Department for Education has refused to plan, fund and implement a multi-layered, scientifically recognised covid mitigation strategy for schools.

[Zotter]

I have not seen - may have missed it - much coverage on the government failing to offer a mitigation strategy for levels of CoVid in schools. Other countries have done so but not England. A good, short article on this and the repercussions of not doing so.

yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/education/safety-in-schools-and-covid/

The government want to shout about keeping children in schools while failing to put in place one very easy measure that would help that happen.

I'm so glad to see this written somewhere. 💐

It's been awful that the argument has mainly been this binary of 'keep them open' versus 'shut!'.
It should never, ever have been like that.

It should have been: 'Schools are so necessary - what official and unofficial roles do schools play? How crucial is it to keep them available? What must we do to keep schools functioning safely and effectively?

Instead of dialogue, research, conversations that treated the public as adults and members of a cohesive society, and school-workers and children as crucial members of society who need to be centred and protected instead of that - we've had gaslighting, propaganda, culture-wars, scapegoating.

We could have had a narrative that brought us together as a society, articulated how we rely on each other and can be strong for each other - we could have had a narrative that made us feel proud of our resilience and ability to care. One that helped us think that we will emerge from the pandemic more cohesive and stronger.

Instead, we've been encouraged to turn on one another - in the most stupid way.

'Teachers don't care about vulnerable children.'
'Parents don't care about other people's children.'
'The pandemic is blown up out of proportion.'

So, so stupid.
So, so harmful.

Instead, we could have actually planned for increased safety. We could have done the hard work to make schools safer and kept them there, functioning optimally.

It would have taken funding.
And planning.
And honest talks with the public.
And an honest talk about the multiple roles schools now have.

I reckon we would have needed to start re-funding areas of the public sphere that have been starved of cash.

Honesty would have been required there.
And funding to make it possible for people to take illness and isolation breaks.

That's joined-up action - because to keep schools functioning safely, we needed to protect the parents. And the adult workers in schools.

It breaks my heart to compare what we needed and deserved with what we got.

The childish, ideological brawl of people reduced to claiming the pandemic doesn't matter and the best way to deal with it is to ignore it.
A lot of that is driven by desperation.

And the stakes have been so high for the most vulnerable.

Anyway, I'm glad the author wrote that. 💐💐💐

As a supply teacher, I'm currently in huge demand. Each school I attend at the moment is to cover for staff off with covid. Often there are multiple staff out of the year group and high child absence too. Staff who haven't been infected (including myself) are just waiting... and trying to keep themselves safe as much as possible with open windows and doors

Some classrooms are really tiny with 30 children crammed tightly in and windows that only open a small amount. I haven't seen a C02 detector anywhere.

In areas of deprivation, children often need more support. There are often children with behavioural issues. Overall, I feel the class sizes really need to be cut to help those that missed learning over the past 2 years. The way things are in some schools isn't helping anyone and needs to be addressed rather than ignored.

Christopholus what do you mean staff who haven’t been infected are just waiting? Everyone of working age in pretty every job that involves being in the same vicinity as other people is just waiting. Everybody I know is getting infected. It isn’t unique to teaching. Stop pretending it is.

@olivehater

Christopholus what do you mean staff who haven’t been infected are just waiting? Everyone of working age in pretty every job that involves being in the same vicinity as other people is just waiting. Everybody I know is getting infected. It isn’t unique to teaching. Stop pretending it is.

But this thread is very specifically about education. No-one has suggested that there are other jobs where things aren't bad. No-one has suggested it is unique to teaching. What a bizarre response.

@thecatfromjapan has hit the nail on the head. I feel that your response, and others like it on other threads, are not helpful to making schools safer or keeping children in them more effectively.

As a teacher I would fully support others who feel that their jobs are unsafe and that there are things that could be done to improve them. It is possible to think that the government have done fuck all about schools AND still feel other jobs might also have been not protected at the same time.

@Christopholous - we have some CO2 monitors, but the readings are only officially taken when there are no children in the rooms. When they, repeatedly, go into the red zone nothing is done. We all are just aware how poor the air quality is - but we have to stay in the room and continue as we are... another ridiculous government half arsed pretence they are doing something when they are not.

Mumsnet is a good example of that in action. Posters who have literally all day and night 24/7 to sit here and go on and on about schools must be staying open. Which is mind boggling on a parenting site, when quite often they talk about children needing interaction.

