How will schools be able to go back in September? (Continued)

meeeeh wrote: »

Yes I did. Their teachers are good I think but they could be like Blondini and then free childcare would really be the only thing they would be getting from school. So better be prepared just in case.

As I said I don't think there is an issue for mine but the scary thing is he apparently teaches somewhere.

It would be easy to form an opinion of you as a person, and as a parent, based on your posts. To do so would be as unfair as what you have done in judging the professionalism of someone based on an anonymous Internet forum. Be careful on that pedestal.

markodaly wrote: »

Oh there has been plenty of voices here, demanding us all keep our kids at home because they did not want to go back to school.
Evocative words like 'lab experiment' and 'no one cares about our lives' was mentioned time and time again by various posters.

Not only that, we had a senior representative from the ASTI dissing out medical prognosis via the National media as if anyone with any risk will have 'no hope' if they get the virus. Moral panic at its worst from an organisation who should know better.

To be honest, the media should have skewered this person for engaging in this type of hysteria. Yet, she was allowed to push her anti-science views with the full backing of the ASTI, cheered on no doubt by the noisy minority of teachers who just love to talk.

It must brighten up your day to post here with these terrible teachers who for the last few months all said schools should reopen safely. It is also sad how you seem to have difficulty with comprehension. Where exactly did someone explicitly demand, "keep kids home because they did not want to go back to school?"

Calling kids in schools a lab experiment has been said in more places than this thread and by people who were not teachers. While stating no one cares about our lives is yet again people voicing concern, which is a normal human attribute that was carried out by not just teachers over the last few months, HCW too have stated similar in the media. Did you troll them too? Considering the lack of care put into the guidelines for reopening schools it is no wonder those thoughts were written here, similar to comments made by HCW on social media in relation to a lack of proper PPE.

Regarding the ASTI rep, all she has to go on are the 64 teachers who died in Uk, and the death of teachers in US, apologies for her using evidence. Her job as a rep of the Union is to protect the workers.

There are teachers with multiple illnesses who have been told to work, despite being considered very high risk by their consultants and the evidence of schools closing in various different countries after reopening, to replan the return to school. So far schools here are doing ok down to the staff who work in them and hopefully they continue to do so.

It must be a lonely life that the only happiness you seem to get is constantly trolling teachers.

markodaly wrote: »

Oh there has been plenty of voices here, demanding us all keep our kids at home because they did not want to go back to school.
Evocative words like 'lab experiment' and 'no one cares about our lives' was mentioned time and time again by various posters.

Sure the use of the word 'experiment' in relation to schools has been used alot by Dr. Fauci in The States.

Gentleman Off The Pitch wrote: »

I've been following this thread for weeks and despite you popping in every few days to say otherwise, there has not been many teachers stating that they don't want to go back or schools shouldn't open.
There have one or two posters max out of all that posters here that claimed schools shouldn't open, which like with the ASTI representative, you've latched onto and falsely extrapolated to all teachers to suit whatever agenda or disdain it is you have for teachers.
Most teachers have simply raised concerns about the processes and the recommendations to be followed by school staff.
I know it's pretty pointless to engage with someone so entrenched in their views that they can't recognize how utterly stupid they appear when they declare the reopening of schools during a pandemic a success after 4 days

With respect , to attack someone for “latching on” to utterances from an asti rep in a discussion about teachers and teaching is a bit disingenuous. ASTI are the spokespersons for teachers after all.

markodaly wrote: »

Oh there has been plenty of voices here,

Indeed but none that suggested after 4 days people will drop dead

To be fair the only outlandish thing I have seen with a 4 day reference is you claiming mission accomplished on full school return.

Premature, would you agree?

Boggles wrote: »

Indeed but none that suggested after 4 days people will drop dead

To be fair the only outlandish thing I have seen with a 4 day reference is you claiming mission accomplished on full school return.

Premature, would you agree?

I didn't actually say that, but go on, make stuff up if you want, for accuracy sake.

@markodaly
Genuine question, how come you have such interest in teachers/schools? You're obviously very interested in the topic albeit ill-informed on some issues. I'm just wondering where your interest comes from? You are hugely critical of teachers as a group going by your posts here.

