To think the government need to see this

[rsababe]

And realise how unsafe schools are

I’m sure the government knows all this but is prioritising the economy over people’s health.

I'm sure they already know. They're just ignoring it.

This highlights why schools are struggling so much and why so many children / staff are currently out of school at the moment.
Sadly the government know and for whatever reason are choosing to ignore it.
They have no desire to make schools ‘safer’ as to do that would mean they would have to admit they weren’t as ‘safe’ as they deemed them to be back in September.

The government is responding to the loud voices (also present on MN) that schools must be open. That DC's education must not be lost.

That is inherently risky for those in schools (not so much the pupils, until the upper years of secondary, but the adults in the school and theose in the households which pupils might bring it back to)

And society as a whole can only take so much risk, before it starts running rampant. So that means that everyone else needs much stricter restrictions to counterbalance - we are sacrificing whole sectors of the economy (principally hospitality and leisure, and some retail) to keep schools open

@chantico

The government is responding to the loud voices (also present on MN) that schools must be open. That DC's education must not be lost.

That is inherently risky for those in schools (not so much the pupils, until the upper years of secondary, but the adults in the school and theose in the households which pupils might bring it back to)

And society as a whole can only take so much risk, before it starts running rampant. So that means that everyone else needs much stricter restrictions to counterbalance - we are sacrificing whole sectors of the economy (principally hospitality and leisure, and some retail) to keep schools open

After this lockdown ends gyms and shops will be allowed to open so that's going to make it worse.

Far more protection/distancing in shops and gyms though than in schools.

Yes, that's true of shops I think but I'm not as sure about gyms, people breathing heavily and sighing and so on.

Half of the year group my DC are in are out isolating and some have been out for a fortnight and back in for a couple of days and then out for another fortnight.

My son's been at school every day since September. Why should his school be shut?

@Potager Your son's school doesn't need to be shut. Very few people are asking for that.

Most teachers and parents who care just want safer schools.

Maybe your son's school is very safe, so nothing has to change there. But other schools need very much improved Covid safety measures. They are not Covid safe at the moment, even though the government is saying that they are, for some reason.

@Potager

My son's been at school every day since September. Why should his school be shut?

I don't think anybody is saying it should be shut but the government need to stop peddling the myth that schools are safe. My own DC was at school every day from September until today, we were notified yesterday that they needed to self isolate as ordered by PHE because the student they sit next to has tested positive.

Schools are going to end up shut by default if this carries on with so many people having to self isolate because of how much it is spreading in schools. My DN is at a small school and they have 25% of their staff off with it and have had to close two year groups.

@Potager

My son's been at school every day since September. Why should his school be shut?

Same here. There have been three cases in his sixth form college since they went back in September.

There is massive variation. Hull is apparently very bad with 1/4 of secondary aged kids out unwell or self-isolating.

A local approach needs to be found, not just closing all schools.

the government need to stop peddling the myth that schools are safe

There is no such thing as "safe".

I would ban two words in relation to covid - "safe" and "selfish". Both are pointless.

Or how about a blanket approach of improving mitigation measures in all schools so that the schools who are currently unaffected have a better chance of staying that way, and the ones that are struggling have a chance of controlling transmission.

Mass testing, particularly when there is a positive case, masks and improved ventilation should be a priority.

My kids go to a school with 2000 kids. Very few cases in the school. My kids haven’t missed a day since September although they do one day of remote learning a week.

We aren't saying schools should close. At all.

In September the government brought in plans to have school specific tiers that include rotas. Schools had to be prepared to go to a rota or online for a 2 week period. None of this has been allowed and schools are limping along in some regions.

Whilst I appreciate some areas are hardly touched by this, we have repeated groups out, kids in school whilst receiving the positive result text, staff problems, over 80 positive students, a student in hospital and 2 members of staff that have been hospitalised. 2 staff are signed off long term. 3 students have been off still ill since the start of October.

We are struggling to stay open for years, especially supporting year 11 and 13.

Sadly I think they know how bad everything is.

www.tes.com/news/urgent-warning-over-misleading-teacher-covid-data?fbclid=IwAR2G62m6kdalEnedlRN66q0CDka2g7inrzQ2Pbci3x5o7J4YGscnGXsygZM

Pretty funny if OP's chart comes from the COVID evidence centre, set up by Carl Heneghan, who is a co-signatory of the Great Barrington Declaration. I reckon the originators of that chart would not interpret it to mean anything OP has said here.

@lljkk

Pretty funny if OP's chart comes from the COVID evidence centre, set up by Carl Heneghan, who is a co-signatory of the Great Barrington Declaration. I reckon the originators of that chart would not interpret it to mean anything OP has said here.

How would they interpret it?

A local approach needs to be found, not just closing all schools.

Thing is, without restricting travel there not much point in that. The reason why some schools are having the difficulties they are is precisely because many (most)? schools are plodding on as normal and driving the spread from area to area. Secondaries have large catchments, children travel and infect new areas. And so it spreads across. That's why new areas of high infection constantly pop up. There's nothing to stop the virus moving along. If your school is free of covid, it will only stay that way until someone brings it in.