Why are secondary schools staying open in the worst affected areas!!!???

[GinAndTonicOnIt]

So primary school children and staff are not safe. But they are allowing secondary school staff and students back in these areas (the extra week really won't achieve much in terms of covid!!??)

Given the way school closures went last time no I think it’s very unlikely schools that are shut will reopen this academic year.

Have you heard of the vaccine?

Wonderful stuff. Boffins invented it. Look it up.

A vaccine that no one under the age of 16 can get. I told you the school doesn’t have a sixth form it will have zero impact on the majority of the school community!!

Unless you think covid can spread in schools when other people vaccinated! There seems to be opposition to that idea but I genuinely don’t know if it would be a problem or not!

A vaccine that no one under the age of 16 can get.

But we are told over and over the concern isn’t children getting it but who they are bringing it home to.

If they are bringing it home to Invincible Nan then no harm no foul.

As I said I don’t know many seem to object to it spreading in the school population because of the risk of mutation? I am very relaxed on the risk of covid to my kids but many are not.

I think while boris hails the vaccine as the route to freedom I am not sure scientist suggest that it is anything other that something in addition to other control measures that include the measures that cannot happen in schools (social distancing). I think I would need much clearer indications from scientists that they would support school reopening when there is no vaccine for that age group, particularly as most under 50s will not be vaccinated this side of April and that would include a lot of school staff.

I may be wrong but it feels like I cannot send my 13 year old and her 29 friend to a lesson with her 20 something maths teacher at the moment that is a problem, no one in this group will be vaccinated by April yet the same gathering after Easter will be fine? Do you at least appreciate why I am skeptical?

You get that that it’s hospitalisations and deaths that are the main concern, not people catching it?

I don’t think so necessarily I mean at the start yes but do you think that we would be happy for it to circulate around the population in high levels if few people died? Given increasing concerns re long covid or mutation?

This is a bigger issue than schools to be fair but there does seem a lot of talk from scientists of the aim now being “herd immunity” bigger than reductions in hospitalisation and deaths and which requires 80 percent of the population to be vaccinated..difficult when you include every under 16!

I am not an disease expert by any means (and I genuinely only got involved in this thread as there seemed to be a misconception that secondary was totally exempt for the contingency framework and they are not). But I feel the narrative of herd immunity and the lack of vaccine for children doesn’t support a narrative re school reopening in the short term.

But to be clear I don’t make the decisions and from a selfish point of view want the kids back ASAP!, so really the sooner that is judged in keeping with public health policy the better! But if that policy has shifted towards needing herd immunity rather than protection of the vulnerable I think it does change the position re schools and I think long term closure inevitable...I take it you disagree?

Before the virus mutated the concern wasn’t children catching it. However now that it appears that they will be at a more similar risk to adults that isn’t the case.
Our school are only planning 2 or 3 short 10 minute live sessions a day so I think they will prioritise year 11 for in school teaching, probably not full time though. More like last July with part time attendance and small groups with increased distancing. Probably to the detriment of the other years but they won’t want the GCSE grades to slip

Our Secondary has asked us to arrange PCR COVID tests before the return to school. Probably now ordered too soon though.
Part of a Local Authority testing scheme anyway.

I think the DofE are putting considerable weight on 'schools must stay open', probably with wider Cabinet support as it's a badge of 'normality'

It is however just as wrongheaded a policy as a hypothetical one which said 'schools must close'

It really should not be that polarised, in rhetoric or in reality.

If they had not adopted an extreme policy, then they would not need to have created such a disastrous policy of LF testing replacing SI.

I still hope that such a terrible policy also gets a u-turn, and that testing in schools is mass testing only (to find asymptomatic and presymptomatic cases that would otherwise have not been detected that early). Abandoning SI just as a more transmissible variant is in town is madness.

Public exams need to be replaced this year, as is happening in other home nations and a better assessment system set in place (better than last year, I mean, so quite a low bar)

Attention needs to be turned to 2022 exams as soon as possible, as there is still time to make better arrangements for those in years 10 and 12 (and equivalents)

Ours is not to question why, ours is to do and die. (For the greater good old boys/gals, for the greater good).... As long as the youngen's have smiles on the their faces because they get to see their friends and we know mental health of the young far outweighs actual deaths at the end of the day

I mean if they could guarantee all the youngen's would turn out to be code breakers, spies, fantastic defenders and leaders of the 'Free New Britain' then yes I get the logic....

I think they are just delaying the announcement for as long as possible.

I am going to cry if schools and nurseries close , it’s going to be so hard with all the DC on my own but I can see from the UK wide Covid figures and this new variant that it’s the only option.

I REALLY don’t want them to shut but I think it’s going to be at least a 2/3 month national lockdown type thing again with all education closed.

My DC won’t be able to do effective online learning , we have one i-pad , poor wifi , no desks and a boisterous toddler , so I am absolutely not salivating or rubbing my hands in glee waiting for the lockdown announcement. Just seems to be what will happen going by the hospitalization figures.

As long as the youngen's have smiles on the their faces because they get to see their friends and we know mental health of the young far outweighs actual deaths at the end of the day

Swings and roundabouts though. MH can take a dive for those in households containing CV, CEV or older people, as the DC knows they could be posing a risk to them.

If it's a case of DC needing to socialise, then fair rules are needed for small group outdoor sport/leisure.

From an article in today's Guardian:

"Meanwhile, the DfE faces a further rebellion from secondary school leaders in England over its demand that coronavirus testing of pupils is to be mandatory from 11 January.

School leaders and teaching unions have been meeting over the new year period to discuss a response to the demand, with many secondary heads arguing that the testing regime is impractical and unworkable."

This I think is just part of the jigsaw - the faltering NHS is a large part, the fact that students are no longer escaping the effects of this new strain a further part, and of course the inevitable fact that staff will be off sick.

Those parts are enough to close schools - staff absences were what forced the government to close schools earlier than they planned in March.
Now we have daily deaths that mirror those in early lock down; a new highly contagious strain, and they still think that schools opening is viable.
And to make matters worse, they hit us with an unachievable task of successfully running mass testing. In schools - not medical centres - or even homes, but in places not equipped to do so.
And a week to get it set up.

I stand by what I said earlier - schools will close by the end of next week. By which time, secondary schools will have spent days trying to set up the testing.

It's bloody shameful.

@Wsdhgujn dd is year 11. There is no way really of spacing them out.

They are in sets for each subject, they cannot mix these sets up as they are doing different papers. Double/triple science. Higher/ foundation paper in maths and languages. Different set books in English. Add in the options subjects. DD thinks there is 2 other pupils that have picked the same 3 options as her. But they are not in all her classes due to setting.

Add in the fact that the majority of classrooms are the same size. They obviously do have a couple of halls that could be utilised but probably not worth it for a week and would make little difference overall anyway. Also by yr 11 the practical subjects needs to be taught in the specialist classrooms with equipment.

I also forgot. I assume at least one of the halls will now be used for testing. Plus as far as I know the school hasn't recruited anymore staff to carry out the testing let alone be able to split any classes up into smaller groups.

@SophieB100 no I’m with you on that. I work in a nursery so in the same boat.