, they want to be in school : and the bigger picture of keeping others safe has not been emphasised.

I am not sure the app is the biggest issue : to be fair, when asked, the DfE have always said it should be used , and the guidelines don't discourage it.

The weakness of some Risk Assessments is down to panicking heads, in part.

The biggest scandal is testing, the discouraging of testing . And the general lack of corrections to the public that kids don't spread or catch it, even though all evidence now suggest they do : especially older ones. Getting rid of the tiers for schools : in fact actively discouraging them , is outrageous. Schools in Hull are on their knees and most children are receiving a piecemeal education. Hull does not matter one little bit to the Tories. Never has done.

The lack of proper mitigations ,a nd of funding, should horrify the public. But there is a strong desire for normality, and having your children in school , full time, is the closest to normal society can feel.

Media reporting is woeful. Most journalists don't care, I suspect. Unless there is a juicy 'battle with unions' story , it simply isn't newsworthy.

The boredom with the pandemic has led to a general halt of the more 'human interest ' stories this time round : which includes stories about worker stress (including NHS as well), burnout, education in general and individual case studies of illnesses and deaths (sounds ghoulish but it makes people reflect on the real people involved)

A recent FOI request asking how many school staff had been hospitalised or died resulted in ONS saying that they 'do not hold those statistics'. NASUWT Scotland worked out that its members have a very increased risk of infection : but the rest of the UK afaik doesn't seems to ahve unions gathering info on infection, illness, or death since September. Which leaves the ONS 'fudge' as the only data standing. Only if they gather data will people possibly begin to accept that workers with an elevated risk may well be catching covid in the workplace.

I find it all a bit depressing and draining.

@notevenat20

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

Which are fiction? Happy to clarify. Did you read the links?

@noblegiraffe I am so pleased that you are starting threads such as this. I am a secondary teacher and it is terrifying how those in charge seem to be brainwashed and going along with this scandal. It's frightening to witness.

Is there anything we can do? I wrote to my MP and just got a copy and pasted reply saying how important it is for kids to be in school (at any cost it seems).

Oh,and the lack of interest of journalists in the issues is shown at each and every briefing...

There are more privately educated journalists than almost any other occupation. Perhaps that is part of the explanation. They have no understanding of educational issues, and don't even really much care.

@noblegiraffe Even if you believe the NHS is in a conspiracy with the govt to lie about children’s symptoms, do you think this conspiracy also stretches to the US?

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/children/symptoms.html

Monitor your child for COVID-19 symptoms every day
Pay particular attention to:

Fever (temperature 100.4 °F or higher)
Sore throat
New uncontrolled cough that causes difficulty breathing (for a child with chronic allergic/asthmatic cough, see if there is a change from their usual cough)
Diarrhea, vomiting, or stomachache
New onset of severe headache, especially with a fever

Noteven you've just validated my point. Our government says you should only test children for cough, fever, lost of taste/smell.

I would be bloody delighted if they used the CDC list.

@nex18

Some of what you’re saying isn’t true, well it’s not true of my kids high school. 3, 8 (and a little bit 7) - school sending children home and insisting on them having a negative result before returning to school when they present in school with non covid symptoms (sore throat, runny nose etc). Asymptomatic testing centres set up locally inviting those who do not have symptoms to be tested, the advert suggests that people who working or studying might want to participate. 4, 12 - Currently a whole year group and a few teachers (and a whole bus) are self isolating due to one positive test in a child. 2 - masks in corridors and inside spaces other than during lessons has always been compulsory at their school but I thought this had been introduced everywhere now? 16 - this is the case for lots of workplaces, workplace rules are supposed to supersede the app.

DfE rules actually forbid asking for evidence of negative tests. Testing is restricted to the 3 main symptoms. To get asymptomatic tests booked you would have to lie in the booking system. Some schools sent whole year groups home initially, but they were strongly advised not to do so again. Masks in corridors - not allowed in my school until the Monday after lockdown started.... And we are not allowed masks in classrooms and have to tell students to remove theirs. Despite local rates being about 350 per 100,000

@noblegiraffe

The only real difference is the sore throat. But why do you think the NHS is lying to us?

By the way, if you only read ONE link from my OP, PLEASE make it this one where the ONS have been reported to the UK Statistics Authority.

twitter.com/sarahdrasmussen/status/1330294388354899969?s=21

It's an absolute scandal. Chris Whitby lied about ONS data claiming it showed teachers weren't at a higher risk than other professions. I know we've discussed on here how the data was fudged to hide that teachers had higher risk of catching covid than frontline NHS workers, but I didn't realise they'd also restricted the time frame of the data to make it look better than it actually is (and it was pretty bad in the data they used).

I agree with the majority of your points @noblegiraffe, the bugbears in my school lie with 2 issues. The first is that, initially, we were asked to pause the app whilst in school because it doesn't take into account walls. The justification given for this is that at leisure facilities where phones would be in lockers, the app would place 2 phones next to each other when the people never have been. This then changed to us being allowed to have the app switched on but then HR would decide if there's been a risk if we had a notification. The baffling thing to me is that there are so many positive cases amongst staff (around 10) and my app has never alerted me. So clearly it doesn't work because people aren't using it.

