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?

Also, schools are ramping up as the fair weather has gone.

More wet play times.

Classes are cold; I'm having to close Windows to get room temp up again, despite heating blaring.

This will get worse after Xmas.

Also school budgets are empty. I know of many who are reducing their input. I'm loosing an extra support staff member as a result.

There's no such thing as bubbles in secondary, they aren't bubbled at all. Ours demanded my eldest go to school as normal despite sharing lunch with one child that tested positive a few days later and sitting a couple of seats away from another child that tested positive a couple of days later. If whole classes were sent home there wouldn't be a single student in our secondary. It's an absolute disgrace. God knows what January will bring for hospital admissions when many teens will be in 'Christmas bubbles' with vulnerable family members. They should have been in blended learning since September. The vast majority have smart devices to access work or work packs could have been provided for the days they weren't in. Shorter days to allow masks during lessons. But no it's schools open at all costs, no mention of their mental health when they're losing loved ones. Denies this would happen were just wishful thinking.

i think mixing at christmas is beginning to sound like a bad idea

Them photos look great actually compared to some schools corridors I’ve worked in. It’s a stampede with some kids getting squashed up against walls.

My child is year 9. The school told them no more school until January last Thursday. Rest of the school still going in. Pisses me off. The reason for this is not a covid case, but Insufficient teacher cover, due to their own kids isolating. They've been limping along with subs for weeks. No home classes. Really shit. 2 weeks off already. Her year were the last to resume on 17th September. Yes they can segregate them from their mates and yes the have been policing it. My child has been miserable not seeing her mates. Very lonely.
Our primary has 900 pupils the secondary 1800. I'd love to live in the areas with tiny schools must be paradise.

If you're in England, the school is obliged to provide home learning - that's not online lessons but work for the students to do.
Sadly if they don't have the staff, they can't safely operate on site.

@chimeraforce, what do you expect the school to do if they don't have enough staff to open? I bet posters on MN would be the first ones to complain if an accident occurred due to insufficient supervision.

I wonder if they might consider their prioritisation for vaccines and put all teachers in a high priority group, regardless of age? After all, teachers are pretty much frontline workers but without the PPE

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

I would have said the same before half term. But since then it's gone wild in my DC high school

I have had 1 yr7 Isolate for 2 week, then just as they were going back my Yr8 had to isolate and as that isolation was finishing they had to remote learn for 2 weeks due to lack of teachers. And the last we have 2 yr 11 groups isolating and yr 10 bubble.

And my year 8 child has said they only have 3 of the 8 English teachers in.

DD1 is in Yr 10. Despite over half of her year being off and self isolating and dozens of positive tests last Friday her form decided to have an arm wrestling tournament in morning ATM. Kids are stupid.

It's patchy across the school network because the spread of infection isn't random and no two schools are identical. They have different catchment areas, different socio-economic mixes of population, they have buildings of different ages and layout, etc.

Part of the problem is also the testing. Very few schools are doing mass testing so asymptomatic cases are being missed but are probably contributing to a lot of the spread within schools and between households. Some of the mass testing that has been done in schools was using the cheaper, less reliable and less accurate version of the test so may be significantly under-reporting positive asymptomatic cases. They lack of frequent mass testing my also be under-reporting quick recoveries. There's nothing to suggest that someone who fights off the infection quickly and quietly cannot spread it to others during their infectious period.

We've got three secondary schools and an FE college within a 3 mile radius here. One of those secondary schools seems to have 80% of the combined Covid cases in children of that age range locally according to the published data and local media reports.

Because masks were optional until the last lockdown.

Masks are only needed in corridors and communal areas (photo 2). They are to be avoided in classrooms (photo 1) and not required outside (photo 3).

@BaileyBoos

Them photos look great actually compared to some schools corridors I’ve worked in. It’s a stampede with some kids getting squashed up against walls.

Yes but when the really bad corridor photos were posted, the response was ‘yeah my kid says their school is nothing like that’.

The photos in the OP are perfectly normal representations of the average school scenario. I saw all of them replicated today.

Ds school the pupils face eachother. They do wear masks however not properly and often ds included no doubt. I dropped him to school this morning his school is in a very built up area with a few local shops. Each shop must of had 50 kids Congregating around it. Different year groups. So different bubbles.
Ds said one of his teachers wears mask under chin. And another said ignore the one way system round the school if it's going to take an extra 5 min to get to lesson and fall behind.

Did anyone spot the interesting wording in Matt Hancock's speech this afternoon?

Paul Brand @PaulBrandITV
Health Sec says there have been "exponential rises" in Covid-19 in London and South East - not just in school age children anymore but all age groups.

"We must act now", he says, moving those areas into Tier 3.

@notevenat20

It's definitely mysterious why the figures look so different for years 2 to 6 compared to 7 to 11. Is that a biological difference or a difference in behaviour?

@notevenat20 - FGS, it says AGE 2 to school year 6 on the graph, not Year 2 to year 6. So no idea whatsoever from that what the actual picture is in primary schools, given that some children in the last 2 years of primary school have already started puberty, so are nothing like a 2-year old baby/toddler who may not be in any form of childcare whatsoever, anyway.

I've just spotted some breaking news that the virus ripping through the SE is a new variant. Ffs.

I don't want to believe that.

Of course it is. There has to be some special reason it’s raging through London and not exactly the same reason that it went through the North (+Midlands). That’s why they have to take action in London.

Nothing to do with the upcoming inquiry and post-hoc rationalisation.

I am a TA in a secondary school. It is my responsibility to remain 2 metres away from students but there literally isn't any room in the classroom. Kids are squashed in as usual so I often stand in the doorway. Of course this means I can't do my job so the students I support aren't able to access the work and are often disruptive as a result.

I’d like to see anyone help a child cut up their food or listen to them reading from 2m away.

@CarpetTime

What is the schools situation across mainland Europe? Has anyone else had them fully open for the last 3.5 months?

You can go check yourself: education.org/country-tracker

@Skipsurvey

i think mixing at christmas is beginning to sound like a bad idea

We were discussing this issue on here weeks ago and it’s only now the media seem to have twigged. Why have they all been so bloody useless?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4093083-Government-denial-over-schools-issues-will-cause-deaths-this-Christmas

@MammothMashup

I've just spotted some breaking news that the virus ripping through the SE is a new variant. Ffs.

I don't want to believe that.

Don't worry too much. It's a variety already common in Europe. It's no worse than the current one and the vaccine will still work on it. I mean still try and be safe as COVID is awful but don't worry MORE about this new variety than the old one.

Thanks, I don't think I've had the first yet. Asthmatic and pretty reactive to viruses so I have to apply a lot of cognitive dissonance to go to work as it is.

I suppose my concern is more that the people who had the first one the first time can catch this one and pass it on.

I know a lot of colleagues (and probably kids, send school) had it in March. I've been wondering if my particular setting have a low level herd immunity right now.

So it's the fact that the whole damn thing can infect everyone again and trigger all the quarantines as well as a pretty shit illness.