Coronavirus Thread (Off Topic, Politics) (109 Viewers)

[CCFCSteve]

More to it than that though. Track and trace is a disaster, testing is a disaster. How can you model what schools are safe when the tools to do that is in tatters. The situation regarding information on what precautions to take to open schools would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious, especially how long it took to get that information and how much time it gave the schools to get ready. In the end we had to copy Scotland’s homework.

My point is I’m not sure those other countries are fairing much/any better but they were reopening. Fair play to BSB who just wants to get on with teaching. Even though some of the restrictions might be hindering the quality of teaching, those kids are at least getting more than they were pre summer hols

 

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[CCFCSteve]

How can remote learning apply to practical subjects?

Agree, obviously not everything can be taught remotely, surely a fair bit can though (forgot BSB is science isn’t he). I’m talking about if a lockdown is required to at least deliver some decent quality home based learning whilst the lockdown is in place

 

[Ian1779]

Even relatively simple things like do we have a nationwide remote learning system ready to go if needed? Last time round the excuse was nobody was expecting this and therefore nothing was prepared but that was months ago so surely something in place now.

There is of course the Oak National Academy stuff that is out there, that has been funded and paid to provide remote learning resources for the whole of this academic year. Of course though, a quick dig into how it was put together and you soon find out that it was another no-tender deal with government acquaintances
.

 

[Grendel]

Agree, obviously not everything can be taught remotely (forgot BSB is science isn’t he)

Also it’s no interaction, no fun, no engagement and entirely reliant on parents and self motivation. It’s absurd or if not just close all schools and sell them for housing and get rid of most teachers

 

[Ian1779]

We all know it is the poorest kids that are losing out the most in all of this. I know of at least two sets of parents that have (begrudgingly) moved their kids into private due to how their school has dealt with the Covid situation ie lack of teaching and concerns their kids are falling behind.

The poorest kids have been losing out in education for as long as I can remember. Funding stripped, rising class numbers, removal of support networks in and around education and social work structures to name a handful of the myriad of problems.
Now everyone that turned a blind eye to the government of the last 10 years doing this suddenly gives a fuck about the poorest kids..... laughable.

 

[Grendel]

The poorest kids have been losing out in education for as long as I can remember. Funding stripped, rising class numbers, removal of support networks in and around education and social work structures to name a handful of the myriad of problems.
Now everyone that turned a blind eye to the government of the last 10 years doing this suddenly gives a fuck about the poorest kids..... laughable.

You say as long as you can remember then say the last 10 years - how odd - and how irrelevant

 

[Ian1779]

You say as long as you can remember then say the last 10 years - how odd - and how irrelevant

It’s not really irrelevant though is it. It’s been exacerbated since the 2010 coalition pretended that we ‘were all in it together’ as they crucified the poorest for austerity.

 

[CCFCSteve]

The poorest kids have been losing out in education for as long as I can remember. Funding stripped, rising class numbers, removal of support networks in and around education and social work structures to name a handful of the myriad of problems.
Now everyone that turned a blind eye to the government of the last 10 years doing this suddenly gives a fuck about the poorest kids..... laughable.

Slightly different to not being taught at all though, that was my point.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

BSB, was there push back on remote learning previously ? I read a fair bit pre summer that unions weren’t keen (but also don’t know if Williamson ever pushed it - let’s be honest, he’s shit so who knows) As Dave alluded to above, I thought schools might’ve prepped for more remote learning incase of further lockdowns.

We were all mostly rookies at it at the start, some teachers never bothered beyond just e-mailing out sheets, others like me recorded lessons and tried some techy stuff out, a few were keen and got very experimental with it. I've incorporated some new tech but that's only because the companies are offering it free to use until COVID is over. In school though I'm at a point where hardly any practical work is possible and for a subject which revolves around that it's meaningless me being here.

I hear the concerns about rises in case numbers but I don't think it would be a catastrophe if I were allowed to teach as I was doing in March.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

How can remote learning apply to practical subjects?

