Schools closed until March/April? (part 4) **Mod warning in OP 22/01**

wirelessdude01

History Queen wrote: »

Teachers are often informed through Carl O'Brien in the Irish Times. That's an unacceptable way for anyone to be informed. The correct procedure would be notification sent to schools and sent via schools to parents and children as happens with other communication from the Department.

Sure schools were never officially notified that schools weren't partially reopening back in January.

wadacrack

Notice how in this article how they emphasis the negative cases.(this is never included in any other context)

"There were 2,560 tests carried out where Covid-19 was not detected"

"There were 4,038 tests where Covid-19 was not detected"


https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0316/1204419-covid-schools/

deiseindublin

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Sure schools were never officially notified that schools weren't partially reopening back in January.

They eventually were about a week late. Aodhán ÓRíordáin mentioned on TW that they had never been informed. Email arrived the next day.

hesaidshesaid

I used to feel outraged that newspaper journos were getting the information re school openings, safety measures etc long before the DES documents were sent anywhere near school principals.

But then someone on another forum pointed out that this was pretty much the same scenario for almost every other sector. Hospitality, retail... they’re all relying on leaks to journalists.

I don’t agree with this policy by government but it’s not just education that’s affected.

shtpEdthePlum

wadacrack wrote: »

Notice how in this article how they emphasis the negative cases.(this is never included in any other context)

"There were 2,560 tests carried out where Covid-19 was not detected"

"There were 4,038 tests where Covid-19 was not detected"


https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0316/1204419-covid-schools/

551 tests seems like massively not even remotely enough.

lulublue22

Beasty wrote: »

Do you think the entire teaching profession is "leak-proof"? As soon as teachers are informed it will be spread - then we may have parents complaining the people most affected by all of this, the students, are being kept in the dark.

I am not suggesting any "leaks" should be acceptable, but it makes absolute sense that everyone is informed at the same time.

Call me old fashioned but I’d prefer to hear of changes to my working conditions from my employer rather than the media. Basic respect to those directly affected. Dep - school - parents is the correct response.

Locotastic

shtpEdthePlum wrote: »

551 tests seems like massively not even remotely enough.

Are these not just a result of testing close contacts etc when there's a confirmed case?

There is no mass testing programme for schools, I don't know why they are calling it that.

combat14

Covid-19: Ireland on a knife edge as case numbers could go either way

A senior person involved in planning Ireland’s response to Covid-19 says that, in mountaineering terms, the country is at a “col” – travelling along a high ridge between two peaks. (Irish Times 17/3/2021)


why did they send hundreds of thousands of kids back into school this week if the country is on a "knife edge" it beggars belief

hopefully "phased" return to school works out ok for all out sakes i suspect it was devised when much higher vaccination rates were "planned" here but these havent materialised due to chronically slow roll out from government to date

penny piper

ShineOn7 wrote: »

There are, what, just 8 weeks of the School year left?

Are they really going to bother bringing back the remaining years for that?

There's some reliable school workers on this thread. What are you hearing?

Two of my children are secondary school teachers in dublin and both say there's no way this government isn't going to send all the children back....ridiculous imo

iguana

JP100 wrote: »

Amazing that as soon as schools return all these children suddenly start contracting Covid in their communities again! Amazing stuff altogether!!

I know but as soon as my son went back to school that was the signal to me and all the parents I know that we could go back to licking each other and random surfaces. I know Ronan Glynn anticipated that and specifically warned us not to. But we just couldn't help it. And now we're bringing the virus home and infecting our children. Ooops.

Luckily though, they aren't going on to spread it to other kids in school because we all know that's not possible. Schools are safe. So us parents will probably keep on licking everything we see during the school day, infecting our kids and making rates in our age group and our school aged kids age group keep rising. But at least we all know, schools are safe.

Ficheall

Locotastic wrote: »

Still lower positivity rate than our overall positivity rate. Of course the rate is going to increase when there's more kids in schools and more being tested.

