Re-opening Schools?

[MickiQ]

I know you're joking, but you'd be surprised how embedded the delusion of total power over everything is within some bits of the education system.

I wouldn't, my wife is a secondary school teacher and some of the tales she tells me makes me fear for the future at times

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

So my son finishes his shift at the local hospital, where he has been working all through the lockdown, to catch his bus home. First bus is filled with school kids, so adults aren’t allowed on. Second bus is full, because of distancing restrictions and the previous bus not allowing adults. Third bus ditto. Finally he gets on the fourth bus and gets home an hour late. He and everyone else in the bus queue well pissed off and angry. How long, if ever, will it take the bus company to wise up and put on extra buses at school-chucking-out time?

 

[chilango]

I know you're joking, but you'd be surprised how embedded the delusion of total power over everything is within some bits of the education system.

...yet conversely how embedded the reaction of shrugging shoulders and saying that it is out of their hands can be in the very same people.

 

[existentialist]

...yet conversely how embedded the reaction of shrugging shoulders and saying that it is out of their hands can be in the very same people.

Yeah. Nobody said it had to be rational...

 

[gentlegreen]

Due to my colleague's daughter's A level choices, she has to attend three different schools - sometimes going from one to the next on the same day...

Bristol City Council, Bristol City Council PUBLIC SERVICE

Students in three Bristol schools have tested positive to COVID-19. Two Mile Hill Primary School in Kingsway, Shirehampton Primary School and John Williams Oasis Academy in Hengrove all remain open, however some students are self-isolating at home.

 

[MrSki]

522 schools infected.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

How long, if ever, will it take the bus company to wise up and put on extra buses at school-chucking-out time?

snag is most bus fleets are at full stretch round school start / finish time in normal times, so finding extra buses (and drivers to drive them, and garage space for them) isn't quite as simple as all that...

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

snag is most bus fleets are at full stretch round school start / finish time in normal times, so finding extra buses (and drivers to drive them, and garage space for them) isn't quite as simple as all that...

I’m sure all that’s true, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if things settle down in a short while and changes are made to timetables. But the bus company should be proactive grater than reactive. They should have seen it coming. It’s their job. They should also have been given advice by the government in plenty of time. (Yeah, I know)

 

[wtfftw]

possible case in a class Chemistry has taught twice this week. Wonder how long it'll take for any test result news to get round, or even results, as it's friday...

 

[zahir]

Thread on children, covid and schools.

 

[cupid_stunt]

522 schools infected.

It's not ' 522 schools infected', it's 522 having largely a single pupil testing positive, which is very different, as they could have caught it anywhere.

Also bear in mind there's around 30,000 schools in the UK, so there's not much to worry about ATM, although that could well change if it starts spreading in a large number of schools.

 

[planetgeli]

Remember the Welsh government guidance denigrated the use of masks.

On Friday we were told masks will become compulsory from next week, though only in corridors, and only for staff. Hopefully the annoyance of removal and putting back on again will compel most staff to keep the bloody things on because atm we still only have 4 out of 20 staff regularly wearing one all day.

It's not ' 522 schools infected', it's 522 having largely a single pupil testing positive, as they could have caught it anywhere.

Also bear in mind there's around 30,000 schools in the UK, so there's not much to worry about ATM, although that could well change if it starts spreading in a large number of schools.

It's only been a week and a half with most schools having staggered starts. I reckon foresight should tell us there's plenty to worry about coming up.

 

[zahir]

Opening schools in Germany.

https://www.g-f-v.org/sites/default/files/Statement%20ad%20hoc%20commission%20SARS2_englisch_final-RB_sent.pdf

 

[clicker]

It's not ' 522 schools infected', it's 522 having largely a single pupil testing positive, which is very different, as they could have caught it anywhere.

Also bear in mind there's around 30,000 schools in the UK, so there's not much to worry about ATM, although that could well change if it starts spreading in a large number of schools.

I don't think it matters where they caught it though. What will matter is that they've exposed 30,000 schools to transmission. That's hundreds of thousands of adults and students in enclosed spaces, with minimal mask wearing and lack of available testing. Can't see it improving as it stands, but more than happy to be wrong.

 

[MrSki]

It's not ' 522 schools infected', it's 522 having largely a single pupil testing positive, which is very different, as they could have caught it anywhere.

Also bear in mind there's around 30,000 schools in the UK, so there's not much to worry about ATM, although that could well change if it starts spreading in a large number of schools.

Now 726 UK schools with pupils or staff with a Covid 19 positive test. Nothing to worry about when so many people are having difficulty getting a test?

 

[LDC]

Now 726 UK schools with pupils or staff with a Covid 19 positive test. Nothing to worry about when so many people are having difficulty getting a test?

