Secondary schools are stuffed, GOVERNMENT ADMITS

[noblegiraffe]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55265098

Mass testing for secondary school pupils in worst affected areas.

No I meant teachers as individuals. Left out a word!

I tell you what people want. They want not to hear about it. They want teachers and kids to get to school and stop inconveniencing others.
They know that even if their child gets the virus, they are unlikely to have it very seriously...in fact they might not get any symptoms at all, so it’s a case of ‘leave it as it is, stop complaining and certainly stop trying to draw attention to the issue’.
This is the problem and many posters who didn't dare peek under the blankets are regretting it now.

The unions do lobby!

They then get slated in parliament and in the right wing press. Thatcher started this disrespect for unions.

I want to see CEV families with the option to stay off school till vaccines given to vulnerable members (urgently in Tier 3). That potentially wouldn't cost much, and the truth is seeping out about infections in schools now. It could possibly save them a lot of money in compression.

Masks for over 12s wouldn't cost much.

Screens for vulnerable teachers in classrooms wouldn't cost much.

Smaller class sizes would be expensive though. As would the provision of more space.

I am thinking that we need petitions on selective temporary homeschooling (parent choice and parent supported) and masks first off, spelling out the issues and arguments as otherwise there will be the same inane conversation that children don't often die of the disease, missing out all the nuances about community infection and the potential for serious infections in teachers and parents.

I completely agree, @herecomesthsun. If schools are going to be kept open, parents who want to must be given the option to have their children learn at home. And I completely agree about free masks and screens for vulnerable teachers.

I also think they should require schools to sign up for the Zoe schools study, which (if parents input data) can then be used strategically to give advance warning of Covid cases.

And finally, a wider range of symptoms ought to result in testing/isolation for children -- but with guaranteed 24 hour turnaround on these results.

The "it's fine, children don't get it badly" thing really annoys me, as that's not the whole picture, is it. All these "not badly affected" students are spreading it to their teachers, to their families, to their communities - and that increases the risk to people who ARE vulnerable.
Mine are worried they will pass it to their grandparents.

Not seeing their grandparents would be the easy option, obviously - but we live in the same household so it's not as simple as that.

To be honest I'd be quite happy with the measures that are being implemented in the province of Canada that I linked to earlier - www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/covid-19-return-to-school

1. All parents who don't want their children to return to school have the right to have their children learn remotely.

1. Actual money being put into cleaning and ventilation improvements.

1. Masks not only allowed but actively encouraged.

1. Children must isolate and get tests (which generally return within 24 hours so this is not as disruptive as it would be here at the moment) for ANY illness including symptoms of the common cold.

Also bear in mind that for many families, grandparents are part of a support system that nurtures the children. It's positive for us to take measures that enable connection, support, and intergenerational links.

MotherofDragonite those four points would be great.

1. would help so much - apart from not penalising families where someone is vulnerable, it would reduce the numbers in classes too.

I am helping everyone by not having my kid in school! :) They now have more space!

The "get a test for any symptom vaguely listed as Covid related" and staying off school until negative result returned was what really helped get cases down in Melbourne, too.

@MotherOfDragonite that would be really good if all those points could be implemented here

Anecdotal I know, but my son's friend was off school with headache and sickness. Conversation online was "I don't need a test because I've been sick so it can't be corona".
Son told him yes it could be, so he got a test, guess what?
School have now mentioned this in emails / letters to say it can present differently - so please don't come to school if you have any illness at all.

Completely agree with herecomesthesun too

Also agree that the whole 'kids get it mildly' line is utterly contemptible. Given that lots of teachers, parents and wider family members fall in more vulnerable groups and the impact of letting covid run free in schools on wider community transmission too.

@EndoplasmicReticulum

The "it's fine, children don't get it badly" thing really annoys me, as that's not the whole picture, is it. All these "not badly affected" students are spreading it to their teachers, to their families, to their communities - and that increases the risk to people who ARE vulnerable. Mine are worried they will pass it to their grandparents.

Not seeing their grandparents would be the easy option, obviously - but we live in the same household so it's not as simple as that.

The “children don’t get it badly” line is also not necessarily true (not directed at you EndoplasmicReticulum as I completely agree with what you’re saying ).

Ds had covid way back in March, didn’t recover for over a month. And even now, 9 months later, he still has relapses every week as soon as he gets worn out, which is easy as he’s still suffering from post viral fatigue.

He was a completely fit and healthy, slim 10 year old with no underlying conditions, and nine months on he’s still struggling.

I’m not saying this to scaremonger, but so people are aware, as the government seems intent on pushing the “schools are safe/children can’t catch it” message.

We also don't know the longer term effects on children.

We know that a small minority of children may suffer in the short term from multisystem inflammatory syndrome: www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30271-6/fulltext

And it looks as if Covid is also linked to an increased in the onset of Type 1 diabetes in children: www.imperial.ac.uk/news/201473/covid-19-linked-increase-type-diabetes-children/

The idea that the unions would have got any concessions from the government if only they'd worded things better is spectacularly naive.

The government spent the summer waging an imaginary war against the unions, briefing the friendly press with propaganda against them.

The government fucking hates the teacher unions and bloody hates teachers. It will take national opinion swaying or an un-ignorable crisis to effect change. We are now at the crisis level. The media were (and still are) complicit in suppressing a change in public opinion by denying them the facts. Their persistent use of inaccurate photos despite being sent corrections is evidence of this.

Whois teaching/providing remote learning for all these children opting to stay off school, yet on role?

I've got 4 off long term atm, I'm providing learning so they do roughly the right stuff, but I've just had one parent bring bsck loads of stuff for marking. Erm, no.

Maybe but I don’t see what was communicated as coming from an organisation which knows they are up against it. Which they are.

But yes I don’t know all the communications. But what they did didn’t work.

Teacher opinion, Marsha is that the unions have been totally useless. All these posts about how unions are 'going to close schools' (as opposed to what the NEU actually did which was call for schools to close in lockdown as advised by SAGE to make it more effective, and looking at the data, they had a point) are obviously informed by propaganda.

The unions have no power.

Did they bother to attach images? In a vacuum picture editors match the headline.

Spectacularly naive maybe. Again I don’t care. But I’m not seeing evidence of convincing people to change their views - including people receiving long wordy press releases.

X post

Ok I agree with you.

We were talking about this today. I actually think there will be large class action lawsuits against the government and the decision makers in the future. There should be too.

Not just from teachers, but from parents whose children end up seriously ill long term because they were lied to. It think this is going to be the next big scandal of the future.

How/why risk was covered up aided and abetted by the government and its advisors.

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

Whois teaching/providing remote learning for all these children opting to stay off school, yet on role?

I've got 4 off long term atm, I'm providing learning so they do roughly the right stuff, but I've just had one parent bring bsck loads of stuff for marking. Erm, no.

Well there's Oak academy for starters. But also, I know of at least a few supply teachers who are currently not working because they don't feel that schools are safe and that in particular that moving from school to school is a good idea. Something like Oak, backed up with marking and maybe a zoom tutoring session or two from a supply teacher would be a reasonable alternative. Could be coordijated on an LA basis perhaps?

But I’m not seeing evidence of convincing people to change their views

They've been useless. But I'm not sure that they'd get the right press even if they were any good.