Back2Skool2Die

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Czechia have closed schools.

'But we can't just not open schools'

It's happening.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Just looking at the other European nations and apart from Spain, which did seem to take off earlier than others, this recent explosion in cases does seem to have aligned with Back to School.

Restrictions were lifted for bars and pubs, limited gatherings back in May and June, and air travel mid June in lots of these places to no gigantic effect.

It seems to be schools and uni combined with the fact the other elements had been lifted that caused the reinfection rate to leap.

Unless we make drastic decisions regarding schooling I don't see even Tier 3 restrictions keeping a cap on infections and deaths in the UK, even if we assume continuing civil obedience.

Maybe this year's intake will grow up thinking that prematurely ending the lives of the elderly is the price worth paying to educate the young.

[chveik]

here they chose to enforce borderline dictatorial measures (curfew at 21h for millions of people) instead of doing something about schools.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54614111

Almost half of secondary schools in England sent home one or more pupils because of Covid incidents last week, the latest attendance figures show.

'But we can't just not open schools'

[Ominous Dave]

In my day you had to go to the trouble of faking a life-threatening illness to get a free day off school. Typical modern snowflakes etc.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/scientists-urged-government-to-close-secondary-schools-744795

More non-following of scientists.

Thank you for the useful information we will now disregard to the cost of all.

[jobotic]

Give says it there. Close schools and parents can't go to work and Tory donors will have to do without their wage slaves.

Still, Starmer will be all over them, he has the interests of the members of trade unions at heart after all.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/revealed-thousands-leicestershire-pupils-school-4701295.amp?__twitter_impression=true

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55318035

Back2home2notDie

[Attila]

Campus at my university was like a ghost town from early to mid-November onwards. I was going in to teach 1 or 2 people who actually came to class, and the rest were all online. Absolutely no give from management though: we had to continue 'face to face' teaching until last week.

The spring semester clusterfuck of initiatives (all suddenly announced, no consultation, just 'We have made this new decision') so far just has me going, 'Fine, whatever, just show me my timetable.' It's beyond comedy at this point.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55437283

'We can't just close schools', remember that.

[Zetetic]

The impact is going to be horrendous and horrendously inequitable with it.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

The impact is going to be horrendous and horrendously inequitable with it.

Leaning towards the mass death of those with assets?

[Zetetic]

Learning towards further widening the gap in education and mental health between the least and most deprived.

I can accept that, particularly with KentVid, there are good arguments to close them but we don't need to pretend that there weren't good reasons to keep them open.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Learning towards further widening the gap in education and mental health between the least and most deprived.

I can accept that, particularly with KentVid, there are good arguments to close them but we don't need to pretend that there weren't good reasons to keep them open.

Sure, but I also think we should have views based on underlying principles, not through a filter of 'well the Tories are in, so that means if we do x, then x group are fucked'. That's a separate problem and to be tackled in turn.

Something like education, if it needs to be remote for 3 months has significant consequences but within that there is a drastically different range of significance dependent on how creative/adaptable we are and secondly which government are overseeing it and what we do to hold them to account.

No-one wants to close schools, it just so happens that the exponential increase in cases, the November lockdown, what's happening now is due to our relatively inability to be resourceful and imaginative in creating workarounds as other countries have.

I personally think that the manner of transmission makes it almost certain that there is stop-start disruption, ie a covid case which leads to a shut down, then re-opening only to find 2 more cases a week later.  This is more damaging to pupils and teachers educationally and for their morale than a continuity plan which either suspends, postpones certain activities but has a dedicated plan and a formal platform wherein progress can be made.

I obviously also appreciate that unfortunately some parents simply can't afford to lose work to watch their kid at home or home school them, but surely that's where the government steps in with financial aid.

[Uncle TechTip]

I personally think that the manner of transmission makes it almost certain that there is stop-start disruption, ie a covid case which leads to a shut down, then re-opening only to find 2 more cases a week later.  This is more damaging to pupils and teachers educationally and for their morale than a continuity plan which either suspends, postpones certain activities but has a dedicated plan and a formal platform wherein progress can be made.

For first year secondary and all of primary this is next to impossible, i reckon. It must be accepted that education is on pause for these kids when we close the schools.

