Covid-19 Virus

My oldest son is in year 10 at WBGS, they have been excellent and well-structured, following the timetable with lots of resources and Zoom calls. The only time they were a bit slow were the first couple of weeks before Easter last year, but that was understandable as it had only just begun then. The head at WBGS is a very strong and competent leader and has taken the challenge on very well. Last summer my son was occupied until the end of term in July, irrespective of government announcements over Christmas is seems that WBGS were prepared for all eventualities. Where other schools are 'peed off' with the government, it is a no-brainer that a strong leadership team should have been prepared as much as was possible, and it may well be that the mass testing that was planned wasn't a waste of time as it may well be a thing to be done on the students' return.

As for my younger son, he is in Year 3 at Holy Rood. Again, HR has a good and strong head, however the needs of primary children are much different to secondary children. My son last year was OK doing about 4 hours of varied work we either we given from the school or we printed from online resources until we got to June then his motivation waned, it didn't help that my wife was unable to work from home and as I wasn't furloughed so I had to bear the brunt of his learning while trying to do my workload which was incredibly frustrating, meaning a lot of days I had to work extra hours after the children were in bed.

As for now, HR is much more prepared, today is the first day of term and the plan is to set 3 lots of work per day on Google classroom, English, maths and one other. He's almost done for today but I think that the amount is structured and enough for the time being without disturbing me too much.

 

Yes, I was just having a general moan about the school.

Both my kids need to be at school. My daughter is very academic and needs the social side of it and to be mentally stimulated or she ends up getting stroppy and upset. My son loves lockdown as he is a serious couch potato, which is why he needs to be there.

It is a huge struggle to get them to do anything at home, though if they're actually at school, they throw themselves into stuff.

 

Is your issue with remote working / learning, or the way schools have screwed it up?

 

Is that true? I'm not Starmer's biggest fan, but it's worrying if our choice is between two equally clueless gunts.

 

Also mental health. My kids have struggled to come to terms with the fact that they have had to spend weeks at a time isolated from their friends. We arrange zoom calls and face time, but it's no substitute for running around a playground, talking nonsense and being kids.

 

Translates to going down the pub for adults.

 

Further to this, apparently the PM, and the rest receive PHE data first thing every morning and our Perm Sec has just told us that, when she was updating us yesterday, yesterday's numbers had come through showing "such a significant shift" from the weekend's in the negative direction, that it was likely that more changes may be needed in the relative near future. Hence her qualification to us yesterday that we should "expect further changes soon based on data". The rest of the afternoon was spent preparing the initial communication to schools, and the following pdf attachments to be sent out last night, and then this morning, and a cabinet meeting was held at 6pm last night to agree the detail that had previously been driven mostly by PHE and DfE.

Of course, some on here and others like Piers Morgan and the rest say that "It was obvious that schools would have to be close, so we may as well have done it straightaway - Boris is a plank!" but that cannot be the method by which such important decisions that affect peoples whole lives, can be made. If only such decisions are as easy as those sitting at their keyboards make them out to be.

 

You mean they're being reactionary rather than thinking ahead? If they look at trending data rather than just the monrings then it's plain as plain can be, the schools needed be kept closed.

 

I so sorry, this was all my fault. I got tricked into doing it though. Send me good news stories via DM for me to read and we can sort it out though ok.

 

No, I didn't mean that, as i am sure you know.

 

That's a very good job description for most tennis coaches!

 

I paid for come coaching at Chorleywood club which very much resembled that. They had a great time though.

 

I didn't know that sort of thing could be coached ?

 

Lovely setting there,a walled garden I think?
I'm now off to google the coach!

 

MATRON!

 

Yes I'm also googling THAT coach.....a walled garden is handy....

 

Yep. I run past there a few times per week. Very nice club. Cant remember his name. Bit of a geezer.

 

I hope the second lockdown will be different - and better. Our school is not allowed to do live lessons eg. Zoom for safeguarding reasons so have to record audio / video for all lessons and put that onto Google classroom. Teachers have to give feedback on a weekly basis. It still won't be as good as in-class lessons but it'll be the best we can do (well, most teachers - there'll still be a few lazy ones!). For the long term effects, I think this is interesting:

 

You'll swallow just about anything this government serves you, huh? Hilarious!

