The Twelfth Republic - push and glide to the summer break

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff. Baiters and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

You can play here only if you are a member of one the following groups-

-ABBA - anti bashers and baiting association
-SWAB - school workers against bashers
-SWOT - school workers opposing teacherbashers
-STARS - schoolworkers together against ranting + slurs

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the toffee vodka is hidden.

If you are fed up with cakes and biscuits there is now a cheeseboard on offer

If you come with a stick to beat us with then please do so elsewhere and not in the staffroom

raspberry no the big test centre is self testing as well. I may as well have stayed closer to home. But third time's the charm for me getting the right spot for testing. I did absolutely nothing different, other than using the other nostril.

We have been given tape to cordon off an area at the front to keep ourselves 2m away from the kids. And we've been told to use mini whiteboards "if" we need to check pupil work.

MsAwesomeDragon what a relief!

I can't find the info and graph which shows the real downs for last week in terms of settings. You know, the one that might show schools being the higher incident rate?

MsAwesomeDragon good news!

Still nothing from our SLT about PPA etc. Letter has gone to parents but as I don't have a child at school I haven't had it. But a friend has sent me a copy - bubbles of key stages! Staggered lunch/entry/break etc.

Am trying to leave it all alone for a bit, not look at school email etc.
Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

We haven't had our guidelines either. Waiting until September.

There is literally no room to have a 2m zone for teachers anywhere in the room. I'm also expecting mini whiteboards to be tricky unless every child has one. Hopefully school will provide this as we're one of the only depts with them.

So many questions that won't be answered until September and government guidelines due 13th August.

Great news on the test MsAwesome.

Neuro - I posted the table up there somewhere - here it is. The brackets are the ones this week.

Thanks Oh, I didn't realise that was the same one.

I'm sure on govt website there was a report including pretty coloured graphs? Last week there was clearly a blue band of educational setting outbreaks and it was higher than any other setting. Is that what's gone??

So over 1/4 are in educational settings. But only less than 1/4 of students in.
I assume a parent would not be included in the ohtbreak numbers so the numbers would higher.
I cant see t&t or the testing coping

So glad you got a negative!

That’s the covid surveillance report I think neuro.

They come from this page.

Handy graph of the total number of outbreaks here.

The high number of other outbreaks doesnr make sense. Unless it's that more are being reported. Otherwise it looks like those are the false negatives.

The Guidance says only those who've had close contact with the positive person should be told to isolate:

Based on the advice from the health protection team, schools must send home those people who have been in close contact with the person who has tested positive, advising them to self-isolate for 14 days since they were last in close contact with that person when they were infectious. Close contact means:

• direct close contacts - face to face contact with an infected individual for any length of time, within 1 metre, including being coughed on, a face to face conversation, or unprotected physical contact (skin-to-skin)
• proximity contacts - extended close contact (within 1 to 2 metres for more than 15 minutes) with an infected individual
• travelling in a small vehicle, like a car, with an infected person

The whole group may be asked to isolate in some cases:

9. Contain any outbreak by following local health protection team advice

If schools have two or more confirmed cases within 14 days, or an overall rise in sickness absence where coronavirus (COVID-19) is suspected, they may have an outbreak, and must continue to work with their local health protection team who will be able to advise if additional action is required.

In some cases, health protection teams may recommend that a larger number of other pupils self-isolate at home as a precautionary measure – perhaps the whole site or year group. If schools are implementing controls from this list, addressing the risks they have identified and therefore reducing transmission risks, whole school closure based on cases within the school will not generally be necessary, and should not be considered except on the advice of health protection teams.

@Keepdistance

The high number of other outbreaks doesnr make sense. Unless it's that more are being reported. Otherwise it looks like those are the false negatives.

I think they are probably all COVID. I’d assume some of those are outbreaks PHE are aware of but don’t have the test results back yet.

One of the old schoolsweek articles has the PHE saying that at this time of year they’d expect most outbreaks to be COVID. But I haven’t found anyone who knows why there is a difference between the total number of new outbreaks and the number of covid outbreaks. The flu surveillance reports tend to break the figure down.

@Piggywaspushed we have been told that it our "professional responsibility" to maintain social distancing. They haven't explained how we're going to manage that and have told us we have to sit within a metre on the training days. A bit double standardsy

It's also their 'professional responsibility' to keep us safe!!

Currently enjoying some of the 'why do I have to go back to work' threads from one or two of our more vocal detractors.

If you're a parent, and you find out that a child in your child's bubble (particularly in primary school where they are in small bubbles, and where SD is not a thing), has tested positive... are you going to send your child to school? Or take them out for 2 weeks?

Re: those graphs of recent outbreaks, surely the number of care settings are much lower than the number of schools, so to have more outbreaks in schools is not so surprising, is it? Or is it because it's a new development?

@FrippEnos

Currently enjoying some of the 'why do I have to go back to work' threads from one or two of our more vocal detractors.

Too right they have to go back to work!

If kids are back at school they need to get back to the office and crack in with some real work instead of their keyboard warrior campaigns about education. They can’t have it both ways 😂

Quite surprising as other countries say kids cant spread it.

Children more likely to be asymptomatic. If there are that number there will be
at least 1/4 more just for false negatives
Asymptomatics
Cases where only 1 person with symptoms so not an outbreak.
Cases where it's a student and parent so probably not called an outbreak.
Obviously most are the case for any setting.

The difference is the gov couldnt contain the care homes even though the people had no visitors and dont leave so only carers in. And they started wearing masks.
1000s of kids mixing then mixing with middle aged parents. Then off to swimming pools? Trampoline parks. Parents going shopping and into work.

Surely most classes that would be everyone sent home at primary as how can a teacher remember who talked to each other. Then does it pop the clubs bubble too?

I would take dc out as minimum after positive case as the whole class/school could be presymptomatic/asymptomatic. And im completely against a 2 cases to pop bubbles.

I have bo idea how they think any V or ECV will continue to send.
However i doubt school will tell us very quickly. They took at least a day in march to say about a arent having it.

I think two cases pop the bubble though. From what I can tell of the schools that have had cases here. Pupils who’ve had lessons with 1 +ve case have beeen told to self isolate for two weeks and any class that has been taught by a teacher that has tested + ve has been told to self isolate.

Perhaps if they have two cases within the same bubble they assume that’s an outbreak and pop the bubble even for children that haven’t had contact.

No idea oh...

We were told that decisions made for any bubble or school closures would be made by PHE working with the school. I think that's why councils have pushed for all details of who has tested positive locally, according to the numbers thread.

It would make sense; if several families with links to the school were testing positive, that info is important when making decisions.

Thanks to links for graphs. I remember one listed how many also tested positive outside the education setting, linked to the person/child who had within it.

I still suspect and element of guinea pig trialling going on in sept...

@noblegiraffe

Are teachers considered to be in all the bubbles they teach in, or none of them?

We still haven’t had our guidelines.

This is an interesting point and I can’t seem to find any guidance on this.

From reading between the lines I think teachers are NOT part of the bubble as we’re advised to stay 2m away from pupils at all times. If we were considered to be part of the bubble and I tested positive I could have therefore infected over 200 pupils, schools would never be open!

Could I also theoretically shut down 2 other schools - the ones my children go to and the one where DH teaches?

I suddenly feel very powerful!

I also think we have no bubble at secondary. I'd love our head to communicate with us but he doesn't. I suspect he is also baffled.