The government is about to tell you that schools are safe

[noblegiraffe]

It's being reported that the government are about to embark on a two week PR campaign claiming that schools are safe. We've already seen hints of it in that Warwick report that was widely misreported as showing schools don't fuel community transmission (majorly pissing off the author who advocates a cautious return to schools).

The ONS random sampling survey graphs released today are amazing. They show a huge reduction in the infection rates due to lockdown, but the most incredible reduction is in the infection rate of secondary school children. They've gone from being the most infected subset of the population by far, to the 2nd least (behind 70+). It's clear that despite arguments that secondary kids were catching covid out of school (sleepovers, hanging around in parks etc), this just isn't true and the lack of mitigation measures in secondary schools allowed covid to run riot.

We can't re-open in the same way as in September. That would be madness. I know that people will say that it's fine, vulnerable people are being vaccinated and kids don't get it badly BUT what is not acknowledged is that kids aren't being vaccinated, a lot of their teachers won't be by March 8th, nor their parents and so we still need to keep infection levels down. In addition, rampant covid is incredibly disruptive to education. Teachers off for weeks, kids off isolating, some kids in, some kids out...Sept to Dec was a mess that we should be trying our best to avoid repeating. Vaccinations don't address that issue at all.

Community levels are low, but then they were low in September. Pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops are shut now, but we want to be able to open them. We cannot rely on community levels remaining low to stop covid getting into schools and proliferating.

We need to be careful, because certainly secondary schools aren't safe to re-open in a Big Bang gung-ho way that some are advocating, particularly with a more transmissible variant in circulation. Remember to the week before Christmas when school attendance plummeted in Kent and London? In one LA, secondary attendance was at 17%. And yet the DfE decided to threaten schools that wanted to close early to stop the spread with legal action. The schools were right, and the DfE was wrong. Gavin Williamson can't be trusted to have sensible conversations about safety, he's more interested in bully-boy tactics and setting himself up in opposition to teachers and schools.

What can be done? I think there is room to open schools in some way on March 8th. My personal preference (and I'm no spokesperson for teachers here, other opinions will vary) would be primaries back and exam years back for three weeks, then Easter can be used to examine the impact of the full primary re-opening . I'm not sure that school is such a major factor in transmission at primary as it is at secondary for various reasons, however I'm sure that my primary colleagues have their own ideas about what needs to be done there. If full primary re-opening looks untenable, then I would prefer rotas to only certain year groups in. Some school for all pupils would be better than all school for some pupils as we had last year.

Secondary is a different kettle of fish and should be treated separately. Secondaries were a massive risk for transmission. The word 'bubble' should never be used in reference to secondary schools again, as 'bubble' means a group of people who all have to isolate if one of them catches covid, which went in the bin in secondary around the end of September. There are some easy wins in secondary -
Masks in classrooms would be easy and cheap to implement. Exemptions would apply and clear ones could be provided where necessary for lip reading.
A national programme to improve ventilation.
Testing and isolation of any contacts where positive cases are found to flush out asymptomatic pupils (PCR not LFT).
Moving quickly to remote learning where there are outbreaks instead of trying to keep year groups in and schools open as covid works its way through - the attendance just before Christmas in some schools meant kids would have been better served educationally if they were all at home.

Home LFT testing of kids - I'm not convinced tbh, maybe in addition to above measures, but certainly not instead of them.

So if the government messaging is as it has been: schools are safe and no additional measures to contain the spread in secondary are needed then they are lying and our kids deserve a more consistent and sustainable education than they got from September.

Fingers crossed they are more sensible than we have previously seen.

Minority opinions not welcome.

How is it clear that this is due to secondary school closure as opposed to as a result of lockdown? As sleepovers etc will also have stopped?

The plummet in infection rates in secondary school kids during November half term when there was no lockdown demonstrates that school was a bigger issue than sleepovers.

