Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Tubey]

Unlike you, I don't claim to have all the answers to everything known to man. I was asking because I don't know what schools have been doing. What I know is that they were able to operate with small numbers of children, but don't appear to be able to operate with more akin to a normal volume of children. What the issues are that prevent them, I don't know, hence the question.

With regards to the PPE point, my wife has been doing home visits for several weeks now in full PPE (gown, mask, visor etc.), and she's visiting children. It seems to be fine, and much of that is down to the message the parents give to their children about the situation. One kid, for instance, asked her if she was one of the super heroes that mummy had told her about.

Given the huge uncertainty around a vaccine, schools will presumably have to open at some point, especially as the advice of the unions is not to teach any new material online at the moment, which hardly seems good for the children's education. Sectors across the country have been remarkably creative in trying to maintain a degree of normality, so hopefully the schools will be able to be similarly inventive in ensuring that children still receive an education.

At the point where they return to school, all that can realistically be done is to try and protect staff by distancing them from children. There are constant conversations going on within schools in relation to safety in that regard. The conversations include halfing the intake so you have four or five staff rooms, ending lessons five minutes early for teachers to leave and be somewhere safe before kids egress, so kids go to school only 2-3 days instead of 5 etc.

For kids, there's an acknowledgement that pretty much any measure is pointless. The idea kids can socially distance in school is laughable.

The unions aren't being deliberately obstructive. They have genuine obvious concerns. Teachers haven't been sat on their hands.

 

[Jebus_lives]

At the point where they return to school, all that can realistically be done is to try and protect staff by distancing them from children. There are constant conversations going on within schools in relation to safety in that regard. The conversations include halfing the intake so you have four or five staff rooms, ending lessons five minutes early for teachers to leave and be somewhere safe before kids egress, so kids go to school only 2-3 days instead of 5 etc.

For kids, there's an acknowledgement that pretty much any measure is pointless. The idea kids can socially distance in school is laughable.

The unions aren't being deliberately obstructive. They have genuine obvious concerns. Teachers haven't been sat on their hands.

DfE's chief scientific adviser hasn't assessed school reopening guidance

The Department for Education’s chief scientific adviser admitted he has not assessed whether guidance on reopening schools is effective, adding the current advice is "draft" and "will be developed". Appearing in front of the Parliamentary science and technology committee today, Osama Rahman also...

schoolsweek.co.uk

DfE adviser: School return plan could risk virus spread

Chief scientific adviser to DfE says he has not assessed how school reopening plans can be implemented

www.tes.com

@Bruce Wayne just on the two month point you made, the assessments should've been made already but haven't and the guidance doesn't really cover much of the concerns raised. I'm not sure if have a great deal of faith in this level of preparedness.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I thinks it's more due to funding available to restructure, expectation on waiting for national guidance and negotiations, different environment (requirement to sit closely, maintain distancing vs classroom management).

Schools have also stayed open, the difference here is how to provide safe teaching when the ability to limit or control the return is out of your control.

Not read a great deal of the educational advice, but that seems to be the main concerns.

Yes, suffice to say, I don't recall seeing anything from the department of education, the local authorities, teachers unions, or anyone really. It seems to have been all a bit lacklustre. Hopefully now there is a clear need for something to happen, those involved will get together to make it happen.

 

[Barnfred 55]

My wife works in a relatively senior role in education. I think the original message was more along the above lines, but her impression is the stance is getting stricter.

For example, there was a document released only yesterday with subtle changes in the language: less 1st June at the earliest and more 1st June is the date.

The LEA, governors/trustees and head teachers have the ultimate responsibility whether to open, based on their risk assessments, but the govt. are pushing it.

I know my wife was involved in a lot of detailed discussions and planning, which have then had to be amended because of the changes coming in the document.

If a school doesn't open, she is unsure how this will pan out, but she is quite happy that Liverpool as an authority have taken a much more robust response.

