School staff ARE more at risk from contracting COVID than the general population- according to data released by the DfE yesterday.

[Feenie]

neu.org.uk/press-releases/impact-covid-school-workforce?fbclid=IwAR2ayf6jFbhEMcpICBffM5daowz8tdrIs77bqyCKFQHWaKB109Z1TktZXEk

Data that contradicts continual assurances that were still being given as late as yesterday by Dr Jenny Harries to the Education Select Committee.

Another thing that’s allowed in FE that isn’t in secondary schools is rotas.

But schools can choose to bring in masks

2/3 of my towns secondary schools force masks in the classroom too so presumably there’s flexibility

Against government guidance which makes it more difficult if parents kick off.

Batshit Us4Them are on hand to accuse heads of child abuse and threaten them with lawyers when they go this (seen on twitter).

If you think that masks in classrooms are a positive safety measure then please email your MP asking them to petition the DfE to change the schools guidance and make them mandatory.

Headteachers have choice about whether to let their staff wear masks or not.

Teachers don't.

Masks for staff aren't enough. Students need to wear them too.

@Cookiecrisps

To the poster who said children are SD in class I can tell you that is not happening in the primaries near me by as is impossible in classes of 30. The DfE guidance even acknowledges that children aren’t required to social distance. Stop spreading misinformation.

I am that poster and I am talking about now as not many kids in

@Nellodee students are not going to be vaccinated anytime soon none are licensed for children .

@feenie you can't accuse people of lying re: sd if it is happening in their school
My ds year 11 school manage sd in classrooms and all their windows open, they have hang gel at every classroom that they have to use etcetc, so if the poster was reporting on their experience it doesn't make them a liar.
Some schools have better measures in place than others due to many factors , some have gone against the dfe and introduced compulsory mask wearing , so people can only speak of their own experiences.

Some schools have better measures in place than others due to many factors

I know the average square footage allocated per pupil is not consistent with SD in the vast majority of schools. So, unless your school is a)huge, b)reducing numbers against DfE regulations or c)magically expanding their classrooms, then it's fair to say that schools which manage to SD are not in any way representative of the vast majority of schools in the country.

If you were trying to claim the above, you're not being in any way truthful.

If you know of the odd school that can do this, it's not relevant to the vast majority of schools in the UK.

Happy now?

@noblegiraffe yes and rotas work quite well in college and I think could in secondary, but wouldn't be so good for primary.
Wouldn't surprise me if we see this for secondary when we go back, wether certain years in selected days or half school etc
Selfishly I hope yr 11 are prioritised as my ds has not done mocks yet and needs to be in to have some concrete work to prove grades, he is in limbo a bit .

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@feenie you can't accuse people of lying re: sd if it is happening in their school
My ds year 11 school manage sd in classrooms and all their windows open, they have hang gel at every classroom that they have to use etcetc, so if the poster was reporting on their experience it doesn't make them a liar.
Some schools have better measures in place than others due to many factors , some have gone against the dfe and introduced compulsory mask wearing , so people can only speak of their own experiences. [/quote]
They shouldn’t. It leaves them open to legal action. It’s really not hard to see why this all needs highlighting:

Masks in lessons are against Gov guidance.
Gov lied about risks to teachers
Gov lied about school environments not transmitting the virus.
Vaccinating teachers will not open schools because they seed infection in the community. Vaccinating teachers will not stop that. The NHS will still struggle.

It’s no wonder that these threads keep popping up when the Government peddle bullshit and posters on here are happy to continue that on their behalf.

@Feenie I was talking sd between teachers and students in secondary as that is possible in some schools
Not student to student as you are not talking about the risks to them, you were talking about the risks to teachers.

How on earth have they managed a class of 30 children 2 metres plus apart each?

In my classroom, if you swung a 2.5m ruler around from the centre of the room it would touch every single other child (and me), the room is that small.

Interesting of course can show whatever we like unless everyone clear on the parameters and context. As someone above said teachers v general population is like saying apples v pears since a large part of the population like me are stuck indoors wfh 5 days a week.

The comparisons in those charts is meaningless. Comparing teachers/TAs to the general population demonstrates nothing.

A large amount of the general population are working from home so this skews the figures - it’s like saying taxi drivers are at greater risk of RTA than someone who walks nearly everywhere instead of comparing taxi drivers to people who regularly travel in cars.

The data should be comparing teachers against others working out of the home.

Also, I’m not sure being signed off work with covid is a good way to demonstrate risk of contracting covid as people who work from home may not actually stop working. If they only have mild symptoms and are not poorly, they may well continue to work at home.