In essence it doesn't. My view was that we could have partially reopened with practical only subjects on site and the rest delivered remotely, which could satisfy both sides of the argument. Mind you the few practicals I can do now I have to supervise from a distance with a mask and other PPE looking like an extra from Resident Evil

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Also it’s no interaction, no fun, no engagement and entirely reliant on parents and self motivation. It’s absurd or if not just close all schools and sell them for housing and get rid of most teachers

I'd say over half my time was spent chasing people who couldn't be arsed to even download the lesson never mind do the work in it

 

[fernandopartridge]

This is an interesting article, particularly the part about susceptibility and immunity threshold. It doesn't feel like with the growing case numbers it is necessarily being proved right or wrong at this point.

How Likely is a Second wave? – The Daily Sceptic

Paul Kirkham, Professor of cell Biology and Head of Respiratory […]

lockdownsceptics.org

 

[Ian1779]

Slightly different to not being taught at all though, that was my point.

Their can be no substitute for face to face teaching, I’m not even going to begin to question that, but the safety aspect goes beyond just the children.

It’s their at risk family members, their vulnerable or at risk teachers or their at risk family members, even their vulnerable or at risk peers. This is why we need these measures in place right now.

I get the argument about the negative impact on mental health that could occur by not being in school, so why is there not the infrastructure in place to mitigate for that? Because it has been taken away, shut down, cancelled, not taken seriously and most importantly not considered worthwhile by those in charge.

There is no real grand plan for making a transformative change in the lives of kids - Cov-ID or no Cov-ID. Just a repetitive cycle of changing measures that just get adjusted periodically to pretend that standards are improving.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Their can be no substitute for face to face teaching, I’m not even going to begin to question that, but the safety aspect goes beyond just the children.

It’s their at risk family members, their vulnerable or at risk teachers or their at risk family members, even their vulnerable or at risk peers. This is why we need these measures in place right now.

I get the argument about the negative impact on mental health that could occur by not being in school, so why is there not the infrastructure in place to mitigate for that? Because it has been taken away, shut down, cancelled, not taken seriously and most importantly not considered worthwhile by those in charge.

There is no real grand plan for making a transformative change in the lives of kids - Cov-ID or no Cov-ID. Just a repetitive cycle of changing measures that just get adjusted periodically to pretend that standards are improving.

In an ideal situation we'd have allowed any student or staff member to remain at home if they wished and have invested in a remote learning strategy for them that could be a close second to the real thing.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

That is the camp I am in and I dare say that as each day goes by more of my colleagues are coming around to it. The education we are providing is seriously hindered by the extensive restrictions being imposed upon it and leads me to believe that remote learning would be better if this is the best we can do in school. Let us teach and do our jobs normally and drop the idea that bubbles of over 100 people some of whom are nearly if not 18 will do anything significant.

I’m coming round to it too

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I’m coming round to it too

My OH made the point to me that gatherings of over 6 people are banned but we are expected to teach 16-18 year olds in over twice that number about 3 or 4 times a week. I can't do right by the people in front of me with things as they are.

 

[Ian1779]

In an ideal situation we'd have allowed any student or staff member to remain at home if they wished and have invested in a remote learning strategy for them that could be a close second to the real thing.

Yes I agree - the government didn’t plan for that when they had 6 months to put a system in place. Instead they gave £5m to Oak to bang out some voiced over PPT’s.

It’s not like HMI/OFSTED/DFE did anything useful during the time when we had to sort out CAG’s. Another frustrating example of misusing resources.

 

[Ian1779]

My OH made the point to me that gatherings of over 6 people are banned but we are expected to teach 16-18 year olds in over twice that number about 3 or 4 times a week. I can't do right by the people in front of me with things as they are.

Do you mostly teach KS5?

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Do you mostly teach KS5?

It's half of my timetable.

 

[Ian1779]

It's half of my timetable.

It makes sense now about the impact of the practical nature of what you teach. And of course there is far less scope to adjust curriculum in regards to what you have to show them.

 

[chiefdave]

In an ideal situation we'd have allowed any student or staff member to remain at home if they wished and have invested in a remote learning strategy for them that could be a close second to the real thing.

Are there not already existing systems that could be adapted? What happens if you do a distance learning degree or other FE course in a practical subject, or is that just not an available option?

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Are there not already existing systems that could be adapted? What happens if you do a distance learning degree or other FE course in a practical subject, or is that just not an available option?

