Close the schools!

GagaJo

GrannyRose15

Closing schools damages children. We cannot continue to sacrifice our children to add a few more years to the lives of the old.

But you're happy to sacrifice teachers in order to get this? There was a teacher retention crisis in the UK long before Covid appeared, due to the terrible working conditions they have to endure. After this debacle, I predict that teaching will be an even more undesireable career choice.

And then of course, parents will be even MORE unhappy with the state of British education.

Do you know how many teachers have died from this supposedly deadly disease? No neither do I. Don't you think that says something?

The likeliest answer I can find to my question is 26. And none of them caught it from a child they were teaching. For this we are ruining the futures of 11 million children. Will someone please put some perspective into this issue!

It's not the teachers and teachers who are catching it who are the issue. It's the fact that pupils are infecting each other and then taking it home to their families.

Quite honestly, the fact that you don't appear to know much doesn't tell me anything at all.

Maybe you'd volunteer to sit in a room about 8 x 8 metres with 30 others for six hours and no protective clothing at all.

PS. There aren't 11 million children in the UK.

PPS. As you think Covid-19 is only supposedly deadly, maybe you'd like to have a look at a few dead bodies. Are they only supposedly dead?

I too think schools should stay closed until this covid is under control because it is totally out of control at the moment. I have two grandchildren, one in high school and one in primary. The one in primary has been in and out like a yo-yo and was isolating up until Christmas Eve due to child in his class testing positive. Almost every teacher in his school has had the virus. Primary school should be able to safeguard the pupils as the teachers and TAs are with the one class all day (the bubble)so as long as they don’t cross over it would limit the transfer greatly however it was apparent in my grandsons school that teachers were crossing over into other classes due to the teachers being off school. My granddaughter at high school only had one week off and that was due to a teacher going off and the knock on effect. Both grandchildren were not affected in any way with the time off they had during lockdown earlier in the year, they actually enjoyed it and did their home work diligently every day. I agree, schools shouldn’t be used for babysitting because in my opinion that’s why the government kept them
openfor so long.

So who would look after your primary school age GC @bobbydog or do their parents not work? This could go on all year...

It isn't just about how many teachers have died though, is it? It is about the risk, the fear. Teachers aren't soldiers. They didn't sign up to risk their lives. As I said, there will be a retention and recruitment crisis if we don't have a bit more care and concern for teachers now.

I’m pretty sure people working in Asda didn’t sign up to risk their lives either but some things are essential and children’s education is one of them

I agree that this is probably putting untold stress and fear onto teachers in the older category (50+). But how would it be possible to protect just them?
The younger ones may just feel inconvenienced by it all, but it doesn't spell disaster for them.

Good point Ellianne. And of course, a lot of older teachers have been drummed out of the profession. Certainly my teacher friends and colleagues who have so far dodged Covid are on their knees with exhaustion. Plus of course those who have contracted it. One friend, 35, is on her 3rd week of Covid. One, has long Covid and has been unable to function properly for months. And all because they chose to be teachers instead of another profession.

I think I've posted this before - apologies but these are the only stats I've been able to find. 65 COVID deaths in schools before the end of April, 17 of whom were secondary teachers
schoolsweek.co.uk/ons-figures-reveal-65-covid-related-deaths-in-education/
I've never been able to find any school stats after April.

I've also explained before that govt policy before October half-term was that teachers didn't wear masks in the classroom, no govt money was made available for extra teaching or cleaning staff, and govt were adamant that neither learning rotas (one year of pupils in one week, not the next on rotation), nor blended learning (part in school, part Zoom) was acceptable. Govt also reneged on their promise to get poor kids electronic devices for home learning in October.
Shop workers are compared to teachers. Customers have been counted into shops for ten months. Classrooms have much greater density (people to room volume) than shops, and shops have perspex screens, workers have masks.

I work teaching in a secondary school. I think children’s welfare and education is paramount, so schools should remain open. We stick to covid rules and bubbles of children are sent home when needed. Keeping children in school is the most important thing.

Sweetness1

I work teaching in a secondary school. I think children’s welfare and education is paramount, so schools should remain open. We stick to covid rules and bubbles of children are sent home when needed. Keeping children in school is the most important thing.

How do you keep pupils two metres apart in well-ventilated spaces? I don't believe you.

Keeping people alive is the main thing.

Sweetness1

I work teaching in a secondary school. I think children’s welfare and education is paramount, so schools should remain open. We stick to covid rules and bubbles of children are sent home when needed. Keeping children in school is the most important thing.

For a start, you don't "work teaching". You're a teaching assistant.

