DFE tells schools prepare for the worst.

[3asAbird]

www.tes.com/news/covid-schools-told-plan-more-remote-learning

Feeling so cross why allow schools to stop masks on may 17th.
When Hancock knew the delta varient was present in April 2021.

School outbreaks my councils 46 this week and a fair few in neighbouring county with some schools fully shut.
Lots senior transition days and inter sports tournament cancelled.

We know from Kent alpha varient took a few months get really bad.
Some say 6 week break act as firebreak.
I am bot so sure as people will travel and mingle and in some cases School maybe mirror community transmission which is on the rise.

I wish having would go for starters.
They said they making education a priority back in march.
This term has been rubbish for many.
I have no faith that autumn term be any different.

No mitigation measures on ventilation
No masks or compulsory testing.
No smaller class sizes.
No vaccines for under 18s.

One of my colleagues teaches in a classroom where the windows don’t open. It’s in the newest part of school and they were designed that way. They have an air conditioning system that just recycles the air in the room. It’s an upstairs room too so even opening the door doesn’t do much. My room can open 2 of the windows. And one of those has a safety catch that is impossible to undo. The other 2 have no handles on them (broken off) so can’t open them. I can open my door, but the door at the front of the building is locked shut during lessons for security reasons. If I open the windows too wide the blinds bash into the kids are their work blows everywhere. If I open the blinds it’s too bright and the kids can’t see the board properly. They’re just grumpy about it all now and I don’t blame them. The whole thing is just a blood nightmare in school.

I think people are mistaken with their timescales regarding Italy and half term holidays. The cases didn’t shoot up in Italy until just after half term. There was no indicator of a problem when people jetted off or whilst they were there but they had unwittingly been in contact.

Nope, there was jitteriness before the trips went and there was a definite issue when they came back. As soon as ours came back, there was a DfE mandated requirement for anyone who had been on the trip who developed a cough to isolate immediately and take a PCR. Because testing was in such early stages it took over a week for the results to come back. We had a bunch of teachers and kids out isolating waiting on test results, however we know that they were looking for the wrong symptoms and assuming that cases would be symptomatic, so who knows whether anything was actually brought back.

It was another wrong call by the government, the early bit of an exponential graph is not 'nothing to worry about'.

The average child, I imagine, might have had 1-2 weeks off because of isolation/school closure. Not zero, but also not as dramatic as some people make it sound like.

Well, apart from the three months of time off due to covid from Jan-March you mean?

@noblegiraffe

I think people are mistaken with their timescales regarding Italy and half term holidays. The cases didn’t shoot up in Italy until just after half term. There was no indicator of a problem when people jetted off or whilst they were there but they had unwittingly been in contact.

Nope, there was jitteriness before the trips went and there was a definite issue when they came back. As soon as ours came back, there was a DfE mandated requirement for anyone who had been on the trip who developed a cough to isolate immediately and take a PCR. Because testing was in such early stages it took over a week for the results to come back. We had a bunch of teachers and kids out isolating waiting on test results, however we know that they were looking for the wrong symptoms and assuming that cases would be symptomatic, so who knows whether anything was actually brought back.

It was another wrong call by the government, the early bit of an exponential graph is not 'nothing to worry about'.

Half term started 15th feb, there wasn’t any specific worry about Italy when people went on holiday. The ‘super spreader’ occurred around the 20th. There was a super spreader here who came back from somewhere else. The only way really is not to allow any travel because by the time the cases are picked up and acted on it’s a bit late..

As I said, the early bit of an exponential graph is not 'nothing to worry about'.

Our local school is already closed for a week due to too many positive test results.....

So we had Matt Hancock telling schools not to close or send pupils home on 26th Feb www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8045831/Coronavirus-chaos-seven-UK-schools-shut-18-send-pupils-staff-home.html

And then by April was admitting that actually, it was a problem.

How do we move on from here though? How long are we going to keep sending children home to isolate? Surely the majority of teachers should have had their first dose by now, and certainly should have done by September or even had both doses. If we’ve got to learn to live with covid cos it’s not going anywhere, then children can’t keep being sent home all the time. The impact this is all having on their mental health is unreal. Cancelling events left right and centre, cancelling college tours, but yet thousands of football fans can gather in London. It’s beyond belief.

It depends, Emma, if you are comfortable, or uncomfortable with unmitigated covid spread among children and young people.

No. Huge numbers of teachers have had no jab yet. Lots of young and middle aged teachers.

@Emmacb82 of the government had treated teachers as front line workers and vaccinated them early then a lot of this would not be happening. As we said at the time. Staff off, schools close classes. But there was little support from parents so this never happened (in fact teachers were mostly told to stop whinging and just get on with it), and majority of staff have had 1 jab or none yet. Some are only 23/4 and even the over 30s have only just had first.

Surely the majority of teachers should have had their first dose by now

Many teachers will have had both doses, I know several in their 40s who have only had one dose, plenty of 20 somethings who have not yet had one dose.

How long are we going to keep sending children home to isolate?

