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.

Also, today's positive case: big strapping 17yo had a bit of a dicky tum, headache & was generally feeling a bit ropey. Mum got him tested, kept him home, negative result, sent him in.

Kid was still feeling mildly under the weather, so she had him tested, again, whilst sending him in to school (he'd had a negative, right? So obviously it wasn't covid, but just to be on the safe side...).

Second test - it turns out he does have it.

Meanwhile, through no fault of his or his mum's, he's been in school for 3 days this week, with no classic covid symptoms at all. Just feeling a bit vaguely poorly.

Which is no doubt being replicated right across the world. Meanwhile, there's every chance he's infected half his mates & his teachers.

Schools are not safe places. & that's fine, nowhere is, but the U.K. insistence that 6' teenagers couldn't possibly be giving it to their mates & their teachers is...well, it's ludicrous & it's shameful.

@Anon12345678910

It's actually so fucked up that freedom, mental health etc is worth more than life/ being alive to live afterwards. I now have Covid. Let's hope I don't die...

On no. I am so sorry. I really hope that you don’t suffer with it too much. I have/had it too.

Schools are not safe places. & that's fine, nowhere is, but the U.K. insistence that 6' teenagers couldn't possibly be giving it to their mates & their teachers is...well, it's ludicrous & it's shameful.

It's deadly...

@Anon12345678910
sorry not "small change" but small chance obviously

Waving to you corvus Egypt has been my first/second home since mid 90's and ds has had a few years there on and off and used to speak fluent Bedouin Arabic but it's evaporated. I have a little place in Dahab that is likely crumbling to dust whilst I've been unable to travel.

I'm a few years off looking for an international post in Cairo but it's so nice to hear from teachers there. Goodness knows how I'll cope with living in Cairo as I've generally never stayed for more than 3-5 days and been relieved to leave but that's the plan for the first 2 year contract post children stage. Hoping having friends there (both Egyptian and ex pat) and in Dahab, where I can go for short breaks, will help me cope!

Good luck with the zooming. Hopefully parents are understanding that you did all you could to stay open despite the strange media quiet on cases.

Oh and I haven't had as many emails for vacancies as I usually do for Cairo which might also explain the volume of applicants. From what I'm hearing a lot of the pseudo internationals have been hit hard by loss of fees and are forgoing overseas recruitment so the gap between them and proper accredited internationals should become even more obvious in coming years.

I'm hoping the combination of solid uk experience with having lived in Egypt and therefore not likely to be back on a plane within a month from culture shock will help me secure a job.

I'm so angry about the other symptoms (beyond the "three") not being testable in the UK. It's so obvious that children and young adults are having the wider group of symptoms. For every single child who's tested positive in our school, several others who sit near them have been poorly for a few days before or after with "stomach ache" or "fatigue and headaches" but they're just not getting tested so are spreading it round the whole class.

Honestly don't waste anger dangling. They clearly don't give a shit (gov, dfe) and we need to conserve whatever energy we can to get to Christmas and then deal with whatever comes next. With a free for all Christmas house mixing I suspect the 'best' is yet to come and this term might feel smooth compared to what comes next.

As for parents I think sensible ones will have a high index of suspicion (especially where there have already been positives in the year group) and will lie and get tests. The other parents wouldn't test even if all the testable symptoms were displayed in flashing neon lights.

As others have said this crisis has really revealed who people are and whether they have any consideration for others at all. I'd quite like to unsee some of what has been revealed

Me, too. I genuinely never realised how selfish people were until this year. And I'm quite old and quite cynical.

Tbf it has also revealed that some people on MN are utterly fab.

We had a kid in coughing, mum took home to GP twice who insisted it was asthma, no need to do a test, eventually mum gets one anyway, low and behold it is covid, they've been in school for several days, so cross with the GP, why aren't they testing everyone with any possible symptoms presenting at the doctors?

My dd tells me kids are travelling home on school buses they've not been allocated to, 3 buses serve our village and apparently they're jumping on which ever one they fancy.

Kids at my school been having sleep overs.

We've been so lucky to only have isolated cases so far. It was definitely spreading around school in March. Feels like it's only a matter of time before a staff member or parent gets seriously ill.

And tbh none of this really comes as a surprise to teachers does it?

Maybe this is part of why we are so loathed. They suspect their kids tell us everything whether in words or inadvertently. They perhaps worry we're judging them or think they're bad parents (I'm a parent so can relate) and that their children are representing them somehow.

