I suppose I'm mostly thinking about secondary schools where there are high levels of vaccination.
FWIW I'd be interested in the opinions of people with medically vulnerable kids. How do they see this playing out? Is it important that their child(ren) are treated the same as others? How much exclusion time (if any) would be acceptable?
I honestly don't know what the answer is.
Random anecdote: I have a colleague with a teenage son who is a couple of years out of leukemia who brushed off Omicron, completely asymptomatic, whilst he (late forties) spent Christmas suffering with it. Are the perceived risks the same now for the vulnerable?
Lots of kids have caught covid over the past month. So vaccination shouldn't be a tool used to open schools
That is definitely a strategy that merits discussion at this stage. I'd like to see everyone boosted and kids vaccinated before we consider that going that route though.
I tried 5 counties!! I managed to get an appointment for tomorrow for both of us.
Compared to staggered starts and curve flattening (wave lengthening) there would be less disruption and greater herd immunity if we pulled medically vulnerable teachers and kids out of school for a couple of weeks, dropped the testing and isolation requirements and let Omicron rip.
Mad seeing Mairéad get a mention on here 😂 I have prior experience of working with her.
Every term the schools couldn’t stop my daughters getting headlice
Covid,not a hope
My daughter just had a positive antigen test yesterday and she already has a PCR booked today. But then we’re in Dublin so I suppose she had more testing centres to book from.
She started off by saying something like "parents tell her they know we (teachers) can protect their children, but we can't protect the children"
Well as a mother and a teacher I don't think I can protect children from picking up vomiting bugs, chicken pox, colds etc so how would we be able to stop covid (a virus) transmitting and what parents honestly think that?!
Yep. Why she’s trying to involve herself given she’s retired I don’t know why.. https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-40702778.html
It was Mairead de Burca, is that who you are talking about?
Edit: quick Google tells me it is!
I seen a Mairead mentioned too. Is that the one who quit teaching over Covid and now has gone full on mad #protectthechildren on social media?
Indeed. Though the unions aren’t on their own. Whole political parties got taken in by the zero Covid charade, don’t think the Social Democrats have ever recovered from going full crazy on that.
That is bonkers, the guy is hard core and has been away for most of the last year - Omicron is not March 2020 covid, >90% of country vaxed, time to move on
I had it on and when I seen he was on I turned it off.
Voice for teachers had Gerry Killeen on tonight on their webinar. Easy to see where the unions and groups have attached their masts to.
Disappointing they can’t see through his and his makeup-up lobby group (ISAG) emotional blackmail. Easy to see where all this is coming from if the unions in bed with the zero Covid fanatics.
Well I know from my situation if my husband or I do test positive in the coming days my kids have to stay home for 2 weeks. I know due to my husbands job I'll have to stay with them. We have been so lucky up to now in that my parents would look after them but I can't ask them to do that. So even tho they are well and healthy they can't go to school which means I can't go to work. I know this is not unique to the teaching profession and its across all sectors but its crazy to expect kids to stay out that long when they are usually fine within a couple of days.
I can see the rules being changed in the coming weeks also as its just unsustainable to keep going with the current rules. For all of society! Not just education
Our neps psychologist is unavailable at the moment. No replacement available. Post checked once a week and whoever picks it up will get back to us whenever it suits them. I have a child waiting on an AON and when they receive it will go on another waiting list that is currently 18 months to 2 years to be seen! This is not acceptable but noone is talking about that!
I’d absolute advocate for reduced isolation times and rules etc. Didn’t mention it as unlikely to be a goer with some unions opposing a normal return full stop.
It might take 1 or 2 weeks of silliness with staff out because of the rules for something to be changed.
So true about waiting lists too. We’ve had applications for therapists stonewalled with years delays due to some supports essentially downing tools or failing to replace professionals seconded to vaccine/testing.
Most teachers I know have no problem returning to school on Thursday. But out of 5 mainstream teachers in my school 3 will be missing this week, myself included. My family are waiting on a PCR test since Sat and so far no text for appointment.
I'm sure this will be repeated across the country. The rules on isolation time periods need to be changed. Healthy (unvaccinated) children who are household contacts should not have to isolate for 14 days! Aside from causing problems for working parents it also causes massive problems in the classroom. How can the teacher move forward with teaching and learning if half the class is missing? I totally understand about the issues with mental health but there are also wider issues that noone is talking about. The long waiting lists for pretty much everything are huge. Assessments, SLT, OT. School closing for a week or 2 isn't the biggest issue here. The fallout from covid is going to be going on for years.
I’m all for a full reopening if we could drop testing and isolation requirements. Life would be back to normal then. There’s relatively nobody sick anymore bar some people experiencing a cold or flu like symptoms. Normal this time of year.
However given the current testing and isolation requirements it would a complete sh1tshow due to staff shortages.
Ya this is what I'm expecting going back, but to be honest, I don't think people care, or maybe they aren't aware. Who knows?
yea parents getting pissed falling around the place worrying about their kids mental health while out of school.
Great post … thanks X 1000
You may think your voice isn't heard but if enough union members contact their shoppie, the issue can't be ignored. Hear what you're saying about the bigger picture. Go over shoppie's head to branch secretary if needs be.
If schools can’t open now with all teachers who want to be triple vaxxed, secondary school students vaxxed & masked, and now primary students being offered the vaccine (and masked from 9 up), then when can they?
I’ll be so disillusioned if the into try to block the return of primaries. I do believe there’s a majority of silent teachers who are happy to be back Thursday, like myself, who realise that this zero risk fanaticism is impossible.
All staggering starts do is push any problem down the line. Omicron won’t magically disappear and the department won’t magically fit out every classroom with filters. There has to be some realism here. Our unions are destroying our profession by pandering to the small small amount who may feel or be unsafe in the classroom.
Done. But I don’t think it’ll make any difference. I have a suspicion that a bigger game is being played here.
Would you not contact your local union shop steward and let them know your views. If enough like minded colleagues do thst the shop stewards are mandated to bring this forward
If schools reopen on Thursday, with current level of mitigation’s and current case levels, how do people honestly think it will play out?
Rolling absences of pupils, an endless stream of calls to the HSE and parents as cases appear in classes. Parents and staff unable to get a pcr test to confirm cases. A constant stream of children being sent home with symptoms. Children having to be antigen tested constantly as cases appear in their pod. Whole families isolating as close contacts. This will be on a much larger scale than what we saw in December. (Most days I had attendance levels of 75-80%).
Attempts at getting back to normal will result in a classroom environment that is far from normal.
The report on the impact of school closures on student mental health really needs to be considered very carefully by any teachers supporting school closures. The public won’t support us in the same way as last year … I predict genuine, and justified, anger from parents if the teaching unions force school closures
”We don't want to expose children's health to any dangers if we can avoid it, but the issue here is that school closures should be the very last resort rather than looking at school closures as something we should do before we invest in other mitigation measures in schools," Professor O'Mahony said.
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/parents-association-calls-for-staggered-reopening-of-schools-amid-omicron-surge-1237088.html
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wc.vanillicon.com/v2/c60577abaec2a07544afd73b107ad45b.svg)
