The Forty Fourth Republic - primaries sort of in, secondaries out, Gormless Gav says two weeks notice

[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

Lower than what?

Lower than basically everyone. I think we should go round laying hands on people.

@Staffdontblowitnow

My cat is not following any covid restrictions. He keeps going out getting up to no good I am sure. He will not wear a collar let alone a mask

There you go then we've solved the mystery of where teachers are catching it. Possibly it's cats giving it to kids.

They should add, 'stroked a cat', alongside the 'visited a supermarket' option on their questionnaire.

They thoroughly debunked the 'going to the supermarket' thing on R4's More or Less this morning. But, sadly, didn't mention schools.

Lower than basically everyone

I've just had a genius idea. If kids are catching it at school and then taking it to their parents in large numbers, but teachers are managing to not catch it from the kids then what parents need is the best vaccine going:

getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/how-to-apply/apply-for-teacher-training

Latest ONS data on working population (cut off at 64 I think)
Secondary teachers death rates per 100,000 stand at
Males 39.2 v 31.4 for the general public working age, and
Females 21.2 v 16.8

By comparison men in process plants
143.2 (very shocking!)
Female process, plant and machine operatives (33.7 deaths per 100,000 females; 57 deaths)

Horrendously social care workers were registered between 9 March and 28 December 2020, with rates of 79.0 deaths per 100,000 males (150 deaths) and 35.9 deaths per 100,000 females (319 deaths).

And rather confusingly healthcare workers – including occupations such as doctors, nurses and midwives, nurse assistants, paramedics and ambulance staff, and hospital porters – men had a statistically significant higher rate of death involving COVID-19 compared with the rate of death involving COVID-19 in the general working population, with 44.9 deaths per 100,000 men (190 deaths). Among women, the rate of death involving COVID-19 among healthcare workers was 17.3 deaths per 100,000 women (224 deaths) – this rate was not significantly different to that observed in the general population among women of the same age

So teacher rates are lower than some - significantly. But not lower when compared to general population of working age.

[quote noblegiraffe]Lower than basically everyone

I've just had a genius idea. If kids are catching it at school and then taking it to their parents in large numbers, but teachers are managing to not catch it from the kids then what parents need is the best vaccine going:

getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/how-to-apply/apply-for-teacher-training[/quote]

Enemy, the thing I don't understand is that the teachers' opne includes data from all of the fuirst lockdown. To make any sense of the figures, surely the period needs to be divided into different periods?

For secondary, it would be sensible to do March - August (very little opening in June), then Sept - December - though tbh the full effect of the horrendous rates of Covid in schools in the last couple of weeks of December are still to filter through to deaths.

For primary, March - May (lockdown); June - August (partial re-opening with up to 50% in in small bubbles); Sept - December (with caveat as above).

Averaging over the period is surely invalid? It's like saying that a shop is open for 5 hours a day when in fact it is open for 7 hours a day every weekday and is closed at weekends.

cut off at 64 I think

I was discussing this on another thread. When you don't cut-off at 64, the number of secondary teachers who have died is three times as high.

But the ONS cut off at 64 to ensure they don't accidentally include retired people.

I'm a bit concerned about the validity of their data if they can't tell whether someone is currently working as a teacher/nurse/taxi driver.

Oh absolutely but why would they do that when that would show that schools last term were NOT safe?
I suspect they did run the figures, but will not release them - and this is what is causing Johnson to have to have some backbone and hold against his backbenchers and U4T campaigners as he CANNOT lose face and back down - when actually if he released the figures, blamed it on the new variant,, schools are no longer safe, sorry - ta day, new policy all accepted.

I bet the figure is horrific for teachers/TAs/nurses/factory workers/social care workers if you include over 64s. All of those professions have people working well past retirement age.

I think the 100,000 figure actually did bother Johnson into paying attention to the figures this time.

@cantkeepawayforever

Enemy, the thing I don't understand is that the teachers' opne includes data from all of the fuirst lockdown. To make any sense of the figures, surely the period needs to be divided into different periods?

For secondary, it would be sensible to do March - August (very little opening in June), then Sept - December - though tbh the full effect of the horrendous rates of Covid in schools in the last couple of weeks of December are still to filter through to deaths.

For primary, March - May (lockdown); June - August (partial re-opening with up to 50% in in small bubbles); Sept - December (with caveat as above).

Averaging over the period is surely invalid? It's like saying that a shop is open for 5 hours a day when in fact it is open for 7 hours a day every weekday and is closed at weekends.

This, absolutely!!

I don't think they are covering up some horrendous teacher death rate by fiddling the figures though.

The data that was released seem to show that men are worse affected, and those on lower incomes, regardless of occupation type.

So a female dominated graduate profession like teaching might be more likely to catch covid due to the job, but less likely to die of it due to the demographic.

Yes, there is clearly a correlation with lower paid but similarly exposed groups having higher death tolls.

TA stats weren't properly looked at but, even then, although they are lower paid than teachers, they are still predominantly female and many will also be graduates/in housholds with good household income/in good health etc as a demographic, in comparison to other groups like factory workers.

@JanuaryChill

They thoroughly debunked the 'going to the supermarket' thing on R4's More or Less this morning. But, sadly, didn't mention schools.

I get the feeling that Tim Harford is someone who might have a look at this. He said something in an interview (PM prog I think) just before Christmas, like if one of his children picked it up at school and gave it to a grandparent...the interviewer jumped in PDQ at that point. Maybe I’ll write to More or Less. Anyone want to draft a detailed, data-rich email for me? Maybe I’ll do it myself and invite critiques.

I think people would be very surprised by the female healthcare workers one : now that is an interesting comparison with teachers... I wouldn't dare say so on another thread!

It appears that you shouldn’t start threads to try and bolster an argument you are having as it may not turn out as you hope.

Which is very funny.

@starrynight19 where did you find the guidance about the LFT and the 90 day thing? A few of us have tested positive so I said that I don't think we should be tested but we couldn't find anything in the little handbook...

I was only listening with half an ear to the briefing while I did my at home asymptomatic test, but did Boris say the catch up fund will partially go toward summer school??

I'm a TA and can't imagine them coming up with the money for us to work through the summer holidays (not that I want to, I have a feeling I need the break before starting my school direct course in September), so are teachers going to be expected to work through the holiday with no support? Can't see that going well with the class we have right now. Lots of 1:1 attention needed there.

I hadn't started my glass of wine yet at that point but I hope I didn't hear that right. I don't want to work through the summer but I also don't want my class teacher left high and dry.

[quote namechangedyetagain]@starrynight19 where did you find the guidance about the LFT and the 90 day thing? A few of us have tested positive so I said that I don't think we should be tested but we couldn't find anything in the little handbook...[/quote]
Our headteacher told us the 90 day thing in the briefing on testing. It's not in our booklets either.

Justine Greening needs to specify where that 4 weeks of schooling will come from and who will be providing it.

Parents didn’t want the Great Summer Catch-Up last year either.

[quote namechangedyetagain]@starrynight19 where did you find the guidance about the LFT and the 90 day thing? A few of us have tested positive so I said that I don't think we should be tested but we couldn't find anything in the little handbook...[/quote]
It wasn’t in anything official we are just going off the guidelines to the nhs.

Children aren't going to want it, that's for sure.