Covid in Schools

rainbowtrout

French Toast wrote: »

Yep, every chance we'll be back up to 1,500 before the New Year.

When do ye reckon we'll get definite news of the exams going ahead or not? March? April?

I'd imagine it would be before that given that orals and practicals would be scheduled for around then. I can't see why exams won't go ahead when schools have stayed open since September.

French Toast

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I'd imagine it would be before that given that orals and practicals would be scheduled for around then. I can't see why exams won't go ahead when schools have stayed open since September.

Likewise, but you just never know.

wirelessdude01

Schols have remained open and will remain so. That is a political decision.

Exams will happen as per normal.

wirelessdude01

Question re entrance assessments/tests.

Have any of your secondary schools organised yours yet?

We'd normally have heard from the secondary schools we feed into by now with some details and dates. Guessing that they'll be spread out over a number ber of weekends this year to reduce numbers in buildings.

Mardy Bum

The release of more guidance on remote learning is telling.

mirrorwall14

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The release of more guidance on remote learning is telling.

Was there guidance tonight?

SlowBlowin

Here is the government graph of C19 by age group.

c19.PNG

Anyone able to offer a good suggestions why the sudden jump at aged 5 where the rate more than doubles compared to aged 4 ? Both age groups would have contact with their parents, more so for the lower ages.

km79

http://twitter.com/fiannafailparty/status/1339888236831891456

Norma wishing us and our families a happy Christmas . Not a happy and safe Christmas !
Not sure why she sent that today
Our holidays don’t start until Dec 22nd
She is either completely tone deaf or completely and utterly inept

wirelessdude01

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The release of more guidance on remote learning is telling.

When was this released?

wirelessdude01

km79 wrote: »

http://twitter.com/fiannafailparty/status/1339888236831891456

Norma wishing us and our families a happy Christmas . Not a happy and safe Christmas !
Not sure why she sent that today
Our holidays don’t start until Dec 22nd
She is either completely tone deaf or completely and utterly inept

This person cannot read a room.

Smacruairi

km79 wrote: »

http://twitter.com/fiannafailparty/status/1339888236831891456

Norma wishing us and our families a happy Christmas . Not a happy and safe Christmas !
Not sure why she sent that today
Our holidays don’t start until Dec 22nd
She is either completely tone deaf or completely and utterly inept

Jesus christ. It's like an abusive husband coming home with garage flowers

Treppen

Smacruairi wrote: »

It will, and just like Halloween it will be blamed on people mixing,but to be fair, this Xmas is lining up to be a ****show in terms of people mixing. The timing and strategy of the dept was all wrong.

Refusing to allow schools an option to go half and half meant we always had 300 cases bubbling away, ready to explode when society opened.

But no predicted grades in 2021 ... " By hook or by crook ".

Treppen

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Question re entrance assessments/tests.

Have any of your secondary schools organised yours yet?

We'd normally have heard from the secondary schools we feed into by now with some details and dates. Guessing that they'll be spread out over a number ber of weekends this year to reduce numbers in buildings.

They'll probably move online.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/prodigy-wins-contract-to-roll-out-drumcondra-test-online-1.4342912

Smacruairi

Treppen wrote: »

But no predicted grades in 2021 ... " By hook or by crook ".

To be fair, I don't think they'll go that way... They might cancel orals and practicals but the test will go on

km79

Treppen wrote: »

They'll probably move online.

I have no idea how they expect mocks to operate

Mardy Bum

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

When was this released?

Times published an article an hour ago about it so I presume it is from the last 24 hours. The "guidance" is nothing new.

Treppen

km79 wrote: »

I have no idea how they expect mocks to operate

Wer'e just running mocks within the normal classes, the teacher at either side of the subject will just come in and invigilate the rest of the exams. We have continuous assessment also to back up grades!

rainbowtrout

km79 wrote: »

I have no idea how they expect mocks to operate

Why? Students are in classrooms in schools at the moment. Why wouldn't they be able to sit mocks in the same rooms?

Mardy Bum

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Why? Students are in classrooms in schools at the moment. Why wouldn't they be able to sit mocks in the same rooms?

Some schools can't facilitate the room changes.

km79

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Some schools can't facilitate the room changes.

And all the changing seating plans and contact tracing that goes with it

If it wasn’t possible/safe to run state exams last summer with no other students in schools I am not sure how they can be run when cass numbers are likely to be way higher next month .

