Greenwich schools closing tomorrow

[Starch1e]

Leader of Greenwich council tweeted an open letter this afternoon asking schools to close from Tuesday. Our school is complying.
I need a meltdown emoji. Work is stupid f*king busy this week for me and DP and I cannot do it with 4 & 7 year old at home

Ex DPs kids (two different schools between the three of them, both primary schools) have been in school four days since half term due to isolation.

So yes, it is spreading through primary schools

[quote SquirmOfEels]@MarshaBradyo

I wonder why this one area when others must be similar?

Might be something to do with the leader of the council being a former teacher? Just wondering.[/quote]
It could be. A more personal decision? Would DfE then say no?

Greenwich Free school is run by the Ark MAT.

Seems justified to me assuming the information is correct. Very inconvenient of course, and indeed a decision should have been made to close schools or have them online for this week a while ago.

Government abdication of responsibility on this issue as with most other aspect of the Covid 19 pandemic. November restrictions should have been in October, parts of London in tier 3 already instead of Holy Island and Tunbridge Wells.

Mince I agree, and it's ridiculous to simply have refused to add on weeks to the various breaks with plenty of notice.

Many people wfm could cope with dc at home for an extra week here and there and arrangements made for those who cannot. But at least those in class are thinned out and able to sd properly.

I don’t know. It’s almost like the teachers and unions have been warning about this for months. That schools were unsafe, hot beds of transmission (especially considering how youth present and how we test). It’s almost like they’ve been warning for months, if it isn’t sorted, you’ll see sudden closures. Like the rest of the country have been dealing with for months.

If anyone is to blame, it’s the government for their appalling lies and handling of the crisis. In some respects, parents who have denied there is an issue and haven’t campaigned for safer schools.

Does anyone actually think, this will not be worse in January? It will, especially with all the mixing. Instead of moaning about it, how about lobbying your MP to get the diabolical school situation sorted.

This need not have happened.

@multivac

Ark academy (much beloved of DfE) not doing it. This is party politics.

Yep, you’re correct. Very interesting.

What about the schools in 'the north' who have dealt with this spike alone over the last couple of months? At my kids school we had nearly half of y10 and y11 isolating and so many staff off with no support or even a hint of closure. It was a nightmare.

Eh? Just the other day didn't a Head up north get threatened with legal action by the government (under the Coronavirus Act) for putting plans in place to close and provide remote learning this week? Yet it's ok for Greenwich

Is it a bit like some London boroughs getting mass testing in schools despite being in Tier 2? 🧐

It’s almost like the teachers and unions have been warning about this for months.
Yep. Danny Thorpe has been very quiet up till now. Spun me the ‘schools are safe’ line over a month again when I emailed.

@multivac

Ark academy (much beloved of DfE) not doing it. This is party politics.

Interesting and the screen shot from school. Councillor gone rogue

Closing schools when cases are doubling every 4 days is so self-evidently reasonable that I doubt his professional background is the reason why.

But it might be the reason why he's prepared to stick his head above the parapet, and essentially force the hand of DofE to either have that fight with PHE, or set the precedent that boroughs can decide to close schools in light of the official local public health advice.

It will be interesting to see what the Mayor has to say about thus.

@FairyFairy

Eh? Just the other day didn't a Head up north get threatened with legal action by the government (under the Coronavirus Act) for putting plans in place to close and provide remote learning this week? Yet it's ok for Greenwich

Is it a bit like some London boroughs getting mass testing in schools despite being in Tier 2? 🧐

Unless you're referring to a different case, this was Presdales school in Hertfordshire, which is definitely not "the North."

@FairyFairy

Eh? Just the other day didn't a Head up north get threatened with legal action by the government (under the Coronavirus Act) for putting plans in place to close and provide remote learning this week? Yet it's ok for Greenwich

Is it a bit like some London boroughs getting mass testing in schools despite being in Tier 2? 🧐

This 💯

@Itisasecret yes exactly

We have been suffering in the north west since September. I caught covid in school , my y11 dd has had four isolations. Children are on their 6th isolation on posts here tonight. This is nothing new and if teachers had been listened to could have well been avoided , shame the government will still be insisting every child should be in school until the end of term.
Roll on January when the s**t will really hit the fan.