Yup, school near me just emailed out saying all Year 9 off as an infection in that year group. And the school can't get any info out of PHE about what to do as they're overwhelmed so keeping whole year off as precaution until they get advice - hopefully tomorrow.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I don't know how many people remember schools before lockdown, but they have always been amazingly efficient at spreading viruses. You could guarantee that if some kid in a school in Essex had a bug, and you worked with someone who had a kid there, and you sat next to both them and someone from Carshalton who also had kids, that bug would be in Carshalton by the next day.

Granted that widespread WFH does cut the cross-region transfer down, but if it's in a school then it gets to household groups.

 

[existentialist]

Now 726 UK schools with pupils or staff with a Covid 19 positive test. Nothing to worry about when so many people are having difficulty getting a test?

Kind of makes you wonder what the numbers would be if everyone who needed a test was able to get one

 

[chilango]

I don't know how many people remember schools before lockdown, but they have always been amazingly efficient at spreading viruses. You could guarantee that if some kid in a school in Essex had a bug, and you worked with someone who had a kid there, and you sat next to both them and someone from Carshalton who also had kids, that bug would be in Carshalton by the next day.

Granted that widespread WFH does cut the cross-region transfer down, but if it's in a school then it gets to household groups.

Don't worry the students will sort the cross-region transfer out this week.

 

[sheothebudworths]

I don't think it matters where they caught it though. What will matter is that they've exposed 30,000 schools to transmission. That's hundreds of thousands of adults and students in enclosed spaces, with minimal mask wearing and lack of available testing. Can't see it improving as it stands, but more than happy to be wrong.

Absolutely this (and I'm not really appreciating the pft, don't worry about it take on it).

We have our first person off in my school.
Not a positive case - a staff member, whose partner has tested positive - so no one they've been in close contact with instructed to self-isolate, unless/until they get a positive result back.
Which makes some sense (when the focus is on keeping schools opening, at least), except that testing is fucked.

 

[zahir]

An account from a headteacher. I’m not sure I see the justification for not having everyone in the classroom self-isolate.

We’ve had our first positive test but it won’t be our last

At 10.54am on Saturday morning I received an email from a parent informing me that her child had tested positive for Covid-19. I am writing this at 7pm on Sunday evening as an account of what happe…

framheadteacher.com

 

[baldrick]

Yup, school near me just emailed out saying all Year 9 off as an infection in that year group. And the school can't get any info out of PHE about what to do as they're overwhelmed so keeping whole year off as precaution until they get advice - hopefully tomorrow.

We have three year groups off. First one on Thursday, still haven't heard back from PHE

 

[sheothebudworths]

An account from a headteacher. I’m not sure I see the justification for not having everyone in the classroom self-isolate.

We’ve had our first positive test but it won’t be our last

At 10.54am on Saturday morning I received an email from a parent informing me that her child had tested positive for Covid-19. I am writing this at 7pm on Sunday evening as an account of what happe…

framheadteacher.com

This really illutrates how difficult it all is, how much responsibility is placed on schools (as that expands, outwards... to staff and kids and parents...) to make really huge decisions. Also, how easy it must be to make mistakes.

 

[chilango]

The speed with which the start of term cold has swept through everyone I know connected to schools doesn't fill me with confidence that the measures schools have been able to take will slow a Covid spread.

 

[clicker]

An account from a headteacher. I’m not sure I see the justification for not having everyone in the classroom self-isolate.

We’ve had our first positive test but it won’t be our last

At 10.54am on Saturday morning I received an email from a parent informing me that her child had tested positive for Covid-19. I am writing this at 7pm on Sunday evening as an account of what happe…

framheadteacher.com

I appreciate they must be busy, but they need to update those letters they're sending out . The list of symptoms people need to look for have now increased, especially when it comes to children.

He even puts down the child in question had an upset stomach and nausea , which we have actually been told is a symptom ; yet he states having that symptom made them quite shocked at the positive test??

It's worrying that a school found that shocking.

 

[Thora]

I appreciate they must be busy, but they need to update those letters they're sending out . The list of symptoms people need to look for have now increased, especially when it comes to children.

He even puts down the child in question had an upset stomach and nausea , which we have actually been told is a symptom ; yet he states having that symptom made them quite shocked at the positive test??

It's worrying that a school found that shocking.

The school letters will refer to the official list of "main symptoms" that form the testing criteria. Schools aren't going to risk creating their own guidance which hasn't come from DfE or Public Health.

 

[Badgers]

So it is going well?

 

[LDC]

School near me has had one year 9 student test positive and the whole year was off today as a precaution until they got answers from PHE today about what to do. Still can't get an answer today, so whole year off tomorrow too. Shambles.

Although apparently the plan generally is to only have those kids that sat right next to any positive tests self isolate as they have the windows open so it's OK. Also a shambles.

 

[clicker]

The school letters will refer to the official list of "main symptoms" that form the testing criteria. Schools aren't going to risk creating their own guidance which hasn't come from DfE or Public Health.

Yet the BMJ published the new advice last week. Then again the science wasn't listened to in the beginning.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

My boss told me today that in his daughters school 4 of the 6 year groups have been sent home.