The Sixty Third Republic - as we glide into staycations the DfE whip up anti-school media storm

[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.

So Neil Oliver is whining about children being a 'wall of safety' which will be the new anti vaxx thing.

Does he not realise that pursuing herd immunity via children is exactly the same thing??

god, GB News is bizarre. All these TV presenters who have been hiding their views for years , venting!

It would also be endless because children who had it say last year will have likely lost immunity and be catching again, kids catching it for the first time, then the next batch of worn of immunity etc. There's no herd immunity possible that way for kids is there? It's not like chicken pox where having it once confers immunity.

So basically kids would have it repeatedly until they're old enough or at risk enough to receive a vaccination - meanwhile it's mutating and we have no idea if there is additional risk to repeated infection.

I don't suppose teachers who can't receive the vaccine and are cv will be offered early retirement?

So, back in Feb/March, we school staff (on here, anyway) were absolutely slated for the suggestion being made (not even by teachers) that we should "jump the queue" for vaccinations in order to be in a better position to maintain a more constant provision of education.
And now we have posters out there berating us for not having been more sharp-elbowed in getting done sooner and it seems it's a disgrace that some staff have only recently got one jab and are not therefore fully protected yet.
That said, a school near me has recently closed completely (to face to face learning) due to a large outbreak which included double-jabbed staff members.

I think pretty nasty ST journo , Camilla Long, may be a MNer. Today she writes of paranoid parents and teachers, many of whom have an agenda.

Oh, where have we heard that before??

Perhaps Camilla et al would like to explain what they think the agenda is? It's such a throw away word! It can't be closing schools down any more, surely? It can't be vaccinations , since there is no point in that argument any more, and the majority of people actually thought teachers should be prioritised. Does she just mean they might be -shock!- union members? Agenda has become such a sloppy word to dismiss views that are different to one's own. cf the current data thread

I note that several very elite schools have closed early for the summer because of large outbreaks... those schools are the ones that have blithely carried on with events, sports days etc, because parents have threatened fee withdrawal..

How are the public health bodies meant to do contact tracing for everything if schools arent?

I think that's the point: I don't think there will be contact tracing in primary anymore.

My main concern is around the repeated infection of children. We know that having the virus only gives temporary immunity so we're potentially creating a situation where year-on-year children fall ill. Whilst most will be fine, each year there would be a greater percentage of children developing long covid, making them more vulnerable in future years.

On top of that, if the main group that the virus is spreading through is children, when mutations happen isn't there the possibility that those mutations will be more to do with the current main host group? So, as time goes on, couldn't children become more affected?

I don't see any logic in not vaccinating them, over 12s at the moment and then, eventually, everyone when trials have been carried out on younger children.

Lots of the nastier journos, especially the ones who write “opinion” pieces for the Sunday rags because they’re educated beyond their ability and who got to where they are because of connections, seem to dislike teachers. This is probably because the last person who told them to pipe down and get over themselves was a teacher.

Negative test results here, hurrah we are FREE!
On the downside, I have a stinking cold.

I'm going to try and get through to summer by ignoring the press as much as possible. My brain and middle aged peri menopausal temper can't take it any more!!

On top of that, if the main group that the virus is spreading through is children, when mutations happen isn't there the possibility that those mutations will be more to do with the current main host group? So, as time goes on, couldn't children become more affected?

Yes-this is what worries me.

Negative test results here, hurrah we are FREE! On the downside, I have a stinking cold

But the cold will be gone soon. Great news Guy

Journalism is practically a closed shop without the right contacts / degree it is a job

Pale, male and posh - really that should read pale and posh

www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2018/apr/29/journalism-class-private-education

Newspaper columnists were even more exclusive in their educational backgrounds than the news media group. 44% of newspaper columnists attended an independent school, with a quarter attending a grammar school, and less than a fifth (19%) going to a comprehensive school.

www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Elitist-Britain-2019.pdf

Not really representing the masses

What will happen about the ‘WFH where possible’ campaign? There’s plenty of people on here who want their kids at school 8-6) but still refuse to go back to the office unless everyone in the building is vaccinated and sits 2m away from them with a face mask on. Some appear fed up that their boss makes them turn their camera on when WFH as it means they have to put make up on. What about MPs and the HoC-will it be a full house now?

Is it ‘back to normal’ for everyone-or just schools?

If adults will still be required to isolate for symptoms until proof of negative test, will this apply to us? Or as teachers we are exempt from the same rules as the rest of the working population?

Oh , yes staff , Camilla Long is vair vair posh. And, crucially, I don't think she has children.

I think we all know who it actually is who has the agenda.

I am cheered by Wikipedia telling me that Michael Fassbender wouldn't touch her with a bargepole.

So basically we have pale posh journos wfh telling us what schools should do

No change there. It was like that pre-pandemic.

It also seems the pale posh journos and the pale posh MPs are all one and the same!

Sometimes pale posh journos become MPs or PMs. Sometimes pale posh journos are married to --divorce- MPs.

I've got a Times subscription because I think Janice Turner's writing is worth paying for.

Camilla Long reminds me of Isabelle Oakshott (I think that's her name), who's one of the reporters for one of the right wing tabloids. Only really come across them on HIGNFY. Both come across as brittle and sneery, in my opinion.

I miss Kate Adie!

Elsewhere on MN, I can’t believe that the sex festival thread is getting so little attention, what with the mobile dungeon, clay pigeon shooting, breaking Covid rules etc etc.

Was thinking last night about the winter. Will families/ school staff still end up in a sort of lockdown - not enough well staff (Covid plus flu which is expected to be bad this winter) plus maybe Covid outbreaks so big and enough children getting properly ill that PH advises closure?

And then I heard a headline this morning that someone important has talked about schools having backdoor lockdowns, similar logic I think.

I did read something last night (on Data possibly) which made me stop worrying about the further mutations thing though, or at least worrying that we’re going to create one/some : there are perfect conditions all over the world in unvaxxed countries for mutation, and we’re certainly not going to be closing our borders efficiently, so they’ll reach here anyway! So that’s nice....

Guy I am thinking the same re: media and summer. I was just thinking this morning when I saw that 5 point plan bollocks that there would be more and more nonsense leaking and being speculated upon over the summer and it will not be good for the blood pressure and the back to school dread shouldn't start till it's nearly time to go back to school let alone when we haven't even gotten to the end of term yet.

Wasn’t there a 4 point plan regarding schools last year? And then the Nando’s chart before that? It all gets ignored.

@TheHoneyBadger I just haven't got the mental energy to engage with arseholes. I can't be bothered. Its the old "playing chess with a pigeon" analogy.

I'm just exhausted. After massive department stresses and covid this year I have nothing left to give. I'm plodding through the next fortnight and hoping to god I can go on my holiday and not be SI or one of us ill. Desperate for the break!!!

If the plan is to replace self-isolation of close contacts of positive cases with daily restating-what about primary where LFD tests aren’t used? Is the plan to continue with self-isolation there or to just have no risk mitigations at all?

I'm predicting no mitigations at all: just stay off if you're unwell.

That should say daily testing, not restating!

Yes, I suspect you’re right, @iamnotthe1. It probably won’t even be stay off if you’re ill as that’s never been the status schools in schools where staff and kids are expected in unless their leg has fallen off!

It’ll probably be ‘stay off ONLY if you’ve got proof you’ve tested positive and are actually feeling ill’!