Re-opening Schools?

[planetgeli]

I guess the issue with deep cleaning, is who is going to do it? Schools don’t have much of a cleaning budget.

Most have more than mine.

Being a PRU, even though we are under the LEA, our cleaning budget isn't. Instead, senior management have asked for volunteers to take on extra cleaning duties. Several TAs have taken this on with the promise of extra pay (from the LEA funnily enough). They've been doing this since July. None have been paid a penny so far.

 

[chilango]

1,847

1,923

 

[Mattym]

What is the general approach when there are identified cases? In the school here, there has been one case and so the classes that they were in have been sent home but doesn’t seem like other measures, like closing to do more cleaning, was done. A friend has pulled his daughter, who wasn’t in the same classes, out of the school over them not taking more measures. They say he’s overreacting but it’s up to him if he doesn’t feel it’s safe and it’s surprising that he says that they weren’t doing extra cleaning. Surely they would do that even if just overnight.

It depends on the school & the circumstances. In our school, 2 pupils have tested positive. 1 is in a bubble which has had to partly move around school as they are at Key stage 4 so doing GCSEs and have mixed with each other but not with other bubbles, so the whole bubble has had to isolate. The other case, the pupil's group are KS3 so are together for every lesson and haven't mixed with other classes or bubbles, so just the class has isolated.
ETA- staff of said pupils have been closely questioned as to their interaction with said pupils to determine whether they need to isolate.
'Deep cleaned/ (hate that phrase) & fogged every day & affected rooms also left empty for 2 weeks as no other groups use the rooms.

 

[MrSki]

1942 at close of play.

 

[maomao]

My daughter's school has just closed all three reception classes due to 'excessive staff absences despite no confirmed cases of covid' making it sound all like lazy teachers fault. At the bottom of the letter it tells you they were actually sent home as they had symptoms.

Oh well, hope year one stays open though I'm guessing they'll have a few weeks off at some point.

 

[rutabowa]

My kid goes to a 1000 odd pupil primary school in hackney, one of the worst and earliest affected areas... it seems to me that it must have already been around the school? (There are no tests at all available here if you dont have a car, and not many people do, so its not like anyone could check though)

 

[elbows]

From the weekly PHE surveillance report: https://assets.publishing.service.g...COVID19_Surveillance_Report_week_39_FINAL.pdf

 

[Sue]

My kid goes to a 1000 odd pupil primary school in hackney, one of the worst and earliest affected areas... it seems to me that it must have already been around the school? (There are no tests at all available here if you dont have a car, and not many people do, so its not like anyone could check though)

That's an enormous primary school. I'd no idea there were ones that big.

 

[chilango]

1,923

1,972

 

[MrSki]

2023

 

[zahir]

Thread on children and covid.

 

[zahir]

Also

 

[zahir]

 

[elbows]

 

[baldrick]

There seems to be a shift in terms of advice from PHE towards schools recently - from year groups/bubbles being told to self-isolate at the start of the month, towards identifying close contacts of children in schools to keep a more limited pool of children home.

 

[killer b]

Yeah, my daughter's year/bubble has been sent home today after someone tested positive, but the school says most of them will be back in once they've identified close contacts.

 

[elbows]

There seems to be a shift in terms of advice from PHE towards schools recently - from year groups/bubbles being told to self-isolate at the start of the month, towards identifying close contacts of children in schools to keep a more limited pool of children home.

Is it even PHE giving that advice?

I think there were stories in September about how there was a new DfE hotline for schools to report outbreaks and get advice, potentially bypassing local PHE teams. Partly because PHE isnt setup to deal with the number of requests they were getting, but it creates a new opportunity for political compromises to be made in a way that does not place public health at the centre of decisions.

 

[Thora]

Mid September it changed from PHE to DfE.
In primary schools I don’t know how they can talk about close contacts - they’re all close contacts. My 10 year old is sitting 3 to a desk in class

 

[rutabowa]

sending year groups home was never going to work in secondary schools, one teacher testing positive could easily take out a whole school.

 

[killer b]

This is the email I had today re: the procedure - I'm guessing this will be standard, looks like a cut & paste job

 

[killer b]

Further to this, the infected kid sits next to her in history.

 

[chilango]

2023

2,075

 

[Mr.Bishie]

6.5% ?

 

[MrSki]

Well it seems to have a hold in Liverpool.

 

[andysays]

Well it seems to have a hold in Liverpool.

I'm still confused by this sort of thing.

AFAIK, advice remains that only those showing symptoms should be tested. So while it's good that these were, don't understand why

 

[MrSki]

I'm still confused by this sort of thing.

AFAIK, advice remains that only those showing symptoms should be tested. So while it's good that these were, don't understand why

As it says 'The School carried out its own testing'

 

[Edie]

Of the first four weeks of school:
Week one- two hours provision, each year group in per day. Apparently the teachers needed time to prepare and to educate the kids about how to follow a one way system.
Week two- four days in school wahey then sent home due to close contact with covid kid on Friday
Week three- son off for 3 days waiting for covid test cos he had a cold but school thought it was covid cos he couldn’t smell
Week four- entire year 11 sent home for whole week as two cases and not enough teachers anyway.

So in four weeks he’s had six days in school. Absolute fucking shit show. Schools at home provision still useless. I looked at it today and it’s basically two Hegarty maths modules and a video to watch in English. For a gcse year.

The school needs to step up. No need to send asymptomatic kids home from a bubble, just isolate them in a room and teach them there separately. Stop acting like a fucking food bank and teach the kids instead. If the teachers are off, double up the classes, do not send home an entire year. And if you absolutely have to send an entire exam year home then teach via zoom in real time.

 

[elbows]

Increasing class sizes is the last thing this pandemic needs, so no to the doubling idea.

 

[elbows]

It does appear that the amount of effort put into sincere home schooling material in this country in this pandemic resembles the amount of effort that went into sticking us in front of the TV at school way too much in the 1980s. Speaking purely of my own 1980s experiences there, which may have contributed to me being the ranty complainer about half-arsed Britain that I am today for all I know.

Parallels likely include the shit amount of funding that was around back then.

 

[muscovyduck]

It does appear that the amount of effort put into sincere home schooling material in this country in this pandemic resembles the amount of effort that went into sticking us in front of the TV at school way too much in the 1980s. Speaking purely of my own 1980s experiences there, which may have contributed to me being the ranty complainer about half-arsed Britain that I am today for all I know.

Parallels likely include the shit amount of funding that was around back then.

Resembles a lot of hospital schooling too, few very basic worksheets and whatever exercises your teacher was going to set you out your textbook if they're able to get hold of your teacher to ask