The Sixty-Second Republic - Pop da pop pop, the beat don't stop until the break of term

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

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 for school staff to let off steam.

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.

Do not give the staffroom password to non-staff as it attracts the wrong sort of crowd.

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. Do not sit on the chairs and do wear a mask. Finally, upload your covid test results twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays.

@Piggywaspushed

And what about primary schools??

Exactly-will there be nothing in place at all in primaries then?

Good job viruses never mutate huh.

What’s the better Gav decide heads need to open up the last week of the holidays to get all the testing done ready for the first day of school?!

@motherrunner

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57643697

And Gav is piping up again and declaring he can solve all the ills of humanity by banning mobile phones.

Just another way to show how thoroughly out of touch he is.

We did the on-site PCR tests last week as part of surge testing locally. Guess what the kids needed in order to register their tests? That’s right, a mobile phone.

So we need to set up test centres that rely on mobiles, at the same time as banning mobiles? Excellent.

Not necessary sarah : cheap.

When we were a testing centre last week we literally had to fund the whole thing from our budget.

Mobiles are banned in my school and pretty effectively do. Behaviour is still quite shite right now. It's parenting, class sizes, one size fits all, lack of money for SEND and trauma and, once again, parenting

Totally agree with this. If he thinks just banning phones is a magic bullet he’s going to be very disappointed.
Not even a plonker like Gav actually thinks it will work though. It just gives some nice headlines and requires zero money from the government to implement.

Nick gibb on R4: we’re asking schools to set up for Sept testing just for two tests at the beginning of term - so it’s like in March. Even when challenged about parents not supporting testing at home (as Steve Chalke pointed out earlier in the prog - because they can’t afford to isolate) the Minister did not say anything about continuing onsite testing.

Said (altho waffled a bit at that point) the new schools guidance will be given with the Step Four guidance - so presumably that will be July 12th, a week before we expect to “step”?

He also said “we get the results tomorrow”, from the trials of schools testing instead of isolating. Wonder whether they’ll be as unreliable / manipulated as the ERP (big events) results....

Also that means they’ve basically made the decision before seeing the results.

Great.

Is Steve Chalke the right kind of academy leader for this government to listen to though? I wouldn't have thought they'd have liked most of what he has to say.

Most schools have a turned off in the bottom of your bag policy for mobiles anyway so I'm not sure what he's achieving with this announcement.

We couldn't have Gav realise he should do something to improve education resourcing instead of chasing headlines, could we?

@DanglingMod

Ffs, Gav.

Mobiles are banned in my school and pretty effectively do. Behaviour is still quite shite right now. It's parenting, class sizes, one size fits all, lack of money for SEND and trauma and, once again, parenting.

Exactly this!

Also in primary, no money for TAs. It would be great to have help with photocopying, displays, small group work but ultimately we need another person to be there when they have an emotional breakdown, outburst, anxiety attack, when they’re exhausted and haven’t had breakfast, to coach them through friendship issues, to pay them some extra attention that young children need and teachers just don’t have a spare second in the day to do. We are letting the kids down on a daily basis and it’s really sad.

If the contact testing isnt in school then lots wont do it.

There's the rub...

We have a not seen not heard policy. Gavs’s announcement is making me want to allow them again like a petulant teenager 🤣

GP was VERY scathing of LFTs yesterday when I saw her and basically said we know they’re no at all accurate….

As long as they do then close bubbles when outbreaks occur fine with not sending home close contacts maybe? We’ve had three positive LFTs and sent home loads only to have them overruled and back in school 3 days later…

I would be asking gov
Why wont they vax 12+? It could be opened up to those that want it. Then those could not do isolation for contact. Then the immunity would be spread as 12-30 say are probably similar likelihood of illness but would slow down the outbreaks.
Will they do different if there are cv/cev especially unvaxxed in the class.
Will everyone be informed of cases so you could choose not to attend if there are contacts going in.
Why no saliva tests and why no pooled testing.
Why are other countries protecting kids including their education? As when kids do get it they will still need to isolate so missing 10d of school.
Is this just school contacts because household contacts are more likely to get it.
Plus if the trials were based on say apr to may then it isnt accurate. Last times they fiddled the figures.
What about primary.
So another year of limited contact with grandparents.

Yeah, they don't have to force the vax in 12+. At the moment we've basically got a completely unvaccinated population mixing together in particularly covid-unsafe environments. Teens tend to socialise with a very narrow age range. It's not like the working age population where it's likely that you might have a much wider age range and a proportion of the people in any group will be vaccinated.

Even double vaccinated folks can get very poorly. You might not die but what about the long term issues related to Long COVID. Don’t wish it on anyone but it’s ripping through my school at the moment.

As long as they do then close bubbles when outbreaks occur

This is what worries me-I suspect they are not going to. I think they’ll just send the positive case home for 10 days.

Have teachers been consulted as to whether they're willing to forgo yet more safety afforded to other workers by being stuck in a room with close contacts of a known case? Have parents been consulted as to whether they want their children sat next to a close contact of a known case all day? Will they even be informed - will there be any consideration for children with, or with families who have, particular vulnerability to the virus? Could close contacts at least wear a bloody mask?

Those are my questions - I'm not expecting the government to answer them or the media to even ask them.

Nobody will get consulted honey because the lives and health of families is not a priority for our government. If the Mumsnet Coronavirus board is anything to go by then a lot of the population don't seem to care either as long as they personally can go back to normal. There's been an unpleasant rhetoric throughout this whole thing that only deaths matter, then it was oh but the people who died were old /had another condition already, and that quickly became anyone vulnerable or hysterically anxious should lock themselves away so the rest of us can get back to normal asap.

If the Mumsnet Coronavirus board is anything to go by then a lot of the population don't seem to care either as long as they personally can go back to normal

Yep. Except the ‘working from home’ bit of normal-they don’t want to go back to that.

@TheHoneyBadger

Have teachers been consulted as to whether they're willing to forgo yet more safety afforded to other workers by being stuck in a room with close contacts of a known case? Have parents been consulted as to whether they want their children sat next to a close contact of a known case all day? Will they even be informed - will there be any consideration for children with, or with families who have, particular vulnerability to the virus? Could close contacts at least wear a bloody mask?

Those are my questions - I'm not expecting the government to answer them or the media to even ask them.

I wonder if at some point we'll get covid letters, liek we have shingles and chickenpox letters.

DS is lingering in his SI atm. It's frustrating but I'm not angry with anyone. I don't get it.

Is it cost. Because lots of LC has a cost too. As has increased asthma potentially t1 diabetes etc.
Also ongoing it's a lot better to have a childhood vax program rather than over say 5 as the kids start to get opinions too. And every year a whole new set of preschoolers /nursery who may not have had it.
With normal amounts of colds/flu in sept then kids will be constantly off testing.

I think in usa also the uni students will be expected to be vaxxed to go on campus

🎉 piggy, someone on Data has just thanked me for posting some data about schools!

"I wonder if at some point we'll get covid letters, like we have shingles and chickenpox letters."
Or nits. It'll be, "This is to advise you that there has been a case of headlice Covid 19 in your child's class."

Oh good god am I fed up of all the earnest conversation in print and on the radio about how terrible isolations are for kids from the people who said fuck all about it when things were much worse last year.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/coronavirus/a4283893-Anti-lockdowners-pretending-to-care-about-kids-again