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?

which is a good thing.

If everyone who read my threads emailed their MP about their experiences, we might have a chance.

Do you teachers really think that because the majority of parents are sending their DC to school that it means they don't care about teachers? Really?

Should parents keep their DC at home out of protest for teachers rights?

why do you think the majority of the general public are still sending their dc into school?

BECAUSE THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE OPTION!

If kids were getting ill or were self isolating every week it would be a different story.

My friend has a child in yr11, so a pretty crucial year, and since September she has had to SI 3 times. She isn't unique, and the situation is getting more common.

Hi noble, thank you for this thread. We've got to keep telling it like it is!

I teach in a small secondary (700 kids). We've had to send the whole lot home bar one class and the vulnerables etc because 10 of us on the staff have tested positive and several others are awaiting results. This is enough to mean delivering full provision is in jeopardy and well colleagues are working like Trojans. 9 of the 10 of us have been really quite unwell. I have no idea when I'll be fit to even do a live lesson from home.

We've not been using the staff room. We're not eating lunch together. We're having meetings on Teams even if we're in the next door office. This has come from cases among the kids and it has floored us.

I don't know what I want. Just some acknowledgement, maybe, that we've been flung into this situation and that we were never safe. Just some acknowledgment that we continue to do our jobs knowing this. I've almost stopped talking to people about what it's like in schools - they don't really want to believe it.

@kremeshe

Well then maybe things will change

Call me a cynic, but.....

People in RL I mean...

If everyone who read my threads emailed their MP about their experiences, we might have a chanc

I may be wrong & of course any awareness is good but I think these threads just descend into bun fights. It turns people off, I was about to jog on a few posts ago as I was getting pissed off.

One of my kids schools is testing everyone (mass testing) and the criteria for sending home is different for them when they detect positive test.

If that was available across the country would you be happier @noblegiraffe ?

Because that's the aim of the government isn't it?

@noblegiraffe

Barbie if you don't think there's a conspiracy, then why do you think the government is persistently using outdated or fudged data to tell parents and teachers that schools are safe?

Using that PHE report from lockdown to say schools are safe in September. Using data from lockdown to say that parents are only at 8% increased risk of catching covid. Using manipulated ONS data to say teachers aren't at more risk of catching covid than everyone else.

It's not like they're thick. If we can spot the issues, then so can Chris Whitty.

I don't think it is a conspiracy to spread covid.

It is hugely inconvenient to close schools. It is costly to make schools safe (proper ventilation, nightingale classrooms etc).
Increased blended learning would need the govt to actually provide the promised laptops.

So, they keep pushing the story that schools are safe...and of course it is now much harder for them to hold their hands up and admit they were wrong.

I have noticed many of the charts split the age groups of children into 5 year bands when all other age groups are 10 year bands .... which of course makes it look like there is much lower incidence in children.

It worries me that children are largely asymptomatic or don't display the "main 3 symptoms". I think research is needed in primary schools to determine how many cases are going unnoticed.

I think these threads just descend into bun fights. It turns people off

There are a lot of people working hard to try to make me stop posting, that's for sure.

@noblegiraffe

If everyone who read my threads emailed their MP about their experiences, we might have a chance.

Trouble is, we would receive back a generic, copy & pasted response with the words, "education is very important and the best place for children to be is school."

And that would make me even more angry than I am already - not because I don't think education is important. Obviously, school is a good place for children to be (I've spent my 34 year career promoting that), just not in a fucking pandemic.

@AaronPurr I'm not saying kids are not getting ill.

My point is there is a tipping point when more parents are impacted there will be more action or do you disagree?

@poshme

One of my kids schools is testing everyone (mass testing) and the criteria for sending home is different for them when they detect positive test.

If that was available across the country would you be happier @noblegiraffe ?

Because that's the aim of the government isn't it?

YES!

I've been banging on about the need for mass testing in schools for a while now. I think it's number one on my wish list.

Where there's a positive case, the entire bubble should be tested to flush out asymptomatic cases that we know are very likely to be there. Instead they just send home the kids who sat next to the positive case which is basically a pointless waste of time when it comes to halting transmission.

Is the school private? I think there's only one state school I'm aware of with its own testing equipment.

Not sure what you mean by the 'aim of the government'. As far as I can see they keep telling parents not to get their kids tested unless three main symptoms.

My point is there is a tipping point when more parents are impacted there will be more action or do you disagree?

In many areas I think we've already reached the tipping point. Situations like my friend's daughter aren't unusual, but yet nothing seems to change.

I was about to jog on a few posts ago as I was getting pissed off.
noble’s threads don’t turn into bunfights and regularly reach 1000 posts. The only posters who try to turn it into a bun fight (but rarely succeed because of the evidence and knowledge used to counteract that) are the ones who keep posting the same sentences over and over again and deflecting the replies given, without giving any evidence to back themselves up.

The tipping point will be reached when it's not schools in Hull or Liverpool or Birmingham that are the worst affected.

I.e I don't think it the aim is to spread covid...but they are willfully manipulating the data to avoid admitting schools aren't covid safe!

It's another lie the DfE told back in about June when they said they would aimed for mass testing in schools, and pop up testing centres. In fact, we were offered it by a local testing centre and our school turned it down : so some of this is school inaction, too.

Trouble is, we would receive back a generic, copy & pasted response with the words, "education is very important and the best place for children to be is school."

Well that's true. Maybe if people with Labour MPs could email them. Or those 5 Tory MPs who didn't vote to let disadvantaged kids go hungry.

My point is there is a tipping point when more parents are impacted there will be more action or do you disagree?

Do you mean like Hull publicly begging the government to allow rotas or any support really, as they were at breaking point?

Was that not enough of a tipping point?
Sadly, I don’t think there is any ‘right time’ for the public vs teachers, hence the need for teachers to speak as loudly as they can, when they need to. Nobody should deny anyone that, surely?

There are a lot of people working hard to try to make me stop posting, that's for sure.

That may be the case but it doesn't detract from the point that these threads end up with just teachers posting. Which is fine however if it's parents you want to reach in order to challenge their MPs etc I'm not sure it's the best tactic.

@Piggywaspushed

It's another lie the DfE told back in about June when they said they would aimed for mass testing in schools, and pop up testing centres. In fact, we were offered it by a local testing centre and our school turned it down : so some of this is school inaction, too.

Yes I remember being assured this was part of getting schools back safely. We were told the mobile testing units would visit schools in the event of multiple cases to identify and prevent further transmission. It never happened in any school round here.

Not private school. One of the trial schools that's doing mass testing before it's rolled out nationally. as far as I know, they're trialling in several schools to see how it goes, and iron out issues before going national.

Some teachers refused to be tested. (As did some kids- we had to give permission)

Apparently the teachers were worried about getting tested positive & being sent home.

Other local schools were asked to participate in the trials & the headteachers refused.

@Piggywaspushed several schools here offered mass testing & headteacher refused.