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

[SantaAssociationRepresentitve]

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

@HarrietDVane thank you but you definitely have it worse in self isolation over Xmas. I had to for half term and was v low.

It's interesting looking at heat maps for smaller areas. This is Gateshead. Something happening in the age 10-14 groups in the last couple of weeks of term, which is faintly echoed in the 30-39 age group.

Of course, some of it could have been Self screening before Xmas.

2nd one is zoomed in on that patch.

It's hard enough teaching the non contacts after the contacts have been taken out. I can imagine the non contacts freaking out about contacts sitting near them etc. They will know that's what they were called out for. I can also imagine non contacts calling parents to tell them they were stuck in classes with contacts and those parents getting involved. Shit show potential

I've got trifle to eat, TV to watch, sweary cross stitch to do, wine to drink, walks to - er - walk. I'm not working.

Similar pattern in Durham. Both areas had sharp case spikes in the last few weeks. Newcastle didn't (as sharp as they have) and there's no dark patch on its heat map

I haven't done any work. I've got tons to do but I feel rough so I am slumped in bed with the kids and mum staying well away until I get my results. They are having leftovers for tea and I am watching Ripper Street on my laptop not eating anything and sipping lemsip with the dog for company. He is currently curled up next to me but he will abandon me once they dish up downstairs. Eldest is on food duty. I don't even want the nice cheese.

I am planning on just working 2 or 3 days from the first flat out. I can't face it yet.

Lots of knobends in my area bemoaning our tier 4 but the local data supports it. My concern is going back in January when I know how social many members of my class have been. If my test comes back negative I will be weirdly disappointed as I don't feel too terrible atm but going back weakened from a virus that isn't Covid won't be great .

Can I just check.... if you / your child is a close contact and agree to have the daily test to enable you to go to school, does that completely negate self isolating? So you can still go to the shop etc? Or does it only mean you can attend school?

I haven't signed the consent form for my teens yet- I would like a bit more info on how it will happen.

It's mad to bus them in and then test!
And if it's for 7 days what happens at the weekend?

Really sorry if this has been discussed previously and I have missed it.

Can I just check...if you / your child is a close contact and agree to have the daily test to enable you to go to school, does that completely negate self isolating? So you can still go to the shop etc? Or does it only mean you can attend school?

I don’t think this has been clarified for either staff/pupils yet.

It shouldn't be one rule for schools and one rule for everywhere else surely. If it's safe for school it must be safe for everywhere...

@hedgehogger1

It shouldn't be one rule for schools and one rule for everywhere else surely. If it's safe for school it must be safe for everywhere...

Absolutely.

It shouldn't be one rule for schools and one rule for everywhere else surely. If it's safe for school it must be safe for everywhere...

Agreed

However schools have operated in their own parallel universe regarding restrictions so far...

Yes so those school asking parents to sign are not giving them enough info (because they themselves don't have it!)

The 7 days mystified me until I discovered it means 7 working days which equals 10 calendar days! Is this dodgy too? Someone gets symptoms Friday night but isn't tested til Mon morning perhaps?

Friend of a friend spent 10 mins outdoors with a person who later tested positive with symptoms. Now friend of friend is positive. No symptoms.

This new variant is hard-core. We'll all be off by end of next week - school closure conversations are moot.

Gosh rule. (Presumably no other known contact for friend of friend?)

i wondered if it was an infectious as that by the worry on MH's face and wondering how on Earth they new about greater infectious ness of SA variant from just two cases. Had they passed each other in a corridor or something?

But if they know that, we should all be in strict strict lockdown now, surely??

Outdoors?! Oh now that is scary.

I'd been going along with the assumption that non crowded spaces outside were ok - so have been doing playgrounds and parks with the kids and the odd school friend. However, if outdoors is a risk.with the new variant - that means playgrounds are out, as kids never socially distance!

Reporting on daily cases and deaths here is relatively balanced:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55461140

@DecemberStar reading that bbc article it really would be madness to open the schools. The NHS being under pressure is definitely the main feature of the article.

Please, dear God, let this government do something right!

As I've posted on another thread "Just to add a further note of reality/dementoring - we cannot vaccinate faster due to international agreements. Having vaccinated and unvaccinated mixing freely with lots of transmission going on is just asking for mutations that cause vaccine escape.
I hate to say it, but we need to have as few transmission going on as possible whilst slowly vaccinating the population.
It's the same as having most avenues of transmission suppressed EXCEPT in the young has driven selection pressures on mutations towards one that transmits more readily in the young. We have driven this."

I really really hope someone has explained this to Johnson and his cabinet.

Gleaming is there scientific evidence that that is the case?

Millions more face being plunged into Tier 4 lockdown this week
mol.im/a/9090939

Just updated. Sorry it's DF but always good to see what the right wing press are putting out. I can't see Williamson winning his battle.

@DecemberStar

Gleaming is there scientific evidence that that is the case?

Unfortunately yes

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/more/scientific-brief-emerging-variant.html

@SantaAssociationRepresentitvenow was also unlikely

No idea what happened there! Except I was being jumped on as I posted! Sorry

But gleaming there's no mention of children let alone schools in that press release? I know it mentions the ACE receptors though and that's thought to be why children weren't as susceptible to the original strain. But it doesn't say that here.

Ah no it was relevant to vaccine escape. I thought that was what you were asking.
The mutation selection pressure to increase transmission in children is purely theoretical. Basically natural selection.
I'm sure there's an article on that by a respectable scientist, rather than an unqualified random!

I'm falling asleep again. Is it possible to be allergic to chocolate?