Despite the government narrative of a return to normality in classrooms, schools in areas with high coronavirus rates say they have struggled to function, with many staff off sick and problems securing supply teachers because of high demand.
This week, for example, one Devon school was missing a third of its workforce, a school in Wiltshire was forced to send two year groups home early for half-term and a Buckinghamshire junior school closed and moved to online learning. In Northamptonshire, meanwhile, the Guardian has learned that one primary school had almost 50% of pupils off with Covid during a period of about a week between the end of September and 5 October.
“People are on their knees,” said Ben Davis, headteacher at St Ambrose Barlow RC high school in Wardley, Greater Manchester. “There’s never been such a hard half-term as this, during the whole pandemic. Schools have been thrown into this with no measures or restrictions and we’ve been told to deal with it.”
Covid rates have been higher in his school than before, with 80 positive cases and up to 14 staff off at a time. “We’ve reinstated masks in corridors and classrooms on the advice of public health. Achieving cooperation with that is much, much harder than it was as there’s nowhere else in their lives that children are having to wear masks.”
In Cornwall it has been similarly challenging. “We have had school closures and several year group closures across primary and secondary, with a couple having to close early for half-term due to staffing pressures,” said David Barton, executive officer of the Cornwall Association of Secondary School Headteachers. “Our Covid rates have remained high since the summer and are increasing – currently 555 per 100,000 – and half of all cases are in school-aged children.”
This is a national crisis on its own. Close the schools. We are putting a whole generation at risk.
Despite the government narrative of a return to normality in classrooms, schools in areas with high coronavirus rates say they have struggled to function, with many staff off sick and problems securing supply teachers because of high demand.
This week, for example, one Devon school was missing a third of its workforce, a school in Wiltshire was forced to send two year groups home early for half-term and a Buckinghamshire junior school closed and moved to online learning. In Northamptonshire, meanwhile, the Guardian has learned that one primary school had almost 50% of pupils off with Covid during a period of about a week between the end of September and 5 October.
“People are on their knees,” said Ben Davis, headteacher at St Ambrose Barlow RC high school in Wardley, Greater Manchester. “There’s never been such a hard half-term as this, during the whole pandemic. Schools have been thrown into this with no measures or restrictions and we’ve been told to deal with it.”
Covid rates have been higher in his school than before, with 80 positive cases and up to 14 staff off at a time. “We’ve reinstated masks in corridors and classrooms on the advice of public health. Achieving cooperation with that is much, much harder than it was as there’s nowhere else in their lives that children are having to wear masks.”
In Cornwall it has been similarly challenging. “We have had school closures and several year group closures across primary and secondary, with a couple having to close early for half-term due to staffing pressures,” said David Barton, executive officer of the Cornwall Association of Secondary School Headteachers. “Our Covid rates have remained high since the summer and are increasing – currently 555 per 100,000 – and half of all cases are in school-aged children.”
This is a national crisis on its own. Close the schools. We are putting a whole generation at risk.
And yet, in my daughter's school, there has been not one single case of Covid all half term (unlike during the previous open periods) and the whole school, teachers and kids alike, have been revelling in being back to normal.
I'm not trying to suggest that there are no issues because "I'm all right Jack" but picking out a few schools that have clearly had a horrendous half term does not equal national crisis or putting a whole generation at risk. In fact, if you look at Foundation Stage to Year 2 (ie, infant schools or equivalent), they in particular have massively suffered from the lack of socialisation (ETA: and learning) caused by lockdowns. Y3-Y6 (juniors) have also found it incredibly tough. And yet, these are the kids who are mostly symptom free or have minimal symptoms (ETA: if they catch Covid).
There are absolutely arguments* for closing schools to protect the adults who work there and the families of the kids, but to say "We are putting a whole generation at risk" as an argument for closing primary schools is hopelessly wrong. The closure of schools is what has affected primary school kids by far the most, not the disease itself.
*But at this point, with most adults vaccinated and almost all adults having had the opportunity to be vaccinated, those arguments are weak at best.
Re: Back to school
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2021 5:40 pm
by lpm
Every under 12 is going to get it, every over 12 will either get it or get the vaccine.
And this is happening fast. There are entire schools who've effectively achieved herd immunity of 85%+, plenty more where the fires are dying down with 70%+.
