Secondary schools are stuffed, GOVERNMENT ADMITS

[noblegiraffe]

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

Mass testing for secondary school pupils in worst affected areas.

Sweden and Denmark have closed schools.

Where are the posters who were adamant that we should follow their lead?

I've been to the doctors, minor injuries and A&E since March.

It boggles my mind the funding that has been found to put in place all the extra measures there, while insisting that there isn't even any money to fund hand sanitiser for schools.

@TheSunIsStillShining

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

I had 33 in one of my year 10 classes last year. Apparently 32 is the safe number. Of course, the front row is less than 1m from me when I'm at my desk... which I have to be to use the visualiser which I have to use to make sure I can record modelling etc for those at home. People really don't need to come into schools to know that classes are bigger than ever - we're over our Pupil Admission Number in all years so we're full to bursting. It's lucky that we have 6 buildings because that at least means that the students have to go outside at some point in the day - but the corridors were not built to take 1400 people trailing through, and the classrooms really only fit about 25 with any degree of space. We're crammed in... but we get daily complaints about students walking unmasked through town in groups.

Yep, still only one person at a time allowed in my pharmacy, dentist surgery, GP surgery, Post Office...

I'm with you in the outrage. How do we influence a change so more schools re tested? Write to MP? Write to head teachers? Where's the daily fail when you need them!

Please write to your MP. Heads have no power and the Daily Mail hate teachers.

www.writetothem.com/

@Nov1ce

I'm with you in the outrage. How do we influence a change so more schools re tested? Write to MP? Write to head teachers? Where's the daily fail when you need them!

Schools being tested is interesting. Some authorities are requiring school staff to do the testing. I'm a qualified and experienced teacher. I've covid tested myself. Do I want to do that to a student? Absolutely not! Yes to testing but by people who are trained to do it - and I don't mean a 5 minute demo!!

I had a test yesterday - administered by the staff member at the testing centre. I did one myself back in May. This one was HORRIBLE.

No WAY would I be prepared to do that to students at school. And besides, how many parents are going to allow it this coming week? When a positive result could wreck their Christmas plans?

Have written to my MP (again).

I've written to my MP again. Tory, Labour -- all seem to parrot the "children are better off in schools" line without any acknowledgement that risk mitigation makes a difference to how much "better off" they are in terms of Covid!

@CallmeAngelina

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.

I thought this back in September when I took my youngest for her jabs. My mum says it’s because it costs more to train doctors 😢 it’s just evil, they simply don’t care.

@MotherOfDragonite

I've written to my MP again. Tory, Labour -- all seem to parrot the "children are better off in schools" line without any acknowledgement that risk mitigation makes a difference to how much "better off" they are in terms of Covid!

I got somewhere when I challenged the discriminatory nature of the guidelines (older, vulnerable and bame more likely to be off rolled). She said she’d raise it with central government, two weeks ago.... 🕰

No, no way am I administering throat swabs to lower primary! What do the lateral flow tests involve?

Barbie we've been offered lateral flow. We'd be expected to swab the noses of our students. I'm bloody ace at teaching "Macbeth" but nose swabbing is not in my skill set

I don’t think you’d find there are many doctors at a vaccination centre. However, staff have been recruited to do extra hours to cover them. Would I be working overtime seeing thousands of people for vaccinations without PPE? No. It’s very difficult when you have a vocation and care about the consequences of objecting but employers do have a habit of taking advantage of this

@Barbie222

No, no way am I administering throat swabs to lower primary! What do the lateral flow tests involve?

www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/11/LFD_NHSStaff_A4_161120_.pdf

I have been very vocal in the last few months about kids being in school and my two went back to their primary in June when it reopened.

However, older DC are now in secondary and the virus is rampant among all year groups.

I wish they'd just shut next week as its patently clear that in our east london borough its teenagers that are spreading the virus.

@Barbie222

No, no way am I administering throat swabs to lower primary! What do the lateral flow tests involve?

I think you should refuse to do any sort of test, the potential for causing injury is too high. It’s not an emergency health need, its invasive ,it’s not your job, I don’t think it’s a reasonable request!

Received a text on Thursday evening from school asking my Y9 dd to SI for 14 days due to 'close contact' etc.

Lots of Whatsapping amongst the kids - some of the class asked to SI but not others.

Two of the girls not instructed to SI were off school on Friday. Neither had any symptoms, but both tested positive over the weekend.

Both have siblings in different schools. One of which I happen to know had 50 teachers and counting SI on Friday.

This is a significant part of what's driven up transmission in secondary schools in particular. The head at the '50 teachers and counting' school's plan over the summer was to send home year groups to work at home via online learning for two weeks as soon as one child was identified as positive. This was, of course, over-ridden by Dido and her Cash Cows.

That type of affirmative, proactive approach is what would have contained transmission in schools hence the community.

I wanted to drive to my mum's house this weekend, as she was admitted into hospital on Thursday evening (not covid).

I lied about my symptoms (I didn't have any) and used one of the 600+ tests available at my local centre.

It was negative (as of Friday...) so I did travel. I live in a neighbouring London borough to those where the 'mass testing' is being rolled out. Fucking stupid - loads of kids travel across borough to school.

Mass, routine testing for staff and pupils needs to be an on-going approach to managing this virus.

I have written to my MP on a number of occasions. Still waiting a response, the twat.

I thought the initial plan of 2 weeks in school, 2 weeks out in high prevalence areas sounded quite sensible. Whatever happened to that, was it rescinded?

Yes. The DfE has decided that 'school open for all pupils full time' is the hill they will die on.

Despite the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of children and thousands of children now SI or ill with covid.

Twats.

Yes Bungle, there was a tiered plan for schools which was published and then instantly dropped.

In fact, school leaders had lots of excellent ideas for continuing education while doing all they could to reduce transmission of the virus.

All of which were over-ruled by the 'schools are covid-safe' psychopaths in government.

I really hope that parents feeling pressured to send feel more confident in voting with their feet if that’s what they want to do.

They’ve bullied everyone including parents. But ultimately parents will do what’s best for their families. They can’t overturn the defence of an reasonable unavoidable reason for absence.