Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Re-opening Schools?

sheothebudworths said:
I just read that they are offering every school a total of TEN testing kits each before the wide reopening starting on Tuesday, so whatever the existing circumstances that have led to tests in Scotland, they're not applying them here. Monday is a bank holiday, too.


English schools to receive just 10 coronavirus testing kits each
Sally Weale

Sally Weale
Schools in England are to receive just 10 Covid testing kits each ahead of the start of the autumn term next week, the government has revealed.
The kits were part of the government’s attempts to reassure anxious parents and staff that every possible measure was being taken to make the return to school as safe as possible, but the volume of tests available to schools has been described as “completely inadequate”.
Schools will also receive “a small amount” of personal protective equipment including clinical face masks, aprons, gloves, visors and hand sanitiser in a one-off delivery, provided free of charge by the Department of Health and Social Care.
School standards minister Nick Gibb said:

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “If the government says Covid testing kits will be available in schools then they need to be available in the right volume in order that they can be effectively used. If it’s 10 per school then it’s completely inadequate. The government is losing all credibility.”
According to Department for Education guidance, schools can request more test kits if required but they should only be
offered in exceptional circumstances where an individual may not be able to access a test elsewhere. Students and staff should ordinarily visit a testing site.

ETA, from the Guardian feed (think I saw it in a broader article, too - will have a look)...
Included here - Confusion over face masks as some schools in England could relax rules within days
Click to expand...
And as I mentioned on (I think) a different thread when the news emerged of eight pupils in a Glasgow school testing positive the day after they'd returned, testing once they've come back and had a chance to infect their school mates seems less than ideal.
 
andysays said:
And as I mentioned on (I think) a different thread when the news emerged of eight pupils in a Glasgow school testing positive the day after they'd returned, testing once they've come back and had a chance to infect their school mates seems less than ideal.
Click to expand...

Well, yes - I mean I am not objecting to your sensible idea - but it's not going to happen is it? Care homes don't have enough tests - we still don't even have the pretend numbers of tests they are supposed to have, eh?
Do hospitals have enough tests? I have no idea.
Or have we just spunked more millions, safely shored up into private contracts, who will predictably fuck it all up instead, while we focus on 'the economy'.
Obvs schools have fuck all, though - but let's just open them all anyway!

My daughter's school had already put into place future plans for masks to be worn in common areas just before the summer holidays, btw (helped, possibly, that our la was one of those that rejected the earlier plans around how year groups should return in June).
As support staff in another school, very close by, I've still had no notice of any plans, despite those being promised (three weeks ago but with no timescale) and chasing it up with a week to go now.

I really, really want kids back but I am - well, I feel legitimately - worried. Not catastrophising - just really feeling the lack of any fucking planning, after months. I am worried about the impact I may have on other people too, with no direction and nothing sensible having been put in place in the meantime.. It's the knowledge really, that it's absolutely being made up as we go, that adds to the general anxiety.
 
PursuedByBears said:
My old school! I'm proud of them all.
Click to expand...

Brilliant! Every pic I've seen today has clearly been of kids who're either wise to the fact that they have been roundly fucked or (with the risk of patronising them) who have been told by their parents to pull their best sulky DEEP TEEN face/body language, upon the entrance of that incompetent, fucking idiot - I just love them either way :cool:
 
I think the government would like schools to be safe, but lack the vision, drive, determination or will to actually do what's been needed to make sure they are safe. If they were serious about it they'd have spent the last months throwing resources at schools - money, people, equipment, empty buildings, whatever is required. But where's the profit in that? It's all like too much effort, and maybe it'll all work out okay. Instead, all they've offered is words; whether it's Johnson baracking a class of embarrased and bored kids or Whitty quoting unreassuring stats to reassure people or the endlessly changing guidance being poured into schools.

That's reflective of their whole approach to Covid. Big words matched with minimal action.
 
cupid_stunt said:
Whilst I think we can all agree that an earlier lock-down would have saved a hell of a lot of lives, I am struggling with the logic of connecting that with the current situation of 'persistent community transmission', when countries that locked-down earlier are reporting larger spikes in new cases than the UK.

I was reading a report on the Republic of Ireland earlier, they went into lock-down ahead of us, and was considered to be doing very well, but their 7-day average of new cases, adjusted for population size, is now running at around 35% more than the UK. :(

They are still moving towards re-opening schools, together with all four of the UK nations, and most of Europe, although I accept the devil will be in the details of how different countries are actually managing it.
Click to expand...


They are ... and it will be an unmitigated disaster.
No social distancing worth its salt. 32 kids in classrooms squashed together.
This ... was the suggested covid isolation area in one school. A shed.
image (1).jpg

I heard that one local school had a staff meeting. Socially distanced but still a few staff have been diagnosed with covid19 since.

Another school...the headmaster had parents walking round the school with him and nobody wearing masks. Staff are all to wear masks indoors in second level schools and in primary schools where social distancing cannot be maintained. Pupils are alsi to wear masks indoors.

