Drowning in a sea full of tiers

[Cismyfatarse]

Next thread. DD's birthday so can someone link.

We only got an email from the council saying its Google Classroom for Secondary School pupils and something else for primary. Not sure if it will be following the timetable.

Last time around, it varied by subject. some subjects didn't post anything at all during lock down, some posted every day, and some once a week. DD was usually done in half an hour. I hope she gets more work this time around.

I'm thankful she's still only in S2 and not in an exam year although I believe they would normally do their options form in February and I'm concerned DD will make the wrong choice based on the fact she hasn't had much practical experience of some subjects or the online learning has put her off.

Actually I don't mean individual schools, it's SG and Education Scotland that should taken lead on this and had things in place by now . It was almost an given we'd be returning to lockdown home learning at some point.

@WaxOnFeckOff

deaths are already falling overal, despite BBC headline saying something about 350 ish over festive period, which turned out to be 14 days worth.

Is it too much to ask for just some proper figures and decent analysis?

Have you been watching the data thread on here? I've always kept an eye on it but there's very very little none at all talk of Scotland, mainly because I think almost everyone on it is English. I would love more of a big picture understanding too, of the impact of this wave versus the early days of the first.

Just seen that our school will send out the work on a Friday for the next week to allow parents time to work out timetables and know what they will be doing.

Just went to lidl for the extras shop (what I didn't manage to get or what we have run out of) twice the same man knocked into me. Wanted to cry as my fibro pain is bad. Then the woman in front of me at the queue was jumping queues then packed her shop after she paid! I just wanted in and out. I don't have the patience for shops.

Does anyone know if osteopath/physio are allowed to open in this lockdown?

@Groovee

Chiropractors and osteopaths are definitely permitted to work. Not physios though (AFAIK)

I think it's hard to report data that hasn't been collected. It also goes both ways, for example, a person gets admitted to hospital and tests positive for covid, they become really ill from covid, spend a time in ICU and unfortunately die on day 30, they wouldn't technically be a covid death as they are outwith the 28 day limit.

another person falls from a building gets to hospital and tests positive, later unfortunately dies from a ruptured spleen = covid death.

The latter group will outnumber the former by a mile.

There will be some cases where someone has a respiratory condition and has covid and dies and it's harder to tell whether they would have died anyway, but for most it would have been easyish to collect the data of whether they died with or from covid. In the USA for example a fair number of people are on the covid death stats but also had gunshot wounds. their numbers are huge enough that this wouldn't be a huge impact, but just an example.

There are lots of enquiries going on in the US about death figures as it seems that the private system encouraged Drs to say that the person needed ventilation because of the positive covid which results in bigger payments from medical insurers.

The figures to be watching are the death rates (even if they are flawed) and amounts in ICU above the norm (or those in ICU because of covid if we knew) as these are true cases in the definition of the word.

If super spready just means that more people catch it and not that more people end up needing an ICU bed and we quickly get the vulnerable vaccinated then we should be able to open things up as aside from rare cases, most people will get it and then quickly get better with manageable symptoms. We can't protect the small number of those that might take it badly that we don't know about as this would destroy society though it's obviously a hard thing. We might as well say that we are banning cars because there are sometimes fatal accidents. Life isn't without risk unfortunately.

I've just logged ds into his school account on the xbox. Seems to work ok so that's a good thing, his other option when I'm working is my ancient iPhone so it's good to have an alternative.
Although now I'm having to try and find a keyboard he can use, I can probably borrow one from my work, and he won't have a webcam unless I buy one.
We are so lucky to be able to even consider buying webcams, I know they're only £15 or whatever on amazon but that's too much money for some.

I know someone mentioned this before and we decided not to but would a separate schools thread be helpful now?

(I love how democratic we are on this thread BTW)

I usually do a quick round up of the NRS Scottish weekly death figures. I didn't today because they are harder to interpret due to Christmas and New Year bank holiday effects and the way NRS have calculated the 5 year average to take account of week53 (only happens every 5 years).

