Forum menu
The Coronavirus Dis...
 

The Coronavirus Discussion Thread.

Posts: 31098
Full Member
 

Radio4 not taking the daily briefings now. All adds to an “it’s over, get back to it” feeling… an echo of the blasé attitude of the UK before we were hit?


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 6:17 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Reception kids not licking an biting each other because its "not allowed". Kids at playtime remembering to stay in a two meter square and not go near anyone else.

Think I might take those stories with a pinch of salt.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 6:21 pm
Posts: 31098
Full Member
 

No spitting either. Kids don’t do that, because it’s not allowed.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 6:24 pm
Posts: 7844
Full Member
 

Sorry rereading my post today. I do want the kids back in but my point about the background was just that we need to gaun canny because of this. Pulling kids back in will have a huge potential effect on a group with health issues at the best of times.

Our kids were all given iPads earlier this year it was an expensive roll out and they were locked down so as to be useless outside of an educational purpose (can't even get YouTube). Yet we're getting 25% engagement so "closing the attainment gap" for us can only be achieved by getting them in safely.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 6:31 pm
Posts: 8403
Full Member
 

Radio4 not taking the daily briefings now.

Not automatically but still monitoring it and will go across to it if it's not the usual "it wasn't us gov" content and there is actually some information being disseminated


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 6:53 pm
Posts: 31098
Full Member
 

Adds to the “nothing to see here” mood though, as the government continues to announce the highest death rates in Europe and an R rate increasing as a result of sending people back into workplaces, schools and tourist spots too soon. Go on, get back to normal… don’t ‘scaremonger’…

They’ve bored the journalists by replacing them with questions from the public… and dutifully they start turning away… back to normal… the government have it all in hand…


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 6:57 pm
Posts: 2003
Full Member
 

Was it 0.5 to 0.9 before?


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:00 pm
Posts: 31098
Full Member
 

I was referring to what happens over the next few weeks, while we are encouraged to look the other way, not the small change in R being talked about today.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:03 pm
Posts: 11402
Free Member
 

it's crazy out there, had to walk to town to pop in a prescription at the docs, small town is busier than it would be on a normal friday with no cafes, pubs, hairdressers open an other shops on limit opening. I even saw a car towing a caravan, someone on a weekend getaway.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:04 pm
Posts: 1085
Full Member
 

Do you think every school has bought in an infectious disease specialist to do the RA?

Other schools can do as they wish. If they choose not to do everything they can then that is their choice.

I know you are a teacher so maybe you can suggest this is something your school may want to do. This is something that is clearly possible as the school has managed to do it. Or you could just bitch and whine on a mountainbiking forum.

Quite frankly I only care what my childs school does and I am impressed with their approach.

No, it doesnt take hours to talk with the teacher but as there are staggered pickup and dropoff times and not a huge amount of kids in there is quite a bit of time to discuss things (usually about a 15-20 minute chat at the moment).

As I thought, you are clearly not interested in other peoples experiences and are dismissing anything that contradicts you views.

Reception kids not licking an biting each other because its “not allowed”. Kids at playtime remembering to stay in a two meter square and not go near anyone else.

Think I might take those stories with a pinch of salt

They are being very good because it has been explained what is going on and why they can't do it. They are also being heavily supervised in the classroom and playground.

Anyway **** it, I give up sharing what we are seeing and experience with our children actually attending a local states school. Believe what you want.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:14 pm
Posts: 31098
Full Member
 

Quite frankly I only care what my childs school does

you are clearly not interested in other peoples experiences


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:16 pm
 DezB
Posts: 54367
Free Member
 

it’s crazy out there

Yes indeed. Lockdown must be officially over. Its like a sunny bank holiday. Just been for a ride, rush hour level traffic, (over taken on a blind bend, cut up by a dick at a junction...) the local (ahem) beauty spot (Portsdown Hill, arf) absolutely packed with cars and a massive queue for the burger van, local park as busy as I’ve ever seen it.
I really hope this moronic Government hasn’t gone and caused a second wave.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:23 pm
Posts: 33207
Full Member
 

As I thought, you are clearly not interested in other peoples experiences and are dismissing anything that contradicts you views.

Anyway **** it, I give up sharing what we are seeing and experience with our children actually attending a local states school. Believe what you want

Seems to be a theme emerging on all the CV threads. Getting harder to find valuable opinions and information with more people shouting to drown out anything that doesn't fit their opinion.

