Cheeky f Gavin blames parents for covid!

[3asAbird]

We should all as parents be responsible to save school from covid oursbreaks and protect school from closing

The man's a clueless idiot.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/covid-wave-schools-reopen-mass-testing-gavin-williamson-b1911202.html

www.msn.com/en-gb/health/familyhealth/england-will-suffer-a-worse-covid-outbreak-than-scotland-experts-say/ar-AANTGy5?ocid=sf

We don't even have any mitigating measures Scotland have.

Surly not isolating close contacts under 18 or very least same household will lead to massive spread in schools.

Why are the governors so anti mask.
Why are we one if the few countries not vaccinating teens or investing in better ventilation.

@herecomesthsun

I thought the issue was that schools are going back without bubbles, masks, improved ventilation or vaccination for children 12-15 etc.

But if cases rise in schools it will automatically be the parents' fault and not the Government's fault for inept planning.

I thought the issue was that Gav is poised to shift blame?

I agree that testing is a good idea even if LFTs aren't the most accurate and we will be doing that

That’s why parents need to test and not send in children who are ill. Delta presents with different symptoms to the classic three and there’s no way of knowing of it’s a cold or covid without an actual pcr test.

What will happen is millions of assymptomatic pupils will test twice in early September leading to a huge 'spike' in cases that teachers can then use as leverage to impose restrictions on the pupils (rather than advocating for their vaccination).
I think most teachers would like to see teens vaccinated but they don't get to make these kinds of decisions. Nor do teachers make decisions about restrictions. Did you join mumsnet this morning to stir?

@PicsInRed and @noblegiraffe

Also young people don't vote and old people do, older voters are also more likely to vote Conservative.

So if you are a Conservative Gov looking to cut spending are you going to cut pensions, NHS or education spending . Equally if you are looking to spend more money (less likely!) then does it go on pensions, NHS or education.

You only need to look at the resignation of Sir Kevan Collins to see which way this is going in the future:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57335558.amp

So, if not having a degree was previously associated with being working class, therefore voting Labour, would that have led to the sneering conclusion that Labour voters were less educated? Of course not.

Have you seen the flack that Angela Rayner gets?

Education level being a determiner of voting intentions is new, it's interesting, and it appears to be repeated in other countries. It's also being played on, to some extent, by politicians with lines like 'this country has had enough of experts'.

Incidentally I don't think Labour are doing a good job of appealing to anyone right now.

teachers can then use as leverage to impose restrictions

All hail the powerful teachers who couldn't even get government funding for hand sanitiser....

teachers can then use as leverage to impose restrictions

What leverage do teachers have?
What restrictions do you think teachers want?

Most teachers I know want vaccinations offered to 12-15 year olds.

@BluebellsGreenbells

I’m no fan of this government or the way they have handled covid, especially in schools, but I genuinely can’t see what’s wrong with wanting parents to take some responsibility for testing their children. It’s for everyone’s benefit, it’s not doing the government a favour

If you are a single parent or couple who can’t work from home and don’t get paid to isolate with your child, and your child is well and asymptotic- why would you test to the detriment of your own family?

No of the government offered full pay whilst having to isolate then maybe things would be different. They are asking ‘by law’ known positive cases isolate. But not backing it financially.

I see your point because I agree that one of the biggest cock ups this government has made was to expect healthy people to isolate and risk their livelihoods without support, but secondary children can stay at home alone if they’re well and a parent has to work.

Primary children are different, I don’t think it’s right to shove things up their noses and down their throats twice a week in the first place. But really, there’s nothing wrong with expecting parents to test their secondary children.

@NailsNeedDoing

How is it blaming the public to expect parents of secondary age children to do LFTs?

I’m no fan of this government or the way they have handled covid, especially in schools, but I genuinely can’t see what’s wrong with wanting parents to take some responsibility for testing their children. It’s for everyone’s benefit, it’s not doing the government a favour.

The headline reads

"Government says parents responsible for preventing new Covid wave when schools reopen"

It sounds as though the implication is that parents are mainly responsible for covid measures in schools.

In a way, if the main measure still in place is testing, and that is being supervised by parents, I suppose that is how things have been left.

However, a lot of parents would prefer the Government to be taking a bit more action with ventilation, vaccination, masks etc.

Primary children are different, I don’t think it’s right to shove things up their noses and down their throats twice a week in the first place.

