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

2020out yes silently spreading is what happened in my school. I tested positive 9 days after our first case had I not been isolating I could have infected so many people in that time. That’s what will happen over Xmas.

I do agree it's a concern that some children will be left unsupervised, but surely this has been a concern all term with 2 week isolation periods at the drop of a hat?

If it wasn't, it should have been.

Requirement to SI comes at no notice whatsoever (as can a D&V episode, or chickenpox, or appendicitis, badly broken leg etc) and they all need time off school.

[quote peridito]@2020out could you link to the thread where there is discussion about isolating for 10 or 14 days ?

I've looked briefly at DfE site for advice that it's 14 days but not found anything .

TIA[/quote]
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/a4104427-School-won-t-open-despite-new-10-day-self-isolation-rules?msgid=102587862#102587862

It does seem to be a case of Govt announcing decisions but not telling anyone - not just DFE but track and trace too. I made a comment on that thread about track and trace telling me 14 days for my close contacts. I spoke to track and trace today and they told me in no uncertain terms that close contacts must still isolate for 14 days. It's baffling how gov can communicate so poorly.

Christina, no audit has been done by our schools to see who needs extra or WiFi support.

Dd secondary school bemoaned lack of government support but has not done an audit as to who needs help?

Most school dc have smart phones so Could at least follow live lessons.

Schools should be able to go on line and work from home seamlessly with all the platforms available and tech.

So much more should have been done to support dc and teachers in school, schools shouldn't be insisting on uniform and windows open.

Masks should be worn in class and allowed to run in a military way eg dished out, hands sanitised, worn, back hands etc.

The back up and communicating between school and parents should be tight, ie a child who refuses to comply with safety regs and masks wearing should be sent home.

And schools should be given more support and funding to help by government but also everyone should be on the same page to be proactive and help themselves.

The kicker is that all children spread it.
The blonde idiot just hasn't got the balls to lock schools down.
And London will bear the brunt of his ignorance.

This is what a lot of people have been saying all along. Schools and unis are hotbeds for the virus. And I know how hard it must be for parents to juggle child care and home schooling whilst often holding down jobs, but we need to get a grip on it as it’s escalating again.

It is particularly ridiculous that working parents are being given one day's notice that they suddenly have no childcare

That's one more day than they'd get if it was requirement to SI

And any SI starting this week knocks out or all of the Xmas bubbling.

Letter makes it clear PHE was involved, not council deciding all by itself

@multivac

Greenwich Free school is run by the Ark MAT.

Greenwich free school ran 5 assemblies, including 2, hour long, whole school assemblies in the two days before lockdown in March.

How many people would you estimate were killed by that?

@MarshaBradyo

Walkaround the ONS study tests all ages so asymptomatic or different symptoms will be picked up. It’s not high in primary age group. Not as high as secondary anyway.

@MarshaBradyo - did you actually read my post properly?! I did not claim at any point that young children spread it as easily as teenagers. I said they can pass it on if there is enough virus circulating in the school/class already (which there would be if lots of symptomatic children are being sent into school by parents that want to work and because they don’t have one of the 3 testable symptoms, despite clearly having symptoms known to be fairly common in covid positive children). And for your information, the latest ONS data indicates an uptick in primary aged children.

@Givemeabreak88

Think yourself lucky, I’m in Greenwich as well but my children have been off for 4 weeks with back to back isolations so we’ve already been off for 4 weeks, if it’s just four days for you then count yourself lucky!

My y10 child in the West Midlands has had 6 self isolations 45 days not in school. And Covid. My other child, also in Gcse years had a month off back to back. It is a disgrace. But no tests or closure for our tier 3 area despite masses of cases since September.

@Marshabradyo the governance depends how they are constituted.

MATs answer directly to DFE, the only really meaningful role of the LEA is 'tendering' the school provision in the first place. Big MATS tend to act like an LEA, and have their own attendance, SEND, teacher development run by the MAT. They must comply with statutory guidance.

It's a bit more complicated for LA schools. They must also comply with statutory guidance, and LEAs have to make sure schools do that, but schools are accountable to the LEA not DFE.

I think the 10 days and 14 days thing is due to the rule that if you get a positive test result you have to isolate for 10 days, but if you have been in contact with someone with covid you have to isolate for 14 days. That’s my understanding anyway. When I had covid I was told to just isolate for 10 days.

A number of schools are struggling due to too many staff members off, it's not always because of bubbles bursting

Agree with Frogtoad. People can’t just make up their own rules.

2020 - I started the thread referred to. Not to derail but it seems school are following the advice of the LA and parents want to follow that of the gov. The gov’s own helpline said the kids were ok to go into school after 10 days at home. In some ways, it doesn’t surprise me that people are going rogue and doing their own thing as that is exactly what the powers that be are doing. The comms are unclear and no one has a clue about how to put together a comprehensive comms plan.

But Dr Jenny Harries said children are more likely to be hit by a bus than catch Covid.
More than 50 cases at our school...

@Livelovebehappy self isolation due to contact has reduced to 10 days from Monday. But school guidance doesn't appear to have been updated.

Gaslighting

Apart from my sons school which is in another town. None of my friend's kids in local secondaries have had to isolate since going back in September.

It's not rife everywhere so no need for all schools.

They totally disregard the fact that their decisions cost lives. I don't know what's wrong with them. They seem to think they are somehow too superior to acknowledge any science

There is a huge difference between your child having to SI, or having D and V, or a fever, or a viral infection that isn’t corona and needing to take time off, and an entire school closing. I am honestly surprised people can’t see this.

The DfE should order schools in Greenwich to open as normal. They should also be clear that any head who closed their schools will face dismissal and/or prosecution.

Yeah let’s punish and dismiss or prosecute heads who state their is a problem in their schools thats clearly going to sort this situation

[quote Hellandcoldwater]@Marshabradyo the governance depends how they are constituted.

MATs answer directly to DFE, the only really meaningful role of the LEA is 'tendering' the school provision in the first place. Big MATS tend to act like an LEA, and have their own attendance, SEND, teacher development run by the MAT. They must comply with statutory guidance.

It's a bit more complicated for LA schools. They must also comply with statutory guidance, and LEAs have to make sure schools do that, but schools are accountable to the LEA not DFE.[/quote]
Thanks Hell

Is statutory guidance being followed here? (Don’t worry if too much to answer / complex etc)

Greenwich free school ran 5 assemblies, including 2, hour long, whole school assemblies in the two days before lockdown in March.

How many people would you estimate were killed by that?

Oh my goodness. Wow. The Head is very very young (or at least was-they changed a lot as was common with Free schools back then. Think that was why Ark took over). Not meant to be ageist but there is a lack of experience there.

For those wondering about the 14 down to 10 period.

@monkeytennis97 I assume we've had undocumented and asymptomatic cases too- but even if that's the case, presumably you'd get to the point where a bunch of teachers were off, if there was that much spread at primary. We just haven't. I'm sure it's dumb luck more than anything else, along with a few favourable things about the building that make some of the control measures a bit easier. Things will be uneven, it doesn't spread uniformly.