What of the adults and children in schools who are vulnerable? not yet vaccinated? unable to be vaccinated? or the children who, at the moment, appear won't be vaccinated? Do they just have to take their chances and run the gauntlet of severe or life changing infection?

Plenty of schools rely on staff who are, technically, vulnerable and who run the risk of serious illness regardless of vaccination status. Not just schools, but in all essential areas of work that keep the country running. Hospitalisations are on the increase and have been for a couple of weeks now (if not a bit longer).

I don't know the answer. I teach and I can see the damage that lockdown has done. But I also understand, as the parent of a vulnerable child, that it's not as simple as 'living with it' at the moment. That time will hopefully come, but we're not there yet.

The average child, I imagine, might have had 1-2 weeks off because of isolation/school closure. Not zero, but also not as dramatic as some people make it sound like.

Where the hell are you (in the nicest way possible?) We have had school closures for months...

Besides the mandatory 8 weeks last year and the 6 weeks this year lots of ours have been out 3 or 4 times of 10 days each. We also had to shut the school in December as didn't have enough staff left. So kids have missed masses of time in lessons. I want to carry on teaching f2f but we are running low on staff again. Was all so avoidable.

The trouble is with schools, is that even if you do it all properly, kids won't.

We won't share equipment- except for the kids who turn up without any, so have to borrow pens.
All use handsan- except when some twat has put ink in it or nicked it or pulled it off the wall.
No touching. Yeah, right. Why can't teenage boys keep their hands/ arms off each other? The girls can manage to walk down a corridor without clinging to each other.
Masks on. Well, if under your chin counts, then yes, I suppose.
No marking books. Except we DO want data entered to assess progress. Essay based subject need to mark books.
Do your lateral flow tests. But they don't.

How do we move on from here though?
If 12-17 year olds aren't offered jabs if they want them then things aren't going to change.

While vaccinating staff is a good thing, secondary school kids can't help but spread Covid because they are in overcrowded conditions.

Before someone says that vaccinated people still transmit, I know this but it's one mitigation measure that could help in a place where there are very few measures because of a lack of will you invest.

Policy seems to be herd immunity in children because they are unlikely to be hospitalized.

Stable door, horse, bolted. Reads just like typical public sector pen-pushing.

@TheMoth

The trouble is with schools, is that even if you do it all properly, kids won't.

We won't share equipment- except for the kids who turn up without any, so have to borrow pens.
All use handsan- except when some twat has put ink in it or nicked it or pulled it off the wall.
No touching. Yeah, right. Why can't teenage boys keep their hands/ arms off each other? The girls can manage to walk down a corridor without clinging to each other.
Masks on. Well, if under your chin counts, then yes, I suppose.
No marking books. Except we DO want data entered to assess progress. Essay based subject need to mark books.
Do your lateral flow tests. But they don't.

If it makes you feel better catching Covid from a surface is estimated at 1 in 10,000 so it's low risk

Why are other countries including in Europe doing so much more to protect both children (including the vulnerable) and adults? Particularly bearing mind the risks of Long Covid.

Masks in schools.
Vaccinating over 12s.
Border restrictions, i.e. not letting in any and all new strains and then letting them freely spread, the most recent being the Delta aka Boris strain.

Why are we not taking the same proactive preventative measures?

We're also not doing anywhere near as much as other countries to fund covid recovery for children. One tenth of what was deemed necessary.

The government don't give a shit about kids.

We caught it from dd, who was asymptomatic and caught it from a kid on her table at a hub school. It's more the way that teenagers will spread it amongst themselves.

Policy seems to be herd immunity in children because they are unlikely to be hospitalized.

Long Covid remains a risk particularly for older children. And I'm assuming most children would be badly affected if a parent or other family member was hospitalised.

Meanwhile, vulnerable children seem to have been largely forgotten.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/10/children-disabilities-priority-vaccination-england-education-shielding

They disappeared more than a year ago and many are still out of sight. When the pandemic hit, 53,000 under-18s in England with disabilities that made them vulnerable to coronavirus began to shield away at home.

Kept off school long after their classmates went back, and away from friends, they have found their childhoods put on hold. And while the vaccine rollout gave high-risk adults some reprieve in the new year, those aged under 16, who have not been eligible for any vaccine, are still living in limbo.

Why are we not taking the same proactive preventative measures?

Probably because they don't vote Tory or are too young to vote. Getting cynical.

@Emmacb82

How do we move on from here though? How long are we going to keep sending children home to isolate? Surely the majority of teachers should have had their first dose by now, and certainly should have done by September or even had both doses. If we’ve got to learn to live with covid cos it’s not going anywhere, then children can’t keep being sent home all the time. The impact this is all having on their mental health is unreal. Cancelling events left right and centre, cancelling college tours, but yet thousands of football fans can gather in London. It’s beyond belief.

Do you want tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of our children to get Long Covid?

And letting Covid spread freely amongst unvaccinated or semi vaccinated is a huge risk factor for mutated variants.

We could end up being responsible for another UK strain - potentially more vaccine resistant. No wonder other countries are restricting entry from the UK. We are a high risk country.