The extraordinary drop in infection rates in secondary kids since lockdown either shows they are brilliant at sticking to the rules (which some have doubted) or that the sleepovers don’t have much impact.

And just do it's clear, I'm not working from home. I teach from school as have all the resources I need there. I am also in KW pod once a week. So staying home is not what is happening to me.

I think secondary needs to be prioritised over primary, particularly Years 10 and 11. The kids need to be in school so much more than the young ones, in my opinion.

Secondary here. Please please please reopen schools and give me my classes back. I'm desperate to mark something on paper again.

At the same time, I have now had covid TWICE (tested positive twice), tracked back to work, i am asthmatic and have frequent chest infections, plus i have some strange autoimmune condition which is yet to be identified. Yet i am not eligible for the vaccine.

I do not feel safe at work. Full stop. For so many reasons that other teachers will understand and my husband was horrified to learn

I also agree with a PP (soz, can’t remember who?) re knowing how exam years will be assessed before we have them back.

@dipdips

So many people with so many different experiences here of cases at school surely points to the wisdom of opening schools based on location?! We didn't have a single COVID case at primary and we had 2 student cases in secondary - a few teachers had it but they didn't pass it on (in fact we weren't even told about DC's tutor until he told the class himself when he came back as although he sees them every day it is under 15 minutes so they didn't have to isolate. I think I would have liked to have known though?! ) In our school it seemed to be more that teachers coming in from the city (we are very very rural) were catching it as rates were almost neglibile in the areas the students lived.

Not really.

Cases on my town pretty similar to November/dec. marginally higher than October and slightly lower than last week of term.

School had 2 cases from sept - dec.

We've had 9 cases in February despite being at 68% attendance.

If it gets in - it's getting round.

That's inevitable due to the nature of schools and crowding.

So the thing they need is the mitigation measures.

Except it's the one thing government won't provide and definitely won't fund.

I'll say it again: y11 and 13 need to be at home until we have definitive plans from above about what assessment looks like. If we bring them back and they end up hokey cokeying in and out that will be far more disruptive to these assessments than staying home an extra couple of weeks.

With the vaccine roll out steaming ahead there are no more excuses not to reopen schools fully. There shouldn’t be any need for isolations either.

@Shaiva

With the vaccine roll out steaming ahead there are no more excuses not to reopen schools fully. There shouldn’t be any need for isolations either.

How? Why?

Majority of people in schools won’t be vaccinated.

I would love to see an army of vaccinated oldies coming to help catch up kids education

As one of those “oldies” I’d be more than happy to do that. I suspect a lot of us would. I live two minutes walk from a primary school. Count me in.

Ahhh it was you MrsH yep, I agree.

Re secondaries: I would prefer everyone back part-time, on a rota, to prioritising certain year groups above others. But if it came down to it, and I had a gun to my head, I would prioritise Year 12. They already had their GCSEs messed up last year, and are very unlikely to be able to sit full A Levels next year due to the missed teaching time so far this academic year, so they deserve some face-to-face teaching more than anyone else at secondary. They are likely to enter the workforce / university / apprenticeships etc having not sat any public examinations since their Year 6 SATS. (I would, in all honesty, happily see the back of public exams, and I wish the government would jump on the opportunity to overhaul our education system - but hey ho, that doesn't seem to be happening, so we are stuck with the GCSE & A Level system for now).

@dipdips

I still want to know if the second wave naturally falling? Or is it solely vaccination leading to the big drop in cases? Does anyone know?

It is being argued that the fall is due to lockdown and that it will be some weeks before we start to see the effects of vaccination.

However, with the eye of faith, there's some good news in the reductions in numbers of over 80s affected (their numbers are going down a tadge faster thank goodness)

The schools need to be reopened.

The most vulnerable groups have been vaccinated now. I do think teachers should be upped in the priority list.

Children have already lost nearly a year of "proper" school. Teachers are doing their best, but it is absolutely not the same. For ones that already struggled, or dont have the means to access technology they may never catch up.

Enough is enough now.

