Why is covid ripping through secondary schools?

[noblegiraffe]

As the press seem unable to find some photos of what schools actually look like at the moment, I thought I'd try to find some myself. They aren't current school photos but pretty much reflect the day-to-day.

1st is a typical classroom in terms of space. Fewer kids than normal though.

2nd is a typical corridor (except much cleaner). Yes they are wearing masks but they are also so close as to be touching. Note the kid with the mask half off, nose out, he has probably just been told to put it on by a teacher. What's unusual is that the kids all have a mask and none are being worn on chins. Also, they're on their phones. Tut.

3rd is what a typical break time looks like. Note the clumps of kids and the boys grappling. No masks, obvs.

Any ideas as to why secondary pupils are the most infected subset of the population?

@BrieAndChilli

It does seem very odd that some schools are hardly affected and other arenhotbeds! I know the school buses won’t let kids on with out a mask, DD forgot hers the other day and was given one by the driver. The school is also ensuring kids are sticking to safety measures. The kids schools are in rural areas with lots of kids on buses (but not public) most people drive as public transport or rubbish and doesn’t go where you need it to. We have very few multigenerational households. I haven’t really seen gangs of kids hangin out - maybe parents here are stricter about keeping kids in and off the streets?, I rarely see anyone in shops/supermarkets without a mask, it’s hard to say really why some towns are being less affected? I do know a lot of people including me and my family who were poorly with covid symptoms last Jan/Feb before covid was a ‘thing’ and a few of those people had been skiing! So maybe we all had it early and so less likely to catch it again?

This is a fairly accurate description of where I live!

Good pictures.

Obviously secondary kids aren’t only catching it at school. But they’re most likely to catch it at school.

Look at the locations a positive person is most likely to have had in common with another case. Secondary schools just behind supermarkets even though the proportion of the population attending secondary school compared to working in or going to a supermarket is tiny. That makes them massively risky places to be.

@christinarossetti19

"We were ok until very suddenly we weren't."

Yep. That's it.

Yes. & we weren't smug about it - we've all been doing our utmost (kids don't give a shit & break time duties have been hellish).

But we've done all the 'safer schools' things @noblegiraffe has been very sensibly calling for, & we have managed to keep it to isolated cases from September.

But then there were a few parties 🤷🏻‍♀️ & within one week, we are actually hopping with it - positives in every year group.

Suddenly. Very, very suddenly.

As a school, once you've got the bloody thing circulating, it's amazing & scary just how fast the wheels come off.

I'm very grateful to our SMT for acting quite decisively - even though I'm dreading teaching over zoom again.

U.K. schools are absolutely bloody fucked. Solidarity to everyone in them; I'm so sorry this has been so badly & recklessly handled 😢.

Those pictures could have been taken at my London secondary school. It's business as usual but with 10 cases of covid last week

I should imagine a high number of Uni students will have had it by now. They are the worse if all worlds - working, sociable, asymptotic.,

Secondary schools are hotbeds but although teens get too close to each they are quite bubbled. They are very particular about who they are seen with.

It’s tough on teachers but I think the benefits outweighs the disadvantages.Just let the youngsters hang together and be embarrassed by anyone over the age of 30. Let them sculk in their rooms and don’t mither them. Teachers have to be more careful as they are likely to interact with more adults.

It isn't where we are. Less than a handful of cases throughout.

although teens get too close to each they are quite bubbled

They really aren’t!

@IndecentFeminist

It isn't where we are. Less than a handful of cases throughout.

Where are you?

I'm in one of the few tier one areas in England, and I wouldn't describe the number of cases in the county as a "handful".

Also, that handful of cases is probably the tip of a big, asymptomatic iceberg.

@motherrunner

You’ve also forgotten:

-the school bus pics
-the ‘in Love’ teens who have to be reminded not to snog each other
-the lads balancing 3 on a bike

the lads balancing 3 on a bike

That made me giggle

@Thewinterofdiscontent

I should imagine a high number of Uni students will have had it by now. They are the worse if all worlds - working, sociable, asymptotic.,

Secondary schools are hotbeds but although teens get too close to each they are quite bubbled. They are very particular about who they are seen with.

It’s tough on teachers but I think the benefits outweighs the disadvantages.Just let the youngsters hang together and be embarrassed by anyone over the age of 30. Let them sculk in their rooms and don’t mither them. Teachers have to be more careful as they are likely to interact with more adults.

But most kids won't sit with their friends in class, and will have to interact with school staff throughout the day?

In a single day at school, a teen could:

-get the bus to school, has to share space with the bus driver and potentially interact.
-sit in the front row of a lesson, unable to distance from the teacher.
-sit near a student who has a TA and so be unable to distance from the TA.
-need to pick something up from reception.
-need to speak to their HoY for some reason.
-interact with canteen staff.
-pass a cleaner in a crowded corridor.
-need some first aid after an injury at lunchtime.

There's no way for any student to get through the school day without interacting with a number of adults...

On a day without meetings, I think I interact with less adults than most of the students I teach.

I'm interested in the superspreaders thing too. I had Covid recently and didn't give it to a single person - not DH, not the DC, not any of the 60 kids I taught the afternoon before I got poorly, some right in front of my desk, not the kid I sat in an office with for a while and made a cup of tea for while he retook an exam paper, not any of my TAs, not the colleague I had a long meeting with, nobody. But someone passed it to me and don't go anywhere at all other than school. I still can't figure out how I caught it so easily but didn't pass it on. And I was really quite poorly so not asymptomatic!

You’re the opposite of a superspreader, IHeart. A crapspreader maybe.

I read something that suggested that 70% of people are crapspreaders. It’s why some cases are easily contained - they never went anywhere in the first place.

Crapspreader and proud!

I would like to have seen the figures from Liverpool. Numbers of 11-16 year olds tested and numbers of positive tests.
I believe they went into some high schools testing pupils.

Isle of Wight

I don’t know the whole of livwrpool figures but at my niece school they tested 360 (not all years done at same time) and found one child positive

@FippertyGibbett

I would like to have seen the figures from Liverpool. Numbers of 11-16 year olds tested and numbers of positive tests. I believe they went into some high schools testing pupils.

It's strange that we haven't seen this data broken down by age, isn't it? I wonder why that is.

It’s not as bad as people said
My dds have 100% attendance so far at their Liverpool school

That's a daft line of argument.

Up to last Thursday, so had mine (two different secondaries).

That is the exception, not the norm.

Have you seen the ONS random surveying data that noble has helpfully posted?

uni students had to have online learning where possible.
dd said All her friends had the virus. she hasnt apparently

why has it taken so long to get to secondary?

It hasn’t, skip, it’s been bad for ages. It only hit the news now because it affected London.

and Hastings, and Kent

Not secondary but 8 members of staff and one child (that we were told of) caught it at my son's nursery. (Onward transmission). They've had 2 weeks grace and now a toddler has tested positive so that room has closed.

The very nature of a school is perfect for spread.

No one had number crunched the rates of onward transmission in sen (which includes primary to secondary and pru schools); it's similar to or higher than secondary.

They also rely on taxis to transport children in.

Feck all ppe. V Close physical working. We aren't valued.

I expect the govt cares about Hastings as much as it does Hull, it’s just the timing.