Still no air filters in schools?

[wondersun]

Is anyone else really hacked off that there are still no air filters in schools??

The kids don’t spread it / don’t get sick from covid nonsense narrative has been replaced with cases are low due to school holidays (so much nicer when covid knew to wait at the school gates!) but the government are still refusing to do something so simple which could make schools safer.

Its like they don’t want to admit it’s worth avoiding repeat covid infections so therefore have to do nothing to stop/slow the thread and risk inevitable questions.

Even if it just slows it - every covid infection is a roll of long covid etc risks - why do they seem so keen to spread it round asap.

Indeed. Instead of trotting out that there isn't any money, posters need to explain why schools don't deserve any.

My school spending money on a brilliant adventure obstacle course for the juniors

Secondary just invested heavily in a phenomenal selection of books to enhance the library

that is what I love to see schools spending money on. Not flippin air filters!

@Endlesslypatient82 for someone who claims they're not interested in school problems, you're spending a lot of time on this thread arguing against those who support making the air in them healthier.

School problems - yes

but I don’t see the gov not investing in air filters as a “problem”!

It's the government not investing in education full stop.

I am a teacher and I am very concerned about Covid.
Schools follow the guidance but I can't understand how we can safely move from the previous measures to nothing. The fact that people can go to work is they are positive is madness. I asked the Headteacher if he could make masks compulsory in the staff toilets-no window but he said he could not do that. At the end of term all staff was expected to congregate in the hall- there was not a possibility to remain in our classrooms and 'attend' online- most distressing.
In any setting if too many staff are off this will prevent the service being provided.
I was, and still am, unhappy about 2m distance or half capacity pictures in the press of schools. We were regularly shown pictures of 2 pupils sitting at desks that were meant to accommodate 4. As I explained to my sister this could not happen unless the school was running at 50% capacity or if the accommodation had increased by 50%.
We will be opening all the windows and the poor pupils or staff nearby will perish .

But I regard the investment my primary ismaking in an adventure obstacle course for juniors and the huge investment the secondary has made in its library - as most certainly “investment in education”

But that's not necessarily government investment. There are charities who give grants to redevelop or improve your school libraries (as the government says you don't need to have one). The obstacle course may well come from the Sports Premium which was a committed hangover from the last UK held Olympics rather than general education funding. As such the money is ringfenced and has to be spent on things like that even if the school is struggling to pay for its staff.

Both government investment according to the school newsletters

It's weird. Over time, more and more studies have shown the negative impact on organs, the large numbers with long covid, the reduction in quality of life for many families. We are now as a society, deliberately choosing to hurt many more families. The teachers that help our children, that we 'like' - when push comes to shove, mean sod all to us - as do our schools, childrens' friends and families.

If mental and physical health, life chances, education, detrimental financial impacts mean nothing, there is still the question of how we afford the cost of those no longer able to work, the 'token treatment' of long covid, the increased risk of strokes, heart attacks, dementia, ageing of the immune system etc. How do we afford those things? What is the plan?

The sport premium grant report should be on the school website so can see whether it includes the obstacle course.

Not sure what Government investment would pay for library books.

People saying there's no money for anything need to explain how Boris just spent £54 million on some drones for Ukraine.

Preventing a future war may indeed be a higher priority than air filters in schools!

Exactly, it’s not that there’s no money, it’s that the government put schools at the back of the queue every time.

Schools are utterly screwed this autumn because the govt have not given schools money to fund the pay rise they’ve just told heads to give teachers and TAs.

Nor funding for heating / hot water .

Still, the kids playing on the new adventure equipment will be having too much fun to think about how cold they are.

It seems to me that by doing nothing at all to mitigate the risks of Covid, the Government us forever asking organisations to do more, with less, AND with one hand tied behind their backs.

It’s like the Ambulance Service, NHS and Social Care and the rest - the cry is ‘get back to normal’ and ‘abolish the delays’ but there is no acknowledgement of the continued impact of Covid on staff sickness, staff recruitment, staff morale, waiting lists etc etc. By paying proper attention and money to preventing infection, treating long Covid, providing trauma counselling etc etc then so much more could be done. But everyone is expected to ‘snap back to normal’ just because we gave been told ‘Covid is over’.

When shall we come back in the future and see if that actually turns in to a reality? 6 months?

Nor funding for heating / hot water .

I doubt the Government will turn off the heating in schools! That IS important.

But air filters in every classroom...?!

Eh? Schools were freezing last winter. Kids in coats and hats in the classroom. Did you miss the threads?

The govt don't have a giant switch which controls school heating. However they do have the power to allocate schools more money to cover vastly increased energy bills and or staffing costs (pay rises). They are not using this power.

It's not that the Government would cut off heating; they don't have that level of control. It's that they haven't made any changes to funding to account for the price increases last April nor those coming this October and January. So schools are getting no more money but paying for the same level of electricity and gas will cost more. Either schools will have to cut something else or use less by, for example, limiting the heating to specific times in winter (which I know my school has already planned for).

Our local Trust is saying their utility costs will be over £500k higher. What do you think they should cut to cover those additional costs @Endlesslypatient82?

If they can barely afford heating, then where on earth should the money for air filters come from?

The assumption would be the Government would pay for them, like Governments in other countries have. But as our Government isn’t funding additional heating costs then they certainly aren’t going to fund air filters. But does probably mean classrooms are going to be even colder than they were last winter if the only viable ventilation is open windows and as schools won’t be able to afford to have heating going straight out the windows, low ir no heating.

Hope the posters on here who think teachers are moaning etc won’t be complaining if their children are cold in school this winter.

Alternatively all schools will blow their budgets and leave the Government to sort out that mess

There is also a cost to not funding these. How are we going to fund those? I appreciate we have reached the stage where warmth, expectations of not being deliberately harmed, smoother education etc are not seen as 'givens'. How do we fund the fallout from that, or is the plan to not fund that either?