We're having 2-3 teachers a day catching CV19 DFE You're not keeping us safe

[Anon12345678910]

Look at the image from www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3223
I've circled where we fall in classrooms. It's time for face coverings in classrooms. I don't want to loose any colleagues or my own life.

Not, it doesn't need an academic study, it's obvious from looking at the data. Others can explain it better but they ignored the 'other teacher ' section which was the biggest number of teachers. They had a higher risk than the other frontline keyworkers.

Denmark has just sent home all its students from upper primary upwards.

Denmark potentially have an enormous problem because of the mink issue. I’m surprised they haven’t done that sooner. I found this article which is quite interesting, seems they opened about a month before ours. www.google.gr/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5720508
I suspect january may bring a re-appraisal here, i question how schools can open in the coldest months with windows all open and sometimes no heating (or heat going straight out the windows!). Bound to be a surge after Christmas at this rate

@BungleandGeorge

Denmark potentially have an enormous problem because of the mink issue. I’m surprised they haven’t done that sooner. I found this article which is quite interesting, seems they opened about a month before ours. www.google.gr/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5720508 I suspect january may bring a re-appraisal here, i question how schools can open in the coldest months with windows all open and sometimes no heating (or heat going straight out the windows!). Bound to be a surge after Christmas at this rate

@BungleandGeorge - interesting article. Classes divided into 3 separate groups; high standards of hygiene; employing more staff to enable the smaller group sizes. Excellent ideas. Better than not enough money to pay for proper cleaning; classrooms packed to the gills; and not enough staff to operate safely. I think Danish schools might have been better funded through this.

I’m impressed they had so many spare teachers.

Mind you, the Danish rate per 100,000 is higher than the UK’s atm. Maybe getting up close and personal isn’t a good idea.

I think the NEU should demand masks in classrooms and blended learning... More people are going to die.

Equally if it's so safe why is the the rest of the population sitting in their PJ's watching daytime TV pretending to work? I think there's a lot of projection on here from some...

@Walkaround

Mind you, the Danish rate per 100,000 is higher than the UK’s atm. Maybe getting up close and personal isn’t a good idea.

What is their rate out of interest? I could only find total numbers

@Anon12345678910

Equally if it's so safe why is the the rest of the population sitting in their PJ's watching daytime TV pretending to work? I think there's a lot of projection on here from some...

Yep.

Plus, why have Boris and Kier both gone into self isolation following contact with a positive case? Shouldn’t they have had been meeting in a well-ventilated room, staying socially distanced and wearing masks? Aren’t those the measures that make schools covid-secure? The measures that mean that teachers don’t have to isolate when they have come into contact with a positive case?

What’s the difference?

The difference is we're expendable proles presumably

Ooooh I think I hit the the trolls on the head there....

I’m a teacher and caught Covid.

@BungleandGeorge -

www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea

[quote Walkaround]@BungleandGeorge -

www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/cases-2019-ncov-eueea[/quote]
Brilliant, really interesting thank you. Looks like we might be in for mass lockdowns again from that. Unless the vaccine starts coming through in decent amounts

Walkaround

my children’s secondary school made excellent provision available and I find it bizarre that anyone would choose to look for the lowest common denominator and then use that as an excuse to make the situation worse by ignoring the evidence that some schools needed more support and facilities to help them stop looking “lazy,” and instead just chucking them in at the deep end to sink because they “deserved it.

I didn’t choose the lowest common denominator @Walkaround

I chose our school. I judge our school by their lack of provision during lockdown- not by their superiors’.

Going back a step, I think it is not always that schools 'did nothing', it was that schools didn't 'do quite what a parent thought they should be doing'.

As a primary, we had work up and running from the Monday after schools closed, and from Easter a pretty much fully-functioning curriculum - 5x each of Maths and English lessons per week, Guided Reading, spelling, grammar, a weekly Science lesson, 2 lessons-worth of History / Geography, plus PE, Art etc. We maintained a safe social media page for each class, and marked and returned everything.

This was in addition to Keyworkers' / Vulnerable childcare and, after June 1st, every member of staff who wasn't shielding being in school at least 4 days a week with returned year groups, with the remaining day spent in video calls to children at home.

HOWEVER we did still have vocal parents complaining that we were doing NOTHING, because we provided the whole thing asynchronously (not live) via a number of online platforms. What those parents wanted was full time, live lessons into which they could plug their children for the entire school day. We couldn't, and didn't, provide that - too many families sharing devices with other siblings and / or wfh parents, many and then all staff working in school.