Same old STW


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:27 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I know because we speak to our child to find out what she did at school and how she is coping with all this.

Oh, sorry. I'd got the impression she was in reception.

You know, what responsible parents do. In addition I also speak to her teacher at drop offs and pick ups so I know exactly what has happened throughout the day.

9:02 picks up pencil... 9:03 sticks in ear....??? and you and every other parent have this log up to hometime?

Anyway I expect your next sarcastic and condecending reply will only confirm that you are unwilling to listen to anyone elses experience as from your posts on this and other threads related to this subject show you are so entrenched in your views that any form of rational debate is worthless.

I'm truly not sure what else you'd expect?

Reception kids not licking an biting each other because its “not allowed”. Kids at playtime remembering to stay in a two meter square and not go near anyone else.

Think I might take those stories with a pinch of salt.

Pinch ?


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:33 pm
Posts: 1085
Full Member
 

Ok, Kelvin, I walked into that one.

I'll clarify, when it comes to my childs safety, I don't care what other schools do only what our school is doing.

Also, in reply to MY posts neither you nor a_a have provided any useful input other than just saying I'm wrong and suggesting our teachers are perhaps lying to us about what the children are doing.

a_a what is your school doing to plan to get the children back in? Whatform of risk assessments are they undertaking? How are you trying to improve their processes or to get actively involved in trying to formulate a solution that is satisfactory to you?

Kelvin,same questions to what your other half is doing?

Sitting back and moaning the school is failing you and the head is shit and incompetent isn't going to solve anything. If you are actively involved in trying to find a solution then great and I'll take my hat off to you. If you are just shouting down any suggestions on how to approach this other than "STAY AT HOME!" because they don't align with what you believe then I'm out of this conversation.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:37 pm
Posts: 26891
Full Member
 

No, it doesnt take hours to talk with the teacher

Yet you find out "exactly" what your child does all day, amazing.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:39 pm
Posts: 2459
Free Member
 

Lockdown is over. There are no rules. Can you imagine police even bothering to try and enforce them? Boris's speech was such that it armed the public with enough possible interpretations to challenge any police officer.

After a few days of the RW press getting a bit of revenge on Boris for making them look fools I expect them to revert to type, circling the wagons against the 'injuns, (the London mayor in this case) Expect everything to be blamed on Sidiq Kahn, across the whole country for the next couple of weeks.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:49 pm
Posts: 31098
Full Member
 

Not saying you are wrong at all Jon. But you may be slightly rose tinted and overly accepting of what your child and their teaching staff are telling you. Good staff will be as reassuring as possible for parents and pupils alike, and rightly so. Also, the experience of children who have been attending while the schools have been open only for a small subset of pupils is unlikely to be easily repeated as more pupils attend, and across all schools.

Oh… and the kids that deliberately spit at kids with pre-existing conditions, or bite the hands of teachers that try to calm them down when they are in full red face mode, might not attend the school you know about, or at least haven’t been attending in recent weeks.

I have heard similar very positive tales of how well schools have been operating in a limited fashion while we have been on “lock down”, we have no reason to doubt you really, but that experience isn’t necessarily as reassuring as you think it is as regards what is planned for the beginning of June across all schools.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 7:54 pm
Posts: 63
Free Member
 

I've really enjoyed keeping up to date with this thread, there's been some really useful links and insights from people that are clearly in the know. But in the past few days, there's been a lot more bickering (like all the Brexit threads). Please can we do our best to avoid this? (mainly so I don't have to scroll through pages of name calling and trying to out offend each other) but also so that it doesn't swamp the genuinely useful info. Thank you to all of those that are posting useful info (TiRed etc...) it really does make the thread on this forum a worthwhile visit.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:02 pm
Posts: 26891
Full Member
 

But you may be slightly rose tinted and overly accepting of what your child and his staff are telling you.

Indeed.

Whilst they maybe distanced in the playground in 2m areas, (which sounds awful) how do they manage getting in and out of the classroom, going to toilet, is it cleaned everytime? Its been bad enough getting kids to distance when we've just had a handful in school and even then the younger ones (primary) couldnt do it.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:07 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Klunk
Member
it’s crazy out there, had to walk to town to pop in a prescription at the docs, small town is busier than it would be on a normal friday with no cafes, pubs, hairdressers open an other shops on limit opening. I even saw a car towing a caravan, someone on a weekend getaway.

