Secondary schools are stuffed, GOVERNMENT ADMITS

[noblegiraffe]

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

Mass testing for secondary school pupils in worst affected areas.

Schools were always going to be a challenge, at least they're dealing with it.

Read the room, mate.

@Susanwouldntlikeit

Parents are just not in the same mindset as March This. So will not gain traction - bust flush. Parents (and most teachers outside a Mumsnet bubble) get that the whole thing is PR and will refuse testing. How about just channelling (remaining) energy into planning and teaching good lessons up to the end of term instead of bearing the tired old drum? No, thought not - rabble-rousing far more exciting than the day job.

I thought more re just getting fearful and taking them out - that won’t happen.

But testing - actually I hope it does because we might avoid more closures

This is just setting the scene for London not going into tier 3 next week because they've apparently addressed the transmission in schools issue (just as schools break up anyway).

Unpredictable as always. The north got angry. We got Brexshit. Nothing changes. The government just don’t care about the north. Or the midlands. Meanwhile they’re willy wangling to the Europeans when they should be concentrating on the very real threat of the pandemic. Sadly the further now people live in the country, the more they will suffer come 1st January.

@Littleposh I hope to goodness your post is a wind up. If not, and if you are interested in what is actually going on then may I suggest you take some time to look into the situation a little more closely, starting with what has been happening in somewhere like Leicester, Hull or Manchester.

Care homes started in around September, unis part way through October, then Liverpool, now December front line NHS staff , returning uni students, mass testing in London. So the capacity has improved quite recently. Care homes and unis were the biggest problem at the time so the available tests went to them, they weren’t being used elsewhere

"Attending school is not the only way of spreading in this age group. It's so frustrating."
How many kids had play-dates and sleepovers back in the "proper" lockdown in April? Compared with Lockdown 2?
Any ideas as to why such a difference?

@Susanwouldntlikeit, " Parents (and most teachers outside a Mumsnet bubble) get that the whole thing is PR and will refuse testing."

And how many parents outside MN have you actually polled, in your private school in leafy suburbia?

Care homes and unis were the biggest problem at the time so the available tests went to them

And yet the available tests are still going to uni students despite secondary students being more infected than them.

Can't have uni students taking covid to grandma, but fair play if it's a school kid?

Schools were always going to be a challenge, at least they're dealing with it

They're "dealing" with it now because they didn't in the first place.

And less of the sexist "hysterical", thank you very much.

I teach in Leeds and I'm so fucking cross about this. Where was this 1-2 months ago when it swept through our area so badly? And Liverpool/Manchester/Hull... Everyone with half a brain knew that secondary schools were always going to be a problem! Our school had sensible measures in place from the start, but still had loads of kids off with confirmed cases, multiple staff off (some of whom are still off and quite ill). Kids bubbles in primary were popping all over the place. Where was our mass testing then when numbers were rocketing?!

But no, now it's in the South East, of course it's a bloody problem.

Susanwouldntlikeit

You have already been caught out about being a teacher.

Give it a rest.

@CheltenhamLady

Two rules, one for the north and one for the south. Shameful.

And the Midlands gets completely forgotten.

No, but the infection rate in that age group dropped significantly due to half term and kids being out of school. Mixing with a few kids on a sleepover isn't as many contacts as being stuffed in a classroom and crammed in corridors with them day in day out.

Not round here they didn't. They went up AFTER half term, after the kids had been mixing everywhere else!

They are only 'dealing with it' in some parts of London, Kent and Essex. Parts of areas where they are "dealing with it " are in tier 2.

What about places like where I live which has been in local Lockdown since June? Which only had 3 weeks out of local lockdown? Where statistics show secondary school aged children are a huge issue?

Why is no one dealing with it here?

It is because we don't matter as much as some other areas. Which I can usually deal with because I love where I live. BUT all the restrictions have taken our lives away from us, we've followed the rules because we want things to improve and the government have chosen not to help us but to help areas where things are less serious instead.