 

Two listed although no profiles which is odd.
No I lie,there is a profile section. One isn't LTA qualified but not necessarily a bad thing.
On second look they have another five or more which means they use a coach provider service.
I know the lead man and he's quite ernest I'd say. Probably another chap, something like "Robbie Robertson" probably not Robert Robinson?
"So that's two to the Fletchers,four to the Smiths and zero to the Bassetts".
Ping!

 

So the ONS says that in the week to January 2nd, they estimate around 2% of the country had Covid. 1 in 50, maybe up to 1 in 45.

Must have been some pretty dramatic changes between then and the morning of the 4th...

Let's say a Primary School has 350 students and staff. Odds are 7/8 attendees have covid. Almost enough for one in each class. And they were allowed to mix, mask free, all day! And some still line up to defend these decisions!

 

The DfE people are my colleagues, I've got no reason to think they are telling me lies when I know full well that they are quite happy to criticise the Tories on a regular basis.

But, I was asked to explain what I knew by other posters on here, if you would prefer to ignore my post as it doesn't say what you want to hear, and prefer to get your info from twitter, carry on.

 

Oh dear, if you think that the only data they used was the infection rate then you are more simplistic than I thought.

 

Care to elaborate, then? What was the data received on Sunday that showed schools were perfectly safe, and wouldn't contribute to an increased spread of the virus? And just how dramatically did it change in 24 hours, for schools to be considered unsafe?

 

The rate of increase in infection, the differences in infection rates between the different age groups of children, the R number, the levels of hospital capacity remaining, the infection levels in the hospital catchment areas, the differences between the old virus and the new variant, the numbers of teachers that informed their schools they were striking, the degree of support from Headteachers/Schools, the degree of support from LA's, the degree of compliance with existing restrictions? Need I go on?

But you go back to twitter, and tell us that you know better, and you were able to foretell all this months ago, because, well, just because you are WatfordTalk!

...and (heavens above) it isn't a simplistic safe v unsafe. It is about how schools in each area may affect the R number in it's locality, not about "safe".

 

Those are great examples, thanks! Now could you give the numbers on Sunday vs Monday, and what changed so dramatically, like I asked? Cheers

 

Eh? You want me to give the exact numbers? I don't know them.

I just told you what I was told, you are the one who said I was just swallowing anything, implying it was rubbish. Are you using your amazing magical powers of being able to look into the future again?

What do you do, by the way, are you some sort of superhero?

 

Thanks!

Just really interested to know what happened to, and I quote:

• The rate of increase in infection,
• the differences in infection rates between the different age groups of children
• the R number
• the levels of hospital capacity remaining
• the infection levels in the hospital catchment areas
• the differences between the old virus and the new variant
• the numbers of teachers that informed their schools they were striking
• the degree of support from Headteachers/Schools
• the degree of support from LA's
• the degree of compliance with existing restrictions

between 8am Sunday 3rd and 8am Monday 4th to cause such a huge change of approach. Must have been pretty significant, but as you've admitted, you've got no idea, so don't worry. Unless it was a huge, monumental, unprecedented increase in that 24 hour period, the above data was surely already quite worrying on Sunday morning, no?Did the government think the data you mentioned would get worse, or better, once kids returned to school?

 

So, what do you do?

 

Haha, didn't think so!

I know you like to lower the tone of discussion and get personal with anyone who disagrees with you but I'd rather not stoop to that level. If you're unable to contribute to the discussion then don't worry.

 

I'm not stooping to any level, I was just asking what you did as I am interested in how y0u can reach such amazing conclusions. Maybe you are the Cabinet Secretary, or something, If you are unwilling to divulge as it is a secret, fair enough, I really couldn't care less.

It is you that is unable to justify your accusation, not me.

 

Okay, so you've got no idea, thank you for making that crystal clear. Would you care to offer your opinion instead? Do you honestly think that factors you provided me, changed THAT much over 24 hours, that it couldn't have possibly been foreseen? And do you think those factors would have got worse, or better once kids were back?

Was it really worth taking the risk of mixing for one day, when there's a huge chance of a carrier being in every classroom. People will die as a result of this non-decision, but it seems you're too blinded by loyalty to realise this.