Posted 1 hour ago

It is the same here, I dropped my son off for his supermarket shift earlier and the local high street was as busy at it would be on a Saturday. I would be very, very surprised if we do not get a surge in cases within a week (particularly after the Bank Holiday antics).


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:19 pm
Posts: 1085
Full Member
 

Yet you find out “exactly” what your child does all day, amazing.

Thanks for yet another helpful and informative response.

You know we can ask questions of them to find out what is going on like "How are the children doing?"; " is she showing any signs of anxiety?"; "How's the keeping apart going?"; "She did writing?, Great how's her pen holding coming along?"; " What can we do at home to keep her interested in .....?".

Given most parents just seem to pick up their kids and go the teachers really engage and willing to spend the time talking to us when you talk to them. Well, some do anyway...

Kelvin, our teachers and the head in particular tell it how it is. This has caused a lot of consternation on the parent groups who don't like hearing about reality. I acknowledged in my first post that there will be some kids who will break the rules but they are in the minority (same as the minority broke the lockdown rules) but the school have risk assessments which have taken this into account and there is mitigation in place for the outliers such as the students requiring special arrangements (I think that is what we used to describe as special needs).

We clearly have a very good First, Middle and Upper state school and for that I am very grateful. I genuinely feel sorry for those that don't but ultimately the quality of the school come down to the staff.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:21 pm
Posts: 5296
Free Member
 

The general feeling of this thread has got worse over the last week - more moaning, doom and gloom, more sniping at each other. Miserable buggers! You're all the richest and most privileged people in the history of all humanity and still can't be happy.

Anyway, I was talking to my gran the other day (92, not dead) and she said that CoronaVirus isn't that bad as at least people only suffer for a couple of weeks. Her husband had Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it took about 4 years for him to die off of them. So chin up, and remember that noone lives forever yo


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:39 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Never trust a man in a V neck T-shirt 🙂


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:43 pm
Posts: 18029
Full Member
 

I really hope this moronic Government hasn’t gone and caused a second wave.

Of course not silly. Any second wave will be down to the public not being alert.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:43 pm
Posts: 5182
Free Member
 

it’s crazy out there, had to walk to town to pop in a prescription at the docs, small town is busier than it would be on a normal friday with no cafes, pubs, hairdressers open an other shops on limit opening. I even saw a car towing a caravan, someone on a weekend getaway.

Goverment-sanctioned insanity.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:54 pm
Posts: 27603
Free Member
 

enough possible interpretations to challenge any police officer.

well not only that but

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-dozens-wrongly-charged-under-lockdown-laws-cps-says-11988865


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:55 pm
Posts: 43955
Full Member
 

Her husband had Alzheimers and Parkinsons and it took about 4 years for him to die off of them

And I'll bet it didn't even seem like 4 years to him.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 8:58 pm
 kcr
Posts: 2949
Free Member
 

...will just run around hugging and licking each other; this was not allowed prior to lockdown, as it is against the rules anyway

This sounds like quite an unusual school, to be honest. I guess if contact between kids was already banned under normal conditions, the kids might adapt more readily to socially distancing in 2m squares, but it doesn't sound like any school I've ever encountered before. It doesn't sound like something you could apply to the average UK school with free range kids and limited space

I see Sturgeon bluntly stating that Scottish schools will definitely not be back to normal before the summer holidays, and are unlikely to be operating in any form before then, based on the current situation.
That seems like honest common sense, given the lack of concrete scientific evidence at present. Meanwhile, Johnson is predictably starting to dig himself another hole of confusion, and already has the teaching unions and BMA directly contradicting his plans.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 9:54 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

For those who live in Oxfordshire, be careful please.

This is a graph of the number of new cases per day. Oxfordshire is in Blue. Germany in green as a comparison, with the peaks aligned to help guide what should have happened.

It might be linked to increased testing in hospitals or care homes. I only have the data, not what is happening behind the scenes.