I have three year 12 classes. I'd like them back with year 10 first. We could get all of 12 in probably but year 10 should ideally be on a rota.
But that should be down to the school. We have 200 in the year. Another local school has 40ish. They don't need a rota!

@AhFiddledeedee

The schools need to be reopened.

The most vulnerable groups have been vaccinated now. I do think teachers should be upped in the priority list.

Children have already lost nearly a year of "proper" school. Teachers are doing their best, but it is absolutely not the same. For ones that already struggled, or dont have the means to access technology they may never catch up.

Enough is enough now.

not quite

• only 1 vaccination for the large majority so far
• many parents over 50 etc not vaccinated
• many teachers over 50 etc not vaccinated
• it takes 3 weeks for immunity to kick in

so after Easter is a better plan, for the sake of 2 or 3 weeks in school

"The teacher/s on these types of threads just need to resign. It is very clear you don't want to teach in schools anymore and would happily work from home forever."

Did you miss @mumsneedwine's post, where she said that she did resign, along with THREE other science teachers in her school. Can you even imagine the impact on pupils of that scenario? Her school begged her to reconsider.

Do think about what you're suggesting.

@PurpleHoodie

"The government is about to tell you that schools are safe"

For the majority of children/youth they are: Covid, or otherwise.

Fuck the staff, eh?

Not a teacher. Feel bloody sorry for anyone having to go back in, unvaccinated, to unsafe working conditions.

They need to vaccinate teachers before they send schools back. I have a Y11 DC who desperately needs to be back in school. Based on parents evenings, the majority of his teachers are aged 45+.

I obviously have no idea of their medical history - but I do not blame any of them for not wanting to be back in a classroom with teenagers.

@lljkk

Minority opinions not welcome.

what is that meant to mean?

siesta but they need to.be testing kids too. Just testing teachers won't help if it's trickling around pupils and going home with them to a new household.

Skipped many many posts to post my rage at keeping hearing this bollocks - sorry- about vulnerable teachers having been vaccinated. They have not even started on group 6 in my area. My DH with congenital heart disease, one valve replacements already and a leaking valve and associated issues has not been vaccinated. Presumably doesn't count in the checklist of the vulnerable teachers who have been vaccinated.

@CallmeAngelina

"The teacher/s on these types of threads just need to resign. It is very clear you don't want to teach in schools anymore and would happily work from home forever."

Did you miss @mumsneedwine's post, where she said that she did resign, along with THREE other science teachers in her school. Can you even imagine the impact on pupils of that scenario? Her school begged her to reconsider.

Do think about what you're suggesting.

Exactly. Science teachers are like hens' teeth. There has been a national shortage for years. Be very careful what you wish for, or your children will end up with no qualified teachers at all.

For secondaries a rota may work; we did this for 6th form centre; one week year 12s in 6th form the following week year 13s, and then teams teaching/ individual work at home the following week. So we had 350 kids in at a time rather than 700.

Am I wrong assuming that most of those advocating ‘all school for some etc’ are not parents of those school years that this will deny in-school learning to? Deny again, I should say.

My now-Y4 only, unfortunate enough to also be the child of two working parents (but not KW), shoved to the bottom of the primary pile. Again. Double-screwed over last year when DC’s school had space to bring more back but chose Y5 rather than rotas for all - that was hard enough to swallow but in doing so it pulled their teacher off remote support as he had to go teach said year. Y3/4 may not be considered as important as early years but hone schooling this age group is extremely challenging even when NOT trying to with FT at the same time. They cannot work sufficiently independently and I know from talking to my friends that my DC is not alone at needing constant prodding or guidance to do the work - and DC is actually one of the more motivated ones.

I can’t remember the name but there was a teacher poster on here who has advocated for this group before, pointing out the sheer number of weeks lost already - phasing years back will only add to this. I appreciate part time rotas (if not all in) won’t help some working parents but equally, phased return by year doesn’t help others or their children.