I cannot see where the data about the number of general population off work has come from

@Itisasecret I never believed for one second that kids going back to school was safe , in my household I knew the biggest risk to us was my ds being in school.
Working in a office that met covid safe guidelines , I also didn't feel safe as in any other circumstance it wouldn't be.
I can sit in my mums fromtroom 6 m from her as its not safe, but I can sit in the same size office space with 5 of us , becauase we have a 2 ft screen up.
Once vaccinations roll out schools will open as they are hoping the vaccinations bring down the hospital numbers , covid isn't going anywhere soon surely we all know that as well, this isn't going to eradicate it in the short term. Eventually schools have to
Open

@randomgrammarpun like I said I was talking about the teachers as this post has not been about the risks to pupils , only to teachers.
In my ds School yes the teachers have been able to be at front 2 m and luckily windows open in the school so these have been open , all things that will help. But we are aware this is not possible in all schools and sd in primary will be harder and in special schools well just impossible.

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@Nellodee students are not going to be vaccinated anytime soon none are licensed for children . [/quote]
No, of course they are not. So that being the case, what do we think is going to happen when we put a shed load of them in close proximity with no masks? And do you want to be put in a room with 30 of them whilst that happens? And what will then happen to school attendance if we push on with that plan?

[quote donewithitalltodayandxmas]@Itisasecret I never believed for one second that kids going back to school was safe , in my household I knew the biggest risk to us was my ds being in school.
Working in a office that met covid safe guidelines , I also didn't feel safe as in any other circumstance it wouldn't be.
I can sit in my mums fromtroom 6 m from her as its not safe, but I can sit in the same size office space with 5 of us , becauase we have a 2 ft screen up.
Once vaccinations roll out schools will open as they are hoping the vaccinations bring down the hospital numbers , covid isn't going anywhere soon surely we all know that as well, this isn't going to eradicate it in the short term. Eventually schools have to
Open [/quote]
Yes and hopefully they will stay open, safely. They need not have closed, if the government had listened. The issue is, the vaccination programme as it stands will not stop the issues with hospitals this academic year.

The government need a plan to get schools back ASAP, safely. If we do it as before, it will just spread rapidly again, over whelm the NHS and lead to more mutations which could totally screw the vaccines.

My post crossed with your reply to someone else.

That's good teachers in your dd's school have room at the front of the classroom as most don't, but you do realise that that doesn't massively help the transmission in schools? It still passes student to student and then out into the community. Obviously, with some staff catching it as well.

@nellodee I think older ones will go back with masks at least in short term, wether masks are enough with new variant , who knows.
But its a simple measure they can implement with secondaries especially .

@noblegiraffe

Each individual class is a bubble and they are kept completely separate from all other bubbles which means the few cases we have had have been able to isolate a small group and stop the spread.

This doesn’t happen in secondary.

It doesn't really happen in primary either unless you have separate toilets for each bubble or someone to clean them between each use. Most schools don't have this.

@FreakinFrankNFurter

The comparisons in those charts is meaningless. Comparing teachers/TAs to the general population demonstrates nothing.

A large amount of the general population are working from home so this skews the figures - it’s like saying taxi drivers are at greater risk of RTA than someone who walks nearly everywhere instead of comparing taxi drivers to people who regularly travel in cars.

The data should be comparing teachers against others working out of the home.

Also, I’m not sure being signed off work with covid is a good way to demonstrate risk of contracting covid as people who work from home may not actually stop working. If they only have mild symptoms and are not poorly, they may well continue to work at home.

I cannot see where the data about the number of general population off work has come from

What’s the process for a confirmed case of Covid being in this data set?

These figures are meaningless.

Why are they comparing infections in school staff against the general population? It is only meaningful if they are comparing it against the working age population.

Are school staff more likely to take a test than an average person? (Almost certainly). So does this data mean what they say it means?

And how did they calculate their estimates? They have linked to a spreadsheet they made themselves. It doesn't refer back to data sources and it includes formulae like "* 500" with no explanation about what it means.

If the analysis was done by an independent statistician, rather than by a trade union who has been trying to close schools every month since the pandemic began, I would be more inclined to believe it.

As it is, this does not seem at all credible.

@RandomGrammarPun of course I realise that and that is the only reasons schools were closed this time,to stop community transmission.
Numbers are going down but only time will tell how quickly and how much the vaccinations help, fingers crossed its helps more than we realise .