Not looking good for schools. Evidence of more “explosive” covid outbreaks.

[Mumof3andlovingit]

Was expected really as scientists were hinting that the new strain was more prevalent amongst students in schools.
Let’s hope the government make the right decision in regards to schools now 🤞

@notagoodyear

Not anti-union, but remember in June, it was the unions who stopped schools reopening and were able to limit reopening to exam years only in secondaries (and 3 year groups in primaries also).

The government decide whether schools open or close, not the unions.

The "right decision" should have been made in September to open schools safely.
Not just send everybody back like before while shouting Schools Are Safe and keeping fingers crossed.
Too late now though.

Exactly. It has been a total joke.

I personally don’t think they will still close schools. They government seem adamant on keeping them open no matter the science.
I don’t even want schools to close either, my kids love school and it’s such an important part of their lives.
Perhaps a full closure for a month or few weeks to allow the virus to slow down, but definitely don’t agree with putting everyone into tier 4. That on its own is pointless.

DS's school has been operating fine as well. We are tier 3 but 130 cases per 100k so well below the UK average. There have only been 2 bubbles sent home since September. I don't think a blanket school closure for all is appropriate. Perhaps a case by case approach and more power given to headteachers to make decisions regarding rotas/online learning where schools are struggling. And no fines for those parents who want to keep kids home!

@notagoodyear

Not anti-union, but remember in June, it was the unions who stopped schools reopening and were able to limit reopening to exam years only in secondaries (and 3 year groups in primaries also).

They really didn't.

Current system working perfectly fine in Tier 2. I genuinely don’t understand why some people are so determined to force everyone into the same situation. It’s like they just want to inflict misery on everyone.

@notagoodyear

Not anti-union, but remember in June, it was the unions who stopped schools reopening and were able to limit reopening to exam years only in secondaries (and 3 year groups in primaries also).

This is balls.

Schools need to be able to adapt to local need. Schools functioning relatively normally should not be hamstrung because others are struggling.

If a school is struggling with frequent closures and long-term staff absence then adapting to a more stable part-time learning model rather than constantly firefighting makes sense. But a significant proportion of schools, especially at primary, are not in that position and should not have face to face learning compromised.

The unions did not stop schools opening up fully back in June!
Believe me, if they had opened up to non key worker children back then , the schools would have cracked on with it. The government decided what to do back in the national lockdown , not the teachers unions.
It was reviewed every few days back then and wasn't deemed safe to fully return until September. The staff still had to go into schools as well as online learning and I had to go in to clean ( non teaching staff mostly did that job) during the holidays too.
They were not all at home doing nothing.

That's not true. The unions, like the teaching profession, found out what the government's plans were re: reopening schools via the telly like everyone else.

The govt decided which year groups schools could be opened to in June.

I don't know where people get this idea that teaching unions are powerful from tbh. They haven't even been able to ensure that their members have a safe working environment, which is their actual job.

The "right decision" should have been made in September to open schools safely. Not just send everybody back like before while shouting Schools Are Safe and keeping fingers crossed.Too late now though

This. They could still make schools much safer if they decided to spend a fraction of the 22 billion they've given the failed Serco in them though.

@BogRollBOGOF

Schools need to be able to adapt to local need. Schools functioning relatively normally should not be hamstrung because others are struggling.

If a school is struggling with frequent closures and long-term staff absence then adapting to a more stable part-time learning model rather than constantly firefighting makes sense. But a significant proportion of schools, especially at primary, are not in that position and should not have face to face learning compromised.

Giving schools this degree of autonomy to plan and make decisions based on their unique staff/pupil profile and what was happening locally would have been a much better idea that clueness central government directives.

The "right thing" is for schools to remain open.

My DC are at independent schools. There hasn't been a single case of Covid at any of their schools. Why should their parents have to go back to all this ridiculous "WFH while trying to supervise the online education of several primary aged children" when they don't need to?

The government has specifically overridden heads making local decisions to close, told Hull schools that they definitely couldn’t move to rotas despite the city being on its knees and removed the tier system that never even got used for schools and replaced it with ‘the DfE calls all the shots for every individual school’.

If you don’t want blanket approaches, you need to be emailing your MP, as schools have no control.

Tier 2 isn't working at all here, we was under a 100 per 100000, now we are nearly 200 per 100000.
We are surrounded by tier 3 and tier 4, our outlet has been having a lot of tier 4 come to it.

Something needs to be done in schools, as its obvious that children are spreading it.
Keeping them open or closing Its going to be awful either way isnt it.

It’s worth quoting Neil Ferguson in full:

'There are anecdotal reports that the last few weeks have seen more explosive school outbreaks in London and the South East of England, but they are just anecdotes at the moment.

'You see a statistically significant increased proportion of cases in under-15-year-olds for the variant compared to the non variant.

Beyond that we know nothing. There could be a number of hypotheses why that might be the case.

'One of them is that maybe… children are more susceptible to this variant.

'For previous strains of this virus we know children were less likely to get infected and certainly less likely to get symptoms than adults - which is unusual for a respiratory virus.

'One possibility is this virus has changed in some way which doesn't particularly target children, just makes children more like adults a little bit. Either in terms of symptoms or viral replication or transmission, or both.

'But again this is very early days. We have very little direct biological, never mind experimental, evidence that that's the case.

'At the moment we have an observation that there's a slight shift in the age distribution which would be consistent with any of those hypotheses.

'But I would emphasise - while it is a significant shift, it's not a huge shift. It's relatively small.'

I agree that this is an issue that needs to be matched by a significant public policy response.

But accuracy of what has been said is important - because Ferguson certainly didn’t say that there was strong evidence, quite the opposite.

The Tier system is really problematic in some areas.

Where my mum lives, the hospital is in Tier 4 and the surrounding areas where staff commute from in Tier 2.

They won't be for long.

Not anti-union, but remember in June, it was the unions who stopped schools reopening and were able to limit reopening to exam years only in secondaries (and 3 year groups in primaries also).

Er, don't be silly. The union's did not 'stop schools reopening'. That's just your entirely incorrect assumption and most definitely not fact. Why is there so much ignorance surrounding the power of unions on Mumsnet?

JassyRadlett but it's not just 'anecdotal' accounts of rapid spreading amongst school aged children now.

The data shows extremely sharp rises for primary school aged children and a continuing very upward trajectory for secondary school aged.

it was the unions who stopped schools reopening and were able to limit reopening to exam years only in secondaries (and 3 year groups in primaries also).

This is utter bollocks.

The non senior people at the DfE didn't know about Gavs January plan until 3pm Thursday, after he'd released his written statement.

A localised approach would be best. With heads given the power to close to year groups and plan for blended learning for a block eg 4 weeks to really try and slow the spread. Obviously lucky schools with no cases could stay open.

Attendance in secondary schools in Medway was 53% on 10th December. 55% in Kent.

What this new variant means is that within a few weeks, every school in the country will be like the worst school in the country was in December.

Obviously lucky schools with no cases could stay open.

But with testing to make sure they don’t actually have cases.

but it's not just 'anecdotal' accounts of rapid spreading amongst school aged children now.

The data shows extremely sharp rises for primary school aged children and a continuing very upward trajectory for secondary school aged.

I honestly haven’t said anything about it except for providing the Neil Ferguson statement mentioned in the thread title in full.

I certainly haven’t disagreed that the latest ONS stats for under 15s are extremely worrying.

I’m not qualified to comment on the evidence base surrounding the likely factors in that transmission.

The tier system is bonkers. I'm tier 3 yet have boroughs in tier 2 with more cases and tier 4 places with fewer.