We know some kids behaviour is merely reflecting the utter contempt their parents have for school/society/neighbours etc. We know that we're sometimes trying to overcome very negative conditioning. We know some kids have zero accountability or resilience because they've never been modelled those characteristics.

You can't teach teachers in a comprehensive secondary modern and not be aware that there are a lot of people who don't feel any collective responsibility and don't care what impact their actions have on others. And this isn't limited to people at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale.

Autocorrect mess there sorry.

Yes noble definitely awesomeness revealed on here too.

One of the things I love about parents evening is meeting the awesome parents or the ones who are genuinely trying or the ones that appreciate their child landed in the loony form and are still managing to focus and do ok. Or conversely the ones who exactly act out the behaviour the child exhibits in class and you get an aha ok I see moment.

Once I've had a parents evening and a conversation between child, parents and I everything makes more sense and I have a much better idea of how to proceed.

@TheHoneyBadger

Waving to you corvus Egypt has been my first/second home since mid 90's and ds has had a few years there on and off and used to speak fluent Bedouin Arabic but it's evaporated. I have a little place in Dahab that is likely crumbling to dust whilst I've been unable to travel.

I'm a few years off looking for an international post in Cairo but it's so nice to hear from teachers there. Goodness knows how I'll cope with living in Cairo as I've generally never stayed for more than 3-5 days and been relieved to leave but that's the plan for the first 2 year contract post children stage. Hoping having friends there (both Egyptian and ex pat) and in Dahab, where I can go for short breaks, will help me cope!

Good luck with the zooming. Hopefully parents are understanding that you did all you could to stay open despite the strange media quiet on cases.

Not wanting to derail so will just briefly wave back! .

Also MASSIVE 'little place in Dahab' envy.

Ha you wouldn't envy it if you knew the saga of corrupt management company getting their electricity cut off. I now need to get an electricity meter of my own which requires 70 million stamps from however many offices and god knows how much baksheesh! All now further complicated by Covid travel restrictions

Will shh because I'm sure an Egypt tangent is derailing but if you are ever going to Dahab shout and I can recommend decent people etc.

My son wears a mask in all lessons except for PE. He does not mind and thinks it is sensible. His secondary school has only had 2 bubbles off since September. Teachers should wear masks when walking around classroom too. Windows should be open to ventilate. Not wearing masks and keeping windows shut spread the virus.

Teachers have been thrown to the wolves. My wife was so ill. Thankfully OK, but just OK. On a phased return.

Imo nothing will change now. Easter/Summer and we'll see some sort of normality. Until then we will see casualties. That's the price you pay for schools being kept open

Update. KS4 son now on FIFTH self isolation, also caught Covid previously at school, throwing his brother (also in Gcse years) into having a block month off school.
40 days not in school this term.
Currently a case every other day in his year group, clusters of three with it in the form.

Please keep your reports of cases in your schools on the this thread, it's good evidence to prove our point, hopefully we won't have to go down the legal route if they make changes as of January.

That's terrible, Middleager.

I also know kids on their 6th/8th/10th week off school since September (in year 10 or 11) whilst others in the same school have had none.

There is no way this can be made fair in an "exams must remsin" scenario.

Absolutely. It's not 'just' the education either, which is being destroyed.

My son was confident, loves school. This uncertainty is crushing him. The repeated isolations are becoming unbearable, stopping us seeing family. His physical exercise not great in those weeks self isolating.

We don't know the long term effects of contracting Covid either.

It's impacting my other son's education and wellbeing too.

All the while, the mantra is schools are Covid safe whatever the cost.

Absolutely. And when they come back to school (some) can't be bothered to try as they're just waiting for the next time they get pulled out of class.

Oh no middleeager that’s terrible. Some children are suffering so much more than others during this pandemic. And I can’t see it changing any time soon.
I have certainly seen my dd switch off with each progressive isolation this term. I honestly think they feel like giving up.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/coronavirus-home-schooling-bournemouth_uk_5fcf861bc5b6787f2a9ae80c

Article from huff post "School Refused To Let Kids Learn At Home Even Though Covid Could Kill Their Mum"

That parent sounds something of a test tbf. She didn't realise her 10yo couldn't tell the time until she did he? She'll be one of those complaining school didn't teach them how to use cutlery.

And this, Bishop has spent £200 turning her living room into a classroom, equipped with desks, a projector, anatomical models and wall-mounted times tables. I home educated my child at that age without needing to remodel my home and buy anatomical models.

It is of course awful that ecv parents are being told they need to send kids to school but I wish they'd picked a more sympathetic example.