@Starch1e

Leader of Greenwich council tweeted an open letter this afternoon asking schools to close from Tuesday. Our school is complying. I need a meltdown emoji. Work is stupid f*king busy this week for me and DP and I cannot do it with 4 & 7 year old at home

In the nicest way possible, what would you have done if one or the other, or both had to self isolate?

I know it will be tough, but at least this way you definitely won't have one self isolating at Christmas?

Is it a bit like some London boroughs getting mass testing in schools despite being in Tier 2?

That's our borough - and we have one of the lowest rates of people able to access testing and one of the highest rates of infection currently.

Academies don't answer to the LA. They answer to their boards and DFE. Greenwich could have asked them to close if they hadn't contracted out their education provision to various MATs.

That was it, I remembered it wrong. I used to live in Hitchin so do know where Hertfordshire is, honest!

I hope that this is the start of the government actually facing up to how secondary schools in particular have been fuelling the transmission of the virus in the community and their role in creating dangerous workplaces for staff.

I see that it's a pita for childcare, although so would receiving a text this evening instructing your child to self-isolate due to 'close contact' with a positive case for 10 day or however long it is now.

Can we be clear... teachers have been raising the profile of the dangerous situation in secondary schools in particular for months. noblegiraffe has started 16 threads, I believe, and been mocked, criticised, accused of scaremongering, wanting schools to close etc. It's clear now that she's been right on the money in her analysis of how unsafe secondary schools are.

The press has more or less ignored the situation. Many parents have turned a blind eye either because they need the childcare or because their child's school hasn't been directly affected. The government has suppressed and manipulated data and continued its dishonest 'schools are covid-safe' mantra. They have failed to put in place even the most rudimentary mitigation measures or provide any additional funding or resources.

The DfE have forbidden schools to shift to online working to mitigate risk and threatened to sue schools who want to. Ditto beginning the Xmas holiday a few days early.

@HalfPastThree - my experience is that it can and does affect primary school children and their teachers. Probably a mix of adults that are teaching them being capable of passing it on, combined with parents sending ill children into school, if the stomach upsets and headaches in the affected classes that immediately preceded the confirmed positive cases and ill adults are anything to go by. Covid 19 symptoms in children do not present the same way as adults, and it has already been suggested, to deaf governmental ears, that the list of common symptoms in children be changed to be more reflective of likely reality, so that children can be tested in a more timely manner. Several children in each affected class have been testing positive, which indicates a school transmission problem to me! Also, parents in national testing programme who got negative results back, but their children were positive, indicates primary schools can give kids covid. Undoubtedly, children are less likely to get severely ill, they may well also be less likely to pass it on, although there isn’t much in the way of research on this in full schools during the winter, as opposed to half empty schools in the summer, but self-evidently they can get ill, can be asymptomatic, and can pass it on in the right conditions (eg in a school when there is enough of the virus circulating already).

Good call, but it's a balancing act. I would close secondary schools next week, and advise primary schools parents to keep their DC off.

I think this would actually make it as fair as possible for at 10,11,12&13.

My secondary school DD says many of her year group aren't going to school next weeks to keep grandparents /aunty Flo as safe as possible over Christmas.

@ChloeDecker am just about to send you a DM

@HalfPastThree

Is this even legal? Can a council leader close schools by tweeting a letter?

It shows shows that anything goes! It’s the lack of inconvenience and poor organisation that’s the worst.

Good. I hope other councils in areas of rapidly escalating infection follow suit.

From the letter to Headteachers:

This is honestly one of the most difficult questions I have wrestled with during all my time as Leader. The DFE are clear this isn’t their position and indeed have issued directives to some schools. However, I cannot in all good conscience stand by whilst the numbers are doubling so quickly. If the numbers are indeed doubling every 4 days, they would do so again by this Thursday, exposing more people to risk.