Backedintoacorner

I’m pretty sure people working in Asda didn’t sign up to risk their lives either but some things are essential and children’s education is one of them

People working in Asda can wear a mask. Many schools don’t allow teachers to,wear a mask. People working In Asda don’t spend up to an hour at a time in one room with 30 other people and then go on to be with another 30 in a different room and so on throughout the day (I’m talking about secondary schools here) supermarket workers contact is with many people but for a brief amount if time.
(I’m not knocking those who work in supermarkets but it is not the same)

GagaJo

It isn't just about how many teachers have died though, is it? It is about the risk, the fear. Teachers aren't soldiers. They didn't sign up to risk their lives. As I said, there will be a retention and recruitment crisis if we don't have a bit more care and concern for teachers now.

It's not even just about the teachers, teaching assistants and other school staff.

The fact is that children are vectors for infection and it would appear that they are even more so with the new variant.

What's happening is that pupils are merrily transmitting infection to each other, sometimes asymptomatically and usually without sever symptoms. They then pass it on to siblings and, crucially, to other family members, who pass it on to others. The family members or the others could be more vulnerable and some of them are dying or are suffering long-term symptoms.

Vaccination might protect the more vulnerable teachers, but it won't stop the cycle of transmission. The only way to do that is to keep pupils away from each other, which is impossible in the vast majority of classrooms.

Teachers in my children’s school and nursery have all been wearing masks, nursery is 75% of time outdoors anyway. Many supermarket workers don’t seem to be wearing masks and spend all day touching things that other people have touched. As I said there have been zero cases in the settings we use and yet are subject to a blanket closure in Scotland. It’s I’ll thought out and at great cost.

Are pupils wearing masks? They're the ones who are transmitting infection and taking it back to their families and communities.

The older pupils are yes. As I said, no cases at all in either setting we use

growstuff

It's not the teachers and teachers who are catching it who are the issue. It's the fact that pupils are infecting each other and then taking it home to their families.

Quite honestly, the fact that you don't appear to know much doesn't tell me anything at all.

Maybe you'd volunteer to sit in a room about 8 x 8 metres with 30 others for six hours and no protective clothing at all.

PS. There aren't 11 million children in the UK.

PPS. As you think Covid-19 is only supposedly deadly, maybe you'd like to have a look at a few dead bodies. Are they only supposedly dead?

growstuff

There are 8,890,357 in compulsory schooling this year. Add the under fives and the 11 million is an underestimate.

And yes I would volunteer to teach, I have volunteered to teach, and from January I will be teaching.

As for my "supposedly" what I meant was that not everyone dies from it and indeed not a great proportion of those affected die from it. What we have to remember is that people die. Sad though it is it is a fact of life.

I hope you'll wear a mask and avoid contact with the pupils and anybody else.

I've noticed from comments you've made previously that you don't think much of the lives of the elderly.

Maybe you should encourage people to play on motorways or cross railway lines. They don't all die.

I love the elderly. And I don't want my elderly friends and relatives to die anymore than anyone else does. Nor do I want them to be imprisoned in care homes without visitors. Nor do I want the economy wrecked and millions of people unemployed. That will cause deaths too. I simply think there is a better way of tackling this situation.

All we are doing is limping along from one crisis to another.
It's blatantly obvious to most people that teens are spreading the virus, and I think that chopping and changing isn't helping anyone; least of all pupils.

One minute they're in school, the next they're out, then half the school are home, then nobody is sure on who goes back and when.

Throw childcare, or lack of, into the mix and it's worse, I think, than a definite lockdown.

This crisis is now deepening sharply once again and it may well be that infection rates will we'll exceed that witnessed at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis.

All who live in Britain have a role to play in maintaining a functioning nation while, hopefully, the vaccination program starts to get a grip on the infection rate.

Essential workers such as those in the NHS, Transport, food preparation and distribution and the utilities have had to attend their places of work throughout the crisis with all the high risk of infection that has brought.

Teachers cannot be any different, they are part of the core infrastructure of Britain and should it be decided by government that schools should remain open then they must accept that with all the attendant risks in the same manner as other essential workers have done.

Only the government has all the data and experts to hand that enables them to take the decisions necessary, and in that, there is no other option but to accept those decisions whatever anyone own views may be.

Roswell - I am in total agreement with you im an "older" teaching assistant in fact oldest member of staff in our Primary school. Im based in reception class. I like you am dreading returning. I know families have been mixing. The school has 35 different languages spoken. We translate all our news letters etc however many still struggle to understand the rules. Its also cultural for these families to live in larger extended families. I fear that school workers will be thrown under the bus this January. I hope not but let's see what awaits and what death rate the government will accept before doing something.