Schools?

[Todayisgood2]

Any mention of schools on the briefing?
I missed it .

Hancock didn't say anything more than we know. He was asked lots of times but wouldn't answer anything about when they would go back.

There wont be anything yet. The Government know how much headteachers love to find things out at the last minute. My bet will be about 6pm on 3rd Jan there'll be some sort of vague pronouncement.

@BiggerBoat1 yep though so. I'll wait until beginning of jan then!

Of course not, there's ages yet before schools need to get organised...

Dr jenny reiterated that teachers are not at more risk and she really hopes teachers find that reassuring.

Put to bed.

Schools are fiiiiiiine....

This is from the Guardian:

On schools returning in the new year and if the health secretary is considering rolling out the vaccine for vulnerable teachers, Hancock says the government’s new plan is designed to keep students and teachers safe.

On the vaccine, Dr Harries says the data doesn’t suggest that teachers themselves are at risk.

She acknowledges that teachers who are clinically vulnerable will be anxious and says they will be included in “group six”, meaning they can get the vaccine earlier than others.

Nope. They'll be open in full, with packed classrooms, no masks or ventilation as last time but with the addition of massively innacurate tests to allow all close contacts to stay in school and not isolate. meanwhile the rest of society is near enough in the same lockdown as April

Last term sorry!

i will send my younger daugher back as her school were very good with social distancing and keeping children in their bubble, however i wont be sending my older daughter back as they have made no efforts to keep children in their bubbles. not a single parent or child wear masks. there is no attempt at keeping the children apart. the virus is spreading through the school like wildfire at the minute. a class of 24 already have 5 confirmed cases this week alone! as a parent im choosing not to send her back

• but Dr jenny harries in the next breath, says we must all wear masks in crowds, socially distance and do everything we already do (except for teachers and school children where rates are rocketing).

Basically wear masks and socially distance and treat everyone as though they have the virus.
Unless your in school then none of the above applies.

@mklanch

i will send my younger daugher back as her school were very good with social distancing and keeping children in their bubble, however i wont be sending my older daughter back as they have made no efforts to keep children in their bubbles. not a single parent or child wear masks. there is no attempt at keeping the children apart. the virus is spreading through the school like wildfire at the minute. a class of 24 already have 5 confirmed cases this week alone! as a parent im choosing not to send her back

Must be a huge school or tiny class numbers if there is 2m between all children at all times.

@PandemicPavolova

Dr jenny reiterated that teachers are not at more risk and she really hopes teachers find that reassuring.

Put to bed.

I know right

"You absolutely mustn't mix with other households - this strain is sooooooo contagious."

"But not to teachers who are mixing with 30 households for 6 hours 5 days a week" 🤦‍♀️

I think teachers are amazing and a kin to super heroes at times. But I have never thought they were Teflon coated and had covid secure airways.

Well my school hasn’t been fully open to all years since last week in Sept. We’ve closed full twice due to high staff absence. I teach 150 pupils a day in rooms with very little ventilation (one of my rooms is an old office so hasn’t even got a window) but Jennie Harris says I’m safe - yay!

I would love to invite Jenny into my 'covid safe' classroom where 5 year olds breathe all over each other, lick their water bottles, ask to sit on my lap and hold my hand constantly, are sent in with symptoms because mummy thinks giving them cough medicine in the morning makes it ok.

She clearly has no idea of the cramped conditions in schools, nor of the stress the useless so called mitigation measures have put on school staff.

Oh and my school will be even less ‘Covid secure’ after Christmas as we only had enough budget for extra cleaning until Christmas and as teachers we have used up all our 1265 doing extra duties, so after Christmas there will be no more bubbles or staggered breaks etc.

Due to the current lockdown (Tier 4) in our area, I suspect they see it as a circuit break of 2 weeks.

If case numbers come down, then kids could go back to school with additional tests. If cases don’t come down and hospitals are overwhelmed in 2 weeks, then I suspect schools will have to do online learning for at least half of the kids for a while, until cases come down.

There are lots of rumours in our area (Greater London) that testing positive now with new strain= a cold in kids. Whether that is good or bad I don’t know. Sneezing would mean it spreads more, but equally if it is just a cold, it could be milder. Or those people already have some immunity from March. I suspect we need to wait and see what happens.

From what I saw the pretty much avoided the subject other than when Jenny Harries reiterated that 'we can't prove children catch it in school, it could be caused by them mixing with friends outside' So 'schools are safe' seems to still be the agenda at the moment

@SabrinaTheMiddleAgedBitch

From what I saw the pretty much avoided the subject other than when Jenny Harries reiterated that 'we can't prove children catch it in school, it could be caused by them mixing with friends outside' So 'schools are safe' seems to still be the agenda at the moment

It would be a very bad idea to admit on tv that children could be catching covid in schools without some serious lawyering up.

@Bluewavescrashing I can well imagine! There have been no class/school closures in my Year 1 childs school but I can only assume its a complete fluke because god only knows how. Apart from a one way system in and out of the school grounds and a half hearted nod towards hand washing (absolutely not blaming the teachers for this btw) its business as usual

Jenni Harries is a disgrace. Her outright lies and manipulation of school statistics will have contributed to thousands of deaths.

There is no way that schools are COVID safe. We do what we can but watch whilst they come in on overcrowded public transport and sit in tiny classrooms.

The decision not to let some schools close before Christmas is the reason we are in this mess.

The numbers today are horrific and the deaths today are from infections 3 weeks ago. Are we really all going to be sending our children to school in 3 weeks when we are at 1000 deaths a day

I hope that if we get some concrete proof that this 'new' new strain causes more significant illness in children that they are transparent about it and allow parents to make their own choices. Im not holding my breath though

I don't think she tried to say schools are Covid safe, but that from a public health perspective, overall, the population is safer if children are in school.

None of the risk management is about keeping individuals safe, but reducing deaths and other poor outcomes overall.