Government denial over schools issues will cause deaths this Christmas

[noblegiraffe]

I just can't get my head around how utterly crazy the government Christmas policy is.

Secondary school kids are the most infected subset of the population with it now estimated that more than 1 in 50 of them are positive. As they are children, most of them will never be tested as they either are asymptomatic, or will display different symptoms to the main three that are required to trigger a test (councils are overruling this in some parts of England and asking parents to use a more sensible list of symptoms).

Schools mostly break up on 18th December, 5 days before the Christmas relaxation period begins and people start taking advantage of this to mix with other households indoors, in poorly ventilated small rooms, which as scientists warn, is a terrible idea. twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1331931594400149506?s=21

Closing schools a week earlier (or moving online) would give 2 weeks out of school before Christmas day, which would reduce the infection rate in school children significantly (we saw a dip in the infection rate just in one week over half term) and make it safer for them to mix with other households, particularly if people took advantage of those two weeks to significantly reduce their contacts and other risks.

Some schools took it upon themselves to protect their own communities by changing the term dates to close a week earlier. The DfE has overruled this and forced them to stay open.
schoolsweek.co.uk/overruled-dfes-sweeping-coronavirus-powers-force-trust-into-early-christmas-holiday-u-turn/

Because of the tier system, if families don't get together at Christmas during the relaxation period, when their children pose a much higher risk, they will not be able to see their families properly for Christmas at all. Essentially Christmas is being funnelled into a time period which is insanely risky due to it coming shortly after children mixing freely in unsafe schools with significant numbers of undiscovered infections.

I know the DfE have been reading this board. I understand why you want schools open, but lying to people about the risks as you have is dangerous and immoral. Transparency is needed so that people can make their own informed risk assessments, not propaganda about 'safe schools' and 'saving Christmas'.

I agree. I understand why schools should stay open as much as possible, but just letting everyone mix over Christmas seems very risky. The kids in my class are already mixing as if there is no lockdown from what they tell me.

Hasn’t Manchester closed its schools 2 days early even though the government said not to?

Let me check

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/stockport-schools-close-early-christmas-19331640
Stockport

It's all bonkers

We are all positive because DS picked it up in college/sixth form.

I hope god his teachers have avoided it. DS is autistic so it's difficult for him and his teachers to observe social contact and distancing rules.

His main teacher is now self isolating .

We are all self isolating.

Teachers have been thrown to the wolves.

And yes DS had a very mild dose of COVID...minor cold symptoms and loss of taste with one episode of raised temperature. It could have been much worse for us.

Spoken to his teacher several times, looks like she has escaped it ....for now.

Noble - once again thank you for doggedly raising this with the people that matter - parents.

As another secondary teacher, whatever your opinion on the schools being open (and I think they should be, albeit with more mitigation than we are allowed) they are NOT covid safe and going online for a week is A VERY SENSIBLE IDEA. Attendance will fall through the floor that week anyway, as parents choose the safer option, so let's minimise risk for all those who attend or work in schools, not to mention their wider families.

@noblegiraffe

Couldn’t agree more. It’s a disaster and a disgrace.

And yet I even put in the OP that I understand the need to keep schools open and that they should just be honest about the risks.

Even in Scotland where they are discussing school closures, it's about after Christmas and not before. Which is, IMO, the wrong way around.

It's insanity.

Can you not see that this will cause a not of infections SomewhereEast?

a lot

Makes perfect sense to close schools a week earlier. I was shocked to see my nieces in Scotland finish on the 23rd. I hope they rethink that.

The big issue in terms of closing schools is that if you set a precedent, I doubt they would reopen before April.

Personally I absolutely want schools to stay open. However, I could see why a one week early closure (except for exam groups) May be prudent.

The issue with this is that giving in to the unions on this would prevent schools reopening in the new year as unions will simply maintain the position that schools are unsafe.

I also think the lack of provision from schools during the original lockdown has made the government and parents extremely wary of closing them again. The unions have in many ways shot themselves in the foot with their opposition to online teaching, marking and one-to-one support.

