The Forty Third Republic - Lockdown learning continues - when is half term?

[Staffdontblowitnow]

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

🍰 for the first person to spot a thread saying "See? Teachers aren't more at risk!"

Not sure where TAs would be counted, under other educational occupations n.e.c.?

Did we see this, for Scotland but much more specific? Haven't read it:

publichealthscotland.scot/downloads/report-of-record-linkage-study-of-covid-19-among-teachers-healthcare-workers-and-other-working-age-adults

It shows deaths for secondary teachers (specifically) as not statistically different from the general population, but as almost double that of "other professions" (whilst stating "not statistically different" )

We need a statistician to analyse it, hopefully one will be along shortly.....

Meant to say, the Scottish one accounts for period of school closure!

@RandomGrammarPun

It shows deaths for secondary teachers (specifically) as not statistically different from the general population, but as almost double that of "other professions" (whilst stating "not statistically different" )

It’s because the numbers are so small that it could be by chance. There were only 23 deaths of female secondary teachers.

The 'higher than other professions' thing is a sloppy acceptance that we must face risk and can't WFH. In other words, it is seen as an inevitable occupational risk.

One thing I am learning about the ONS is that they are pretty shit at asking the right questions about workplaces to gather helpful data!

This is the Summary section of the Scottish report:

The results reported here provide reassurance that there is no evidence that teachers have been at increased risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19 in the two periods when in-person teaching has been taking place since the start of the pandemic (March 2020, and since mid-August 2020). The risk of testing positive has been higher among teachers than the general population. PHS will continue to monitor these outcomes, and future analysis with more additional data may permit more detailed analysis by job role and location.

Last post before I go and walk in the sparkly snow/arrange a funeral:

It's actually** really silly to not account for whether a particular profession was actually people-facing for large portions of the time period covered! Seeing as you need to be near a human being to get infected (parcels etc aside).....

But I realise that would take a lot more time and money.

I'm even cross with Michael Rosen today:

If the government were serious about home learning during lockdown, they would have hired strings of experts in our fields - writers, scientists, historians, geographers etc and got us to talk directly on zoom to different ages of students for 20-30 minute chunks.

What? You mean like teachers are experts in their fields? Teachers who talk to children for 20 - 30 minute chunks either live or recorded? Like that?

Why are we so constantly undermined? It's making me just not want to be a teacher really. Even more than usual!

And to be fair BBC Bitesize (or is it Oak?) are doing that - as an extra to what teachers are doing!

Weird of him to say that.

OK OK I know I said I was going....

schoolsweek.co.uk/ons-covid-death-rate-among-secondary-teachers-above-average-but-not-statistically-significant/?fbclid=IwAR0kkMZyUQ0MSI2XL8EvVHUNinBfsuRegdr0b1sS30ER02bDl2QJ9haY1fM

I love Michael Rosen but I do think ha hasn't thought that through. Perhaps he means it would free up teachers ...? And maybe also seize opportunities to hear from (not teacher) scientists and poets and historians that are normally things accessible only to a few.

I think we can now expect lots of posters with wide eyes and tilted heads saying, ‘oh wow-teachers aren’t at any increased risk, I didn’t realise-that’s great that schools can now go back ASAP!’

I'm reading the Scottish one - does a risk compared to the general population mean working age population, or everyone? (Including both children and the very elderly).
Actually it probably explains somewhere in the document, I just cut to the end!

Not statistically significant either means they didn't collect enough data or there weren't enough deaths to reasonably compare.

I guess it is a combination of the two. I'm sure I've read of more than 23 school staff dying however if the data was only teachers then this figure could be true. When working with such small numbers (statistically) they become too small to accurately compare.

The huge confidence intervals show that these figures are just too small to draw any real conclusions from.

It's not just death though it's bloody dangerous ending up needing oxygen. It's a low bar for safety.

Yeah, there is a huge range between "safe" and "dead". If someone lost a finger at work, we wouldn't describe their workplace as safe. And the long term impacts of Covid can be far more disabling.

I didn't mean for my post to sound so heartless.

I'd like to see long covid figures too. Safe isn't just not dead.

It's all in there its !

Much more detailed than the ONS one.

It helps that Scotland has the GTC so they can actually track teachers more easily.

It must be hard for people who have lost friends and family (from any occupation) to be reading words like ‘not statistically significant’ attached to their death.

They’re all a tragedy. :(

I think it is shocking that any education staff have died whilst in active service tbh. It should be compared against 'normal ' years which the FOI did say they were going to do...

It's 23 women herc.