Coronavirus: Breaking School Tips On ‘Reprehensible’ Reopening

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Principals and teachers have criticized the government for receiving “last minute” guidance on what to do during virus outbreaks and local closures.

The guide for England was released on Friday night, just days before many schools start the term.

The school leaders union NAHT said the timing was “reprehensible.”

In local enclosures, high school students could stay home every two weeks and, in the event of an outbreak, large groups could be told to isolate themselves.

NAHT Secretary General Paul Whiteman said the decision to publish the guide on a Friday night before a bank holiday was “nothing short of reprehensible and demonstrates a complete lack of regard for the well-being of school leaders and their teams. “.

He said: “It was obvious weeks ago that a blocking council was needed.”

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In areas where additional coronavirus restrictions have been introduced due to increasing cases, high schools have been told they may have to limit the number of students and bring in a rotation system, with each student spending a fortnight in school and then a fortnight learning remotely to break the chain of Covid-19 transmission.

The guide says that this would only happen after “all other measures have been exhausted,” but that if cases continue to rise, all students may have to move to remote learning, except those in vulnerable groups or whose parents are key workers. .

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said the document was a “worst-case” contingency plan, which he hoped would not need to be implemented.

How schools will respond to local closures

There are four stages of response, depending on the level of virus cases in the area:

Tier 1: All students attend normally.

Level 2: High schools and colleges move into rotations, and students alternate a fortnight in attendance and a fortnight at home. Elementary schools remain open to all.

Level 3: Most high school students learn from home, as high schools and universities are only open to vulnerable children, children of key workers, and selected age groups.

Level 4: All schools switch to distance learning, except for vulnerable children and children of key workers, and students in special and alternative service schools.

The guide also sets out what to do when a school confirms a case of coronavirus. The health protection teams will inform the school of how many students should be sent home to be isolated for 14 days.

If a case occurs where the “bubbles” that are used to limit student contacts in schools are smaller, such as a single class, it is possible that everyone in the bubble will have to be sent home to isolate them.

In larger bubbles, such as a full-year group, health protection teams could send all other students home, or limit self-isolation to those who were in close or direct contact or who had traveled with a student with the virus.

Patrick Roach of the NASUWT teachers union said the government needed to provide schools with the resources to deal with the potential disruption, including support for remote learning and covering staff absences due to self-isolation.

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“The availability of staff where there is a local closure or outbreak may mean that schools must limit provision if they cannot safely staff,” he added.

Geoff Barton, leader of the ASCL teachers’ principals union, said he felt a “tired and resigned sense of inevitability” from receiving last-minute counseling after school principals were accused of “treason” for requesting contingency plans for outbreaks. .

He said more needs to be done to support students in test years who might find their teaching disrupted, including ensuring they have access to laptops to study at home.

“We have to do better than before,” he said. “We just can’t leave these young people at home without clear guidance on what they are going to do.

Mary Bousted, deputy secretary general of the National Education Union, said the guide should have been ready “months ago.”

Labor shadow education secretary Kate Green told Sky News the guidelines were “long overdue” and that it was “unfair” for school and university leaders to publish them so close to the start of the term.

The guidelines on introducing shifts only apply to secondary schools. Professor Neil Ferguson, a former government adviser on the pandemic, told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that primary schools often only had “rare cases” with no evidence of wider transmission, so there was less need for action.

But he said schools also needed “very rapid tests” of students and staff to control the outbreaks.

Professor Carl Heneghan, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford and general practitioner, said cold and flu cases meant that many students would have to self-isolate until they could be tested, which is why schools and families faced a “significant disruption”.

“If your child has any symptoms, he will have to skip school. In the past, it used to be said, he can take a little Calpol, maybe he can get in. But there will have to be a sea … change in the way that parents behave with their children, “he said.

Analysis: ‘Distance learning will continue to be a reality’

By Dan Johnson, BBC News

School principals had asked for a Plan B and here it is, but there is frustration because it came only a few days before more children arrive in the classroom across England.

Removed a suggestion of year-round groups or classes – “bubbles” – that had to automatically self-isolate, but not before adding confusion.

The Department of Education now points to more nuanced guidance on principals and public health officials who need to establish who has been in “close contact” with anyone who tests positive.

It is recognized that schools will not be immune to outbreaks in local communities, and while the intention will be to remain open and keep children in class, it is recognized that further disruptions to learning are possible.

Primary students are the clear priority. High schools will adopt a rotation system first before a longer hiatus, which means distance learning will continue to be a reality for some children.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has not ruled out nationwide restrictions should England experience a spike in coronavirus cases this winter.

He told The Times that a second wave was “a very serious threat” and that in a “reasonable worst case scenario” Britain could face an increase in Covid-19 cases and a severe outbreak of seasonal flu as that people spend more time indoors.

In other developments:

• Quarantine requirements for travelers returning from Switzerland, Jamaica and the Czech Republic started at 04:00 BST on Saturday

• A leaked government report suggests the ‘reasonable worst case scenario’ for the UK this winter is 85,000 deaths due to Covid-19, with further restrictions reintroduced but schools remain open

• Hundreds of people in Trafalgar Square demonstrated against the UK government’s coronavirus measures, holding up banners with slogans such as “Covid hoax”; Similar protests have taken place in Berlin and Paris
• A study from South Korea found that children can carry the virus in their nose for up to three weeks, suggesting that they could transmit it even if they are less susceptible to contracting the disease or getting sick.
• And French President Emmanuel Macron warned of the possibility of a nationwide shutdown after an increase of 7,379 cases on Friday.

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