There are classrooms here with 38 children crammed together. It will be a disaster.
Older teachers will end up sick. As will those who were considered high risk but not high enough risk to be allowed work from home.

We have 600 ICU beds in the ENTIRE country.
Think about that...

1,000,000 children go back to school this week. Thats nearly 1/4 of the population. Plus 8000 teachers and SNAs.
Second wave??? It will be a tsunami.


😥😥
 
Last edited:
Spandex said:
I think the government would like schools to be safe, but lack the vision, drive, determination or will to actually do what's been needed to make sure they are safe. If they were serious about it they'd have spent the last months throwing resources at schools - money, people, equipment, empty buildings, whatever is required. But where's the profit in that? It's all like too much effort, and maybe it'll all work out okay. Instead, all they've offered is words; whether it's Johnson baracking a class of embarrased and bored kids or Whitty quoting unreassuring stats to reassure people or the endlessly changing guidance being poured into schools.

That's reflective of their whole approach to Covid. Big words matched with minimal action.
Click to expand...

I think you're right, except that we're not even getting the big words.
As I understand it, they also loudly offered some additional funding - OMG, COVID! HAVE SOME MONEY, SCHOOLS - but which was never spread out where it needed to be in the first place, then announced a payrise for teachers - to recognise the work they do - but where schools must actually forcibly absorb that cost, so that loads of schools are now even worse off than they were before, while they battle to address their own issues in terms of making the buildings - the available space - safe for everyone.
 
trashpony said:
He means mums, doesn't he? Men have meaningful chats, women gossip. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

One school I heard of had signs up "no parents / guardians beyond this point" at the gate. Yet all the Junior infant class parents were allowed to walk their little darlings into class and stay beside them til they settled. So ... 28 infants plus 28 parents plus staff all i one room.
Like wtf???
 
Sugar Kane said:
One school I heard of had signs up "no parents / guardians beyond this point" at the gate. Yet all the Junior infant class parents were allowed to walk their little darlings into class and stay beside them til they settled. So ... 28 infants plus 28 parents plus staff all i one room.
Like wtf???
Click to expand...
We were never allowed to do that at infant school - the kids were peeled off you (if necessary) at the school door. No going into the building at all. Much better for the kids, covid or no covid
 
I do wonder if it would make some sense to plan for longer school holidays this year - eg a 2-week half term, 4-weeks Xmas hols, 2 weeks Feb half term to at least give things a bit more space, time for families to isolate if they do have it and not bring it to school etc. I mean, I'm sure there's loads of reasons why not, but perhaps it would add some level of predictability and mitigation?

Son's school, a bit oddly, is doing entrance time by surname group (eg A-D, E-H,etc) and then, more understandably, exit by year group. So son's day will be 9-3.40, which isn't bad.

Waiting to hear about timing of daughter's school as she may be able to pick him up some days on her way home, as I think she's generally finished by 3.15, but that could change under current circs. Son's school is encouraging his year and up (so Y5 and 6) to walk themselves to avoid overcrowding, and if son didn't have the common sense of a flea, I'd be all up for him walking himself. But he's way too capable of walking under a car - shame, as his sister could have done it at that age, but not him and it's just a bit too far and too many roads/driveways to walk across and be confident that he'd pay attention.
 
I can't wait to see what us coaches are instructed to do about absence this year. A lot of our target setting and time is dealing with attendance percentages yet as soon as anyone gets a sniffle they'll be off for ten days and if anyone actually gets it their whole class will also be off.
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Jesus, late Friday night the government finally releases loads of new guidelines that schools must put in place by the time the open on Tuesday. This government just gets more and more crap.
Click to expand...
Where can these be found?

And does anyone know what the schools are supposed to do if they find students that have been at school have been tested positive? Does it all shut down again?
 
ATOMIC SUPLEX said:
Where can these be found?

And does anyone know what the schools are supposed to do if they find students that have been at school have been tested positive? Does it all shut down again?
Click to expand...


news.sky.com

Coronavirus: 'The incompetence is insulting' - Govt attacked over last-minute COVID-19 rules for schools

Education leaders have criticised the timing of the guidance, which comes days before schools reopen in England.
news.sky.com news.sky.com

Seems the whole bubble must isolate if one person in it (or attached to it, sibling, parent etc.) gets the bug. No guidance on the size of bubbles, BB2's will be a year group, so 60 + staff...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Thora
If primary schools/nurseries open on 4th January, will you send your children?
2
Replies
40
Views
1K
Oula
Oula
S
Pubs open
7 8 9 10 11
Replies
313
Views
12K
hash tag
hash tag
H
Home schooling material
Replies
5
Views
342
CNT36
C
F
Keeping children off school
2 3 4
Replies
108
Views
4K
Thora
Thora
Thora
Is the school reopening plan going to cause a childcare problem for critical workers (including teachers)?
Replies
5
Views
336
scifisam
scifisam
Back
Top Bottom