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

Imo our schools are open full time because there is such a variety of home situations for students that it is pretty much impossible to do right by everyone. Attending the school building is the great leveller for the students from all walks of life and all home circumstances. Take that away and you affect the already disadvantaged ie those who have troubled homes, for all sorts of reasons, disportionately. So I think if if we end up having to go back to anything but full time schooling, there should be all kinds of extra resources on those for whom closing schools full or part time is extra damaging to their education, their mental health, their well-being and their safety from abuse.

I'm sure there is some major spin on right now to offset schools opening 2-3 weeks ago and a conveniently huge increase in cases, because we all know schools have no effect on spreading covid-19....

FFS it's clear as day, and still no one is properly reporting on it.

Jinglejangle69 wrote: »

Anti mask protest happened 3 weeks ago.

Genuine question.

How many positive caws for teachers?

Think I read one last week. But not sure.

According to all the articles I can find, the major ones lately happened on the 12th of September, that was not 3 weeks ago.

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

Are we even being told? It's effort enough to figure out if schools are getting cases never mind individual teachers or staff.

There's a whole Facebook group dedicated to it with spreadsheets and daily counts, pretty easy to follow.

Yes there are cases in schools, some classes isolating some teachers isolating. It was bound to happen.

However unless there's evidence to say this upsurge in numbers is due to schools reopening then that's pure speculation.

Increased testing because of seasonal illness and school guidelines on sick pupils is more likely the cause. We are testing huge numbers of people now and finding more and more cases.

Here is a breakdown by age

https://twitter.com/ConorRiordan2/status/1307736059904692237

Locotastic wrote: »

Nothing about this is convenient.

What you are seeing is likely the result of young people going back to living a normal (and social) life, workplaces opening back up if they were closed, people socialising more and general pandemic fatigue.

The fear is waning, people get complacent and we return to standard behaviour. Add to that the increased testing and you will find more cases.

It's human nature, the sense of fear people would have had in March compared to now has changed drastically, more and more we accept the risks and make our choices.

Thing is life isn't normal at the moment and they should be sd and wearing masks as required, would that be workplaces such as schools reopening, only ones that were reopening recently.

jrosen wrote: »

Society in general has opened back up. We were bound to see increases once people started to interact again. Many people are now back to work, offices back open.

Kids are now mixing with people they have not seen in months, parents back having coffees with other parents. Kids back at their childminders and therefore possibly interacting with kids there.
My gym is busier since kids went back, my own work is busier since kids went back, my hairdresser said the same.

So while I think schools play a part I do think there are other contributing factors.

Covid fatigue being one

nearly every office I know of is working from home until next year, including our counties etb

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

nearly every office I know of is working from home until next year, including our counties etb

Every single person I know both public/private have their offices open. They are not required in every day, but their offices are open and people are working from there.
I took the luas last week, it was full. I also drove on the M50 on Friday. At 3.15pm I was crawling along towards my exit. So there are plenty of people out and about and working. As I said society in general is out and about.

jrosen wrote: »

Every single person I know both public/private have their offices open. They are not required in every day, but their offices are open and people are working from there.
I took the luas last week, it was full. I also drove on the M50 on Friday. At 3.15pm I was crawling along towards my exit. So there are plenty of people out and about and working. As I said society in general is out and about.

And I know of plenty that aren't physically required in office right now, and even with your anecdotes, they aren't required in every day, if we could do that with students in schools it would be of massive help

My daughter is in Secondary School for the last three weeks. It's fairly rural, so I hope it may escape the worst of anything. However the school bus set up is crap. Two buses are now being provided to ensure SD. So you think that's okay. But there is no supervision on who gets on what bus. My daughter is clued in to get a certain bus and that's down to her and her parents. Kids aren't wearing masks on the bus once they board and sitting all over the place. Luckily she looks for a seat on her own and usually finds it.

In school, she says that SD in the corridors is non existent. I can't verify the following, but she is claiming that extra desks have been placed in her English/History class and the kids next to her are shoulder to shoulder. She doesn't want to take a snap and I don't want her worrying about being a total snitch either. Break times are more or less unsupervised and SD isn't happening or being encouraged. Her Mum and I aren't lockdown merchants by any means. In the build up to getting back to school we encouraged her to practice safe measures in line with the DES and public health guidelines. However she appears to be in an environment where Teachers/staff are trying, but other students don't give a fiddlers. A hot spot of inertia. Complacency will be a disaster.

Now we are concerned about her mental well being as we have always tried since April to educate her about the potential threat from Covid despite all the conflicting info and alternative viewpoints. She understands that if she gets sick, it may not result in anything too serious for her, but she worries about us catching it. That's why in terms of Schools, I'm absolutely keeping up to date with things but still in despair about how anyone can claim it's all good for staff and pupils while so many other restrictions apply to other similar set ups. Looks political/economic to me and I'm no longer certain how long more I am willing to hold out. The current situation in our our house is, once a case appears in her school, she's out.

Grandeeod wrote: »

My daughter is in Secondary School for the last three weeks. It's fairly rural, so I hope it may escape the worst of anything. However the school bus set up is crap. Two buses are now being provided to ensure SD. So you think that's okay. But there is no supervision on who gets on what bus. My daughter is clued in to get a certain bus and that's down to her and her parents. Kids aren't wearing masks on the bus once they board and sitting all over the place. Luckily she looks for a seat on her own and usually finds it.

In school, she says that SD in the corridors is non existent. I can't verify the following, but she is claiming that extra desks have been placed in her English/History class and the kids next to her are shoulder to shoulder. She doesn't want to take a snap and I don't want her worrying about being a total snitch either. Break times are more or less unsupervised and SD isn't happening or being encouraged. Her Mum and I aren't lockdown merchants by any means. In the build up to getting back to school we encouraged her to practice safe measures in line with the DES and public health guidelines. However she appears to be in an environment where Teachers/staff are trying, but other students don't give a fiddlers. A hot spot of inertia. Complacency will be a disaster.

Now we are concerned about her mental well being as we have always tried since April to educate her about the potential threat from Covid despite all the conflicting info and alternative viewpoints. She understands that if she gets sick, it may not result in anything too serious for her, but she worries about us catching it. That's why in terms of Schools, I'm absolutely keeping up to date with things but still in despair about how anyone can claim it's all good for staff and pupils while so many other restrictions apply to other similar set ups. Looks political/economic to me and I'm no longer certain how long more I am willing to hold out. The current situation in our our house is, once a case appears in her school, she's out.

I hope your daughter is doing okay, she can only do her best in the crazy situation within schools

I'll say it again, a proportion of kids will find this incredibly hard on their mental health. They've been told for months how dangerous this virus is, and now their being forced into an environment that won't let them practice all the safety rules they've learned, and on top of that are worried about bringing it home to their families.

Locotastic wrote: »

Should and are. Two very different things, take a walk through your nearest town and tell me if people ARE doing what they SHOULD be doing.

At least on the streets and in the shops they have the ability to adhere to public health guidance.