The second is that of self isolation. When a student tests positive, those within a 2m distance on their seating plan are sent home. The teacher is not because they have been socially distanced, they have, however, been in a small room for up to an hour with said student. It is also virtually impossible not to go near the students when they need help. I've tried not to but it's hard to leave them floundering when all you need to do is read their work to help, and so I do. The contact is under 10 consecutive minutes and therefore 'doesn't count'. 5 of my students have tested positive in the last 10 days (students in school, not self isolating) and I'm still at work.

My school is taking part in a study which is a positive thing, all staff have had a covid test and an antibody test, I think this was brave of them because of the possible implications of the results are all positive, this tells me that it isn't the school's decision to have the ridiculous rules as per the above, it's the guidance they are given.

I love my job, I don't want to be at home and in some ways I'm happy to put my head in the sand as requested and carry on regardless. But underneath I know this is a huge risk and it's only a matter of time.

I just wish the government would stop using schools as collateral damage to roll out herd immunity. Or at least be honest about it.

@noblegiraffe
Can I send this list to my mp?
I am teacher and feeling extremely unsafe right now, as more and more teachers go off sick and bubbles told to isolate. Still no masks or visors allowed in corridors and no social distancing between staff - even the slt 🤨

@nex18

Some of what you’re saying isn’t true, well it’s not true of my kids high school. 3, 8 (and a little bit 7) - school sending children home and insisting on them having a negative result before returning to school when they present in school with non covid symptoms (sore throat, runny nose etc). Asymptomatic testing centres set up locally inviting those who do not have symptoms to be tested, the advert suggests that people who working or studying might want to participate. 4, 12 - Currently a whole year group and a few teachers (and a whole bus) are self isolating due to one positive test in a child. 2 - masks in corridors and inside spaces other than during lessons has always been compulsory at their school but I thought this had been introduced everywhere now? 16 - this is the case for lots of workplaces, workplace rules are supposed to supersede the app.

Forgot the last one. The app is only supposed to be superseded in places where there is effective mitigations such as masks and plastic screens. Not hand sanitizer and the odd window cracked with fingers crossed

Thanks @noblegiraffe for speaking out. I'm exhausted from the backlash when I try. Two of my closest friends stopped speaking to me when I said schools aren't safe.
Interestingly, all my medical friends agree it's a complete shitshow.

Upset stomach as a symptom is one that really worries me - we have had a lot of kids off with upset stomachs since half term (more than normal, I would say) but no one makes the link between this and Covid-19.

If it were my child, I would say that they had a temperature and get a test, just in case.

[quote notevenat20]@noblegiraffe

The only real difference is the sore throat. But why do you think the NHS is lying to us?[/quote]
You missed
Diarrhea, vomiting, or stomachache
New onset of severe headache, especially with fever

from the list of differences? Why?

Oh,and the lack of interest of journalists in the issues is shown at each and every briefing...

Yes 😔 I am going to write to them all about this.

@notevenat20

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

The original lists was mine from another thread. But I was too too lazy to set it up with links, so many thanks to Noble for that work. Seriously - absolutely none of it is lies. This is a deliberate campaign.

I think it's probably down to self interest (ie it's better for the population to be able to work/closing schools will be massively unpopular) rather than an evil plan as such, but I do think you're right. DH is a secondary teacher and although the school he is in at the moment (sixth form) is being pretty good, all your points ring true.

I did want to say, though, that I'm a journalist - not for a newspaper, totally different sphere - and I am fairly sure that journalists are actually interested and there are a few things going on: some of the papers have an anti-public service stance (which very rarely comes from the journalists themselves!) and they won't be following/pushing those stories but some will be (in fact, I am fairly certain one is) actively pursuing these stories. There have to be verifiable facts and the lawyers have to be satisfied with them so sometimes it takes a while to get to print.

Ive said before- friends school in Melbourne know that you cant be sure of symptoms in children. ALL symptoms are sent home - runny nose, cough, sore throat etc. And they're down to 0 cases! Still doing it. She was so surprised (or not given the view outside uk of uk handling of cv) we were letting kids with symptoms come to school!

There seems to be huge discrepancies between what some schools are doing.

My sister actually drove 5 hours (September so less local testing sites) to get a test for her daughter who had a cold & the school refused to take her back without a test.

My dc school has had 2 bubbles that were instructed to self isolate including the teacher. They email all parents.

The suppression of data in interesting, I know before scurry guards were the most at risk so they obviously have some occupational data. However I've actually been surprised how few cases there have been at school local to me. I had half expected my dc or myself to have caught it by now &/or be having to homeschool as the schools couldn't cope.

@PineappleUpsideDownCake my niece had a runny nose & didn't want her in without a test.