Re-opening Schools?

[baldrick]

What's needed to get towards some kind of normality until a vaccine turns up (if a vaccine turns up) is a shit hot test-trace-isolate system.

All the talk of vulnerable children, the importance of schooling or whatever from the government and their supporters is just so much blather to distract from the simple fact that they've failed to sort out a test-trace-isolate system and it'll still be weeks before they've got one, working or otherwise.

Yes. If I was a parent I wouldn't be sending my kid to school until that was in place, and shown to be working efficiently.

It's been obvious that it was needed for months but there's been no hurry to get it sorted. No part of the response by this government has been in any way timely or efficient. Just a series of measures implemented months after they became obvious to everyone that they were needed.

 

[Gramsci]

Just been listening to Womens Hour talking to a Head Teacher from Brent talking in the most patronising fashion about woring class BAME parents. They don't keep up with the news. So aren't aware of the safety issues of pandemic..

Govenment is not giving "clarity" but then it is having "fight with Unions" so that explains it.


And got the getting the economy back going again for the benefit of working class line from Head. But kept saying as Head didnt know if it was safe or not to reopen school.

Infuriatating.

 

[baldrick]

Was that Katherine Birbalsingh by any chance?

 

[Gramsci]

Was that Katherine Birbalsingh by any chance?

Didn't catch the name of the Head.

 

[zahir]

Just one week after a third of French children went back to school in an easing of the coronavirus lockdown, there has been a worrying flare-up of about 70 Covid-19 cases linked to schools.

French education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer sounded the alarm on Monday, telling French radio RTL that the return has put some children in new danger of contamination. He said the affected schools are being closed immediately. French media reported that seven schools in northern France were closed.

70 cases of Covid-19 linked to French schools days after reopening

The London Economic - France reopened about 40,000 preschools and primary schools last week, with classes capped at 15 students.- News

www.thelondoneconomic.com

 

[Mattym]

We've just had our 'plans for going back to school' meeting on Teams. I think school & the leadership team have gone above and beyond to make the place safe. What makes me so bloody anxious is the advice that they are getting from the DfE and the government, (who have yet to get anything right) and whether the 5 union checks have been met?

 

[nagapie]

My school has a Zoom for union members this afternoon re concerns around safety. But senior management seem to have pre-empted this as new rota shows students will only come in in groups of 5 and only be taught by the senior team.

 

[bimble]

My school has a Zoom for union members this afternoon re concerns around safety. But senior management seem to have pre-empted this as new rota shows students will only come in in groups of 5 and only be taught by the senior team.

What’s the idea with groups of five do you mean max five in a classroom altogether at any time or groups of 5 children can interact freely only within that group?

 

[nagapie]

What’s the idea with groups of five do you mean max five in a classroom altogether at any time or groups of 5 children can interact freely only within that group?

Secondary school. So 5 students come in for the day and only interact with each other. Only one year group.

 

[bimble]

That sounds very manageable? Maybe it’s silly to have been thinking in black and white terms like schools are either open or shut, you’re describing something else really.

 

[chilango]

That sounds very manageable? Maybe it’s silly to have been thinking in black and white terms like schools are either open or shut, you’re describing something else really.

Most schools have been open all through this. Just limited who can come in.

 

[planetgeli]

Another note on 'they all want to get back to school'. My county opened up hubs in schools with provision for 1400 kids county-wide.

Take up has been 250.

 

[Thora]

Another note on 'they all want to get back to school'. My county opened up hubs in schools with provision for 1400 kids county-wide.

Take up has been 250.

Instructions were strictly that children should only come to school if they couldn’t safely stay at home though, so you’d expect take up to be low.

 

[planetgeli]

Instructions were strictly that children should only come to school if they couldn’t safely stay at home though, so you’d expect take up to be low.

Take up in mainstream around here just before the lockdown, but after social distancing was announced, was 33%. Instructions then were that going to school was ok. I'd suggest you're going to get similar take-up if schools go back in some form on June 1st because, as Ms Ordinary has just posted in another thread,

Just heard a Mental Health Awareness type on the radio, quoting research that shows UK has the greatest FOGO (fear of going out / fear of returning to the outside world) of the countries studied.

No shit, maybe it's because most of us have zero confidence that people's lives matter more than the economy/ wealth generation to the people telling us to get back out there

 

[8ball]

First time I've heard of FOGO.
Strikes me as plausible that the UK should score highly. I've been quite surprised by it.

 

[Gramsci]

I talked to teacher in state school last week. He was going in couple of days a week to teach key workers children.

The numbers were low. School had estimated for more.

He reckons some key worker parents still preferred to keep children out of school due to health concerns.

 

[nagapie]

It's just a token. We are not being asked to work the impossible like primary schools. These children will only have 2 days in school before the summer. It wouldn't make much difference if they didn't come except i think they will be glad to see some peers. Of course parents may choose not to send them as my school is overwhelmingly made up of BAME groups that have been hit hard by the virus.

 

[8ball]

Does anyone know yet why BAME groups have been hit harder?

