The Thirty-Fifth Republic - Covid - the gift that keeps on giving even during the Christmas Break

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You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement. Baiters, haters, goaders, 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 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

Do not give the staffroom password just in case it attracts the wrong sort

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 booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation.

If you come with a stick to goad us then that is not allowed in the staffroom and you will receive a detention

You know how the unions are doing Fuck all to improve Covid safety in schools for their members?

• is that because the leaders are generally not currently teaching and so don't know how worrying it is? And so are more focuss d on the political game - I still think the government want the unions to call a strike, so they can destroy them.

@OnehorseopenBobsleigh you don't have a thing for uniforms by any chance do you?

How long is it going to take to test a whole school?

Let’s say you only test 1/4 of a 1,000 pupil school (including staff).

5 minutes per test

5 x 250 = 1250 minutes worth of testing.

That’s over 20 hours of testing. If each pupil / member of staff only takes 5 minutes to test.

God this is mad.

I keep trying to think of a space where we could safely lay out however many of these pregnancy type test kids whilst they develop for 30 minutes. Presumably they'll need to be with a code or label that identifies which student each kit belongs to but not by name because of confidentiality. And a degree of spacing out so they don't get mixed up.

Our halls are not an option because of the need for canteen staff to be working all morning and kids crushing through to get food on staggered breaks. Other smaller halls are being used for year zone break spaces and not even that in the first couple of weeks back due to mocks and btecs.

A science lab would have the right flooring and allow for tests to be processed around the edges of the rooms but I don't think you could have more than 5 kids at a time in there and they can't queue and wait in that area and all the labs are in use for teaching anyway.

If we could have the science block and say 3 labs fully staffed for testing allowing in 5 kids each at a time I think we could get through 3 form groups an hour with quick wipe downs after each group of 5. No clue where kids could wait to come in or wait for results with any kind of distancing though.

If we didn't have any students in other than those being tested and if they somehow could be transported in for their test and then home again afterwards then maybe. Unless we really are just talking about a free for all with no social distancing so any positives you discover have their whole year group as a close contact that day?

This is a waste of thought 💭

Oh crikey honey now you've triggered the anxious feelings I had in my nightmare about knowing the testing was happening somewhere in school but not being able to find it!

You're absolutely right. The training instructions thingy didn't have anything on their sample floor plan about where the developing tests were going to be placed, did it?

Papers already going on about how cases and deaths are dropping (not mentioning that only England is reporting daily and loads of people will have avoided going for a test over Christmas)
We really need accurate figures given we're back in a week!

Are journalists really that gullible/ignorant?

And is the Government???

Well, having seen how many people it took, how much PPE they needed, how much technology it took and how much time it took for me to swab myself this morning i'd say Gav is talking out of his arse. Again. Unless of course, he's just expecting us to do it all without following the very rigourous procedures the workers I saw today were following. I had to wear a mask and keep my windows up while they wore masks and gloves and handed me things through a one inch gap in my window. I guess teachers will just be up close, fucked off, dealing with people face to face, touching all the envelopes (I posted mine through a sliver of window and they put it in a box WITH TONGS!) and they might be given a spray gun if they're lucky. Woohoo!

@DecemberStar

Are journalists really that gullible/ignorant?

And is the Government???

Yes and yes. Wilfully so.

Sorry December! Don't think about it.

Cantaloupe I've just had my dad on the phone telling me deaths have been down for 2 weeks running and it's funny how they never tell us the good news etc.

I think I'm experiencing this differently to others, they're experiencing really strict rules and perceiving it as overreacting whereas I'm experiencing no protection and what feels like a huge under reaction at work.

Cantaloupe- I drive past our test site every day on my way to work and it is usually quiet. Today it was rammed. I think you are right and cases will rise after this tranche of testing.

Although reports such as this are surely enough to concern the powers that be?

www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/27/hospitals-in-england-told-to-free-up-all-possible-beds-for-surging-covid-cases

I think I'm experiencing this differently to others, they're experiencing really strict rules and perceiving it as overreacting whereas I'm experiencing no protection and what feels like a huge under reaction at work.

Exactly this.

Also those who broadly agree witht he whole thing and are being very careful (my MIL) who think they 'know how we feel' because 'they feel the same whenever they go out' (they have been to about four cafes since March).

I love the 'schools aren't dealing with mental health concerns' comments I've read today. Yes, no one who deals with mental health concerns is allowed in school buildings at the moment, and schools are a bit busy.

@TheHoneyBadger agree. Have sadly had big fallings out with my parents and siblings over the school's issue. Siblings have primary aged children and found lockdown 1 very difficult trying to wfh with DC around and my lovely parents think we should all just carry on. Never fallen out with them before but none of them can see how scary it has been for DH and I in school.

Yep piggy. I tried really hard, and I think I succeeded, to not go on about schools on Christmas Day. Tried hard just now not to tell my dad to spare me the scoffing at risk when he never actually has to go anywhere except by choice.

I'm going to start doing school work tomorrow. There's literally nothing else to do. I'm bored shitless.

@TheHoneyBadger

Yep piggy. I tried really hard, and I think I succeeded, to not go on about schools on Christmas Day. Tried hard just now not to tell my dad to spare me the scoffing at risk when he never actually has to go anywhere except by choice.

Exactly what I say to my DParents

@RuleWithAWoodenFoot

I'm going to start doing school work tomorrow. There's literally nothing else to do. I'm bored shitless.

Snap. I've got some PowerPoints to write..

I've been really good at not thinking about work but I sent a friend a whole load of PowerPoints today which reminded me I need to plan some y12 lessons. Sigh.

Fuck that! I'm going to put work off for a while yet.

Definitely worth trying to bite tongues with family I think but then I've had lots of practice at that. Just went a bit grey rock or whatever they call it with my dad. I don't want to talk about it with people who really don't get it as they face no risk.

Sorry it's caused falling outs. I do try and limit how much I talk about it to my bubble friend too. She was complaining about her step daughter and her pal having taken a selfie in the toilets without a mask on the other day couldn't help but point out to her how much less risky that is than the classroom etc.

I'm trying to work 9ut if i'm tired because I'm tired, or whether I'm ill. Just can't get comfortable.

If we didn't have any students in other than those being tested and if they somehow could be transported in for their test and then home again afterwards then maybe. Unless we really are just talking about a free for all with no social distancing so any positives you discover have their whole year group as a close contact that day?

I’m intrigued to know what the procedure will be when identifying close contacts-but NOT isolating them.

Normally, the minute they’re identified, they’re whipped out and parents phoned. Will the new procedure be to call 30/60/90 pupils discreetly over and tell them (and ring their parents) that they are close contacts, but just tell them to stop fussing and to carry on doing their physics lesson.

How do you secondary colleagues predict that would be received?? I can imagine they’d either be totally distracted (like the levels of concentration when it’s started snowing outside and they’re waiting to be told the school will close!) or cry, or suddenly start not feeling well/getting phone calls from their parents?!). Presumably you’d have to check which of those parents/children hadn’t consented for the shiteral flow tests and they would have to be rounded up separately (kept separate?) and sent home?!

I can’t imagine trying to teach those children!

Hope you're ok rule. I couldn't catch my breath and kept trying to cough to clear my airway earlier when walking the dog. I could get paranoid quite easily.

With the going into school as a close contact I'm wondering if that goes as far as you're meant to go in even if you have symptoms because they can test you? That would be awful if you could be infecting others.

I can't face school work. I need a proper break.
It could change anyway. I am even going to start couch to 5k tomorrow anything but being reminded of the school situation.