Schools and Covid 19 (part 5) **Mod warnings in OP**

I misinterpreted your post. I thought you were asking if I knew how schools worked.

It's going to be something of a roller coaster for a while.

Spoke to a primary school teacher recently, Dublin based said they have no issues getting subs now that student teachers can do it.

I delighted school opening lots of children have not seen other children outside family since school closed for Christmas.

Children are most fed up with covid at this stage. Let them into school no doubt it will be yoyo students& staff in and out for few weeks.

Well if you think Norma Batty is a great minister for education, you have to be one of her Kerry voters. What has she done for education or schools and children with special needs since she has being in office. Feck all.

Id second it. She is one of the few who has stood up firmly to the unions. Hasnt got everything right but has done a decent job imho.

Maybe it's already been said, but what happens with teacher absences and leaving cert kids? Surely the school with teacher absences is at a disadvantage to the school that have less missing teachers at LC level?

Is it tough?

If you equate doing a good job to doing sweet fcuk all, sticking one's head in the sand and intoning the mantra of "schools are safe" ad nauseam without any sort of actual reasoning/data as to how they can possibly be, then yes Norma Foley has done a top notch job 👍 she's also very good at hiding.

Norma saying schools are in a controlled environment. What’s the difference between a school and pub or anywhere else that makes it safer.

Department there to help. Same department who told schools to find your own filters etc

The difference between a school and a pub is that schools are totally necessary and vital for our childrens well being and education .Pubs are not . So we have to live with the risk of schools and try to find a way .

Agree with you here - I as a parent accept fully that there will be issues over the next few weeks - that classes may be sent home, that there may be early morning messages not to send your child to school today etc. Most parents will be very understanding of staffing issues in schools - these problems are way better than the problems home schooling young children creates.

Its controlled in that there are procedures in place - these procedures are the best that can be in the circumstances.

Schools are as controlled as factories, supermarkets, restaurants, pubs, coffee shops, hospitals, GPs surgeries etc - nowhere is safe from covid. There are many jobs that are mixing with large numbers of people and in the examples I have given the actual numbers of households mixing is very high.

Personal responsibility plays a huge role in the fight against covid - everyone needs to look at the steps they take to keep themselves safe - masks, hand sanitising, social distancing, taking vitamins, being healthy, hot shower when you get home etc. - no employer can guarantee you will not get covid in your workplace.

I can see from my own second class kids that been back in school is better for them. But that does not mean I am happy with how this has been handled. I now have little to no confidence in the government or their ability to follow the science and set clear consistent rules. Their planning is also terrible. 

They put all their eggs in the vaccine basket and that it would get us out of this. The vaccine has prevented a lot of serious illness and saved lives but it hasn’t stopped transmission it’s not the 95% silver bullet they manufactures initially said it was. Even talking into account needing boosters if it was 70 80 % effective it should have cut the R number to point where covid would have tailed off and we’d be out of it now. 

They out and out lied to us when they said schools were safe. We saw in December they were riddled with covid and spreading it fast. That lie will have consequences, when MM is appealing to parents to vaccinate their kids would you trust him when he says the vaccine is safe for kids? It’s to late to vaccinate 5 - 12’s they wouldn’t won’t get their second dose till the middle of February, they’ll be recovered by then. The next few months are going to be hard on kids. 

They didn’t put measures in place is (primary) schools like HEPA filters key they had the money to give us all €100 of our energy bills. 

We are blessed Omicron is mild, what if we had Delta++ variant which we more transmissible and more lethal? Would we be able cope, that is what they should have planned for. We’ve caught a break in Omicron but it’s not safe to say it’s coming to an end.

Tremendous stuff at last

Unions kicked into touch. No more restrictions from the CMO. Looking like we are eventually throwing off tue shackles and going to let her rip. Onwards and upwards. I'm sure Svare Byrne and variant Kenny are pushing the " the people will die " line. But leave them off. We will be out of this fully for paddys day. A proper freedom day celebration. Lets make a weekend of it!!