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.

@noblegiraffe

We had a retired teacher join us. She lasted 2 hours before she grabbed a kid by the arm and tried to pull them to isolation room!

@DoobryWhatsit

Did your school not have a stash?

We’ve still got about 1000 boxes SLT are holding on to and distributing as and when needed

One thing I'm finding particularly interesting is that this thread has 50 posts and the 'on course for another lockdown' one is heading for 500 in roughly the same time.

Given that schools threads previously filled up in minutes, it appears that the people who previously flooded the schools threads don't actually care about schools or kids, but only about restrictions and lockdowns.

"I think it is expected that the current wave is about to peak/will start to decline soon."

Great. Wave 7 should peak what 3 months after wave 6? Meanwhile exam groups are still having disrupted lessons exam revision etc. At this rate wave 8 may hit during the exam period.

I’ve just tried to order and there aren’t any. I need them for work (care), so I guess work need to start to supply them.

[quote OnceuponaRainbow18]@noblegiraffe

We had a retired teacher join us. She lasted 2 hours before she grabbed a kid by the arm and tried to pull them to isolation room![/quote]

Does anyone know if Jonathan Gullis MP who announced with great fanfare that he was signing up to the programme actually went to any schools?

Had a similar letter warning of possible year groups being sent home. So far only 2 and that was for a week at a time a few ago. It hasnt actually been that bad where we are luckily.

Not that I'm aware of, I think we gave them all out to the kids. We're a very small independent school though- we would never have had a stash of anything close to 1000 boxes, even during the compulsory 2x a week testing.

Sorry, that was a reply to @OnceuponaRainbow18

I also tried to order lfts yesterday and today and couldn't get them. Not very helpful.

Our school was a mess in January with over 100 kids on the covid register at some points. I was hoping those saying about being in a state at the moment were just late bloomers but sounds like some of you had a big wave then and now again?

I wonder if perhaps they're allocating boxes according to profession? I'm pretty sure I've had to state before now that I'm a teacher, so could that be why I was able to order a box this morning?

I think it was on PCR test ordering that you were asked for your profession Callme. I don't recall being asked on the lft ordering forms before.

My son’s primary was shut last week - village school, only 4 teachers plus a head. 3 teachers plus head, plus 3 TAs all off with covid. Another week of learning lost.

@swallowedAfly

I think it was on PCR test ordering that you were asked for your profession Callme. I don't recall being asked on the lft ordering forms before.

Ah yes, you might be right.

My dd's secondary is having a whole year half day event soon. Indoors. It's going to be amazing for virus spreading.

I was able to order lft both Wednesday and today by ordering shortly after 7 am. I've seen on twitter there's another batched released at 8pm but haven't tried then.

If people aren’t testing then how do they know they have covid? Either test or don’t test, this halfway house we have at the moment is a complete shitshow. People need to not test and just take time off when they’re actually feeling too unwell to work and everyone just be none the wiser whether they have it or not. That’s the only way to go on. Obviously treat people who end up in hospital and treat accordingly.

[quote UnvarnishedTruth]@rwalker Read theconversation.com/eight-changes-the-world-needs-to-make-to-live-with-covid-177678 from Professor Christina Pagel, then start demanding that the people accountable do these things.[/quote]
This is really interesting @rwalker - thank you for sharing. The parallels between providing safe water for the masses and safe air is interesting and certainly applies in schools.

One things for sure; the way this government have done this (arguably to save Johnson’s arse) isn’t a long term solution.

Chaos in the primary and secondary schools near me. I was speaking to a Year 11 neighbour who says she has had a really bad term with teacher absences and doesn't think she and her classmates will be anything like ready for GCSEs in the summer.

Seventeen children were absent from one primary class yesterday, along with the teacher
and TA.

@noblegiraffe a lot of parents don't care about the quality of education their children get, the conditions within the school or the wellbeing of the staff as long as their child is in school. The future of education in England is bleak.

I naively hoped that partial school closures during lockdowns would give parents some insight into the mammoth task we undertake each day to look after their children, manage (increasingly challenging) behaviour, jump through ridiculous hoops, get the job done with limited resources with a smile on our faces. But the narrative is still, teachers are lazy, teachers are whingers. I understand the difficulties parents faced whilst trying to work from home, juggle shifts etc. But there is almost no appreciation for the huge amount of WORK that is put in by teaching professionals all over the country, every bloody day, to the detriment sometimes of quality time with our own children. Everything is the teacher's fault.

I was on the other Covid lockdown thread earlier and some folk are adamant that we should carry on as normal. This ‘we’ve got learn to live with it’ ie just ignore it, is not working. We need to adapt and respond when another variant appears. Education needs investment with air filtration, medical grade masks. Letting this virus rip is causing so much disruption and possible long term damage to people’s health.

We have lfts and it's still law to test for symptoms and isolate here, so we are having a real problem with staffing with it ripping through the school at the moment.

I asked the office for a box of lfts as we are still asked to test twice a week and they joked 'no' because they couldn't afford any more staff off without symptoms.

They then gave me the tests, obviously, but it's an indication of how dire things are currently with them having to scrabble around for supply for so many isolating staff, some of whom have it for the 2nd time.

We have spent so much money on supply teachers/TAs as we have people off now on their second/third bout of covid. We cannot afford this and the dfe guidance to get a paltry amount of reimbursement is a nightmare to read.
We are a small school and have no spare capacity due to budget cuts, we haven’t closed any classes yet but are struggling to get supply teachers at the moment. It’s a challenge and I’m seriously looking for a job outside of education. I’m fed up of being treated like a glorified babysitter and ofsted still judging us as if covid doesn’t exist.

All my friends who are teachers and test positive take a week off because they can. They haven't been particularly ill. I got a flu thing that took me out for a couple of days recently. Didn't feel like covid but now I'm talking to friends who have "tested positive" it sounds like we all had the same thing. I was ill on the Friday but able to go out on Saturday night. I suspect everyone is used to whole weeks off despite feeling well now.

[quote Invasionofthegutsnatchers]@noblegiraffe a lot of parents don't care about the quality of education their children get, the conditions within the school or the wellbeing of the staff as long as their child is in school. The future of education in England is bleak.

I naively hoped that partial school closures during lockdowns would give parents some insight into the mammoth task we undertake each day to look after their children, manage (increasingly challenging) behaviour, jump through ridiculous hoops, get the job done with limited resources with a smile on our faces. But the narrative is still, teachers are lazy, teachers are whingers. I understand the difficulties parents faced whilst trying to work from home, juggle shifts etc. But there is almost no appreciation for the huge amount of WORK that is put in by teaching professionals all over the country, every bloody day, to the detriment sometimes of quality time with our own children. Everything is the teacher's fault.[/quote]
I think a lot of parents do appreciate what teachers do. Admittedly, the narrative on mumsnet has sometimes dehumanised teachers - e.g. teachers are a resource who annoyingly keep getting ill, as no mitigations in classrooms - no thought on how that impacts teachers, their families, careers/quality of life for those with long covid unable to teach anymore etc. Please know that lots do appreciate what you do and find the current situation dire.