Guilt Free Railing 9

[WouldBeGood]

Nine!!!

(sorry, didn't see scottishskifuns reply there - but yes, vaccines

a) make it less likely you catch covid in the first place
B) make you less likely to be ill from it
C) make it less likely you transmit it to anyone else
D) make it pretty definite you don't die from it
E) reduce the risk of long covid

So good things overall, for both you and society...

It mutates a lot, but chances of vaccine resistance or escape is minimal. I saw a great explanation of this which I’ll try to find.

My view is that a strategy should be prepared for that unlikely event and meanwhile let’s get back to normal

@sailororscout on Twitter

I think that vaccine escape is unlikely because the vaccines are raised to the part of virus that binds to cells, and thus if the virus mutates too much (to evade vaccine immunity) it will no longer be able to effectively bind cellular receptors and infect cells. Essentially, to evade vaccines it needs to cripple itself.

So the other half of the webinar stated that good developments have been made in long covid clinics at helping treat and ease symptoms in people with long covid.....

Hmmmmmm and people wonder why Scots with the condition feel neglected by the SG!
Other aspects are about really helping people in the clinics is with pacing (doesn't really happen here as again no clinic I've had a 3 minute discussion with a NHS physio on how to do it).

Wish bloody NS would watch it!

* Wish bloody NS would watch it!*

I’m afraid she’s too busy reading and promoting books by her chums. Always has time for a set up book promo, it seems.

Ah ok if it does cut transmission then I get it - thought I was missing something!

Can I have a totally random rail. Why do English and Welsh kids have compulsory swimming lessons at school and Scottish children don’t? There were asking a minister on the radio today about it and his answer was well they have two hours of pe in the curriculum so what else do you expect us to do. To which the radio guy said but swimming isn’t specifically in the curriculum. To which minister said well no but some organisation or another sends packs into some schools about something or other to do with swimming so that’s all good. I was just listening in disbelief.
I never realised English and Welsh children were taught swimming in school before. And now I’m feeling very annoyed on behalf of all Scottish children m. I think they could probably save more children’s lives by teaching them to swim than by vaccinating them!

@Icannever that's certainly true. Learning to swim is a much better way to save children’s lives.

To be fair my DC did get a term of swimming at school (p4?), as did I way back in the 70s but I guess that will be reliant on having suitable local facilities but the transport to and from is a big cost, In my day in Edinburgh we all just went to the bus stop and got the bus with a token for each way and sorted ourselves out at age 8/9 ish and then we did skiing (P5 ish) and did the same.

My two were lucky in that they'd already attended swimming lessons since age 2/3 and were therefore proficient before the school lessons. I'd have been happy enough for the non swimmers to get extra and for mine to do something else if it worked out cheaper.

I didn't get any swimming lessons through school. Dh went to another local secondary school with its own pool so he got lessons. Same local authority.

@Icannever correct, swimming is not included in the curriculum in Scotland. Our local authority does make an additional payment to primary schools which can be used for swimming, but it's the same amount per school regardless of school size or proximity to facilities. This means some schools can send each pupil on one swimming block, others, can send every pupil, every week throughout the school year! Yet, equality of education is a phrased used regularly by both local authority and Scottish Government

We had great swimming lessons at primary, I remember learning to swim lengths in my pjs and shoes and life saving. I have sent mine to swimming lessons from age three as well but apparently 40% of a children leave primary school in Scotland unable to swim! I think that’s awful.

I know transport costs are high but they have also rebuilt two secondary schools here and got rid of the pools (which could have been used for many primary school lessons too)

I heard that too; the guy (Keith Brown I think) said that it's down to each LA to decide how the mandatory PE hours are spent, I guess it's got something to do with the local provision.

Apparently 40% of kids don't learn to swim during childhood, which is quite shocking for an island nation I think.

I was already scared of being out of my depth by the time I had school lessons - i'd self taught myself at open sessions at the local pool. It was a cheap activity and I went with my older siblings at a weekend and it saved on baths at home as we were a large poor family. I nearly drowned (or it certainly felt like it at the time) and even now I'm a bit spooked about my head going under. I don't think I made best use of the lessons at school and cheated with one foot on the floor quite a lot and I guess over 30 kids in a smallish pool with (as far as I recall) 1 instructor probably wasn't the best. No swimming at high school as we didn't have a pool. Same for my DC, lessons for a term at primary and nothing at high school as they didn't have a pool.

It's really sad that we can't properly equip our DC with life skills unless we can afford to pay for them ourselves or if parents are able to do do it themselves. Lots of barriers for lots of people to make that work whereas school has the time in the curriculum and should be able to make it happen if the will and the resource is there.

I'm sure they have no swimming in Glasgow till p6, which I suspect is because the kids can't necessarily get themselves properly dressed until then.

The problem is that by that late stage a lot of kids will have had lessons, or regular trips with family so those who haven't will be self conscious if they're not as good as the others, many may be starting puberty so maybe developing body issues, it's just too late for so many.

😳 I never realised children in Scotland didn't have compulsory swimming lessons!

Yes primary school we had swimming lessons regularly, secondary it was done in blocks but everyone had to do one block of swimming each year until 14.

Very glad that we have been taking DS swimming since he was 10 weeks old! He enjoys the water and at 2 can get on his own to the side and climb out. His lessons spend a lot of time on water safety which to me is absolutely critical!

Swimming takes place in P5 in GCC ( or at least in the schools I've taught in).

No swimming now though, cos Covid 🤷🏻‍♀️ Nuts.

DS got 8 weeks (?) swimming in P4, but only managed about 4 of them before covid struck (and another issue specific to our school that cut off a couple). He had been going since he was a baby, as it was something that was just second nature to me growing up... It was absolutely non negotiable to me that he was able to swim a couple of lengths and do water safety stuff, just in case. Luckily, he quite enjoys it.

We had annual lessons at primary ( I think) and a school funded Saturday "family swimming" thing, and secondary had a (disgusting) pool where we did lessons and safety stuff with canoes and shit at least one term a year. I'm surprised it hasn't been such an engrained thing north of the border too, as it is so important (let alone potentially life saving).

@Haudyourwheesht surely most kids can dress themselves before p6?! My wee one about to start school dresses himself and I don't think he's particularly independent.

@WouldBeGood

No swimming now though, cos Covid 🤷🏻‍♀️ Nuts.

Actually, yes there is- In August I'm taking my P6s who missed their block of swimming last year due to lockdown.

@StarryEyeSurprise not in school

*in August

It’s another two tier system