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Re-opening Schools?

the science behind this is sound - congnative ability is higher if c02 levels are closer to outdoor conditions.

the implementation above might be shit - but the idea was good.

“The Harvard group measured a 15 percent decline of cognitive ability scores at 950 ppm and 50 percent declines at 1,400 ppm.”

(450ppm is outdoor levels)


I'm familiar with this stuff. It's why I get so piss-boilingly furious with parents idling their cars outside the school when they come to pick up their kids. One of the reasons anyway.
 
The problem there is particulates not c02

It's both. And more besides, here is a paper on carbon monoxide outside schools:


Still looking for some research I saw a while ago about CO2 levels outside schools, will post it here if I find it.
 
Covid in schools is so rife, I doubt any adjustments will help. There's just so many people in close contact and all the kids get up close at playtime and break their bubbles without masks before and after school. As I work in secondary, loads break bubbles to hang out and snog their girlfriends/boyfriends after school.

It's just impossible, I can't remember any time our school didn't have covid cases and that's the ones we knew about.
 
Covid in schools is so rife, I doubt any adjustments will help. There's just so many people in close contact and all the kids get up close at playtime and break their bubbles without masks before and after school. As I work in secondary, loads break bubbles to hang out and snog their girlfriends/boyfriends after school.

It's just impossible, I can't remember any time our school didn't have covid cases and that's the ones we knew about.

I think the advice for classrooms is 6 air changes per hour, before transmission tends to zero.


alex
 
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A new government campaign urging students in England to have twice-weekly Covid tests for “a more normal year” at school and college has been labelled as naive by school union leaders.

The campaign includes an Olympic gold medallist, the 18-year-old swimmer Matt Richards, telling students that regular testing allowed him to compete at Tokyo and will allow them to “get back to the things you love, like competitive sports and school matches”.
The Department for Education (DfE) is preparing to tackle parents and children reluctant to return to school by recruiting teams of “attendance advisers” on short-term contracts worth £25,000.

The contracts, which were first advertised this week, are to start in November, and the advisers will guide local authorities on measures to meet the DfE’s priority “to reduce overall school absence as we recover from the pandemic”.

The DfE said: “A small team of attendance advisers are being recruited to work with local authorities and multi-academy trusts to provide advice, guidance and support on attendance where absence rates are higher than average.”
Smell those priorities!

 
So if as a teacher, I get Covid (highly likely), do my children still have to isolate?
Or do I just have to PCR test them?
Not understanding the new rules for families.
 
So if as a teacher, I get Covid (highly likely), do my children still have to isolate?
Or do I just have to PCR test them?
Not understanding the new rules for families.
I think they only have to isolate until/if they get negative PCR results.
 


Same happening over here. It's crazy.
So a vaccinated teacher gets covid and has been sat with other vaccinated staff over the past week...
None are now counted as close contacts. If they become symptomatic they're to stay away and get tested. But they wont be deemed close contacts as they're vaccinated.

It is appallingly stupid.
 


With cases at their current levels half of schools would be shut again within a fortnight of opening if the isolation policy was the same as it was in the summer term.

Not that this 'don't bother isolating or even informing contacts in schools' policy is in any way sane or acceptable. But there isn't an acceptable policy available at this point, now that the ball has been dropped yet again. I don't even know if we're in the third wave or the fourth wave right now.
 
The big unknown for me at this point is that attitude local health teams will have to large school outbreaks. The removal of various self-isolation rules, what counts as a close contact etc are not good, but those changes dont provide a full guide as to what authorities will actually do when faced with high numbers at particular schools in the months ahead. I've seen at least one story about a school in Scotland being forced to shut already, and I dont know how much of that to expect in England. We know that such steps are not a good fit for the current government approach, but that doesnt mean authorities will be able to resist taking such steps when local situations cry out for such responses.
 
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The big unknown for me at this point is that attitude local health teams will have to large school outbreaks. The removal of various self-isolation rules, what counts as a close contact etc are not good, but those changes dont provide a full guide as to what authorities will actually do when faced with high numbers at particular schools in the months ahead. I've seen at least one story about a school in Scotland being forced to shut already, and I dont know how much of that to expect in England. We know that such steps are not a good fit for the current government approach, but that doesnt mean authorities will be able to resist taking such steps when local situations cry out for such responses.

It was having too many staff isolating that was forcing schools to close in June/July, rather than numbers of students absent. In theory we were supposed to be providing stuff for the isolating kids to do at home as well as teaching the kids who were still in but in reality the kids at home got either nothing or some pointless busy work, while this kids in class got similarly pointless stuff to do because actually teaching half a class meant you'd either have to teach the same stuff again next week or let half the class miss out on the content altogether. This was absurd, but still an acceptable situation for the powers that be. Having too few staff on site to even provide a basic level of supervision, that's not an acceptable situation. I don't actually know what the new rules are (wouldn't be surprised if schools hadn't been officially told yet) but I'm sure they'll have been rigged to exclude as many teachers and staff as possible from having to isolate as close contacts. My other bet is that these rule changes will not have any basis in science, logic or even basic common sense.

Schools are supposed to present kids with a model of sensible, adult behaviour. That is not happening. Kids are spending their days in a place that has clearly gone batshit insane and then being relentlessly gaslighted about it. I've even caught myself doing it. When some kid has asked why they need a mask in an empty corridor but not in a packed classroom I made some excuse about people making difficult compromises, everyone trying really hard to make sure kids could stay in school, many complex factors that are hard to get your head round, blah blah blah. Didn't address the substance of the kid's question at all, because how could I? Not without saying, 'the people who decide these things don't give a shit about your wellbeing or mine, but for the sake of their careers they need to be able to say that schools are open and never mind if those schools are actually functioning as schools, if half the kids are home isolating, or any other level of absurdity.'

Dunno if any of that made any sense. I'm angry and scared and I don't know how many more times I can go through all this, or participate in dragging innocent kids through it.
 
It makes sense. Especially since I remember being a child and learning about the priorities and absurdities of authorities via the experience of listening to what the school authorities said and what they did in response to various challenges. And kids can be really good at picking up on such things and probing or exploiting weaknesses, contradictions and bullshit. And cynicism, fear, anger and skepticism of teachers will rub off on children, it will not go unnoticed.
 
Kids have been back at school for a week.

Dear Parent, Carer,
In line with patterns across the country, (our high school) is seeing an increase in COVID infections in the pupil population.
This is in all year groups.

Today we have been informed of 11 new cases.

As a result we are sending all parents the Government’s Warn and Inform Letter.

Please be assured that we are acting in accordance with updated guidance from the Scottish Government.
The Warn and Inform Letter basically says noone has to stay off unless they personally have symptoms or they've been directly contacted by Test and Trace.
 
It's going to be carnage in England isn't it. I sent an email to my daughter's school asking what their policy is now and haven't had an answer.

College has students back next week and we are "returning to pre-Covid working arrangements". Face coverings a personal choice (with "support" for people who want to wear them, i.e. stopping short of saying you can't). No more bubbles, "encouraging" of frequent hand washing, no requirement to track and trace. Increased cleaning regime still in place.
 
"Where staff or learners wish to continue to wear face coverings, we will be supporting this and also, we would ask everyone to respect all others personal space if they wish to continue their own form of social distancing"

That's it on face coverings
 
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