1/ Short Thread: So I knew government had banned schools from closing early, and removed blended learning as an option, putting all decision making into hands of DfE.
They also banned schools from having inset days at the end of term, which is quite bizarre.
2/ To take away option of inset days seems pretty petty a bit of "we're putting the foot down" posturing.
The determination and effort to keep pushing through that final week despite their own scientist warning it will cause additional deaths is ridiculous.
3/ So was sent this, didn't realise a message had gone out to NOT provide remote learning for students who have the cheek put protecting vulnerable family members above a couple of days in school at the end of term.
4/ it's the same mentally that means single parents with immune compromised conditions are threatened with fines for not sending their children into schools with confirmed outbreaks where transmission is clearly out of control
5/Its cruel, its inhumane, frankly its just bullying people in difficult circumstances.
Shows schools policy is nothing to do with education, its just about proving a point.
"Our covid response was a success"
"75k dead?"
"Yeah but we kept schools open"
6/ More concerned with keeping attendance figures up in the final week than seeing every student has access to education.
Pure spite
Second part here.
7/ Government thinking
"We spent £22b on test and trace but we know its shit, let's get headteachers to do it for free to subsidise SERCO, no we won't properly fund their schools and covid costs or let them decide whats best for their community"
8/ Final note: Government has told CEV education workers they should return to school. I think this is because schools are running out of staff due to positive cases and isolations so gov needs them back to maintain the pretence their policy isn't a disaster.
9/ So they don't even give a toss about the vulnerable and are willing to risk CEV lives to plug gaps in poor policy decisions.
Disgusting, unacceptable, but ignorable because it contradicts H&S legislation, NEU will back you on this.
10/ When you have a spare 20 minutes please consider watching the latest podcast below, we're very fortunate to have guests Dr Wrigley and Professor Reicher go into more detail regarding the @IndependentSage
Safer Schools Report.
2/ The government likes to set its own measures of success, initially below 20k deaths was said to be considered a good result. When it quickly became clear this would fail they switched to preventing NHS bed capacity being overwhelmed as their success target.
3/ Looking at how they cleared out hospital beds in Spring, including putting infected patients into care homes, you could argue that meeting their target was more important than preserving life.
1/ Month ago I explained how the government guidence and support for schools would lead us to chaotic rotas due to isolations
Todays stats unfortunately prove me right
It's time to restore order
2/ SAGE are telling government students are as infectious as adults, that they may be playing a significantly higher role in household transmission than first predicted
3/ In seperate papers government were warned that undetected asymptomatic cases in schools could cause superspreading events, their answer...no additional testing for asymptomatic cases in schools
1/ Thread: We're going to end up with blended learning, its just a matter of how?
Over 6k schools with confirmed outbreaks
Government figures say 50% of secondaries with partial closures due to isolations.
Remember government didn't intend on closing schools in March.
2/ The main reason schools closed in March was because DfE realised that with CEV shielding and isolations and sickness escalating education settings were at the brink of closing anyway due to unsafe staffing numbers.
3/ This is where we are heading, a disorganised introduction to blended learning, the rotas randomised by who is impacted by outbreaks, most likely creating unmanageable workloads.
Worst of all at the cost of amplifying transmission in the community and the health of staff
1/ Thread: Nick Gibb and the Education Select Committee
Masks
Tiers
Infections
Isolations
Very little clarification and a lot more confusion, plus the usual head in the sand over the DfEs inadequacies
2/ Nick got confused about masks.
The issue is national restrictions are based on a 3 Tier system, while the specific measures for schools laid out in the Containment Framework is a 4 Tier system.
3/ So he said all schools were in Tier 1 of the containment meaning masks should be worn in communal areas,however all schools are in Tier 1 or higher of the 3 tier restrictions
Schools minister doesn't appear to understand the rules, does he think all schools should have masks?
2/ The lies and disinformation has gone on right from the start, the video even begins with the statement that DfE worked closely with the professions to draw up the guidence, blatant lie.
3/ Lost count of how many evidence based questions ive worked on that have been sent to Johnson and Williamson on half of half a million education workers without receiving a reply.
This government has no idea of the meaning of consultation, look how they have treated so many