I'm shocked that people don't understand that schools need to be safer.

[herecomesthsun]

Not necessarily to close, but definitely they need to be safer.

We have cases coming down (by and large, to some extent) in the community and we have had rates of positive cases going UP in schools.

The group with the highest % testing positive in the ONS survey is now secondary school pupils.

We could do so much more to make schools safer.

We wouldn't even have to send pupils home so much if schools were safer.

It would be better for the pupils- why expose them to this pathogen, why expose their families?

And some of the WHO advice would give a better quality of education if we could put it in place.

Why would anyone not want to support this?

I'm sure someone will take pity on my and enlighten me

How do you make schools safer?

Apart from through blended learning, I mean. Even masks probably wouldn't be that effective in a full classroom all day tbh.

How?

It’s not going to happen now with the pending vaccine. I’m not saying that’s right but these threads are pissing in the wind, if they think the government will step in at this stage of the game to make schools safer.

I’m a TA so obviously I would like schools to be safer but realistically it’s just not going to happen is it?

I'm a teacher, at the start of term in September we had it go through, we had 3 classes out of 8 isolate. Since October we have had no cases. School feels perfectly safe.
My DD hasn't had any cases in her primary school at all.
My DS has had a few cases in his secondary, he has had to isolate once, some year groups have had to twice, year 7 not at all.
It honestly feels absolutely fine certainly amongst my colleagues nobody feels unsafe although I obviously don't speak for all teachers and our 1 form entry primary is a different beast to a large secondary.
That said I do think we should finish on the 11th for Christmas to allow those with vulnerable relatives to isolate in order to see them at Christmas.

Totally agree op.

COVID-19: IFRC, UNICEF and WHO issue guidance to protect children and support safe school operations
Guidance includes practical actions and checklists for administrators, teachers, parents and children

Basically there's lots more stuff we could be doing

[[https://www.who.int/news/item/10-03-2020-covid-19-ifrc-uni

cef-and-who-issue-guidance-to-protect-children-and-support-safe-school-operations linky]]

It's the usual stuff- here is some of it.

Cheaper options-

• masks for kids over 12 in classrooms

(some countries mask up over 6)

• school from home if you can
• online learning where possible
• forest school type learning where possible
• bubbles but smaller bubbles
• if a bubble bursts

a)everyone goes home instead of pretending its okay just to send the person's best mate home. b) everyone in the bubble gets tested

-smaller class sizes

• rotas and blended learning may be considered

• better ventilation

• look at providing more building space

• get CEV teachers working from home.

-

‘School from home’ isn’t a ‘cheaper option’!

I think some people had such a difficult time when the government closed schools to the majority of pupils they panic that any mitigations mean their child will be home without support for long periods of time.

At the moment the children home lots are just other peoples children and its just collateral damage i suppose. My son has missed 5 weeks but thats ok as some have missed none and people are content with winners and losers.

I also suppose some people dont think things like air filters being put in classrooms (i think germany has invested in this), hiring extra space to spread out (expressly not allowed), mask wearing, older years in part time, would have an impact on transmission so they may as well not bother to spend the money.

It all ends up very extreme and polarised.

I’m up for that list except blended learning as standard.

I’m fine with rotas (two weeks in / then out as a whole class) when teaching tipping point

Rest is good

Almost all the interventions on that list are costly and/or disadvantage pupils and families who are already less advantaged.

I've just made a connection, and wonder if it is replicated in other schools.

At the beginning of October, we were only sending home close contacts. Cases spread like wildfire. Then, someone somewhere decided that we had hit a particular mark that meant spread was definitely occurring within the school and we switched to sending home full classes.

After half term, we then have had less isolations, not more, despite sending more children home per positive case.

My mum lost her dad, a miner, when she was at school. I can tell you, a family losing a working age parent with young dependent children is pretty disadvantaged by that (and the emotional scars last a lifetime).

it is the poorest families that will be potentially most ripped apart by covid coming home and going through the generations while the more comfortable families say, well, we can do business as normal, it won't affect us, nothing to see here.

We need to support the poorest families to be safer. We need to give people options. And other countries are doing it, much more than us.

@Nellodee

I've just made a connection, and wonder if it is replicated in other schools.

At the beginning of October, we were only sending home close contacts. Cases spread like wildfire. Then, someone somewhere decided that we had hit a particular mark that meant spread was definitely occurring within the school and we switched to sending home full classes.

After half term, we then have had less isolations, not more, despite sending more children home per positive case.

You would expect that, scientifically.

Blended learning doesn’t help poorer families though. The opposite usually.

Online learning was very difficult.
I did live lessons when my class isolated, less than 2/3 of the class logged on, those that didn't were for the most part my less able children who really needed to be there. We had sent those who needed them home with laptops and prepaid internet dongle where necessary so they had the technology but maybe not the parental support (they are yr 3).
It is very difficult to pitch the work at the right level for everyone as parents were online with the children and it was a real challenge to not make it obvious which children worked at which level or to inadvertently reveal SEN.
Once we were back at school I had to recap almost everything from that fortnight so we effectively lost that time.

In my part of Spain schools are 95% covid free. Kids from 6 up wear masks at all times, sit 2 m apart and have the windows open. Some schools have HEPA filters installed too.

@Dozer

‘School from home’ isn’t a ‘cheaper option’!

right I said "school from home if you can"

Other countries have said this.

We are forcing vulnerable families to send kids into schools with cases, with overcrowded classrooms and corridors and buses,

Give people the option!

Some CEV families are desperate for this, being fined and prosecuted.

And then if some kids are at home, the rooms are less full.

Testing would help. I'm sure, when the government published their "schools are safe all get back there" stuff in September there was mention of mobile testing for badly hit schools (which now, is lots of them).

What you'll get on here though is a load of "SCHOOLS MUST STAY OPEN" even though you never said otherwise.

I still dont understand why online learning being difficult means we cant try other measures like masks, or filters, or extra space. Or why we cant look at secondary very differently to younger years.

@MarshaBradyo

Blended learning doesn’t help poorer families though. The opposite usually.

I think if the alternative is likely severe family illness or bereavement, some people would prefer the blended learning,

And I think it would be possible to give families an element of flexibility and choice. I think that would be the humane thing to do.

If schools worked together on home provision, it wouldn't be such a burden for them.

Here I’m not sure on that if the alternative is not being able to go to work. That threat can be a definite rather than a very small risk from covid.

I do agree that CEV students should have flexibility, I thought it was the case? Or is it down to each school?

One thing that could make a difference is saying that schools can be a child's only educational bubble.

We are in tier three, everything for children is restarting, all sports, dance, drama etc. When you have children doing multiple activities that's a lot of bubbles where children aren't social distancing.

If everything had to be sacrificed to keep schools open then is it really ok for children to mix so much?

My children do a lot of activities and we have stopped anything that can't be done over zoom.

Ffs yet another one - can we not have a separate schools and Covid thread

The general policy is that CEV families (whether the family or the student is CEV) are being pressurised and fined and prosecuted.

It is very hard at the moment to get the consultant letters that are being demanded for exemptions (because of the pressure on the NHS) and even then the letters often aren't accepted.

It is a human rights issue, and I imagine it will eventually get sorted out, but for now people are being bullied, prosecuted and driven to taking clinical risks.

It is terrible.