Secondary schools are stuffed, GOVERNMENT ADMITS

[noblegiraffe]

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

Mass testing for secondary school pupils in worst affected areas.

@Whyarewehardofthinking I’m not sure how many antibody tests they are doing now as a lot were testing negative after having had positive covid tests, especially if it was over 3 months before. If you’ve had all the other tests it probably is a post viral thing. ONS were at one stage doing antibody tests but I’m not sure if they still are

Hopefully Greenwich schools closing is the beginning of the end for the ‘schools are safe and they will not close’ farce. They are not liking it now it is London and the South East schools in trouble - the government didn’t give a fuck when it was schools in the north.!

its the top story on Mail Online

@Cantholdonanylonger

Hopefully Greenwich schools closing is the beginning of the end for the ‘schools are safe and they will not close’ farce. They are not liking it now it is London and the South East schools in trouble - the government didn’t give a fuck when it was schools in the north.!

Or in the Midlands!

My area was seeing cases of 800s per 100,000. We couldn’t move to remote learning - dfe said no. If only we had the ‘low’ numbers of Greenwich! (Numbers dome now but still higher than London!)

Yep, so many areas which have been significantly higher than the worst boroughs in London and continue to be. No one was/is interested.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/dec/14/covid-stress-takes-toll-on-teachers-in-england?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

@MercyBooth

its the top story on Mail Online

That's the most prominient coverage of schools in the pandemic in quite a while, isn't it?

That will mean DofE will have to engage, given what they have done about other schools. And assuming the PHE advice is solid, then it's going to be an interesting wrangle.

The Mayor won't be able this either - one borough acting unilaterally, what does that mean for his 'all London' approach

And that's all completely separate from what is right

I'm having to stop myself crying reading that Guardian article.

At last someone has let us say what it's really like. And especially that the worst part is being lied to, consistently and deliberately, telling us we're safe.

Danglingmod I had a tear in my eye reading it. It was like reading one of these threads, or actually speaking to my colleagues. At last.
Please god it makes a difference.

Exactly mother
They have let this continue at our tier 3 schools in the West Midlands too for months.

I was aware our schools had issues in September when multiple isolations began.

We have been left to escalate, Covid ripping through schools infecting our children and putting colleagues in hospital.

Greenwich is also in the Sun

www.thesun.co.uk/news/13466216/schools-greenwich-close-tomorrow-christmas-surge-covid-london/

Also thread here

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4105744-Greenwich-schools-closing-tomorrow?msgid=102600716#102600716

The council has definitely forced the situation - acting on PHE advice, over-riding DofE and dong so very publicly.

I'd been wondering yesterday and today which way the Mayor would jump

He needs to preserve his 'all London' approach, and is backing Health over Education as the department with clout

Williamson can't ignore this, now it's front page news. Will it be the start of councils being able to set own schools policy? And will presumably council locus on public health could mean all schools, including academies and independents (just as for environmental health)

(The late-on-a-weekend timing is however normal for all sorts of organisations throughout the pandemic, so I think that's a 'sauce for the goose' situation)

Here's the BBC article (from first page of the website this morning)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55298095

It's also running on SKY

I am angry for all of you in areas where numbers have been high for so many months and yet were forced to continue. Greenwich really does seem to be going against dfe advice and I'm glad they are taking this approach. I have to say though we in other London boroughs and Southern counties feel hung out too. Many of our numbers are much higher than Greenwich and have been struggling with school isolations. I hope now there will be changes.

The DfE Are woefully incompetent when it comes to running education. They should have nothing to do with health decisions.

Would like to point out that it is not union action closing schools.

Well rather interestingly the article I linked to this morning with lots of teacher accounts of the conditions in schools (ranging from extremely difficult to horrendous) appears to have disappeared from view not long afterwards - however the link still works.

Up on the front page now though is this, which is worth a read:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/14/what-know-spread-covid-19-children-government-schools?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

I'm wrong; the original article is still there. The Guardian certainly seem to have picked up on this now only three months late.

more propaganda appearing on fb feed from dfe. This lucky school child appears to have a bus all to herself! Nothing like the squashed in standing room only buses the schoolkids are piled on to round here.

How anyone will take the dfe seriously after all this i don't know. As for the news of this new variant dropped in today that spreads faster, I don't buy it. It is spreading because of the face to face school contact in schools that are not covid secure.

Well, I spent 10 minutes today trying to get sixth formers to wear masks on their crammed, sweaty buses.

That Guardian article is brilliant. Interesting that the paper only sits up and pays attention to scientists saying what teachers have been saying for months.

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-christmas-is-the-perfect-petri-dish-for-covid-and-right-now-infection-rates-in-schools-are-a-concern-12161184

WHO KNEW?

Sky news late to the party but advocating school closures to protect grandparents

Der Spiegel. Children may be driving the pandemic after all. They quote various studies, but also ONS.

Also, an interesting Sunday Times archive article about the how the Government cherry-picks the science. here

That Guardian article

“And if you’re sitting in a classroom, where mask wearing is not recommended, conditions are far from ideal. The bubbles are far too big, kids are far too close together – in lots of old schools you can’t open the windows properly, in some schools there’s even teaching rooms without windows. So that’s something that needs to be addressed.”

Ya think?? Where have you been this last three months? We’re about to bloody close for Christmas.

In the TES ..... 'The Inset plan is ham-fisted, tone deaf and demeaning'
The DfE hit a squalid new low by announcing that it would give staff a break with an Inset day, says Geoff Barton.

Squalid, ham-fisted, incompetent, uncaring, bullying ....... lots of words to describe the DfE that has become a laughing stock.

A department of spin doctors lying to the public.

None of the school buses around here look like that beautifully staged image from the DfE

Even the Guardian is fed up with DfE spin

The media finally picking up on things in schools just before we break up is really pissing me off. The momentum will be lost over Christmas and we’ll end up back in the same covidy classrooms with the same lack of protection in Jan.