I wasn't sure whether it was all down to health/social inequalities and BAME groups being a little more likely to be key workers.

 

[nagapie]

Another note on 'they all want to get back to school'. My county opened up hubs in schools with provision for 1400 kids county-wide.

Take up has been 250.

Because people were, rightly, afraid.

 

[Jeremiah18.17]

If they do start back in some primary schools in England on June 1st (Those where councils or school leaderships have not pulled the plug on it) expect a drop off in attendance as parents realise how horrendous, traumatising and education-alienating an experience it is going to be with the conditions required, particularly for nursery, reception and year 1 kids. Partner’s school had generally positive response from a majority of parents initially, gradually declining now as parents become aware of how little of what is required is in place compared to in other countries (eg test-track-trace-isolate) and what the “education experience” is going to be like. (E.g. like something from a Dickens novel, being sat at a desk most of the day, even for lunch, and not being able to use resources, go out and play or socialise in a normal way....)

 

[planetgeli]

Only 5% of teachers think it safe to reopen English schools, poll shows

Survey by NASUWT union shows more work needed to win trust and allay fears

www.theguardian.com

 

[8ball]

d

Only 5% of teachers think it safe to reopen English schools, poll shows

Survey by NASUWT union shows more work needed to win trust and allay fears

www.theguardian.com

Quite good going, that this shitshow if a Government has such a high degree of trust.

 

[sheothebudworths]

This is the risk assessment checklist drawn up by the unions incase anyone's interested (definitely illustrates how complex and complicated it is!) -

https://www.gmb.org.uk/sites/default/files/12%20STEP%20GUIDANCE%20PRIMARY%20SCHOOLS%20REOPENING.pdf

 

[trashpony]

Does anyone know yet why BAME groups have been hit harder?

I wasn't sure whether it was all down to health/social inequalities and BAME groups being a little more likely to be key workers.

According to a survey from the BMA, because they get less PPE if they work in healthcare

BAME doctors hit worse by lack of PPE

Doctors with BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the chronic shortages of PPE (personal protective equipment) across the NHS.

www.bma.org.uk

 

[8ball]

According to a survey from the BMA, because they get less PPE if they work in healthcare

BAME doctors hit worse by lack of PPE

Doctors with BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the chronic shortages of PPE (personal protective equipment) across the NHS.

www.bma.org.uk

The difficulty in getting PAPR masks for some individuals makes a kind of sense (logically speaking, I mean - it's still inexcusable), but that is bound to be a minority compared to the overall figures (and obviously lots of BAME people with much higher morbidity and mortality rates are not health care workers).

Not that any of that makes it any less shocking that there should be a pronounced difference re: the PPE.

 

[Ms Ordinary]

On the FOGO thing, I was struck by (again from the radio, last week) a woman working as a Forest Schools co-ordinator (something like that, usually providing Forest Schools classes to inner city schools) saying how many children in her area (Hackney / Tower Hamlets IIRC) just haven't left their flats at all since the schools closed .
Total confinement.

Which sounded entirely plausible, based on what I see & hear around here (Brixton anyway, less so in Herne Hill) and desperately sad. And a health risk, long & short term.

So if there was a safe, safety-centred way to get children from overcrowded homes outside into fresh air, I'd be all for it. Failing that, it seems the worst thing you could do would be create a situation that increased infections & fear & put them back into confinement for even longer.

 

[8ball]

On the FOGO thing, I was struck by (again from the radio, last week) a woman working as a Forest Schools co-ordinator (something like that, usually providing Forest Schools classes to inner city schools) saying how many children in her area (Hackney / Tower Hamlets IIRC) just haven't left their flats at all since the schools closed .
Total confinement.

 

[Celyn]

Scottish plan might be to re-open schools in August, with pupils half of the time in school and half of the time at home.
Scottish schools expected to return in August, plans reveal

 

[Gramsci]

On the FOGO thing, I was struck by (again from the radio, last week) a woman working as a Forest Schools co-ordinator (something like that, usually providing Forest Schools classes to inner city schools) saying how many children in her area (Hackney / Tower Hamlets IIRC) just haven't left their flats at all since the schools closed .
Total confinement.

Which sounded entirely plausible, based on what I see & hear around here (Brixton anyway, less so in Herne Hill) and desperately sad. And a health risk, long & short term.

So if there was a safe, safety-centred way to get children from overcrowded homes outside into fresh air, I'd be all for it. Failing that, it seems the worst thing you could do would be create a situation that increased infections & fear & put them back into confinement for even longer.

Ive been doing a few food deliveries for Mutual Aid in this area. I have delivered food to a few parents on local estates. Some parents have been understandably very worried about the virus and keeping younger children in.

I really dont know how Forest Schools and adventure playgrounds are going to open any time soon.

 

[Louis MacNeice]

Instructions were strictly that children should only come to school if they couldn’t safely stay at home though, so you’d expect take up to be low.

Is that true for the children of key workers?

Cheers - Louis MacNeice