Secondary schools are stuffed, GOVERNMENT ADMITS

[noblegiraffe]

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

Mass testing for secondary school pupils in worst affected areas.

I am very glad that my DD's secondary school is going online for the last week of term. North London school. The head is amazing and takes no shit. I have a feeling that if the DFE tell him no, he will tell them to do one.

@noblegiraffe do you know if there is a magical figure that schools are advised to close?
ie. 10% of teachers Covid positive or 15% etc, or is it down to the SLT as to if a school closes, there are no rules as such?

There’s no magical figure, Nicetwin and schools have now been told that such decisions should be taken by the DfE under Coronavirus Act powers, not individual heads.

The government position is starting to look unreasonable, irrational and unpleasant. Now that it is actually being covered in the news, I think they will soon find it does them damage in the opinion polls...

I can’t see it in the news.

Germany is locking down till 10th Jan, including schools. www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55292614

We, on the other hand, have been told that it is vital that children are in covid-riddled schools right up to the last minute before they are unleashed upon elderly relatives.

Andrew Marr Show this morning (in a piece about the NHS being worried about Christmas mixing) stated that secondary schools in London are driving transmission. You read it here first Andrew!

They couldn't be getting this more wrong if they tried, could they?

Why is it only being dropped into stories about other stuff?

That Daily Mail thick journalist article from another thread also went on about how secondary children were more at risk of spreading covid as they are less likely to follow the rules but buried in some crap article.

Why is it not the main article?

But one of the guests said it was teenagers mixing causing rates to go up (implying out of school and not in school). So obtuse. Even if 10% of a secondary school population is being really bad out of school, sleepovers, having sex, parties, it's still not as bad as the 100% mixing in school and on public transport.

I suspect that the people who say that it's teens mixing out of school have zero idea of what it looks like in school. Crowds of teens huddled together, indoors and out.

And the public complain when they see it outside the school gates!

I think they think that the photos on news stories of a handful of kids in a classroom wearing masks is actually reality.

Oh, totally!

Sometimes as I'm walking around school watching hordes of kids gathered for a chat, or I'm squeezing past Y9s in the corridor I wonder what the reaction would be if that scenario were presented to the average MNetter.

@noblegiraffe

Sometimes as I'm walking around school watching hordes of kids gathered for a chat, or I'm squeezing past Y9s in the corridor I wonder what the reaction would be if that scenario were presented to the average MNetter.

They would clutch their necklaces in horror. I genuinely don’t think, unless they are in a school, anyone actually realises.

There is no real awareness of what it's like and how teenagers behave in schools. As others have said, it is uncomfortable/inconvenient to acknowledge, given the fact that in all other settings social distancing, masks etc are enforced, and adults are now so used to this. So although parents of teenagers would probably acknowledge what it must look like in a typical school corridor or classroom if pushed, many many people are avoiding thinking about it because it throws up uncomfortable questions that it has been decided we are simply not going to engage with.
I can't help feeling eye-rolly when friends on social media are pointing out that they collected a fancy meal box to be finished off at home, 'handed over at social distance of course' - as if this type of interaction is risky. I would find it hilarious if I wasn't so bloody angry.

@noblegiraffe

Sometimes as I'm walking around school watching hordes of kids gathered for a chat, or I'm squeezing past Y9s in the corridor I wonder what the reaction would be if that scenario were presented to the average MNetter.

But we already know this. There was a photo posted of an actual stairway/corridor at a lesson changeover on a thread recently. It looked horrific.

Cue: loads of posters adamant that it's absolutely NOT like that in their child's school (that they haven't set foot in, in order to have the first idea) and that a single picture doesn't tell a whole story.

Not helped by the laughable images in the media of virtually empty classrooms and corridors.

Absolutely furious with the DFE- just received email from dd's head saying that even though he had shut the school and online for last week, the DFE has told him late Friday he needs to open the school.

He's made a deal with them because of the late notice and the fact that coaches and meals have been cancelled that parents can choose to send their kids in if they want. Online learning will go ahead for those at home.

It's absolutely disgraceful that the DFE have decided this and last minute on Friday.
The school was always going to be open for SEN, ket worker kids and those who needed the extra support

There was a photo posted of an actual stairway/corridor at a lesson changeover on a thread recently. It looked horrific.

It did. But unfortunately when posters rushed to insist that their school wasn't that bad, the question really should have been asked "well how bad is it?" and it wasn't.

My school isn't that bad, but I still have to physically squeeze past kids to get to my lessons on occasion.

It's absolutely disgraceful that the DFE have decided this and last minute on Friday.

PLEASE write to your MP to complain.

The DfE have a bad and well-known habit of releasing stuff at the very last minute causing chaos in schools. It's time they were held to account.

And their bully-boy tactics in this are heartless and shocking.

Parents wouldn't know as we are not really allowed/welcomed within school gates in general....

@noblegiraffe

It's absolutely disgraceful that the DFE have decided this and last minute on Friday.

PLEASE write to your MP to complain.

The DfE have a bad and well-known habit of releasing stuff at the very last minute causing chaos in schools. It's time they were held to account.

And their bully-boy tactics in this are heartless and shocking.

I will although my disgusting Tory MP won't give a shit. I am primary teacher myself, being breathed over all day by small children. Thank you for all these threads Noble

Yeah but everyone went to school.

Remember what it was like when you were at school? It's like that, but busier as class sizes have got bigger and more kids have been crammed into inadequate buildings.

There are no covid measures that have reduced the number of people or increased the space.

Germany have closed schools until 10th January today and everyone needs to work from home. They aren’t daft.

Our school has openly told us they wrote and requested to go online for the last week and have been told they aren't allowed. Head is not impressed.

I know this will have been pointed out a gazillion times before on here, but I went to the GP surgery yesterday for a flu jab. Socially-distanced queues, notices up at various points along the queue which we were directed to carefully read about our current state of health and whether we had exhibited any of a, b, c symptoms etc... Every member of staff in full PPE, masks, shields, gloves, aprons etc... Hand sanitiser, temperature checks, gloves for us.... I'm sure you can picture the scene.

Yet when I go into my school? Absolutely fucking NOTHING.