The 1st will be for key children, Year 6 two weeks later and then two weeks after that they'll see based on continuous risk assessments - Y6, Y1 and R was binned.

The idea that schools in the mainstay do not want to reopen isn't correct: they've been open and are happy to slowly increase numbers, but it has to be measured.

Like my wife said if they bring everyone back too quickly and without adequate PPE, will they have to accept the responsibility for any future legal action?

Yeah. A lot of people forget that most primary schools are open and roughly two thirds of teachers are already working a rota system

 

[Dannymini]

"R" back above one SAGE have said, does does not even include data since lock down was eased.

 

[roydo]

Why dont the NUT want teachers to do online lessons? Thought it was a good idea myself.

 

[Jebus_lives]

Yes, suffice to say, I don't recall seeing anything from the department of education, the local authorities, teachers unions, or anyone really. It seems to have been all a bit lacklustre. Hopefully now there is a clear need for something to happen, those involved will get together to make it happen.

Something of a failure in the national resilience structures in that it was led initially by LA without much multi-agency cooperation. It's now a more collaborative approach.

 

[Tubey]

"R" back above one SAGE have said, does does not even include data since lock down was eased.

A week after the VE Day shambolism.

Whuddathunkit.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

How do children spread the coronavirus? The science still isn’t clear

Schools are beginning to reopen — but scientists are still trying to understand what the deal is with kids and COVID-19.

www.nature.com

Interesting reading regarding children and infection btw.

 

[ToffeeTim]

A week after the VE Day shambolism.

Whuddathunkit.

Figures dont include that period. It's about 2 weeks behind

 

[Tubey]

Figures dont include that period. It's about 2 weeks behind

Ah even worse then.

 

[spectateur]

i think it's pretty easy for students to be 2m away from teachers at all time

Stop thinking, you have absolutely no idea of how a classroom works.

 

[PhilM]

Why dont the NUT want teachers to do online lessons? Thought it was a good idea myself.

Is that what they've actually said? Rightly or wrongly, I know they'll probably be trying to protect their members, but I suspect things like this won't help their cause.

The last thing they need to do is alienate the majority of people, who probably support or appreciate their decision, by stopping the learning that has took place.

"R" back above one SAGE have said, does does not even include data since lock down was eased.

It's been above 1 in Liverpool for a fair few days now and I'm not talking about creeping above it.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

DfE's chief scientific adviser hasn't assessed school reopening guidance

The Department for Education’s chief scientific adviser admitted he has not assessed whether guidance on reopening schools is effective, adding the current advice is "draft" and "will be developed". Appearing in front of the Parliamentary science and technology committee today, Osama Rahman also...

schoolsweek.co.uk

DfE adviser: School return plan could risk virus spread

Chief scientific adviser to DfE says he has not assessed how school reopening plans can be implemented

www.tes.com

@Bruce Wayne just on the two month point you made, the assessments should've been made already but haven't and the guidance doesn't really cover much of the concerns raised. I'm not sure if have a great deal of faith in this level of preparedness.

Hang on. The chief scientific advisor for the Department of Education is an economist who has spent his entire career in either economics or data science?

 

[LinekersLegs]

It's the whole point of the term "suppression" - you get the virus to low levels in society so that you then have a better chance of managing it and extending the curve as long as possible.

It baffles me why people don't get it. Nobody is saying lockdown forever - the point of lockdown isn't to get rid of the virus, as that is impossible. All they're saying is that while you're still having thousands of infections per day then it's not manageable to suppress it without lockdown. We need to get it to within the parameters of track and trace and buy time for things like the app, firming up ICU capacity and so on.

I genuinely don’t understand why this point hasn’t been hammered home more.

Sure we are all better at social distancing and masks etc will probably help as will people being staying home when sick. However without a system where a) people can quickly find out if their symptoms are just a headcold or b) we can catch a decent proportion of the mildly symptomatic/asymptotic from spreading the virus to others I can’t see how we avoid a large 2nd wave.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”