There are still parents who claim that the staff of my school did nothing during lockdown, and were clearly furloughed - because what we provided wasn't what they wanted. We were unable to shift what we did into the model they required, because it might have met the needs of a tiny minority but would simultaneously have failed the majority (I had almost full participation from every member of my class throughout, after an initial struggle with technology and engagement).

@cantkeepawayforever, SNAP. That was EXACTLY our experience.

A 15 year old in Lambeth died suddenly last night, having caught Covid 2 weeks ago. They thought she had recovered, and she had planned to return to school today.

But maybe she picked it up somewhere else. During lockdown.

@cantkeepawayforever

Going back a step, I think it is not always that schools 'did nothing', it was that schools didn't 'do quite what a parent thought they should be doing'.

As a primary, we had work up and running from the Monday after schools closed, and from Easter a pretty much fully-functioning curriculum - 5x each of Maths and English lessons per week, Guided Reading, spelling, grammar, a weekly Science lesson, 2 lessons-worth of History / Geography, plus PE, Art etc. We maintained a safe social media page for each class, and marked and returned everything.

This was in addition to Keyworkers' / Vulnerable childcare and, after June 1st, every member of staff who wasn't shielding being in school at least 4 days a week with returned year groups, with the remaining day spent in video calls to children at home.

HOWEVER we did still have vocal parents complaining that we were doing NOTHING, because we provided the whole thing asynchronously (not live) via a number of online platforms. What those parents wanted was full time, live lessons into which they could plug their children for the entire school day. We couldn't, and didn't, provide that - too many families sharing devices with other siblings and / or wfh parents, many and then all staff working in school.

There are still parents who claim that the staff of my school did nothing during lockdown, and were clearly furloughed - because what we provided wasn't what they wanted. We were unable to shift what we did into the model they required, because it might have met the needs of a tiny minority but would simultaneously have failed the majority (I had almost full participation from every member of my class throughout, after an initial struggle with technology and engagement).

Absolutely- I have yet to hear about the schools that did "nothing" in real life: when things are unpicked it's always that there wasn't a sort of live streamed version of CBeebies with a bit of learning thrown in, for parents to plonk in front of and ignore. Meanwhile, the asynchronous learning we offered was taken up by 90% of parents and as a result our children are not now behind.

@cantkeepawayforever and @CallmeAngelina - and snap. It’s quite amusing reading the messages: the nice ones where people thank the school for all it is doing; the ones that complain there’s far too much work; there’s far too little work; it should be more interactive; it should be less interactive; teachers should phone every day to see how you are; teachers should stop stressing hard pressed families out by intrusively checking up on them all the time. All about the same school and teachers, too. Then there are the parents that complain that logging into Google Classroom is way beyond their technical abilities and why can’t the school just post work to them. It’s impressive how blinkered some parents are - they really do think that what they demand is either what everyone wants, or what they are personally entitled to. Oh - and then there are the parents who complain that the school has provided nothing until you prove to them they have been sent the work and have proof it was received. These are the same parents who never read the newsletters or emails and then complain the school never tells them about anything. It’s a default for some people - the school must be at fault, it cannot possibly be that they are disorganised and selfish themselves.

cantkeepawayforever
Exactly our experience. The amount of parents mouthing off in the local Facebook groups about nothing being provided, only to be politely guided to all the work set, how to submit it for marking and where to get support. All had been emailed multiple times to parents, clearly on the school website and newsletter etc.

There obviously were the odd case of physically nothing provided (although there would be a whole heap of reasons for that) but they were rare and majority of complaints on Mumsnet came from ‘my friend down the road’ or parents happy with their own provision yet hearing about other schools’ second hand or getting work but not happy with they style.

The government decided to plough money into the Oak National Academy anyway, where you could just ‘plug your child in and play’. But then too many people where raging that it wasn’t their own teachers physically doing that and how dare the teachers not be doing it too. Go figure.

Whatever people’s opinions back then though, none of it should be used to justify not bothering about current safety in schools now.

Thanks, @Walkaround, I think you have perfectly encapsulated what schools are up against.
So many people only view schools from their own perspective, and either forget or simply don't care that we have to consider everyone.

When MN becomes a teacher's common room it does lose its charm.

What on Earth is that supposed to mean?

Can you define this MN specific charm?