I had a year of distance learning while at uni and it was theory modules only with the stuff sent in the post. In science there isn't really a substitute for hands on experimental work, as good as some virtual lab software is

 

[fernandopartridge]

Gaslit Britain

 

[chiefdave]

I had a year of distance learning while at uni and it was theory modules only with the stuff sent in the post. In science there isn't really a substitute for hands on experimental work, as good as some virtual lab software is

Do the kids still get to blow the school up? Remember someone setting fire to the ceiling in one of my chemistry lessons!

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Do the kids still get to blow the school up? Remember someone setting fire to the ceiling in one of my chemistry lessons!

I have set off more smoke alarms than them!

 

[Saddlebrains]

Mrs has had a runny nose etc last few days but now taste and smell have changed.

Can we get a test? Either for home or at a drive thru?

Can. We. Fuck.


A city the size of Coventry and cant get a test anywhere is a fucking shambles.

We both personally think its you're run of the mill change of season cold, but just to be certain a test is needed as i my role is customer facing.

Been trying since 4pm yesterday and cannot get anything. Its an absolute state

 

[Grendel]

Mrs has had a runny nose etc last few days but now taste and smell have changed.

Can we get a test? Either for home or at a drive thru?

Can. We. Fuck.


A city the size of Coventry and cant get a test anywhere is a fucking shambles.

We both personally think its you're run of the mill change of season cold, but just to be certain a test is needed as i my role is customer facing.

Been trying since 4pm yesterday and cannot get anything. Its an absolute state

It’s odd as I know 3 people with apparent symptoms who were all tested and results back less than 48 hrs after making the call

 

[Saddlebrains]

It’s odd as I know 3 people with apparent symptoms who were all tested and results back less than 48 hrs after making the call

See screenshot. Been this since yesterday

 

[Grendel]

See screenshot. Been this since yesterday

The Ricoh centre looks half empty whenever I drive past it

 

[fernandopartridge]

The issue isn't a lack of capacity to take the tests, it's a lack of lab capacity to process them. I suspect it's tied up in Cock and co's insistence on using certain private labs.

 

[chiefdave]

The Ricoh centre looks half empty whenever I drive past it

Same at Moat Street. It’s exactly what people have been complaining about for days. There’s sites sat virtually idle while people are sent to test sites miles away and arrive to find massive queues.

Meanwhile the government are still releasing daily figures saying we have huge amounts of unused capacity for testing.

 

[CCFCSteve]

The issue isn't a lack of capacity to take the tests, it's a lack of lab capacity to process them. I suspect it's tied up in Cock and co's insistence on using certain private labs.

Cock and Co

Yeah, it’s lab capacity not the testing sites. To be fair we should be using more private labs to process (why not if public sector hasn’t got capacity), PHE originally wanted to keep all the testing to themselves, hence the earlier shambles. How we haven’t got capacity by now is poor

 

[chiefdave]

Yeah, it’s lab capacity not the testing sites. To be fair we should be using more private labs to process (why not if public sector hasn’t got capacity), PHE originally wanted to keep all the testing to themselves, hence the earlier shambles. How we haven’t got capacity by now is poor

Had a closer look at the daily testing capacity figures that are published. Seems that in mid June they added in over 100K a day capacity for antibody tests which they've rolled into the total testing capacity figure. Bit misleading IMO but explains why every day it shows huge amounts of unused capacity yet people can't get a test.

Number of swab tests done every day has been steadily rising but there's not really been any sudden spikes, yet for a while now the processing capacity for that type of test has remained pretty much static. How did nobody spot this problem coming down the line?

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Had a closer look at the daily testing capacity figures that are published. Seems that in mid June they added in over 100K a day capacity for antibody tests which they've rolled into the total testing capacity figure. Bit misleading IMO but explains why every day it shows huge amounts of unused capacity yet people can't get a test.

Number of swab tests done every day has been steadily rising but there's not really been any sudden spikes, yet for a while now the processing capacity for that type of test has remained pretty much static. How did nobody spot this problem coming down the line?

Because everything is being done in reaction to events rather than pre-empting them

 

[Saddlebrains]

It's fucking scandalous how badly they've fucked this up.

Going right off again