Something I was wondering too. How were the papers handed out and taken back up during the November exams ? The 72 hour quarantine thing seems to have gone out the window ? Latest DES “update” around Xmas exams explicitly states that copy books and exam papers CAN be handled as long as hand hygiene is good etc
When did this change ? I’m going to guess right around the time the L C exams were run

Treppen

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Some schools can't facilitate the room changes.

What do they do during option subjects then?

Mardy Bum

Treppen wrote: »

What do they do during option subjects then?

Room changes for exams. Some schools still have students moving around. The problem arises when you have to block off 10+ classrooms of various sizes for exam students that were accommodating normal classes of varying sizes. It also causes issues with supervision.

Smacruairi

It's a logistical nightmare trying to run mocks for only 33% of the school. It's really not as simple as x goes here now. You've different length exams, different supervision requirements, what do you do with the kids between the exams, then all the covid stuff, and this time we have cases in the thousand again in Jan, so there can be no shortcuts at all.

I'd say every DP is cacking it in jan now.

RealJohn

We had no issues running in house exams in base rooms at the end of November/start of December. I don’t see why the mocks will cause a significant problem.

There was no suggestion not to handle the papers for 72 hours, mind.

rainbowtrout

RealJohn wrote: »

We had no issues running in house exams in base rooms at the end of November/start of December. I don’t see why the mocks will cause a significant problem.

There was no suggestion not to handle the papers for 72 hours, mind.

Neither did we. The post holder who ran our Christmas exams quarantined the papers for 72 hours after they were completed, then they could be collected

rainbowtrout

Smacruairi wrote: »

It's a logistical nightmare trying to run mocks for only 33% of the school. It's really not as simple as x goes here now. You've different length exams, different supervision requirements, what do you do with the kids between the exams, then all the covid stuff, and this time we have cases in the thousand again in Jan, so there can be no shortcuts at all.

I'd say every DP is cacking it in jan now.

Between exams they go on lunch break. Not sure why that is a major issue.

gaiscioch

SlowBlowin wrote: »

Here is the government graph of C19 by age group.

c19.PNG

Anyone able to offer a good suggestions why the sudden jump at aged 5 where the rate more than doubles compared to aged 4 ? Both age groups would have contact with their parents, more so for the lower ages.

Very, very interesting graph. From it, it would seem that about 10,000 people between the ages of five and 19 have officially had Covid-19.

I'm sure the HSE/Department of Education could give us the exact official figure, too, rather than put the last age category between 15 and 24. Given that we have no right to know if one of our students has had a positive test, I won't hold my breath on such transparency. At all.

km79

rainbowtrout wrote: »

Between exams they go on lunch break. Not sure why that is a major issue.

Who supervises them?
We already have two small break and two lunch breaks .
Neither of these would sit within the LC mock timetable For a 3 hour paper starting at 9/930 which they have have to to get two papers done in a day .
Our teachers have base rooms to students move . They have uploaded all their seating plans for contact tracing
Moving teachers (and choosing who will be the unfortunate ones to move ) will create a lot of problems
“Guidance “ was due from the JMB two weeks ago!

khalessi

gaiscioch wrote: »

Very, very interesting graph. From it, it would seem that about 10,000 people between the ages of five and 19 have officially had Covid-19.

I'm sure the HSE/Department of Education could give us the exact official figure, too, rather than put the last age category between 15 and 24. Given that we have no right to know if one of our students has had a positive test, I won't hold my breath on such transparency. At all.

Yup saw that figure earlier on in week was trying to trace source Apparemtly there is a UCD study saying 8000 from few weeks ago.

And yeah some are obviously home infections but they are asymptomatic and going into schools and the circle continues

r93kaey5p2izun

My neighbour tells me that some of the metal security shutters are broken in the local school at home, so they can't be opened. Students are now sitting in rooms with no ventilation. Surely the school should be avoiding these rooms (exams going on at the moment so more rooms available) or partially closed on H&S grounds? Her daughter spent 2 hours in a room with with no ventilation other than door open to the corridor yesterday. She's very unhappy about it and doesn't want to send her on Monday, but she's in 6th Year and it's revision blocks she would miss. I understand the school would be in a difficult position trying to get them fixed quickly (they're broken over a week now), but it's hardly acceptable to be going ahead with classes in rooms with no ventilation with case numbers so high. (The school has had a lot of cases, though only 2 reported as school cases by HSE.)