Primary schools from September...

[SandyStarfish]

Good that contacts will no longer have to isolate... however, Covid will run wild through the classes won't it? And the viral load will be high for children and staff in those classrooms because of all the particles in the air. And in winter it's too hard to ventilate much. It's going to be horrible working conditions again.

Schools are useless without healthy adults to work in them.

Schools are also useless if pupils they're supposed to teach are not in a healthy mindset to learn due to repeated isolations and the mental and emotional well-being demons they bring. Presumably this adult overseeing them converse with their peers and learn online is a parent who's then unable to go to work? How many of your pupils have a SAHP? Just thinking about my dcs classes very few have a SAHP to be able to facilitate impromptu repeated isolations. So whilst some parents have to give up work that puts more children into poverty and the risks of abuse increases, so you won't actually be doing much teaching you'll be busy dealing with the increasing safeguarding issues. Covid can't be the only factor we consider especially when it comes to young children

Scottish primaries are going back in a couple of weeks and we still don’t know what the rules are going to be, so I suppose watch us and see what happens?

I would like to know more about what we’re doing to protect the health and education of CV and CEV primary-age kids who aren’t yet vaccinated. But for schools in general, repeatedly sending home whole classes to isolate again and again and again really can’t be the approach we just take indefinitely.

@BluebellsGreenbells

How can schools get strict when parents refuse to collect? Or send in sick children?

What do you want the school to do?

Surely if a parent refused to collect an ill child then social services would be called.

@lavenderandwisteria

It isn’t as straightforward as that, though *@Getawaywithit*

Do bubbles actually do anything to help stop the spread of infection, given that siblings don’t have to isolate?

I’m not convinced at all. I’ve had too many friends with more than one child where one is sent home and the other continues to attend school yet the children are obviously in one another’s faces all the time they are at home! It’s nonsensical. I don’t mind doing things to keep people safer. I do mind nonsense.

Yeah, the siblings still being allowed to attend school and things like before and after school childcare/ clubs/ and activities kind of made the efforts schools made to keeps kids in bubbles pretty pointless.

@DolphinFC many, many office workers are returning. I work in canary wharf in an office block where facilities are shared between multiple companies and their staff. Retail, hospitality are back at work...

Kids have been treated appallingly throughout this. For adults who have received 2 jabs, the risk of serious illness is hugely reduced. It is simply not fair on kids to repeatedly force them to isolate. Time to crack on.

Do all the posters saying that school staff have been double vaccinated realise that many people who have been vaccinated still become unwell from Covid, especially the Delta variant? It might not generally be bad enough to cause hospitalisation but it will almost certainly have a significant impact on staff absence. Most primary schools are run on a shoestring and have no extra money for supply teachers. Often classes are covered by an HLTA - of which there may be two or three available in your average primary school. Unless there is additional funding,staff absence is likely to cause disruption to education.

I’m a teacher, CV, double vaccinated. So glad they’re no longer sending home whole classes. It was utterly unsustainable. I’ll be carrying on as normal in September as I have been the whole time, even when I was the only class left in my key stage with everyone else isolating due to positive cases!

For adults who have received 2 jabs, the risk of serious illness is hugely reduced

I am 14 days in. I could not teach tomorrow. I don’t think I will be ready for work for at least another week, possibly longer. I may not have needed hospital, but I have been seriously unwell.

@welshweasel

I can’t wait for school and nursery to be back to normal. I really don’t foresee it being a huge issue. Teachers all double vaccinated.

I have two colleagues who are double vaccinated and who caught it in the classroom. One went on to catch it again!

Regardless of your beliefs about bubbles, isolation and vaccines for children , there is one main problem which will affect whether schools will open: even vaccinated teachers get ill with Covid, especially if they are working in poorly ventilated rooms with unvaccinated children. If teachers are off sick, children won’t be taught as classes will be combined, any adult who can stand will be put in front of them and then schools will close.