Shame on them.

@Littleposh

Schools were always going to be a challenge, at least they're dealing with it.

And presumably testing like this has not needed to be done in other areas as maybe it wasn't the secondary school age range that were having the highest infection rates in those areas. It's really quite simple when you actually think about it rather than just get hysterical

Well that’s not correct. I think you have missed the point. Most other areas also have the majority of covid infections within their secondaries, colleges and universities, it is from there that they are being passed on to the wider community. In London which now has such a high rate they know that the origin of the vast majority of cases (as in other areas) is schools, so they are targeting them as that will in turn bring the infection rates down.

So parents want mass testing at schools but no school closures?
Do they not realize they go hand in hand? The schools need to close in all high infection rate areas.

In tier 3 here.

Wrote to LEA, MP and our Head teacher months ago to ask why secondary schools were deemed to be “magic” and not requiring of all the other measures being imposed on society across the UK. We asked them to consider rotated learning to reduce numbers on site - NOT school closures.

Head blanked us and shut down the conversation - refused to discuss the issue with parents or get their support. LEA didn’t reply and MP replied last week - months after getting our first email.

We watched the press briefing open mouthed when Matt Hancock finally admitted schools were not “safe”.

Why is there not more in the press right now about this huge admission? Why are more parents not angry and taking action about the lies and demanding plans to make January safer with less disruption to children’s education?

I don’t understand.

Absences for COVID related reasons do not count on attendance figures. You could be out for 4 weeks of school for two separate isolations. You'd still have 100% attendance.

@noblegiraffe

Look at this graph.

Remember all the headlines about how supermarkets were the riskiest place for transmission?

Do you think they'll update their headlines for schools? Particularly seeing as the proportion of the population who attend school is much smaller than the proportion that go to the shops?

This isn't just a London issue.

Also look at teaching and education in occupations.

I was surprised that healthcare is higher than working in education. But then I remembered that (a lot of) healthcare workers get regular testing. Certainly the paramedics and hospital HCPs I know are getting tested before every shift. Also I don't know how many healthcare workers there are compared to education/childcare workers - would love to see a proper fair analysis!

Headteachers unions are asking the government why mass testing is being rolled out due to concerns in infection rates but schools are remaining open.

"ASCL general secretary Geoff Barton said: "We have to question why the plan is to mass test children, and there is apparently no consideration of moving to remote learning for the last week of term.

“The number of infections in these areas is very similar to the situation in parts of Wales, where the government there has decided to move to remote learning in secondary schools and colleges from Monday.

“We really do hope that this is not another sign of the government in Westminster ploughing ahead with its insistence that schools should remain fully open in England come what may.

“If there is an immediate concern over infection rates, can we really afford the delay involved in rolling out mass testing and obtaining results?”

www.tes.com/news/heads-ask-why-schools-not-moved-online-covid-surges

It's a good question.

@SquitMcJit I'm wondering the same- why are the press not all over this?

I guess many of them are London centric and annoyed by the rough midlanders and northerners making a fuss because of the chip we have on our shoulder?

Is it just that people don’t want it to be true?

It is now officially true. We can’t have schools “ as normal”. But we can still provide education for everyone. And if the government had admitted it and planned properly over all these months for how to implement decent measures for secondaries whilst keeping them open then we wouldn’t be where we are now.

@Misknit

Absences for COVID related reasons do not count on attendance figures. You could be out for 4 weeks of school for two separate isolations. You'd still have 100% attendance.

What is being reflected in figures? Not school closures or is it?

Thought it might be a different code

@Misknit

Absences for COVID related reasons do not count on attendance figures. You could be out for 4 weeks of school for two separate isolations. You'd still have 100% attendance.

Sorry. Failed miserably in quoting the post I was responding to.

FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue
On Thursday 3rd December:
attendance in all state schools (England): 85.5%
proportion of open state schools: 99.5%