That said overall deaths in wk 51 1,282 wk 52 1,205 wk53 1,156 so the trend is down rather than up.

There is likely a lag for New Year still to be processed. The 5 year average for next week's equivalent catch up week is over 1,500. In 2018 it was almost 1,900 but in 2016 it was 1,300. The "normal range" for January weeks is quite wide. Very hard to predict or draw conclusions from.

@Dinnafashyersel thanks for that. I was feeling a little gloomy as herself appears to have been threatening shutting more stuff today, like click and collect and construction. So your figures are reassuring

From travelling tabby today, overall deaths look bog standard average to me over the Christmas period. I appreciate there will be delays in reporting over the holidays, but surely that's the case every year, so the figures should be comparable. Unless I'm missing something?

January does seem to vary very significantly - mostly I think depending on the severity of the flu season, plus a few other factors like weather too

WaxOnFeckOff Richard@rp131 on twitter is amazing and almost overwhelming with charts and does Scotland too. Charts showing positives by actual dates not reported and showing lags and catch up. John Burn- Murdock's Twitter is also good.

So here we go again - just heard from school (primary), work to be posted on teams. Conscious re siblings and working parents so do what you can. Feedback on one piece of work per week. I really don't think this is a substitute for an education at school and alongside peers.

[quote Aurea]@Groovee

Chiropractors and osteopaths are definitely permitted to work. Not physios though (AFAIK)[/quote]
Great thanks. My hip is playing up and it's been a while since my last maintenance app.

And re data limitations - well aware that local spike in cases here is linked to care homes yet no reflection of this in data, and generally presented as community transmission

@Groovee physios are allowed to open this time.

Feedback on one piece of work per week. I really don't think this is a substitute for an education at school and alongside peers

I agree. This is not good enough.

Our primary has a 20 minute check in slot in the morning and it says the teachers will be available on Teams all day.

We haven't seen what the work will look like yet so who knows.

And we haven't heard a word from the high school.

@makingitupaswegoon I'd be inclined to email a few of your local councillors including the ones with an education remit.

It would be fine to me, IF the govt confirmed kids are going to assessed by their teachers and caught up later where needed. If this is really supposed to be replicating the in class experience perfectly clearly it is falling far short.

Feedback on one piece of work a week? That really isn't enough at all is it? We got no feedback on any work during the first lockdown, and I was hoping for more interaction this time to help keep my kids motivated. It got harder and harder to convince them to keep going when even my seven year old knew his teacher wasn't going to check his work.

We haven't heard anything yet, bar a text yesterday saying info was coming today (it hasn't).

I think that sadly even the very best efforts of staff aren't going to be enough and really this year will/ should be a write off. I just can't see how assessments can be done fairly. It's Avery sad side effect of this shit show.

@Invisimamma

Actually I don't mean individual schools, it's SG and Education Scotland that should taken lead on this and had things in place by now . It was almost an given we'd be returning to lockdown home learning at some point.

This, in spades. There shouldn't be a postcode lottery about who gets some online live lessons and who doesn't.

Has anyone heard anything about Edinburgh schools doing live lessons this time? We have just had a holding email from DC's high school, so have no idea what's planned for next week.

Makingitup- feed back on one piece of work isn't great. But how are the kids doing the work and submitting it?

Last time we seemed to have lots of worksheets, I remember a story that had to be submitted if possible, which really involved DS one finger typing before he started dictating it for me too type, his imagination was running wild.

For most primary kids their parents can mark and say what the kids got right or wrong.

We had worksheets and no printer so that was great. I had to get the kids to write it out, add the answers, take a photo, and email it to the teacher, so I could get no response. That got OLD after about 6 weeks.

Feedback on one piece of work might be okay if it was a high school subject. Depends on how substantial the piece of work is. In a primary school setting maybe not! I'd hope for at least one maths one literacy.

If they say online learning I’m expecting a full programme tbh.

Otherwise just be honest and call it holiday and furlough the staff.