When it’s raised that it’s very simplistic to just say “open” these people actually have no coherent argument. You can’t just say schools must be open, if all the teachers are long term sick. This is happening because they are being exposed to a high viral load, day in day out, with no protection, no vaccinated cohort, nothing.

It makes me laugh that the same people are so tone deaf about anything going on in education, yet race out to get boosters whilst WFH/SAHM. Guarantee they wouldn’t take the same risks they expect of teachers.

These people genuinely make me sick, I can’t decide if they are trolls or plants because they are literally on MN 24/7. You point out the obvious and suddenly you don’t care about vulnerable children. Where were these people when the Govt cut sure start, social services, etc.

The binary argument is so shortsighted and ignorant.

When it’s raised that it’s very simplistic to just say “open” these people actually have no coherent argument. You can’t just say schools must be open, if all the teachers are long term sick.

Exactly. Our school is open. But that doesn't mean students are getting the education they should. There have been times when we've had more supply than actual staff members. Children may have been in school, but there has been no meaningful or consitent learning taking place.

People don’t care about vulnerable children, they care about their own children.

Do I think this makes them horrendously selfish and awful? Honestly, no. It’s understandable. I do understand this.

I endorse @thecatfromjapans post but I’d add I just don’t think there’s anything you can do to mitigate covid in schools that isn’t disruptive. That’s why everyone either avoids talking about it or argues about it.

My union says schools should have a CO2 monitor for every 2 classrooms, I’ve not seen one yet, although I am an SEN specialist and only have small intervention classes, I’m often forgotten about!
I’m so angry about how schools have been treated, opposition parties haven’t spoken up for schools much either. Catch up funding is a joke compared to other countries, I genuinely worry about a lot of our vulnerable children. I think there’s a feeling that if the kids are going in it’s back to normal, but it really isn’t, there’s been so much disruption and continues to be.

I think Christopholous is saying that she - and others like her - are just waiting to get knocked down by coronavirus.

That she goes in to schools where staffing has been wiped out, where there aren't effective control measures, and she takes a deep breath & does her job (supply cover) - which is basically trying to keep a hurtling train, with its engines on fire, and loads of passengers, on track.

And all the while, she's feeling a slight sense of dread because she knows it's not a question of 'if' but 'when' she gets ill.

And, as a supply, she knows that if she gets ill, she's economically fucked.

I mean, I may have mis-read, but I reckon that's what she's saying.

I think the public haven't really grasped how parlous the situation in schools is.

It feels as though it's all being held together by the education workers giving every last bit of emotional and physical energy they have to keep the thing on the road.

And that isn't sustainable.

The pandemic is clearly not going to be over for a while.

Apparently, pandemics take 5-7 years to burn out.

Yes, we have vaccinations. But not global vaccination. And without that, we're going to keep on having to deal with the risks of mutations. And we're going to have to keep on having recurrent mitigation measures.

We needed planning that looked at a 7-year plan at least.

For example, to keep schools functioning optimally, we needed massive amounts poured into the NHS. As in funding for increased numbers of NHS staff and infrastructure.

Keeping schools functioning optimally requires their being embedded in a holistic approach that planned to keep the NHS from collapse.

Instead, we saw billions wasted on short-term catastrophe planning and ridiculous crony contracts.

It's a tragedy of squandered time and incompetence.

@olivehater

Christopholus what do you mean staff who haven’t been infected are just waiting? Everyone of working age in pretty every job that involves being in the same vicinity as other people is just waiting. Everybody I know is getting infected. It isn’t unique to teaching. Stop pretending it is.

When your job requires you to be in a small room with 30+ people, with no masks and little ventilation, there is a high chance we will be infected.
Yes there are risks in all jobs, but in most other settings, people are required or allowed to wear face coverings and socially distance. That doesn't happen in schools.

And I am just speaking of my experience in schools... not other jobs!

Plus that argument is so 2020 it’s now been proven that educators are most at risk, 2nd only to carers.

What could we have done?

Well, long-term planning would have been a start.

If there had been an acceptance that this is a 5-7 year situation, with a huge financial impact, we might just have grasped the nettle.

We really did need to accept that we effectively needed to increase our numbers of schools, and halve their sizes. So more teachers into training, more school sites.

