Why are some schools being hit worse than others?

[DumplingsAndStew]

I am NOT looking for a fight, or to apportion blame to anyone, just looking for discussion.

Our high school of 1000+ has had 3 pupils and 1 member of staff (unconnected) positive in total. This was all around a similar time, a good few weeks ago.

I'd imagine the issues that schools have implementing safety procedures should be fairly similar across the UK. The number of kids socialising outside of school would - I think - be comparable from one school to another.

Why are some schools seeing more positive cases, and more transmission between pupils than others?

Foster sons special high school closed entire school this week against government instructions to keep schools open as teachers afraid of getting Covid before Xmas so staying home. Head is useless so organises 1 1/2 hours online learning each day. Maths teacher who is particularly bad arrives on line 16 mind late so only 1 1/4 learning today.

*merry way

Cross post with SpaceOp That actually does make sense too. We are an affluent school. So, ok, luck and demographics. But still nothing the schools themselves are doing right or wrong.

The worst thing for me about this virus is the clear sign of how people from poorer communities are so much more badly affected. Just another example of how low income families are more likely to suffer disproportionally

And the knock-on effect from this for schools is that the least advantaged children are having the most disruption to their learning. Thinking of DH's school - which consistently gets some of the best results for a state school in the country - it makes me quite sad to think that I think the generally very privileged children he teaches are probably not just not being negatively impacted but are actively gaining from the fact that many of their cohort across the country are hardly in school at the moment while they've had not a single bubble shut. Obviously that isn't the fault of the students or the school - they can't help that other schools are having so much worse of a time of it - but it is pretty galling.

DS 6th form college has only had 3 cases, they have around 2000 students (possibly more). The college itself in a very naice street, but the town itself isn't that posh. The intake is quite wide and comes from quite a mixed area, some posh, some less so. Lots of kids come in by bus, but ds says in his bus the kids wear masks and don't mess around.

They've had both year groups in full-time except for at the very start of term.

DS says windows are open and it's freezing - in college and on the bus.

Other than that, I don't know. I do wonder if some of the students had it in Feb/March, but you'd think that would be the case everywhere. DS was ill a few times when he started at 6th form college and had more time off between Sep and Feb than he'd had in the 5 years of secondary school put together. Maybe one of those times was covid. He's not missed any of this term.

Every year at my daughter’s school have had positive cases, her year, year 10, not one case. They were the only year in, in the whole school at one time. A lot of her friends parents were very ill in March, I do wonder if they have had it without symptoms, who know 🤷‍♀️

My DC's school of circa 2,500 had 4 cases between September and end of November.

And then 15 cases in first week of December and all gone haywire now. Almost 2/3 of the school were isolating when they decided to close last week.

Our school is being ravaged by it at the moment or at least a lot have been sent home to self isolate. We're in a T2 Highly deprived area however the school couldn't have done more, students and staff in face masks pretty much all the time, hands sanitised between lessons, tables and keyboards wiped after every lesson, year groups have their own separate buses, students separated at all times each have different blocks of toilets.

Covid was very late to arrive in our County though so where many areas will have had alot of cases earlier on I think we are getting hit now.

Our school has had no cases. School does have good measures in place, staggered start time etc we live rurally but it’s a school in the nearest town.

Northernsoullover

Where I live the worst hit schools have been in the most deprived areas. Could that be because the parents are less likely to have white collar (work from home) jobs? More overcrowding at home?
.I have noticed the same thing locally with Primary schools and no I don't think they are sending kids in ill. They are just as a family more vulnerable to infection and the kids could get it from parents.
Happened to a friend of mine. 4 cases in one family bu all self isolated as necessary.

Area that was at one time the posterboy in the media for being "bad with covid".

One case meaning a class had to stay home, another one who was kept off when their parent developed it and came down with it themselves during the initial isolation period but didn't need a class closing and didn't spread it onward (DD2 is the child's best friend which is how I know the details from the mum).

A very lucky layout of the school meaning classes all have doors that open onto the outside and toilets only used within the year group meaning that they can keep things separate very well, good luck and hand sanitiser that apparently smells really nice like cheese and onion crisps so they're always at the bloody stuff seem to be the key factors.

Ah. It’s not luck near us!

For weird reasons there are two comprehensives in a nearby suburb. Both around 2000 kids. Both modern, in spacious grounds and with big classrooms. BUT, one has had very few cases, and the other one has had bubbles bursting repeatedly. The reasons for the difference have been discussed and noted loads:

1. School one (very few cases) has a largely rural, nearby intake. Students either walk in or are dropped by parents. There isn’t a convenient bus. The parents also are largely able to work from home. It was a commuter area for London, so most of those jobs are being done remotely. Students live in large houses, with large gardens. There are parks, fields and woods nearby.
2. School two (loads of cases. Nightmare situation). Almost all the students get the bus in. They are bussed from nearby town. Houses are smaller and many have no gardens. Parents work in retail, service industry or driving/delivery. Teachers, anecdotally, are blaming the bus.

Our primary school had no cases at all until mid-November. Then we lost 6 bubbles within the space of a week. Two families with siblings in different classes tested positive and those bubbles had to be sent home.

At secondary DD has escaped having to self-isolate but the school is now so short of staff that the remainder of her year group have been sent home to do online learning. According to DD the people in her year group that tested positive had been mixing outside of school with people from other year groups. The cases have spread from there.

Quality of school sites varies massively.
On this occasion, less ideal sites with lots of portacabins scattered around and being naturally ventilated (draughty!) would be better than some modern rebuilds that are all indoors and have fancier ventilation systems that recirculate air rather than drawing in fresh air.

I've taught in many rooms where windows barely opened a couple of inches. Delightful in a heat wave...

Many rebuilds have skimped on classroom size and numbers which would make management far harder at present.

Catchment: transport, living conditions and density, parental occupation, family size (siblings spreading through different bubbles)

Local rates. Where staff live.

There is a lot of luck of circumstance and schools will reflect the communities they serve. Schools don't create the virus. Some cases will be transmitted within school. Some cases will have been transmitted externally, affect a bubble but have no further spread. A closure of a buble is not an indicator in itself of how widespread the virus is or if it has spread within the school.

My DC's small primary school has has to isolate a class for the 3rd time this week. The two previous rounds did not have widespread spread. At present one case is known of. Local rates are currently low and currently on a scale where one family can make a statistically significant difference to the figures.
This time last year a third of DS1's class were off with various respiritory viruses. DS1 himself spent a week mostly in bed, took several weeks to mostly recover and a couple of months to really be back at full power. Shrugs.