The Guardian article is terrible cherry picking. Obviously there's outliers in every distribution. Any journalist can find "a school in Northamptonshire". And it's no surprise that Cornwall is getting it hard, because Cornwall was such a low Covid area in waves 1 and 2.
I don't think there's anything too worrying in the stats. The second half of the term will be a lot easier because so many classrooms will have herd immunity. The govt plan is working - sending a huge volume of cases through the school system before the flu season starts. Meanwhile child cases aren't translating too badly into adult cases, with the UK appearing to now enter another downwards period in the ongoing oscillation.
Re: Back to school
Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:54 pm
by shpalman
Students at schools and colleges in England will need to wear masks again, after the Department for Education told principals and head teachers that face coverings should now be worn in communal areas by staff, visitors and students in year 7 and above. Year 7 is for children aged 11 and is the first year of state secondary school in England.
Re: Back to school
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2021 3:27 pm
by badger
When is Day 1 of 10 Day isolation period?
We all know it's either the first day of your symptoms, or the day you positive test if you're asymptomatic.
But what is a symptom?
We all know it's cough, fever or smell/taste loss.
But does that apply to children, whose symptoms can be different from adults?
Yes and No.
BadgerCub #1 has teh covids. Call with Test& Trace determines, among other things, that his Day 1 is when he first had a fever, not the two days previously when he started a runny nose.
Cub's friend and class mate (the class is dropping like flies right now) who tested positive on the same day, has conversation with same person at same Test&Trace and given a Day 1 from when they "had a runny nose" (which happens to have been the same day Cub did, which didn't count when I spoke to them on the same bl..dy day).
The inconsistency is rubbish, but I had a chat with the School and they said that parents are often taking any cold symptom to be Day 1 and, while there is some evidence to support this, it's not in any official advice they've seen.
I wonder if this may not be helping to curb the spread through the school, resulting in positive kids going back in on what should be Days 8/9/10 of their isolation period. Of course, it doesn't help that siblings of isolating positives go happily into school, but I wonder how much inconsistent advice and lack of clear, child-specific guidance (and ease of bending it to suit) is making things worse.
Re: Back to school
Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 8:01 pm
by Gfamily
This is just ridiculous - and is attracting ridicule from all angles.
Students at schools and colleges in England will need to wear masks again, after the Department for Education told principals and head teachers that face coverings should now be worn in communal areas by staff, visitors and students in year 7 and above. Year 7 is for children aged 11 and is the first year of state secondary school in England.
Worth pointing out that classrooms do not count as a communal area. So perfectly fine to sit in a room with 29+ other kids and no social distancing for an hour as long as you put a mask on as you leave the room.
Students at schools and colleges in England will need to wear masks again, after the Department for Education told principals and head teachers that face coverings should now be worn in communal areas by staff, visitors and students in year 7 and above. Year 7 is for children aged 11 and is the first year of state secondary school in England.
Worth pointing out that classrooms do not count as a communal area. So perfectly fine to sit in a room with 29+ other kids and no social distancing for an hour as long as you put a mask on as you leave the room.
I'm not sure where the ironic 'in a bubble' formatting should have been on the comment; but yes-ish.
We all know it's either the first day of your symptoms, or the day you positive test if you're asymptomatic.
But what is a symptom?
We all know it's cough, fever or smell/taste loss.
But does that apply to children, whose symptoms can be different from adults?
Yes and No.
BadgerCub #1 has teh covids. Call with Test& Trace determines, among other things, that his Day 1 is when he first had a fever, not the two days previously when he started a runny nose.
Cub's friend and class mate (the class is dropping like flies right now) who tested positive on the same day, has conversation with same person at same Test&Trace and given a Day 1 from when they "had a runny nose" (which happens to have been the same day Cub did, which didn't count when I spoke to them on the same bl..dy day).
The inconsistency is rubbish, but I had a chat with the School and they said that parents are often taking any cold symptom to be Day 1 and, while there is some evidence to support this, it's not in any official advice they've seen.
I wonder if this may not be helping to curb the spread through the school, resulting in positive kids going back in on what should be Days 8/9/10 of their isolation period. Of course, it doesn't help that siblings of isolating positives go happily into school, but I wonder how much inconsistent advice and lack of clear, child-specific guidance (and ease of bending it to suit) is making things worse.
