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 all a bit of a mess. We've now been told the two year groups school is closed for (I teach both and my son is one of them) will be out for at least two weeks. Every day I get emails saying as a matter of urgency has anyone been in close contact with students x, y or z? The phonecalls are coming in daily now of positive cases. We too were a tier one area and hadn't had a single positive till just before half term.

According to the government's ON or OFF system I presume we should be fully off as we are closed to some and that isn't allowed allegedly. Luckily for parents I don't think headteachers will take that literally and will do their best to keep as many in as possible unless they're being threatened that they aren't fully open and therefore have to close to avoid being in trouble for not being fully ON?

I luckily haven't been in close contact with any of our student cases thus far and only had to miss one day last term waiting for a test result. And fortunately for school my son is 13 so his year group being closed doesn't lose them a member of staff as he's safe to stay at home - if he was little they'd be another staff member down.

I just can't see how we can make it to Christmas with this many positives coming in.

Don't know Noble. I wonder if it's possible to actually pinpoint the moment when we ceased to have a free press that reported reality? At least some of it comes from the 'click bait' era on online reporting but that's not the only factor by far.

@CatMuffin

Article today about secondary absence. www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/education-55057125 Both my kids are off now due either to an outbreak in their year or staffing problems due either to teachers isolating or looking after isolating or ill kids. We were in the lowest tier before and my kids hadn't had to be out of school at all until now. It's just suddenly got worse round here. Another local secondary school is shut completely

Have emailed them to tell them our story. Four Self isolations since Sept and now a case of Covid caught in school.

Thanks Noble. Email sent this morning.

I think the problem we've had over the last ten years is that we have a government that always targets children with cuts. SEN, school funding cuts, CAMHs, Widowed parents allowance removed, single parents having to go to food banks due to benefit cuts etc etc. Then even in a pandemic no money given to make schools safer so their education isn't damaged and the knock on effect of covid not being contained.
Tons of money has been squandered on damaging the country with brexit as well as the cost of the pandemic and it'll be this age group who suffer the most as a result. I see the Festival of Brexit is getting £29 million of funding this week.
It's despicable and i never vote for any of it, but you have to conclude that the people who do don't give a shit about kids and that's where we are. It's like the government pride themselves on treating kids and state school teachers badly.

What's the name of that woman who's employed by the government and who turns up on threads with loads of cut and pastes in favour of the government. I can't remember her name but she'll be along in a minute i expect

"A catalogue of desperation" describes our local schools.

www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/burnt-out-teachers-few-laptops-19332150

That's a pretty honest and accurate article. Shame we don't see more of it in the national press. Government now want to wrestle all influence back out of the hands of local governance or health authorities who actually know what's going on in their communities and schools and have been trying to do some attempt at damage limitation in the face of national decisions.

It's incredibly sad actually. I do a lot of angry or sarcastic but it's actually just really sad how little they give a shit and how much they project that onto teachers and schools who do actually care and are trying to do their best for their communities. And it's sad that people are buying into that. It's also sad that it's not just 'today' that this has an impact but the level of knock on effects there will be from this for education.

My son has just been sent home to isolate for 2 weeks as a close contact.

That's 3 year groups in his school now isolating. Its half the school!

Oh and this is primary by the way

I think everyone honest can conclude that clearly schools are not all open and full time for everyone no matter what the government pretends and that there's no equality of education or exam readiness in a situation where so many children are having to be sent home to self isolate (sometimes repeatedly).

Question is whether the government can admit that and come up with a way of better protecting school populations so that there's not so many positive cases affecting us and so there is some equality in how students grades are awarded next summer. Normal exams that don't take all of this into account are clearly not going to be fair for students and areas where there has been multiple in and out periods of isolation and absence of teaching staff likewise.

We need a mature honest approach not spin and nonsense designed to placate children broadcast through media lap dogs.

@CatMuffin

What's the name of that woman who's employed by the government and who turns up on threads with loads of cut and pastes in favour of the government. I can't remember her name but she'll be along in a minute i expect

Do you mean Clavinova? Not sure if she works for the government but she does like to Cut & Paste.

They don’t need Clav, the DfE posted via MNHQ on the other thread. All balls though.

Aren't we honoured to receive that message! Well done MNHQ for leaving it a while before posting it, though, so that anyone reading the thread can see the posters before it thoroughly debunking it in advance and showing it up for the bald, patchy lameness of a statement that it is.

All balls though

Yes indeed

Ks1 and year 5 and 6 all isolating in one local school, due to Nurse who gave all the flu-jabs then testing positive!

The DfE is a waste of space. If a department ever needed a shakedown for mishandling it is them

@noblegiraffe

They don’t need Clav, the DfE posted via MNHQ on the other thread. All balls though.

Please can someone link to this. I can't find it. Thank you

Im in a north-west tier three school. Ive students who have now started their third period of isolation since September. 6 weeks of education lost. Lots of positive tests now. Im delivering information to every single class I teach three different ways.

Ha, ha, ha. Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

Political statements are always written to make the writers side seem better. However, personal experience of school closures, periods of isolation, year group closures, teachers not being available and there being lots of supply teachers for our children means that we are not going to believe statements. Also the "with Covid" criteria does not take into account the kids self isolating having been in contact with a positive case. Still not in school, though apparently they don't count. Nice one DfE. Telling parents their kids don't matter.

16:31RowanMumsnet

Hello - the Department of Education in Whitehall wanted us to post the below message for them on this thread.

Apologies for doing this so close to the end of the thread - that's entirely our fault - the DfE actually sent us this a few days ago. Sorry.

Here's their message:

"We are aware of some media reports last week regarding the transmission of Covid in schools and understand this has the potential to raise some concern."

"Last week, SAGE (the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) published papers relating to the latest evidence of incidence and transmission of coronavirus in schools."

"The science is clear that children and young people are typically at very low risk from Covid-19 The disease is much less severe for children, even if they do catch coronavirus. And staff are not at higher risk than those working in other sectors."

"Furthermore, the papers say there is no clear or conclusive evidence that schools are playing a causal role in transmission and the spread of Covid-19."

“This is probably because education settings are rigorously enforcing all the mitigations – handwashing, mask wearing, bubbles, isolation of staff and pupils with symptoms etc.”

"The latest weekly figures show that 99% of schools are open and that only 0.2% of pupils are isolating at home with a confirmed Covid-19 case."

"As a department, we have ensured that all schools continue to operate with strict safety measures in place to minimise the risk of infection."

"You can read more about transmission in schools here."

Above is in response to the DfE statement on the other thread.

There isn't just one science.

Schools are not safe otherwise we wouldn't have had 29 days of school lost for one of my children and 12 for the other.

A lot of twaddle from the dfe

My daughter has had lessons where there has been no teacher or cover at all as well. Days where 4 out of 5 teachers were supply. This is not open in the sense of open and operating properly.

Thanks @lonelyplanet.
It worries me so much that people believe that schools are safe. It makes me sad that people don't understand what risks the staff and children are taking.
Such a load of rubbish