Schools: anyone else utterly sick of being manipulated by the press?

[Incogweeto]

Just that really. I’m so sick and tired of logging onto the BBC and finding articles every day promoting whatever viewpoint the government currently wants us to believe. At the moment it’s the onslaught of schools are safe/teachers are safe/tests are a game changer. When they were about to close the schools, the narrative was completely different with kids more likely to be index case/variants will kill is all/out of control vectors.

I’m not saying I agree or disagree with any particular viewpoint in any particular article just that I’m SO SICK of being manipulated. It enrages me that they think we are such pathetic sheep that we can’t see what they are doing.

It’s not just schools, it’s every course of action they want us to take or not take. I hate the PR and the manipulation.

I hate it. I've actually given up arguing with people on here who say my risk is nothing and that I'm over inflating it, even though they have no idea of my work environment and I would never dream of commenting on theirs.

I'm tired of hearing about people wfh who have been vaccinated while I go into my small classroom with 30 kids.

Many parents at my school are cross that we've not been vaccinated. We keep hearing about private schools and police forces who have been vaccinated.

@Dustyboots

Slight change of subject, although the first word in your title is Schools OP.

Why do we think there is a block on teachers being vaccinated and/or schools being made safe with part time/ blended learning?

Neither of these things are ever even discussed or acknowledged by the government or the media ...

I genuinely don't know. Herd immunity by stealth maybe?

Pressure from anti lockdown campaigners like Twats4Themselves?

I thought it was about getting people back to work, but with furlough being extended maybe not.

There's some merit in the 'vaccinate by age' thing in terms of speed.

I got so sick of the teacher bashing from the BBC (yes even YOU Radio 4) that I cancelled my TV license and have stopped watching/reading/listening to their nonsense. Feel sooo much better, saved myself a fortune and can just watch the Channel 4 news if I really need depressing!

Its BS and I am so tired of it too.

It was really weird from Sept-Dec that no one was reporting on the millions of kids missing school due to covid running riot and inadequate mitigation measures, having to isolate and not even leave the house. Compared to the headlines when it was uni students there was not a peep.

And yet when schools are closed all anyone seems to care about is missed school, disruption to education, mental health of kids not allowed to see their friends.

A lot of kids had a really shit time and a massively disrupted education and no one cared at all.

@sherrystrull

I hate it. I've actually given up arguing with people on here who say my risk is nothing and that I'm over inflating it, even though they have no idea of my work environment and I would never dream of commenting on theirs.

I'm tired of hearing about people wfh who have been vaccinated while I go into my small classroom with 30 kids.

Many parents at my school are cross that we've not been vaccinated. We keep hearing about private schools and police forces who have been vaccinated.

And this. 50 plus and soon be back at school doing cover for 70 plus children weekly. But I am in primary so no need for mitigations as they don't spread covid I am absolutely dreading it. Makes me worse that I will be due to have the jab soon but not soon enough for going back to work.

A lot of kids had a really shit time and a massively disrupted education and no one cared at all
Yet I can't see that anything has changed between then and next week inside schools.

@noblegiraffe

It was really weird from Sept-Dec that no one was reporting on the millions of kids missing school due to covid running riot and inadequate mitigation measures, having to isolate and not even leave the house. Compared to the headlines when it was uni students there was not a peep.

And yet when schools are closed all anyone seems to care about is missed school, disruption to education, mental health of kids not allowed to see their friends.

A lot of kids had a really shit time and a massively disrupted education and no one cared at all.

Oh gosh you know I'd forgotten about the DEATHLY SILENCE on what was going on in schools!

I remember scouring the press for it, thinking surely someone must be reporting on what is going on. There were 50% out at my local school at one point. 50% and nothing in the press! I can't believe I forgot that. It gave me the absolute creeps.

Funnily enough I've apparently entered into an argument with DDs primary school today. I was lucky enough to be vaccinated last Friday (due to health issues). I have informed the school that I intend to postpone DD's return to school until my vaccine becomes effective. This will mean a return date of the 22nd rather than the 8th. With weird timing I received a school email detailing their "mandatory return to school" approach minutes after my vaccine while I was waiting out the required 15 minutes.
I called school yesterday, was told to put it into an email and got a phone call back today. Apparently I need to consider my child's mental health, the fact that other parents have not been vaccinated and she reeled off a list of their "new" covid safe measures which are no different to what was in place prior to the latest lockdown. I reiterated that delaying her return equated to ten days and that I am completely on board with home schooling alone in the interim using the same resources they have been using. We have completed every task set, every single day. In response I was told that they have to provide remote learning and this would be an additional burden upon DDs teacher. At this point she was audibly annoyed. "It's so lovely to see the children playing in the sunshine - I'm sure you'd like (DDs name) to join in". I pointed out that a staff member on maternity leave had put DDs class at risk very recently due to sending her child in while awaiting a test result, then pulled her child out of class midday when the result came back positive. She claimed to have no knowledge of this, although that person was at the time the result of a whole school email. I made it clear that I am not trying to cause a problem, I'm being completely honest and I apologised that they have had to spend time pursuing this. At this point I was told to expect a phonecall from the head teacher and a fine if I don't change my mind in the next few days.
Of course I want DD to go back in, I want to go back to normal ASAP. Single parent alone with a 9 year old for so, so long without a break I'm considering throwing her bodily over the school gates.
I walk a silly amount of miles per week to do school runs. I'm happy to do it, always have been. But when I've always tried so hard to facilitate attendance without fail, there's a sodding pandemic and I've been so lucky to get a vaccine it boils my piss being spoken to like shit over the phone.

@indemMUND
Please do what is right for you.