The positivity rate was 2.4% on average, an increase from 2% during the first month (8 February to 6 March) of the phased reopening of schools.

However, the positivity rate in each school type – 2.8% in primary schools, 1.4% in secondary schools, and 2.5% in special education schools – remained lower than the average community positivity rate of 3.8%.

How many people in a school are tested after a case is found vs. how many are tested in the community if a case is found?


They're hardly doing random sampling for their community testing, are they?

Locotastic

Ficheall wrote: »

How many people in a school are tested after a case is found vs. how many are tested in the community if a case is found?


They're hardly doing random sampling for their community testing, are they?

I'm not sure what is being deemed as close contact in schools these days.

They aren't doing random sampling in schools either.

Ficheall

Locotastic wrote: »

I'm not sure what is being deemed as close contact in schools these days.

They aren't doing random sampling in schools either.

No, I know, but presumably a higher proportion of schoolchildren are being tested(?), meaning that value would be closer to the actual value for schools, whereas if more people in the wider population were tested (as opposed to the most likely cases), the wider population positivity rate would come down. I suspect that for the school-going population, the sample is closer to the actual value, than the wider-population sample value is to the wider-population actual value.

dirkmeister

Locotastic wrote: »

I'm not sure what is being deemed as close contact in schools these days.

They aren't doing random sampling in schools either.

Easy, there is no such thing as a close contact in school.

Just to let people know what they are dealing with when it comes to the HSE and DES...there was a case in my wife’s school before Christmas. Child A tested positive and was sitting beside Child B.

Child B then tested positive as did his grandmother who lives with the family.

According to the HSE, by some massive coincidence it was actually granny who’d given it to Child B....therefore not counted as a school transmission.

Make of that what ye will, I’m off out to the garden to enjoy the bit of sunshine.

combat14

george lee on rte news tonight stating r number with new variant now at 1 after the last 2.5 months of lockdown..

7 day numbers up 6.5% which is the first increase since early January this year ..

current covid numbers are still double those at the end of november when government opened up the country.. so it seems we still have a ways to go...

lets hope all the fun and frolicks the last couple of days dont tip the balance

Ficheall

Ficheall wrote: »

How many people in a school are tested after a case is found vs. how many are tested in the community if a case is found?

An average of 22 per school outbreak it seems, with a positive rate of 2.6%.

https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/covid19-updates/covid-19-schools-and-childcare-facilities-mass-testing-report-week-10-2021.pdf

Averaging 3.2 close contacts per case in the wider community with over 20% positive rate


https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/covid19-updates/covid-19-test-and-trace-briefing-11-march-2021.pdf

penny piper

Covid-19 inspectors are saying 98% of schools are complying with pandemic rules.......but now concern is growing that some schools are pressing ahead with mock exams without public health advice...The state examination commission has advised that secondary schools should
not hold mock exams and that available class time should be spent on teaching/learning with students..
One teacher in co.louth has said their school is holding mock exams with students allowed to take a mask break every 40mins...The TUI has said that running mock exams are contrary to public health advice and would put the health/safety of students/teachers/all school community in jeopardy.
Teacher's unions have all called for additional safety measures such as masks for older primary school children and air quality control monitors in classrooms....unfortunately to no avail as public health authorities have not recommended this according to the Dept.of Education

582cases today 0 deaths.

solerina

penny piper wrote: »

Covid-19 inspectors are saying 98% of schools are complying with pandemic rules.......but now concern is growing that some schools are pressing ahead with mock exams without public health advice...The state examination commission has advised that secondary schools should
not hold mock exams and that available class time should be spent on teaching/learning with students..
One teacher in co.louth has said their school is holding mock exams with students allowed to take a mask break every 40mins...The TUI has said that running mock exams are contrary to public health advice and would put the health/safety of students/teachers/all school community in jeopardy.
Teacher's unions have all called for additional safety measures such as masks for older primary school children and air quality control monitors in classrooms....unfortunately to no avail as public health authorities have not recommended this according to the Dept.of Education

Total crap, the kids are back in over crowded classrooms, it doesn’t matter if they do mocks or not, each teacher knows what’s best for their own class and they know a damn sight more than Norma or any Dept. We have no additional safety measures and no more testing than before, they should be looking at these aspects of being back to school and keep out of meddling in the running of class time

Sunny Dayz

ShineOn7 wrote: »

There are, what, just 8 weeks of the School year left?