As regards the opening, I spoke to my colleagues yesterday and so far my school are struggling hugely. Our timetable is being changed again as it wasn't working and some teachers andvstudents are hugely fearful anxious while others are oblivious and everything in between. A large cohort of students are forgetting/ignoring social distancing at break times and supervision is causing stress. We are already short two substitute teachers to cover maternity leave and one staff member has been signed off on stress leave as of yesterday. Two other teachers have handed in notice and are retiring in October. I really feel for our management team, it's a difficult time.

I think this thread in particular has become a bit of a boiling pot.

Totally understandable though as we have moved into a new phase where children have returned to school and where there is an element of this all blowing up. The truth is nobody on this forum knows what is going to happen - regardless of what 100 links have been posted so far. It makes for good reading and for even better debates. This situation has never happened before and that's the bottom line.

We have parents and we have teachers on this forum voicing their concerns. But we also have a small amount people saying teachers are lazy and that they should put up or shut up and also a small amount of people saying parents use schools for babysitting etc. Both of which in the majority of cases is very untrue. Like if you are going to reply to someone with one word answers like "Crap", "Stupid", "Lies" etc. I think Twitter is better suited for you.

I'd like to think if we get to Christmas with a couple of classes a week closing then I would consider that a win. Look even extend the Christmas holidays to 3/4 weeks if need be just make sure we are not overdoing it and to create a gap in the year a bit.

Anyway, my two have done a full 6 days now and it was my first time believe it or not to actually get a chance to collect them this week. Whilst I was waiting in the yard I was scanning across all of the classrooms through the windows and I have to say I have to say I found myself smiling as all of the teachers were immersed in what they were doing best.

I hope it all works out.

PCros wrote: »

I'd like to think if we get to Christmas with a couple of classes a week closing then I would consider that a win.

It's very unlikely though isn't it, considering that in week one we've had 5 cases. As infections almost certainly spread, 5 in one week is likely to be considered a lucky week. Considering that in other countries where schools opened up in a similar way to ours, school reopening proved to be a super-spreader event. So no, none of us can tell the future. But we can look at the likes of what has happened in the recent past in places like Israel and have a good idea of what is very likely to happen here.

iguana wrote: »

It's very unlikely though isn't it, considering that in week one we've had 5 cases. As infections almost certainly spread, 5 in one week is likely to be considered a lucky week. Considering that in other countries where schools opened up in a similar way to ours, school reopening proved to be a super-spreader event. So no, none of us can tell the future. But we can look at the likes of what has happened in the recent past in places like Israel and have a good idea of what is very likely to happen here.

We've no idea, there could be no cases next week. Who knows.

Whilst Israel was similar in terms of class sizes and also all kids going back at once. Another aspect people forget to mention is that they went back during a massive heat wave so parents gave out that air con was not on. What happened next was classes had to close the windows, kids took off masks and then the air con was blasted around basically circulating the air.

Also there was no restrictions at the time compared to Ireland, life pretty much went on as normal and along with massive Jewish weddings too.

Whilst I'm not dismissing Israel as an example other aspects need to be considered too.

PCros wrote: »

Whilst Israel was similar in terms of class sizes and also all kids going back at once. Another aspect people forget to mention is that they went back during a massive heat wave so parents gave out that air con was not on. What happened next was classes had to close the windows, kids took off masks and then the air con was blasted around basically circulating the air.

Aircon is certainly an issue but primary school children are not wearing masks in Ireland. While some schools are choosing to avoid singing, others are still singing several times a day. 30 children in a not particularly large room singing together with no masks or visors is genuinely nuts right now. But it's daily life for a significant portion of our population.

The HSE is pretending that children of 13 and under can't spread it when we know that children of 10 and up spread at the same rate as adults. And children of 0-9 still spread it at about half that rate but that it is on a sliding scale based on age, and mainly reduced due to babies and toddlers. It's why the WHO now recommend masks from 6 and up. So nearly every primary child has close to same likelihood to infect as anyone else but we are just acting as if they don't really. With that kind of ostrich logic, the odds of this going well are extremely low.

markodaly wrote: »

Im confused here, you think a GP should give a medical letter to anyone who wants it, regardless of the actual medical need or history?

You sure are, hardly a surprise though.

Maybe go back and read my post again, start at the top and move downwards.

You'll get there, I have faith.