The Sixty-Fifth Republic - The Covid School Phoney War under way so who will the gold medal and who will get the wooden spoon?

[Staffholidayclubrep]

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.

You can sit on chairs but keep the windows open. You don’t have to upload LFT results during the holidays. You do not have to wear mask - free choice

@EnemyOfEducationNo1

I'm being a bit tinfoilhatty, but I think it's intentionally ridiculous. They want to mass infect youngsters before winter. They still have to be seen to be contact tracing. The schools have done too good a job. Take it back from schools but build in uselessness, add in no bubbles, and bingo! Will be completed by half term.

I posted something similar on another thread, can't remember which one. I think part of the plan is to infect as many children as possible this week so they can be ill in the holiday thereby not missing anymore of their important education...

Ha. I had 4 of my year 10 soon to be year 11 class turn up on teams. 4!

@MrsHamlet

I've just had a thought about officially not having been jabbed... when the rules say "you must be double jabbed for crowded places", can I dodge break duty? Please...

Definitely. Got to be a silver lining

It's going to be chaos again in September, isn't it. We've already got a high chance of starting off on the back foot because we're not allowed in over the holidays. Everyone running around like lunatics at the moment trying to teach current classes, get all the admin done, plan for next term, sort out classrooms. Then we'll have random children off isolating or quarantining after holiday rule changes... or whatever.

Cases here are higher than they were in January and that’s before they’ve opened nightclubs and mass events. I can’t see September being easy at all. I was going to go in and sort my room out, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion we’ll all be nomadic again.

However dreadful it feels in schools right now, the infection rates in secondaries are only 2/3 of what they were before Christmas.

Even with delta, the extra measures that they have put in place - the LFT testing, the PCR tests for close contacts, the being more willing to close year groups - they've actually made an impact.

If we'd done those things before Christmas, Christmas would have looked very different.

I am well and truly burying my head in the sand about September. Just can’t even think about it. Have already worked out I can teach my exam class the content by xmas and escape if I need to.

I'd worry about September in September. Things will be a lot different then. I suspect a lot of stuff that's taken out now will have to be put back in by then.

We're almost certainly going to reach January's hospitalisation rates by the middle of August so something will have to be reversed.

Hello, everyone. I am so glad I made it to the end of term (my thoughts are with those who are still working 🍷) and am catching up with all threads I’ve missed.

Next term looks like it will be ‘challenging’. Are any of you organising school trips (field trips, museums and the like)? I am being encouraged to do so but don’t want to mix with crowds from other schools and the general public - purely on a selfish basis, really as I’m guessing Covid will be rife once all the children return from their holidays. Is there guidance or is it just ‘everything is back to normal and children don’t spread Covid anyway’. Honestly, it’s been so hard getting through this term, I haven’t even thought about next term at all and now I need to put plans in place.

Ignore me if this has already been discussed…

Can someone read the JCVI report and see if you see the same thing as me?

"The adverse educational impacts of school closures or days off school fall disproportionately on students from more deprived areas and may be of long-term importance. Reducing days off school could mitigate some of the health inequalities related to COVID-19. Children and young people who have SARS-CoV2 infection generally do not become so unwell that they need to take much, or any, time off sick from education."

They're suggesting that even kids who are positive for covid shouldn't have to isolate, aren't they? That's where we're headed.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-vaccination-of-children-and-young-people-aged-12-to-17-years-jcvi-statement/jvci-statement-on-covid-19-vaccination-of-children-and-young-people-aged-12-to-17-years-15-july-2021

Yes. I think it is.

That's how I'd read it. I'd started off thinking that it was going to end up with a plan to vaccinate them. That was foolish of me.

Yes, I’d agree.
I’d really hope the unions would put up a proper fight against it. It’s appalling.

As part of a coherent strategy to get every kid infected as soon as possible, it makes sense.

What doesn't make sense in that context is fannying around LFTing secondary kids before the start of school in September. Why bother?

Because you need to convince everyone that they caught it outside of school and it isn't an in school outbreak. So the 5 cases you have in week 2 must have all come from outside the school because there was no covid in school because LFTs showed everyone was negative.

Dingwall, the JCVI GBD stooge was according to twitter just on Newsnight saying that Long Covid is psychosomatic.

So we know who to place as far away from us as possible??? They will reckon it gives us a fighting chance.

The ‘who will think of the kids’ brigade will be thrilled until they realise all the teachers are off sick and the schools have to close anyway.

That article on children and Covid in the context of this, if true, shows bojo's true colours even more.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jul/19/dominic-cummings-tells-bbc-that-pm-denied-covid-would-overwhelm-nhs?CMP=ShareiOSAppp_Other

And explains why

If we'd done those things before Christmas, Christmas would have looked very different.

Didn't happen.

Cases are at their highest ever here so I'm finding it v hard to judge anything about September.

What I'm concerned about is that what's happening here translates to the rest of the country in September because it's a different variant and any naturally acquired immunity in teens will have waned. We aren't as well jabbed here which could be a factor too, but it's going to be way past sept before everyone who wants it is double jabbed. I think it's going to be chaos in schools tbh.

But then I feel like I'm missing something, and no idea what! The govt has just gaslighted us so much.

Just hearing

The government is going to publish a list of those “critical workers” who will not have to isolate If positive......
egs given in the Commons yesterday were rail signallers and air traffic control staff.

School staff????

So are bubbles still popping or not?
A local school closed yesterday, but seen some things suggesting this shouldn't be happening now.
But then this article www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52530518.amp?fbclid=IwAR1eJBsHXUDppN34LYHnWkaALKFOrTZ05B_-82JuZLFIco6OGP3k7z68va0 suggests it should.

Clear as mud, as usual.

2 days left here .....

@Medra

Cases here are higher than they were in January and that’s before they’ve opened nightclubs and mass events. I can’t see September being easy at all. I was going to go in and sort my room out, but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion we’ll all be nomadic again.

God I hope not re the nomadic thing. DH spent all day yesterday getting classrooms ready for us all for September.

Done here.

I'm still up for the meet up but haven't used Skype before so no idea what I'm doing with that. Would be lovely to meet you all (will bring DH with me as he is a silent member of the Republic).

We’re still zoning to some extent come Sept and keeping the staggered school day.