Are they really going to bother bringing back the remaining years for that?

There's some reliable school workers on this thread. What are you hearing?

My son is in TY, I’d say he’ll be back for Max 4 weeks and finished then. The school is just doing the core subjects remotely, some classes finish early, sometimes they are sent a link for a YouTube video to watch and some classes are just cancelled or teacher doesn’t show. While TY isn’t an important year academically, he’s had very little of the TY experience.

km79

https://www.rte.ie/news/education/2021/0318/1204763-coronavirus-education/

Norma has come back out of hiding to declare its looking good for full return the Monday after Easter holidays

TheValeyard

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

My son is in TY, I’d say he’ll be back for Max 4 weeks and finished then. The school is just doing the core subjects remotely, some classes finish early, sometimes they are sent a link for a YouTube video to watch and some classes are just cancelled or teacher doesn’t show. While TY isn’t an important year academically, he’s had very little of the TY experience.

Last two years of TY have been a disaster for them. Although various schools have had mixed success with online courses, coding, etc.

But yeah no student has gotten the true TY experience, which is a shame.

TheValeyard

km79 wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/education/2021/0318/1204763-coronavirus-education/

Norma has come back out of hiding to declare its looking good for full return the Monday after Easter holidays

Probably end up with bubonic plague now knowing her predictions

combat14

km79 wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/education/2021/0318/1204763-coronavirus-education/

Norma has come back out of hiding to declare its looking good for full return the Monday after Easter holidays

how can she say that there were almost 600 new cases today

appledrop

km79 wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/education/2021/0318/1204763-coronavirus-education/

Norma has come back out of hiding to declare its looking good for full return the Monday after Easter holidays

Yes and I know exactly how it's going to go. I expect the numbers to start rising again now all primary school is back.

However it will be NOTHING to do with schools going back. It will be all down to community transmission and we as a NATION will be blamed for going mad on St. Patrick's Day, even though no-one did.

As mad as people got was going for walks in nice weather.

appledrop

What none of them are saying is that childcare was 11% positivity rate in same study.

And no it's no because the kids go around swapping Covid germs way more than in primary its because there is no 'pretend' pods in creche.

My son in creche so if an outbreak in their pod of 10 they will test them all, but in Junior Infants in same age group just because they sit ar a set ' table' that's a pod and makes it immune from spreading around rest of class of 28. Even though they all play together and use same bathrooms, queue up in same lines etc .

Go figure that one out.

Hurrache

appledrop wrote: »

What none of them are saying is that childcare was 11% positivity rate in same study.

And no it's no because the kids go around swapping Covid germs way more than in primary its because there is no 'pretend' pods in creche.

My son in creche so if an outbreak in their pod of 10 they will test them all, but in Junior Infants in same age group just because they sit ar a set ' table' that's a pod and makes it immune from spreading around rest of class of 28. Even though they all play together and use same bathrooms, queue up in same lines etc .

Go figure that one out.

They have tested whole classes at primary level.

appledrop

Hurrache wrote: »

They have tested whole classes at primary level.

But it's not a standard approach. I know of four separate outbreaks in primary and not one tested whole class.

Hurrache

That's the issue alright, doesn't seem to be standard but it does happen. Not sure why in some classes, not others.

combat14

ok if norma is so positive why cant we just lift the entire lockdown right now - when is it going to end

Sunny Dayz

TheValeyard wrote: »

Last two years of TY have been a disaster for them. Although various schools have had mixed success with online courses, coding, etc.

But yeah no student has gotten the true TY experience, which is a shame.

Yes only for he has an interest in coding and got to do some as an online course he’d otherwise be twiddling his thumbs since Christmas.