Strategic planning to open schools safely

[Elephant4]

No one seems to mention that this should be happening.

Government needs to get going on this.

Labour and unions should be putting the pressure on.

blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/12/creating-covid-secure-schools-we-need-strategy-not-just-ad-hoc-responses/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=hootsuite&utm_content=sme&utm_campaign=usage

I’m in Wales and our numbers are flying down. It’s really good to see, after being in such a dire situation before Christmas (worst in Europe briefly).

Our FM has already indicated he will be reviewing getting the youngest kids back into schools at the next review. Not to say they will be going back then, but it’s back on the table and now returning after the February half term feels realistic. As a parent I’m honestly thrilled.

The schools closed because of the new variant and not knowing its effect on children and them spreading it. But you would had have to have been living under a rock to not have seen that there was huge mounting pressure to close schools as teachers and unions felt it was unsafe for them. Closing schools felt like an acknowledgment of that, rightly or wrongly.

It seems now that when it’s time to reopen, the issues will be separated again. And teacher’s concerns will be ignored? Because unless they have been busy sorting out testing in schools and arranging PPE etc (which they may have been ... But it hasn’t been mentioned anywhere) nothing has changed from the teacher safety perspective.

I am desperate for a light at the end or the tunnel with this (we have been in lockdown for 6 weeks already) but am already bracing myself for more uncertainty when school reopening is first mentioned and the unions push back. I find the uncertainty more stressful than full lockdown, so can’t imagine how teachers feel having to constantly plan and rethink online / offline.

We have half of our classes in at the moment. We are open as normal, teaching normal classes, but also teaching online to the other half who are still at home.

• They know we won’t strike because the public loathe us (yet are happy to send their kids in to us in an unsafe environment in fucking droves so they don’t have to put up with them at home.)

Jesus. I don't loathe my kids teachers. Actually I think they're great and I want them kept safe. The reason I would like my kids back in school is not so that I don't have to put up with them at home! It's so they can get a decent education and socialisation with their friends.
I'm not sure you should really be in teaching. It doesn't sound like it's the right profession for you!*

You might not loathe them but to be honest it feels as if the majority of the population does - look at the media and most of the posts on MN.
No idea how you can tell what sort of a teacher she is, she may very well be the most fantastic teacher, just ground down by the constant negative posts (like you suggesting she shouldn't be in the profession) or perhaps stressed due to constantly facing the risk of infection at work without any safety precautions.

They know we won’t strike because the public loathe us (yet are happy to send their kids in to us in an unsafe environment in fucking droves so they don’t have to put up with them at home.)

It’s stuff like this which provokes ‘teacher bashing’. Up thread a teacher is asking about how they are possibly supposed to work if schools open with a part time rota. Yet when parents who don’t have ‘critical’ jobs are stuck between a rock and a hard place with no childcare but a job to do, we are the problem.

But you would had have to have been living under a rock to not have seen that there was huge mounting pressure to close schools as teachers and unions felt it was unsafe for them

The government closed secondary schools for the first two weeks of this term off its own bat, having a couple of days previously threatened a council (not school or teachers or unions) with high court action for having closed theirs.

It wasn't the teachers and teaching unions having that impact, it was the new variant.

The unions only really stepped up any pressure when it looked like despite the new variant really kicking in and Christmas being cancelled (again by the government) primary schools were going back in January as normal.

And it was pressure from SAGE and the cabinet that led to Johnson finally closing them.

@whippettiger

*They know we won’t strike because the public loathe us (yet are happy to send their kids in to us in an unsafe environment in fucking droves so they don’t have to put up with them at home.)*

It’s stuff like this which provokes ‘teacher bashing’. Up thread a teacher is asking about how they are possibly supposed to work if schools open with a part time rota. Yet when parents who don’t have ‘critical’ jobs are stuck between a rock and a hard place with no childcare but a job to do, we are the problem.

Yep I agree it is a wind up comment. Even allowing for how mean posters have been in the past. Really not helpful.

@slothpaw

We have half of our classes in at the moment. We are open as normal, teaching normal classes, but also teaching online to the other half who are still at home.

How would you juggle keeping the regular kids away from the keyworker and vulnerable kids though.

There is no point in a rota system if that doesn't happen.

I think it would be very problematic if not impossible in most schools

I’m in the USA. My DS is 5 and in his first year of school (kindergarten). Every school district seems to have different plans, we were fully online for a bit and then in hybrid and then back online between thanksgiving and they are going back next week.

We are currently in hybrid so half the kids go in the morning and half in the afternoon. He goes in person for 2.5 hours a day. The desks are 6 feet apart. All children and teachers wear masks at all times. No mixing with other classes. Temp screenings on way in and every morning I have to fill out an online survey asking about his health and the households health and if we’ve had any contact with known cases or left our state. He has in person in the morning and in the afternoon he has online classes only. Yes it’s a nightmare for working parents, but the cases are very low in the schools. These are elementary schools only. The high schools are online only and the middle schools (age about 10-14) are hybrid but their in person schedules are less than ours

And you have the option to keep your child completely at home and only do remote learning

I really hope we go back to full time school but I personally think we will stay in this model til the end of the school year.

