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

"I can’t imagine many employers would be particularly open to allowing people to isolate at home for just assuming its covid."

This is exactly what did happen before testing opened to key workers. DH's work had over 200 people off between shielding and self-isolating, because the self-isolating got 2 'free' weeks off work. Anyone saying they were isolating because they had been in contact with a confirmed case was off on full pay, whereas those who were sick with COVID, were on sick pay.

Now, with wider testing, anyone who has symptoms can also get tested and be back at work within a couple of days if negative. Anyone who has been in contact with a confirmed case is still off for 14 days but they can be asked for evidence if stating track and trace contact, unless confirmed case is a resident.

Wales news is out. We are also all back in, with limited distancing, in September. Although the adults are still to follow distancing guidance. So no assemblies I imagine. And no staff meetings in person, they will be on Google meet instead for now.
We have been told to expect full guidance on Monday.

I swear it says in the guidance you have to stay off 7 days even if the test is negative...

Maybe that was in earlier guidance. I remember posting it on here.

Look at this form Hancock!

Praising landlords for choosing to shut, Mr Hancock told MPs earlier this week that they were “doing the right thing by their customers and by their communities”

Do you think school would be praised for shutting??

Today I have heard anecdotally of a state secondary school where they seem to be thinking of teaching all students in bubbles of 10. My informant was very hazy on how they are going to do it though.

That's surely not possible!!

Smaller bubbles.
If you have kids in class with lots of siblings say 3 children

Also if i were ht i would have reorganised siblings into matching classes.
With all the links including clubs i wouldnt leave dcin school even if case is in a different bubble

Exactly mini. We didn’t have any choice when there wasn’t a test. But now there is one nobody is going to get away with phoning up their manager and saying they need to stay off without a test being required.

Suspect a bigger problem might be people saying the test was negative and trying to send their children in.

That's what I thought Piggy. I may find out more details in time though!

Not sure if his is helpful at all. It’s the latest WHO summary on what we know about transmission so far. If nothing else it might allow to to make decisions about what risks you are happy to take out of school.

www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/transmission-of-sars-cov-2-implications-for-infection-prevention-precautions

I am back in school, and have around half my class in (primary, not one of the original year groups).
One child was off Monday "unwell." Returned to school for two days and off again today with "a sore throat." I am informed that a sore throat is not a Covid symptom, therefore the child may return whenever the parent sees fit, with no further questions asked.
My suspicion is that it will suit Head Teachers (generally) to not enquire too hard as to why children are off, as they may not want the subsequent self-isolation of bubbles. I'm not happy about this but what can I do about it?

I love (sarcasm klaxon) the WHO bit about indoor gatherings in poorly ventilated areas (eg places of worship which they seem obsessed with : perhaps it's my Britishness that thinks this isn't really such a Big Thing) so that would be - ummm- schools?

A sore throat is DEFINITELY a symptom. For the love of God!

This is like when I was really proper ill in March and y cover guy at first didn't want me off for a week + because I don't have 'the cough' and a colleague with a sore throat came back after a day off.

Well, by "not a symptom," I think they meant that it's not a certifiable symptom that would prompt a test for return to school.
If this child turns up at my classroom door tomorrow, what the fuck do I do about it?

Retreat by at least 2m. Get a plague doctor outfit...

If child has recurring or continued symptoms, why hasn't parent got them tested?

I really really wish the UK would expand its list of Covid symptoms!!

@ohthegoats

If child has recurring or continued symptoms, why hasn't parent got them tested?

Good question, but it they haven't or won't, and they choose to return them to a school where the Head is determined to open at all costs, then what can we staff do about it? If HTs insist on tests (or temperature checks, come to that) then they have to act on the findings.

I know strawberry. I’m in a hospital so our criteria is much broader, but the pillar 2 one seems really narrow.

The other thing is the isolation period. It’s 7 days if you are no longer symptomatic, but there hasn’t been a great deal of emphasis on that bit. I think the U.K. has gone with a shorter period than a lot of other places. That WHO report talks about being infections for 8-9 days. Mind you it also says you should isolate for 14 days from the last contact with an infected person. Which is unlikely to be 14 days from the date a person in your household got infected.

It used to be 14 days unless you live alone. They very quietly changed this.

We really need proof that children have tested negative. This is what worries me the most about September.

Yes thinking about it, didn't one of the leaks before last week's announcement say testing would be mandatory? When I read it I remember thinking "Gosh!", but then, "Yup that's what's needed, good." So do we think that was an idea that got dropped?

There was a thread with an op with an ill child not sure about testing.

In oz they are doing saliva tests.
Ideally a child would then be tested before leaving school.

But i cant see how once it starts rising again the tests will come back very quickly.

But i cant see a reason not to pop a bubble after one positive test. As you already have minimum of that teacher/child and their familles so maybe 4 people. And all the rest of the class and teacher exposed 30x4. If they dont all stay at home the parents are out working maybe.

I wonder in future history lessons they will see how England infected the rest of the world.

My leisure centre was saying about reopening and they are treating surfaces with antiviral stuff that stays on them...

Had an interesting conversation with another school today which has welcomed back some of it's more tricky customers - the classroom runners and so on. Their rule is that your break the covid19 rules, then you go home. They've not had one rule breaker. Interesting.. suddenly they can choose not to do it.

Fingers crossed that works for our lot.

Saliva tests would be awesome, especially if can be administered in school!

Wow that's interesting @ohthegoats, you mean primary aged children with SEN and / or behavioural problems?