Yes, it's very inconsistent that it seems you can have symptoms and not isolate because they aren't the right symptoms and then use those same symptoms to get you out of isolation earlier! I think runny noses are a particular issue, as lots of small children basically have them from September to February.
We all know it's either the first day of your symptoms, or the day you positive test if you're asymptomatic.
But what is a symptom?
We all know it's cough, fever or smell/taste loss.
But does that apply to children, whose symptoms can be different from adults?
Yes and No.
BadgerCub #1 has teh covids. Call with Test& Trace determines, among other things, that his Day 1 is when he first had a fever, not the two days previously when he started a runny nose.
Cub's friend and class mate (the class is dropping like flies right now) who tested positive on the same day, has conversation with same person at same Test&Trace and given a Day 1 from when they "had a runny nose" (which happens to have been the same day Cub did, which didn't count when I spoke to them on the same bl..dy day).
The inconsistency is rubbish, but I had a chat with the School and they said that parents are often taking any cold symptom to be Day 1 and, while there is some evidence to support this, it's not in any official advice they've seen.
I wonder if this may not be helping to curb the spread through the school, resulting in positive kids going back in on what should be Days 8/9/10 of their isolation period. Of course, it doesn't help that siblings of isolating positives go happily into school, but I wonder how much inconsistent advice and lack of clear, child-specific guidance (and ease of bending it to suit) is making things worse.
Yes, it's very inconsistent that it seems you can have symptoms and not isolate because they aren't the right symptoms and then use those same symptoms to get you out of isolation earlier! I think runny noses are a particular issue, as lots of small children basically have them from September to February.
yes, as is also falling into the trap I made in my post where the first day of isolation is Day 0, not Day 1
Detentions for masks in class feels like it's game over.
ETA - I wonder if they have to wear their masks in detention?
Every under 12 is going to get it, every over 12 will either get it or get the vaccine.
And this is happening fast. There are entire schools who've effectively achieved herd immunity of 85%+, plenty more where the fires are dying down with 70%+.
The Guardian article is terrible cherry picking. Obviously there's outliers in every distribution. Any journalist can find "a school in Northamptonshire". And it's no surprise that Cornwall is getting it hard, because Cornwall was such a low Covid area in waves 1 and 2.
I don't think there's anything too worrying in the stats. The second half of the term will be a lot easier because so many classrooms will have herd immunity. The govt plan is working - sending a huge volume of cases through the school system before the flu season starts. Meanwhile child cases aren't translating too badly into adult cases, with the UK appearing to now enter another downwards period in the ongoing oscillation.
I was under the impression, forgive me if I'm wrong, that 'herd immunity' is not possible with Covid.
I was under the impression, forgive me if I'm wrong, that 'herd immunity' is not possible with Covid.
That does indeed seem to be the case. Covid is more like colds and flu in that you can keep catching it, so the stable situation is where everyone has significant immunity from vaccines and prior infection, so we all get Covid about once a year and our protection means that it's just another disease that we put up with but is reasonably mild.
I was under the impression, forgive me if I'm wrong, that 'herd immunity' is not possible with Covid.
That does indeed seem to be the case. Covid is more like colds and flu in that you can keep catching it, so the stable situation is where everyone has significant immunity from vaccines and prior infection, so we all get Covid about once a year and our protection means that it's just another disease that we put up with but is reasonably mild.
I've been wondering if, after flu jab, 2 vaccinations and a booster, I can go about my daily life and just catch Covid. My son has had it and although he lost his appetite for a month and consequently weight, which he can ill afford to do, his appetite has returned with a vengeance and he's no longer skinny. I still wear a mask though, because it helps with allergies and I've already had that awful cold that went around in September.
I'm getting to the point where I'm getting mild Covid envy.
Re: Back to school
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 5:12 pm
by raven
Me too. It'd be a relief to catch it and recover ok. My cousin, who had a lung removed in September, tested positive recently as did her elderly-with-a-heart-condition dad. I was quite worried for them, but thankfully it was just like a bad cold with sense of smell loss & they were pretty much over it before the self-isolation period ended.
Both double jabbed & boosted, of course, so thank f.ck for vaccines is all I can say.
The government rescinded the requirement for masks in secondary school classrooms in England on 20 January and since 27 January they have no longer been compulsory in communal indoor spaces either. But a number of schools that complied with the change in the rules are having to reintroduce them a week later because it was a f.cking stupid idea.