On the basis they should have spent May, June, July and August working this out rather than concentrating on press conferences saying "schools are covid secure", I have absolutely no faith they are doing or planning anything to help over this half term.

If only this could have been predicted, right?

“Our model predicts that reopening schools either full time or in a part-time rota system from Sept 1, 2020, alongside relaxation of other social distancing measures will induce a second COVID-19 wave in the absence of a scaled-up testing programme (Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4). This second wave would peak in December, 2020, if schools open full time in September, and in February, 2021, if a part-time rota system were adopted. In either case, the second wave would be 2·0–2·3 times larger than the first COVID-19 wave in the UK.”

www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(20)30250-9/fulltext

Published August 3rd 2020.

Go to bed it is late

You too!

Don't tell me tell my baby

Anyway aren't you a very busy over worked teacher with brains to shape in the morning

Testing and mask wearing and a staggered return for year groups is what we will likely see, not much else is possible
Screens can't be fitted in many classrooms
And in most of europe I think mask wearing is prob only difference , maybe some have smaller classes.
Also of weather is good maybe encouragement for more outside lessons and wimdows / doors open .

Why do people mention vaccination for children , none are licensed for children at present

Also teachers may have half in now and half at home but teaching to a rota would mean full classes one week as the half already in , would still need to be in .

Every teacher in my school is in full time now. It’s not only half of us. We’re all teaching all day.

@Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum

Don't tell me tell my baby

Anyway aren't you a very busy over worked teacher with brains to shape in the morning

Yep, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to shape young brains. Hope your baby let you get some rest!

Interesting discussion about how current school measures may be inadequate in the face of the new variant here, looking how it affected a school in the Netherlands who seem to have an actually functional track and trace www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/new-coronavirus-variant-scrambles-school-risk-calculations

“ An outbreak of the new variant at a primary school in the Netherlands has undermined that confidence. Tests of 818 teachers, students, and families revealed 123 people—nearly 15%—were infected, just 1 month after the first case was identified at the school, which did not require teachers or children to wear masks. The new variant was responsible for a large fraction of those cases”

“ In the Netherlands, children attended school full time, with full classes, and masks were not recommended in primary schools. That may need to change in regions where the new variant is spreading”

“ The new variant, B.1.1.7, first emerged in England, and early reports found the highest rates of infection in children, raising fears that they might be especially susceptible. But more recent analyses show the age distribution of B.1.1.7 infections looks similar to that of earlier variants, with many fewer cases diagnosed in children under age 13 than in teens or adults. (The initial surge in children likely appeared because England had shut many parts of the economy, whereas schools remained open.)”

Good news about children NOT being more susceptible - I’m pretty sure the idea that it spread faster in kids because of lack of mitigation measures in schools was my initial reaction!

This is exactly what Noblegiraffe has been saying for months and receiving dogs' abuse for it!

Teachers said these things in August and were told to "be flexible" and that schools were totally safe.

[quote Elephant4]No one seems to mention that this should be happening.

Government needs to get going on this.

Labour and unions should be putting the pressure on.

blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/12/creating-covid-secure-schools-we-need-strategy-not-just-ad-hoc-responses/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_term=hootsuite&utm_content=sme&utm_campaign=usage[/quote]
Strategic planning from Gavin Williamson- you're joking, right?

The NEU have actually been campaigning for this since June last year, but they've been ignored thus far. Hence taking the nuclear option in January.

Williamson is very anti-lockdown, and it seems very much like he won't accept anything but full opening until he is forced to close schools.

@Billie18

School need to open but if anyone thinks that schools or anywhere else can be completely safe they are delusional verging on madness.

Children (or rather their parents) and teachers will have to accept some risk otherwise schools will be permanently closed.

I think a large proportion of teachers have decided the risks by the end of last term were just not something they were willing to accept. On a personal level, I know I wouldn't be willing to go back to how things were now the rates in my local community are about 20 times higher than they were last term.

And it's not just a risk to school staff, it's a risk to wider society. So wider society needs to accept the transmission risk too.

There are lots of things that can be done to reduce the risk- and saying "oh well, we all need to accept some risk" isn't enough.

Very worrying re the Netherlands case.

I

I really think for secondary at least, the answer is rotas with proper social distancing and proper bubbles (like in June, but with all kids in at least once a week). Most secondaries don't have that many key worker children in, so it should be achievable.

For primaries, I'm not sure what the solution is, when so many have a large number of kids in full time.

Sansa I agree and I'm saw transport unions are also demanding safer working conditions now.

Thankfully, because the unions joined up and teachers and heads mostly stood together, I don't think it's going to be as easy to push them back into classes with high cases and no mitigation measures.