OXF


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 10:27 pm
Posts: 33207
Full Member
 

see Sturgeon bluntly stating that Scottish schools will definitely not be back to normal before the summer holidays, and are unlikely to be operating in any form before then, based on the current situation.
That seems like honest common sense,

Especially if you break up in June, to be fair


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 10:35 pm
Posts: 1085
Full Member
 

kcr - the kids were allowed to interact but not cuddle, kiss, hug, lick or anything that would be deemed inappropriate in a workplace (except holding hands, that was allowed before lockdown). It was exactly the same when I was a kid at school and suspect theses rule apply to most schools.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 10:43 pm
Posts: 43955
Full Member
 

Especially if you break up in June, to be fair

Aye - it's an easier decision for her to make. Of course, any suggestion that the English schools adopt the Scottish term dates for the remainder of 2020 is roundly dismissed on here.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 10:49 pm
Posts: 26891
Full Member
 

suspect theses rule apply to most schools.

Rules are meant to be...........


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 10:49 pm
Posts: 3267
Free Member
 

I am a teacher in Scotland. Today I sat and typed an email to a 12 yo girl whose Mum has died of Covid. She has 2 siblings at our school, and another one due to join in August. All 4 have lost their Mum. Meanwhile the rest of the school started next years timetable last Monday. I don't know if she actually has her timetable as the only contact details we have on file for her are her Mum's.

This wee girl lives in the heart of one of the most deprived areas in Scotland, and is part of a family community which was up against it before this current situation arrived. How we can help her to move forward I don't know, but if there's a way, we'll find it.

Returning to school is part of the answer, but in an area of chronic multiple deprivation, with unmet health needs commonplace, the potential infection pathway that resuming school introduces seems too great a risk at the moment. I don't want to find myself in a situation where I have to type another email like I did today. If I need to, I can. It's not the actual email, it's the long term consequences of what it represents.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 10:50 pm
Posts: 13811
Full Member
 

R not important now as its on the rise

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1261391397942222848


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 10:53 pm
 kcr
Posts: 2949
Free Member
 

But did they never play tig, or share crayons, or stand in a huddle together in the playground?
I'm amazed if a school can go from that to rigidly enforced social distancing with primary (or any) kids.
They must have a lot of space, a lot of equipment and extraordinarily disciplined kids.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 10:55 pm
Posts: 26891
Full Member
 

Returning to school is part of the answer, but in an area of chronic multiple deprivation, with unmet health needs commonplace, the potential infection pathway that resuming school introduces seems too great a risk at the moment.

Sounds like a shit day! Havent had similar at my school but all kinds of shite goes on in the homes of some kids, it would be great to have them back and have their safe place back, even and maybe especially those ones that give us shit. But I dont know, if I cant go and see my mum or my friends should we even be considering school?


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 11:02 pm
Posts: 8527
Free Member
 

Tough times Troutwrestler, you're doing a great job, massive manhug sent your way. 💙


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 11:12 pm
Posts: 33207
Full Member
 

I’m amazed if a school can go from that to rigidly enforced social distancing with primary (or any) kids.
They must have a lot of space, a lot of equipment and extraordinarily disciplined kids.

Maybe a lot of schools can't do all those things and shouldn't open up.

But that's no reason to keep pulling apart a guy who's kid is at a school who can do it.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 11:19 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I second Nobeerinthefridge post,very sad,best wishes Troutwrestler.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 11:21 pm
 kcr
Posts: 2949
Free Member
 

But that’s no reason to keep pulling apart a guy who’s kid is at a school who can do it.

Well, I know nothing about the person posting the messages, and I have no interest in pulling them apart. However, I don't think the situation described in that specific school sounds like something that can be applied to the vast majority of UK schools.
I'd struggle to see how social distancing and anti-viral precautions could sensibly be applied at the very ordinary run of the mill state primary my kids attend. My brother is an assistant head in a secondary school, currently open for key workers' kids, and he can't see how "normal" schooling can be restarted at the moment.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 11:35 pm
Posts: 868
Full Member
 

For those who live in Oxfordshire, be careful please.
This is a graph of the number of new cases per day. Oxfordshire is in Blue. Germany in green as a comparison, with the peaks aligned to help guide what should have happened.
It might be linked to increased testing in hospitals or care homes. I only have the data, not what is happening behind the scenes.

The image/graph doesn't display


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 11:36 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

A quick aside.
Why is the southwest R the second highest in the country when we have the lowest number of cases?

Data from the Cambridge figures released today.


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 11:38 pm
Posts: 3267
Free Member
 

Could it be that you are behind the curve, still in the early stages of the epidemic where due to low numbers of infections, a high R still leads to relatively low numbers, but that will rapidly grow soon?


 
Posted : 15/05/2020 11:41 pm
Page 265 / 887