[BlodwynPig]

Open up the coal mines!!!

[Zetetic]

Sure, but I also think we should have views based on underlying principles, not through a filter of 'well the Tories are in, so that means if we do x, then x group are fucked'. That's a separate problem and to be tackled in turn.

I have been giving this a good think - we can't ignore reality in applying our principles, and that includes the government and policies that we have now.

(I can't disagree with the stop-start observation.)

[poo]

Can't be arsed reading any of this, but hunch is that secondaries will be online until half term but go for  primaries

[Pinball]

Lockdown!

[Fambo Number Mive]

Most London boroughs will see primary schools closed, but not Greenwich (which the government threatened to sue) and Islington (which had also advised schools to close).

Greenwich and Islington are not the only boroughs missing - Hackney, Harrow, Camden, Lambeth, Harringay and Lewisham are also missing - but given London boroughs with lower cases are on the list, is this being done as punishment by the government?

Greenwich's hospital recently declared a major incident:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-london-queen-elizabeth-hospital-oxygen-b1779468.html

A London hospital has declared a major incident over fears about a shortage in oxygen caused by the demand from coronavirus patients on its wards.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Woolwich, southeast London, was forced to turn away some emergency patients on Sunday amid concerns about the flow of oxygen to patients.

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is the latest in a string of London hospitals to declare major incidents in the past 10 days as the capital has been hit by a surge in new Covid-19 infections and hospital admissions.

The 500-bed hospital, part of the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, called in extra staff on Sunday after the incident was declared at around 1pm...

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55487641

Finally they cave in.

Another moment of embarrassment for bandwagon jumper Keith "no ifs, no buts" Starmer.

[olliebean]

My housemate, who works as a teaching assistant at a primary school, had an email today from the head after the new school measures were announced saying she doesn't know what's going on. So good communication from the government, there. We're in a "contingency framework" area, whatever the hell that means - supposedly primary schools will be closed for at least 2 weeks, but my housemate thinks she may have to go in anyway because there are children of key workers who will still be in school.

It's a mess, though. Nobody seems to know for sure what's supposed to be happening on January 4th.

[Chedney Honks]

Dat extra week...

"In '95, Paul McCartney donated a hundred top hats."

[Pinball]

Stay Home, Use Zoom, Buy from Amazon, Don't Forget to Shower.

[olliebean]

Apparently the head of the school has now written to all the parents and essentially said it's up to them, individually, whether they send their children to school or not but could they please let her know by Monday. This is all going swimmingly, isn't it?

[Zetetic]

"In 2020 I analysed 1000s of detailed survey responses about school closures, from parents, carers, children and young people across Wales, Scotland and England.

Some things emerged time and time again, and are probably worth reiterating as many schools switch to remote delivery"

...

"The final third had a truly dreadful experience during school closures. Some children and young people suffered significant impacts to their wellbeing. Parents - mostly mothers - described sustained negative impacts on their mental health from juggling paid work, care and home ed"

"Families reporting the most severely diminished wellbeing were lone parent households, families where someone was disabled, key workers on low incomes, those who lacked essential learning resources, and those who said they were extremely concerned about money"

https://twitter.com/ellie_cpag/status/1344619842918350848

https://cpag.org.uk/policy-and-campaigns/report/cost-learning-lockdown-family-experiences-school-closures

[BlodwynPig]

The collective impact of the pandemic on mental health is / will be devastating. It speaks to a massive lack of imagination and will that those who are nominally in charge have failed to get on top of this from the get go, despite the crumbs they drop when seeking good PR.

My naive assumption is this (Plus Brexit) will have consequences for possibly decades. No amount of Royal Jubilees or Twee "emergence from darkness" lifestyle pieces on the BBC will dampen this horror.

[confettiinmyhair]

You're right, they'll be mass cases of The Stockdale Paradox. I was introduced to the concept in a book about Stoicism, James Stockdale, a vietnam POW described who struggled the most mentally during their ordeal-
"Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end%u2014which you can never afford to lose%u2014with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

We have a government continually saying it will be better by Christmas, and now Easter, and what happens to people if this drags until the summer?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Mike Gatting leads them on a rebel tour to South Africa