Schools still a covid shitshow

[noblegiraffe]

"Schools have been forced to send year groups home this week because of "rapidly rising" Covid rates among staff and an inability to find supply teachers, it has emerged.

The removal of the need for Covid testing among staff and pupils was making the situation worse, with some schools now experiencing their worst absence levels of the pandemic, a headteachers' leader told Tes.

Heads warn that some schools are having to send year groups home on a rota or combine class groups in an attempt to protect exam year groups from more disruption."

www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/covid-schools-absence-send-year-groups-home-cases-spike

Some will claim that getting rid of testing would improve the situation, but clearly a situation where lots of teachers are getting ill and requiring a few days off school to recover, regardless of isolation rules, is not 'getting back to normal'.

The teachers that I know who have had covid recently would have required a few days off school despite it being 'mild' even without isolation guidance, even though teachers are well-known for dosing on Lemsip and turning up to school regardless of illness because setting cover work is worse.

Still, the covid catch-up effort has basically fizzled out, and it's looking like zero effort will be made by the government to support children in recovering their education from the impact of absences and lack of teachers.

Exams start in a couple of months for kids who are having an extremely disruptive time. The government has fixed the exam grades so that they will come out with better results than the 2019 cohort, this will basically cover up the impact on educational standards. How this will play out down the line at uni/college/sixth form is anyone's guess.

Coincidently are these rises due to no pcr as no one has to prove covid now do we? I’m guessing many are not genuine absences

By that logic I'm guessing the 6 children positive cases currently in my primary class are also faking!

There are shirkers in all workplaces. Are you saying there are a disproportionate amount in schools? Teachers have had a couple of shit years, so to be labelled malingerers must help boost their morale? You don't need a PCR for flu, so why weren't all these teachers taking time off for that previously?

Seems odd given teachers are so keen to test

Meanwhile in the real world everyone else binned the tests as soon as they could......

@Watapalava
Where are you pulling your shit generalisations from?

Who said ALL teachers are keen to test?

You really are scraping the teacher bashing barrel here.

No teacher likes taking time off. Setting cover work is 100x more hassle than planning for yourself.

It has been suggested that teachers are more likely to feel unwell with Covid because of a high viral load - spending prolonged time in an enclosed space with a large number of people.

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 keen to test. It's not testing that's causing people to be off. It's the pounding headaches, fever and breathing difficulties. The test come after those appear.
Teaching is the only job where being off means more work. Lessons have to be replanned as cover, resources made and instructions written. Every day you're off.

Some people don't seem to realise that teachers and kids are actually human. Much as we'd like them to be totally free from the impacts of a virus that messes with organs and makes them feel ill, doesn't mean they are all exempt.

Meanwhile in the real world everyone else binned the tests as soon as they could......

If "in the real world" everyone has binned the tests and if they have covid, don't even know about it because they neither have symptoms, nor are they testing regularly why is the number of positive test results increasing? Why are cases exceptionally high?

If your hypothesis is true, shouldn't the number of positive results be going down?

Raspberry jam chicken - Why does somebody always come on and start saying how teachers are teachers are a special case?

It’s been suggested that teachers are more at risk? You seriously think they spend more time to in enclosed spaces with people and that this makes them more vulnerable than say, healthcare workers dealing with actual covid patients?

It’s been the same on here for two years.

@Malteser71

Raspberry jam chicken - Why does somebody always come on and start saying how teachers are teachers are a special case?

It’s been suggested that teachers are more at risk? You seriously think they spend more time to in enclosed spaces with people and that this makes them more vulnerable than say, healthcare workers dealing with actual covid patients?

It’s been the same on here for two years.

Don't they have masks and other protections in place though?

And actually, caring for sick people, some of whom have infectious diseases, was the job that they signed up for. And the job they (rightly) get praised and appreciated for doing.

And yes it HAS been the same on here for two years.... did you really need to say something so nasty yet again?

Malteser table 2E shows education staff currently more infected than healthcare staff (and every other sector).

www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=%2fpeoplepopulationandcommunity%2fhealthandsocialcare%2fconditionsanddiseases%2fdatasets%2fcoronaviruscovid19infectionsinthecommunityinengland%2f2march2022/covid19infectionsurveydatasets20220302.xlsx

Regardless, schools are in crisis, running out of staff and kids are being sent home for remote learning as there aren't enough teachers. But why actually accept that there's an issue that needs addressing when you can just whine about teachers instead? Same as ever, on here.

schoolsweek.co.uk/covid-pupil-absences-triple-in-two-weeks-and-almost-1-in-10-teachers-off/

"The number of pupils missing school due to Covid has more than tripled in just two weeks, and almost one in ten teachers are now absent nationally, new government data suggests.

The Department for Education’s latest attendance survey data estimates that on March 17, 202,000 pupils, or 2.5 per cent of the pupil population, were absent for Covid-related reasons.

This is up from just 58,000 pupils, or 0.7 per cent, on March 3, an increase of almost 250 per cent.

Staff absence rates also rose sharply, but it is now impossible to tell from the data what proportion are off because of Covid due to a change to the DfE’s data collection."

If you want data to back up what teachers on here are reporting...

Well we've just closed 2 year groups tomorrow. 20% of all staff off and we've reached unsafe levels of supervision. What a mess.

@Watapalava

Seems odd given teachers are so keen to test

Meanwhile in the real world everyone else binned the tests as soon as they could......

I care about the 30 children in my class and their families. I also care about the other staff I work with. That's why I test.

Clearly you don't care about anyone except yourself.

@mumsneedwine, If only those staff members had binned their tests, they could have continued to stagger in and infect even more people!
How short-sighted of them.

Mind you, in this real world @watapalava speaks of, if everyone is binning off the idea of testing, how come the gov.uk site has run out of them?

Seems odd given teachers are so keen to test

In my school, the policy is that we test if we have symptoms, and then stay off with a positive pcr or lft so that we're not spreading it about. We are still set up for on-line learning and our children currently off with covid can still attend lessons, assuming they feel up to it and teachers can continue to teach from home if they feel up to it. The aim of this is simply to keep as many children in school as we can as well as to preserve the health of colleagues who are required to teach the children. It's particularly aimed at preserving both the health of colleagues and exam class students who can do without having to take any time off right now.

But have it your way, we're all lazy good for nothings who couldn't give a shit about our jobs.

Jesus fucking wept. Nothing like a bunch of mumsnet women without one clue how education works to tell us how we should be doing it, eh?

Mumsnet hates teachers in general. @Watapalava is the epitome of this.

@Invasionofthegutsnatchers Spot on with all your posts.

It’s been suggested that teachers are more at risk? You seriously think they spend more time to in enclosed spaces with people and that this makes them more vulnerable than say, healthcare workers dealing with actual covid patients?

Healthcare staff are using masks as a mimimum, more PPE when in contact with known covid cases. Teachers are using nothing at all. That with rising cases, there are more children infecting more children infecting more adults infecting yet more children in schools is hardly rocket science.

In which healthcare settings are there 30 unvaccinated humans in a confined area indoors, with limited personal hygiene? (Thinking of our 4-7 year olds who lick surfaces, cough literally in my face, scream in their friends' faces, like pencils?)

Lots of us on here don't hate teachers! There are some shitty comments from some posters, but I think lots of people can see teachers and education have been treated like shit. Thanks for all you do. It's well beyond time you were given more than a thank you.

Lick pencils. Not like pencils