Which is an enormous commitment. Just enormous. But actually, it's what we are now - slowly - realising would have been necessary to avoid the damage inflicted by the chaos of children missing school, long-term exam disruption, damage done by coronavirus spreading in schools, worker burn-out.

And other countries, by one means or another, have basically tried to approximate something like that reduction of spread factors in their schools.

But hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think we were all in denial about how long this would last - and I think we are still in denial about how deeply disruptive it is, and will continue to be.

Which means we are still in denial about the changes it is necessary to make.

But ... that's where you need the government to step in and talk to the nation. To be the adults, help people to confront some tough truths, but also to give people the hope and belief that they/we are capable of making the changes that will - ultimately - make something safe and stable.

At some point, it's going to be incredibly apparent that the lack of planning, of making those alarmingly major changes and taking those measures, is exacting a terrible price and inflicting its own long-term damage.

I think so many people viewed covid as an inconvenience that didn't affect them as they were relatively, young and healthy and detested the changes to their lives. The messages we were given by Government was always that we would beat this and then life would resume as normal. Now we are dealing with a variant that shows it is not as simple as that, even with our vaccine program. The government was very short sighted when it came to school buildings. We've wasted so much time when we could have had a program to improve the buildings. Covid is not going away. One scientific theory is that this strangely mutated variant grew in an immunosuppressed hiv infected person in an African country. There are millions of people globally living with uncontrolled HIV. It's not just HIV either, it could be cancer patients or other illnesses that lead to immune suppression. It is a depressing thought but highlights the need to improve school buildings now. It also highlights the need to provide health assistance on a global scale. We can no longer pretend that what is happening thousands of miles away is not our concern. Just 1 person has started the omicron crisis we are experiencing. School staff have been expressing concerns about the poor ventilation in our schools since the beginning but we're often shouted down by people saying firstly 'Kids don't spread it', then 'kids don't get ill' then 'stop moaning you've all had your vaccines'. Now again 'schools must stay open'. Yes we need schools open but there has to be changes if we are going to live with this virus.

Our school budget is being hammered by our supply bill. We have 5 teachers to cover (so far) for all of next week. 2 we can cover using TAs, we'll need supplies for 3.
This is not normal for our budget, when we came back after the summer holidays our supply budget had already been hammered by isolating teachers in the summer term, we thought the change in rules would help, and it has, but now teachers (and support staff) are getting Covid. Not all have been able to return after 10 days.
We know our budgets have fallen in real terms, now we are having to deal with this additional cost. Catch up seems to have been forgotten by the government, but that is a joke, we're not even standing still.
Every time a TA is used to cover, they are not providing interventions to the children who need it. Every time a teacher covers a lunch duty (because we are short of TAs) that is less time spent preparing lessons.
It's the children who are losing out, I'm not sure our government care!

Hear hear @thecatfromjapan. Almost every other rich country has managed mitigation’s, why not the UK?

@olivehater

Christopholus what do you mean staff who haven’t been infected are just waiting? Everyone of working age in pretty every job that involves being in the same vicinity as other people is just waiting. Everybody I know is getting infected. It isn’t unique to teaching. Stop pretending it is.

How disingenuous.

Firstly, this is a discussion about schools.

Secondly, she doesn’t make any claim that teaching is uniquely unsafe.

Thirdly, how many other jobs involve being crammed into an unventilated space with thirty unvaccinated people for many hours? Maybe teaching is uniquely unsafe in this regard.

Yes @borntobequiet

My sons school is open, but very regularly they are 'taught' in the hall with several classes at once, eg a year 7 english, year 9 maths and year 10 biology. They have a cover supervisor who keeps an eye on them.

I dont know if this is better than home learning, probably - but I think with proper investment it could be much better.

But I think its a wider problem. Schools were very stretched before covid, with a lack of qualified staff due to retention issues, large classes, unsuitable buildings and TAs becoming a rare thing. They were just about functioning.

I dont know if this is better than home learning, probably

It's right for the 'economy' and parents. It's right for children having 'access' to their peers. What it's not right for is schools who have a high number of challenging individuals from a behaviour perspective. SEND children in general. Actual meaningful learning occurring. School staff stress levels (although not many people seem to care about that much).

It's not good enough, though.

It's a train on fire.

And YY to the detailed and thoughtful posts from thecatfromjapan.

If only we had some politicians and public policy makers with clout and capable of her level of insight, analysis and planning.