Considering whether schools might close in Janl?

[PigeonLittle]

Trying to create a title so as not to panic anyone!

What are your guesses, will schools close again?

@Popcornriver

People in contact with omicron have to isolate now. If the rule is the same when it becomes the dominant strain, how can schools stay open? Most people will be a close contact with the way it's spreading.

This has now changed to daily LFTs

www.gponline.com/government-changes-rules-close-contacts-covid-19-cases-england/article/1735660

@Popcornriver

People in contact with omicron have to isolate now. If the rule is the same when it becomes the dominant strain, how can schools stay open? Most people will be a close contact with the way it's spreading.

I thought that had changed to doing a daily LFT?

We had a meeting today at school to discuss the fact we couldn’t get supply and we are at our limit for staff to kids. I’ve come home and not felt great and just done a positive lateral flow. I’ve text my boss and I’m expecting we will be closed tomorrow and Friday to at least 2 year groups because he was already concerned today.

School was chaos today, we managed to cover all lessons but staff that are in are covering above their hours so that classes can be supervised- although year 8 ended up doing 2 hours of “pe” on the freezing cold field just so that they could stay in a bigger group and free up staff to help elsewhere.

Kids have been wild because of not having their usual teacher, break and lunch has been under supervised because staff are off and others using that time to catch up on work because they have lost planning time. Half of our SLT are off too so we don’t even have the support from above.

All parents have just received a text saying die to staffing issues keep children at home where possible and that if more attend than we can manage all of year 9 and 10 will be sent home.

We just got a text. Our school has been told by county to close on Friday instead of next wednesday

@Skippettydooo

We just got a text. Our school has been told by county to close on Friday instead of next wednesday

Which county ?

Herts

@Skippettydooo I'm in Herts too but primary. Trying to figure if this will be a blanket order...

Possibly

I can't wait for the "lazy teachers" threads...NOT

I don't think that there will be universal closure of schools. A lot of other things would be closed first, such as non-essential shops. There may be schools having to close because of lack of teachers available though, I expect.

The government appears to have a plan of volunteer retired teachers stepping up, so not to worry!

Surely schooled would be the last thing to close, meaning that if they were shut we would be in a lockdown. They can't have soft plays open and schools close. And if everywhere shuts furlough would have to come back and the Uc uplift and for that reason alone I can't see it happening.

@Appuskidu

The government appears to have a plan of volunteer retired teachers stepping up, so not to worry!

Didn't seem to be many takers for that on my thread! www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/4424971-There-is-no-army-of-volunteers-waiting-to-be-called-to-keep-schools-open

I'm a teacher and I certainly hope schools don't close.

My Y11s are lovely but struggle academically and have already had so much disruption to their GCSEs.

Y13 BTEC have an external exam in Jan. Y13 A-level again have had so much disruption.

Y7 are the weakest year group we have had.

Teaching online is a very poor substitute! Plus it's so boring!

Didn't seem to be many takers for that on my thread!

Goodness, @noblegiraffe, I wonder why?!

There are 2 weeks now to think about mitigations to avoid it.

There are 2 weeks now for school staff to have a BREAK to gather strength for another term of challenges.

Fixed it for you.

Whatever mitigations are discussed, you can guarantee Us4Them and co will be having a shitty letter-writing campaign to heads accusing them of child abuse if they implement them.

I have not got the strength to homeschool again , the last time nearly broke me.

I’ve not got the strength to supervise keyworker and “vulnerable” (sorry but sharing a bedroom with a sibling does not make you vulnerable!) teens again as the last time did fucking break me (support staff who worked in school throughout the lockdown whilst the teachers stayed at home and currently signed off due to having a mental breakdown as a result)
No one wants to go back to that and if it came to it then I would keep my dc at home and we would read books and go for daily walks and watch interesting documentaries and not do any poxy online lessons

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

There are 2 weeks now to think about mitigations to avoid it.

There are 2 weeks now for school staff to have a BREAK to gather strength for another term of challenges.

Fixed it for you.

Again, I was talking about the GOVERNMENT doing this, not school staff, as I already said upthread.

When the DfE had to do a bit of work over Christmas last year because of the last minute announcement of setting up covid testing centres in schools, they got paid a £1000 bonus. They also got a Christmas party.

I suspect they won't be working this Christmas, coming up with mitigations or otherwise.

@Appuskidu

The government appears to have a plan of volunteer retired teachers stepping up, so not to worry!

Bahahahaha

Wow. Teachers should have got the 1k bonus!

(And nhs frontline staff obviously!)

No... we got to work for free marking the exams that we'd normally get paid for. Go us...

I’m a teacher, I can’t see schools closing across the board as they have before, I think the vaccine plus LFT testing is a game changer and will keep us as open as possible. My kids school has closed to one year group due to lack of staff, all the kids are having 2 days home learning across a fortnight, and I can imagine that may happen more if we get very high infection rates predicted.