Primary kids have never been asked to LFT. Their parents have been encouraged to, I've no idea how many took up that offer.

Re voting and education, this is a well-informed article

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/what-lies-behind-the-uks-new-political-map-education-education-education

“Education, education, education,” the mantra of the first Blair government, and one which heralded social change on a scale that has yet to be appreciated. The target of 50 per cent of young adults entering higher education, only recently met, is reshaping the social and the political landscape.

Unlike the social changes of the Thatcher era such as Right to Buy, it was not clear at the time it was announced that getting more young people into higher education would be electorally advantageous for Labour. In the previous election, the Labour Party had been much more successful winning the votes of those without degrees than those who held them. ....

The key to understanding why education is important is political values. Politics has long been thought of as a battle between the left and the right, but this captures only part of the story. There is another dimension of social values, which is not correlated with economic positions, but which includes issues increasingly salient in our politics such as criminal justice, immigration, security and foreign aid.

... On these “social” issues a significant portion of voters who are otherwise on the “left” in terms of economics are in more conservative positions. The core demographic driver on these social issues is education: crudely, those with degrees are less socially conservative than those without.

But parents should be responsible for doing what they can to prevent their schools closing.

I realise that many people are asking for better ventilation etc, but personally (I work in a primary school) I’d rather any money was spent on other things we need in education before making us all freeze or assault the environment with all the extra heating we’d need. If I had one, I wouldn’t want my young teen vaccinated despite being happily double jabbed myself. Testing really is the best method we currently have of keeping covid out of secondary schools, and there’s no reason why parents can’t do that.

We don't have vaccination even for all CEV teens yet.

We do need that.

We have classrooms in disrepair and some with windows that don't open (as reported in the papers). It's grim at the best of times but there needs to be attention paid to that.

Yes, very happy to support testing.,

Decent buildings for all schools should be a priority for the government regardless of covid.

Testing really is the best method we currently have of keeping covid out of secondary schools

Which is grim when we know how infection rates soared in the lead up to the summer holidays with testing and isolation and open windows.

Interesting article, Herecomes although I think it places far too much emphasis on the expansion of higher education and not enough on the 'values' aspect. The same thing is being seen in the US so it can't just be down to Blair.

It is grim, but at least school staff should all be vaccinated by now if they want to be, which we weren’t last term.

It depends on whether you are simply worried about teachers catching it, Nails or whether children catching it is also a concern.

True, and children catching it is a concern, but we don’t have much choice except to live with the virus now and get on with it, knowing that the vast majority of young people that catch covid will be fine, if they even experience symptoms at all.

I mean, what's blindingly obvious is that lots of children are about to catch covid.

The Telegraph is rather dismissively reporting this as something the Unions are warning of instead of just a statement of fact.

don’t have much choice

I disagree and think there are lots of things that could be done instead.

children catching it is a concern, but we don’t have much choice except to live with the virus now

Interesting that you see 'living with the virus' as 'making no real attempt to avoid catching the virus'.

It’s not that I think we should make no real effort, I think the effort should be made with enforcing good hygiene along with as many people as possible having the vaccine.

If we could improve ventilation in all schools without it costing a small fortune, without expecting classrooms to be too cold and without having to increase our heating usage, then that would be great. But the reality is that the costs versus the benefits doesn’t add up, not when the virus is mostly harmless to secondary students and all the adults are vaccinated.

If we could improve ventilation in all schools without it costing a small fortune, without expecting classrooms to be too cold and without having to increase our heating usage, then that would be great

Why is spending 'a small fortune' on improving the school estate something to be avoided? Poor ventilation isn't just great for spreading covid, it's also bad for learning. Imagine not having to teach in a boiling stuffy classroom in the summer with kids practically asleep the whole time.

I’ve already agreed that decent school buildings should be a priority, with or without covid. I agree that it’s horrible to teach in hot stuffy classrooms, but it’s also horrible to teach in classrooms that are too cold, or classrooms that are badly designed for all the other reasons.

I’m not saying that improving ventilation should be avoided, just that if we are going to be allocated money to improve our school buildings, ventilation cant always be the priority when so many classrooms are less than ideal in plenty of other ways.

Currently nothing is a priority and very little money is being allocated to improve school buildings, so if we can get any, even if it's earmarked for ventilation, then that would be a start.