@indemMUND

Funnily enough I've apparently entered into an argument with DDs primary school today. I was lucky enough to be vaccinated last Friday (due to health issues). I have informed the school that I intend to postpone DD's return to school until my vaccine becomes effective. This will mean a return date of the 22nd rather than the 8th. With weird timing I received a school email detailing their "mandatory return to school" approach minutes after my vaccine while I was waiting out the required 15 minutes. I called school yesterday, was told to put it into an email and got a phone call back today. Apparently I need to consider my child's mental health, the fact that other parents have not been vaccinated and she reeled off a list of their "new" covid safe measures which are no different to what was in place prior to the latest lockdown. I reiterated that delaying her return equated to ten days and that I am completely on board with home schooling alone in the interim using the same resources they have been using. We have completed every task set, every single day. In response I was told that they have to provide remote learning and this would be an additional burden upon DDs teacher. At this point she was audibly annoyed. "It's so lovely to see the children playing in the sunshine - I'm sure you'd like (DDs name) to join in". I pointed out that a staff member on maternity leave had put DDs class at risk very recently due to sending her child in while awaiting a test result, then pulled her child out of class midday when the result came back positive. She claimed to have no knowledge of this, although that person was at the time the result of a whole school email. I made it clear that I am not trying to cause a problem, I'm being completely honest and I apologised that they have had to spend time pursuing this. At this point I was told to expect a phonecall from the head teacher and a fine if I don't change my mind in the next few days. Of course I want DD to go back in, I want to go back to normal ASAP. Single parent alone with a 9 year old for so, so long without a break I'm considering throwing her bodily over the school gates. I walk a silly amount of miles per week to do school runs. I'm happy to do it, always have been. But when I've always tried so hard to facilitate attendance without fail, there's a sodding pandemic and I've been so lucky to get a vaccine it boils my piss being spoken to like shit over the phone.

So sorry. I'm really shocked reading that. It sounds like you've been really clear and calm with them. What price 10 more days? Honestly why should your risk be dictated by a government-mandated timetable that seems to be based on very little evidence? Even the fine would be worth it.

At the moment only a small percentage are fully vaccinated (with both jabs) so that's not really relevant yet.

Of course it is. Significant protection is gained after just one dose.

Why do we think there is a block on teachers being vaccinated

There isn’t a block on teachers being vaccinated. They are being vaccinated based on risk of serious illness, just as everyone else is.

Would you rather a 24 year old perfectly healthy teacher was vaccinated ahead of a 49 year old who, based on simply being older, has a much higher risk of becoming seriously ill?

Agreed OP . The BBC particularly have been disgraceful in their politically driven reporting.
And yes I'm utterly sick of it too

@Kimye4eva

Why do we think there is a block on teachers being vaccinated

There isn’t a block on teachers being vaccinated. They are being vaccinated based on risk of serious illness, just as everyone else is.

Would you rather a 24 year old perfectly healthy teacher was vaccinated ahead of a 49 year old who, based on simply being older, has a much higher risk of becoming seriously ill?

Not all teachers are 24. That seems to be the argument people give against vaccinating teachers.

None in my school are younger than 30 and the vast majority are late 30's, 40's and 50's.

People forgot staff in this age group. Ages away from the vaccine and not 24.

I work in a nursery. We have been consistently told that young children don't act as vectors and that we are safe to be fully open. As it happens, all bar two of my colleagues have caught Covid since December, all through children who have had family members test positive a week or so before. You could see the pattern, child is class A has mum test positive, a week later staff in class A get ill. Child in class B has dad test positive, a week of so later staff in class B get ill, etc, etc. The children haven't shown any signs of it, a couple of runny noses at the most. One of my colleague lived with her mum who subsequently died last month after colleague brought it home from nursery. We get forgotten about in the media. It's all about the schools.

Oh and only three members of staff are below 30, out of 25 of us.

Agree 100% OP. As far as the BBC goes it's why I don't pay my tv license, don't watch their tv and never will again.

Yes they even said they were going to run a PR campaign

Wouldn't it be nice if they spent the money they're spending on PR on actually making schools safer?

I'm absolutely terrified that they're cramming them in as normal again. My daughter would benefit as much (more probably) from blended learning. If DH and I catch it at the same time we have no-one to look after our kids and we're both late 40s.

Lots of the teachers in my DDs schools are late 40s and 50s and completely unvaccinated. Nice to know for the sake of a few weeks the government is keen to gamble with their lives.

The government has the BBC by the balls with the licence fee issue. As a result there is a huge gap in holding the government to account. The BBC has been getting things wrong for years in the name of balance - with things like giving air time to climate change deniers. But it has got much worse over the last couple of years with limited analysis and challenge.

Weirdly, it is making me rethink the licence fee. If the BBC can't report news well then I'm not sure it should keep the licence fee. It's a sort of catch-22.

We get forgotten about in the media. It's all about the schools.

Yep, because you’re still open. No one cared about schools while they were still open either.

Nursery workers (and special school staff) should have been vaccinated along with health workers. Outrageous that they weren’t.

Well since most people on this thread just carry on believing whatever they want to believe in absence of evidence, the PR effort seems to be falling fairly flat.

The Covax project was reported on radio 4 this week. The first batch of vaccines partly funded by the U.K. landed in the Ivory Coast. And who do you think they’re prioritising for the first vaccines? Military, healthcare and teachers. Interesting!

Same goes for many states in the US.

@Ohnomoreno you are naive if you think it’s not just selected, hand-picked research that’s being reported on.

@Hugepeppapigfan Average life expectancy in the Ivory Coast is 57 so they don’t have the same urgency to vaccinate older people as we do.

I used to be an avid news watcher. Had it on permanently in the background. I've stopped now as the majority of the time it's not actual news and it's pissing me off. If I want to know people's opinions I come here, I don't watch the news for them.