Many teachers have made sensible suggestions about mitigation and have been ignored. In my opinion, teachers should be treated the same as NHS workers and given priority booster vaccines at the first point they can after the main vaccines are thought to lose effectiveness, regardless of age. Yes, office workers are JUST (perhaps) starting to go back, but we’ve been there and done that already (last September and again in March). We know what’s it like and will be the only group working with large groups of unvaccinated people.

We’d all like schools to stay open but wishing won’t make it happen! ‘Cracking on’ needs to be practical.

Personally I’m glad that the government are taking a hard line on getting schools fully back to normal. DC have missed far too much education and interaction as it is.

I’d be telling the unions that pay cuts and redundancies are on the cards if they refuse to co-operate!

"If I’m well, I am available to your child either in a classroom or online so learning is still going to happen"

Ds missed nearly 4 weeks of school last year due to isolation or whole school shutdown. No online learning. No work set - not possible for children with his needs. 4 weeks off school is 4 weeks of no education.

@GreenLakes

Personally I’m glad that the government are taking a hard line on getting schools fully back to normal. DC have missed far too much education and interaction as it is.

I’d be telling the unions that pay cuts and redundancies are on the cards if they refuse to co-operate!

Have I stumbled into The DM comments?

We will see what happens this winter. I'm not convinced the disruption to education is over.

@GreenLakes
I don’t think taking a hard line will work if teachers are sick. If they get Covid even mildly, they may be off work for a week. Moderately - they may be off sick for two weeks. Pay cuts and redundancies will just make the situation worse. I’m sorry your child’s education has been disrupted but punishing teachers makes no sense. The pandemic has been pretty dreadful for us too.

@getawaywithit I agree. Unless you worked in school throughout you have no idea. I'm a ta and we covered keyworker bubbles throughout and we nearly all caught Covid. Some being very ill. A few still struggling.

I’d be telling the unions that pay cuts and redundancies are on the cards if they refuse to co-operate!

Salaries are way lower, in real terms, than they were in 2010. You can make us redundant but who is going to replace us?

At no point have unions not cooperated.

They have asked for protective measures in schools so that covid numbers don't rise and pupils CAN stay in school but the public decided they wanted no protection, bubbles and home learning instead.

@Getawaywithit

I’d be telling the unions that pay cuts and redundancies are on the cards if they refuse to co-operate!

Salaries are way lower, in real terms, than they were in 2010. You can make us redundant but who is going to replace us?

You do know schools are already struggling to recruit?

How exactly does your 'amazing' plan improve the education of children?

@brittleheadgirl

Did you mean that for me? I know full well the issues schools are facing, thanks.

@CroissantDog

The problem is the measures unions wanted like social distancing and rota systems were tantamount to schools being closed to DC for the vast majority of the time.

The problem is the measures unions wanted like social distancing and rota systems

Why is it unreasonable that a union tries to protect the interests of its paying members? I fully appreciate that there are thousands of key workers out there who didn’t get all the measures in place that might have meant less illness and death amongst colleagues. Teachers got nothing. Teachers will be the only people working with a totally unvaccinated population, no mitigation’s whatsoever.

Sorry it's behind a paywall but you get the gist.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/22/forcing-children-self-isolate-needless

Sending class bubbles home to isolate is not necessary, and never was. Poor bloody kids

I'm a teacher, and I don't know any teachers who are not relieved that bubbles will no longer burst, causing large groups of children and staff to self isolate.
I would like to continue with year groups not mixing completely through the autumn term, it does feel too early for me to be going back to whole school assemblies and different year groups mixing in the lunch hall.
In my school some bubbles have burst and no other cases have come about, but we have also had a bubble burst ending with 4 members of staff and 13 children testing positive (alongside other family members later testing positive).
I think the challenge for schools is going to be staffing as positive cases will still need to isolate. I have been teaching almost 30 years and have never been off ill for that long, 2 days would be unusual for me, a colleague having a whole week off is very rare. Up till now, positive cases amongst staff have (most of the time) also involved classes being sent home and they have been able to set remote learning work.