Absolute madness.
4 cases in my class and I am showing symptoms awaiting results.
Let’s see what happens come January. Hope the nhs are ready.

January will be busy for the hospitals and ICU's.

Attendance will fall through the floor that week anyway, as parents choose the safer option

I agree, and not just because they want to quarantine their children to make them safer to see their relatives, but because they want to avoid getting the dreaded phonecall that their child will have to isolate over Christmas.

I’d prefer school remained open and no one was allowed to mix households over Christmas beyond the support bubbles etc already allowed. I think the Christmas bubble thing is insane not schools remaining open. Should there be a January bulge it will be because people can’t possibly have a different Christmas for one year, just have to hug granny etc. Anyone with children at school is well aware covid is circulating in schools, it’s a bit obvious because children are being sent home to isolate. That’s why we are not seeing anyone over Christmas.

Even the CMO said in a presser, that just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

The issue with this is that giving in to the unions on this would prevent schools reopening in the new year as unions will simply maintain the position that schools are unsafe.

I also think the lack of provision from schools during the original lockdown has made the government and parents extremely wary of closing them again. The unions have in many ways shot themselves in the foot with their opposition to online teaching, marking and one-to-one support.

I agree with this.

The issue with this is that giving in to the unions on this would prevent schools reopening in the new year as unions will simply maintain the position that schools are unsafe.

Schools are unsafe. And there's lots of things that can be done to improve that without having to close them. Teacher unions are not campaigning for permanent school closures anyway, that's just anti-union propaganda..

The reality is that people will now mix at Christmas so we need to deal with that reality & minimise the risk.

It's one extra week to save all those people. I can't believe anyone would argue against it.

I am gutted - I work in a school and have children in different schools, we have had cases in all 3 schools. My DF is CEV so we had planned a very quiet Xmas, just us, and to religiously socially distance over the holidays so we could see my parents as safely as possible the final weekend of the 2 week break. Can’t do that now due to tier restrictions, also can’t see them during the Xmas bubble free for all as won’t be safe enough after just a few days out of school...so it will be Easter probably before we can meet up....or we break the rules and make our own judgement that it will be safe to see them at New Year. The Christmas bubbles kick in too near to the end of term in my opinion, January will prob end up even worse then this term in terms of the impact on schools and kids having to isolate. It’s all a bit of an ill-thought out mess....

Well said Noble.

I think they should go remote on the 9th until the end of term and for two weeks after the break to ensure all the mixing and spreading is isolate before being taken into schools to spread more. January will undoubtedly be awful case wise and worse as so many plan to mix and with older relatives too.

My university student children are being tested two weeks before Christmas. Very sensible & as safe as possible.

My teacher daughter is daily in direct contact with covid cases, which means we will have to avoid elderly Dad this Christmas.

Why can't the Government implement the same policy as universities? The infection rate is HIGHER in schools.

I'm in exactly the same position, Sonya. It's mad that the government are essentially encouraging us to risk it at Christmas instead of taking the safer option of leaving it till later in the Christmas holidays.

At this point I think it is inevitable that January is going to be a shitshow. One of my year 13 classes that I teach nearly every day has been decimated this week. First student went off ill on Tuesday, few more Wednesday, few more Thursday. As of Friday we had 4 positive results and this morning we had 2 more come in via email, all from the same class. 2 of them are considerably ill with one going to A&E with breathing difficulties.

That class and another 30-odd students are now isolating due to contract tracing, which means we now have no year 13's in at all due to another class being shut down the week before, and all of their contacts. We're still missing half of Year 12 and a bunch of Year 11. 3 new cases in Year 8 last week too.

I can guarentee we wouldn't have this situation if schools could impliment more measures to protect them and us, but now we have students with actual exams in the first few weeks of January isolating and some too ill to work and prepare for them. We would not be seeing this spread in schools.

That's exams in January when the number of cases will be increasing again. I have 2 HoDs close to a breakdown over this and a 3rd who is impacted by this actually off with COVID.

Keep up the good work @noblegiraffe. We need people like you right now.