Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[MP_MFC]

True to form, reports in the papers that Scotland will have a 4 tier lockdown.  The fascination with being seen to one-up England is truly breathtaking. 
 
Also I see Northern Ireland are doing a circuit breaker similar to our restrictions in the  central belt - but with added restriction that schools will close.  There's a definite feeling amongst teachers I know that this perhaps the way to go, as difficult as it could be for us.  

Not sure I'd describe us having a level above England's top tier as truly breathtaking considering our restrictions are already tighter than that and all the SAGE advisors pretty much say that the things England have in their Very High level won't do the job.

[ICTChris]

Are the Northern Irish schools closing for longer than their holidays or have they timed their shutdown to coincide with them?

[Robin.Hood]

9 hours ago, FemdomFilmFan said:

First no hasn't aged well.

Dinna even ken what meh no's were

Could do wee a few weeks aff 

[renton]

I would advocate going to a blended model of learning for older age groups - the 17 and 18 year olds to start with. All evidence we've seen suggests younger kids make up very low proportions of symptomatic cases and do not appear to be strongly linked as index cases for community transmission.

At the same time we know that it can spread like wildfire through a bunch of 18-19 year olds in close proximity for 24 hours a day.

The issues around blended learning, beyond the oft discussed issues on here around quality of learning, seemed to be logisitical and financial in terms of how the LAs and government organised it in away that kids still received an appropriate level of teaching time. 

If we limit blended learning to what we can reasonably expect the higher risk groups to be, then it should be far easier to organise logistically. By focusing on the older age groups it should be easier for them to take in the personal responsibility for their own learning, to an extent and has the bonus effect of having a lower knock on effect to parental working and childcare arrangements since we can reasonably expect 17 and 18 year olds generally to cope for themselves.

We can then see if that has a further effect of dropping transmission in those age groups that the older kids mix with in schools. If it doesn't then we look at salami slicing down the years until we find the right mix to lower risk without the massive disruption a blanket move to blended or even remote learning would cause.

At the same time we need to get the Unis onto remote lectures for the time being, and prioritise getting drop in test centres opened in close proximity to the halls of residence, since these seem to be powering infections at the moment. I don't think sending them home will be helpful. The unis have to be doing a lot more in terms of pastoral care to help these kids out. 

Of course, if the spread of this is based on massive asymptomatic transmission evenly spread across all age groups then nothing short of mass testing, total lockdown or a vaccine will work.

 

[ICTChris]

Allow yourself to burn to death to save the NHS [emoji106]

[Marshmallo]

3 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Allow yourself to burn to death to save the NHS
 

 

[Michael W]

19 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Allow yourself to burn to death to save the NHS
 

Serves them right for not clapping the fire brigade tbh. 

[Honest_Man#1]

40 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Allow yourself to burn to death to save the NHS
 

Don’t know which Uni accommodation this is but it’s the opposite advice to what’s given out in Edinburgh. Fire risk>Covid risk.

[Adam]

Are the Northern Irish schools closing for longer than their holidays or have they timed their shutdown to coincide with them?

They don’t appear to normally get a full week in October, only a long weekend to coincide with Hallowe’en(?). So shutting them for two weeks goes further than any rumour of an additional week off in Scotland.

[bendan]

11 hours ago, GordonS said:

One thing I'd add to the schools debate is this stat from New York. I don't think anyone has done any work to establish the equivalent figure here, but it would be ugly.

In New York City, population 8.3 million, with about double the UK's coronavirus death rate, 4,200 children have lost at least one parent to coronavirus.

If that's not an incentive to stamp this fkn virus on the head, I don't know what is.

 

Do you have a link for that stat? Seems incredible. Scotland has had about 230 deaths of people under 60.

[invergowrie arab]

56 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Allow yourself to burn to death to save the NHS
 

WTF

I have spent the last 6 months doing little else but building reconfiguration, risk assessments etc to get large public buildings open (reckon I'll have finished it by May 2021)

Day 1 advice form H&S. Fire trumps Covid. One way systems, social distancing etc are all out the window. Exit by the nearest safe exit and then social distancing kicks in again at the fire assembly point.

Edited October 14, 2020 by invergowrie arab

[vikingTON]

12 hours ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Blended learning, although preferable to remote learning, is no substitute for having a specialist teaching 100% of the time.

That being said, if we did have to resort to blended learning, then we are in a better place than we were in March.

My biggest concern would still be the significant number of pupils with limited IT access - I know schools have been given extra resources - but it is not anywhere near the level that is required.

Even before this pandemic I felt that more needed to be done to provide those without regular IT access better provision. This pandemic has really highlighted the gap between the haves and have nots.

Improving IT access is not a magic bullet either - how we support and motivate children during home learning is crucial as well.

You don't need IT access to execute blended learning in the vast majority of subjects though. If it were fully remote learning then that would be an issue but the teacher is not going to be on Zoom for the other half of the week: they'll be teaching the other half of the class in a properly distanced classroom setting instead. Tasks can be paper-based and distributed to students from there or use basic software like Word that really does not need state of the art equipment or fibre broadband to access.

 

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, bendan said:

I could be wrong, but are kids with special needs getting support right now? As far as I know, most support has been suspended due to distancing rules etc.

Edited to add: If schools weren't so crowded, we'd probably be able to provide this support, so you could argue kids with special needs are being abandoned because of the stubborn refusal to reduce regular class time.

Anecdotally I've heard that most of the teaching assistants, who help out with kids with special needs, were laid off in Inverness over the last couple of years as part of the budget cuts. 

[DeeTillEhDeh]

I would advocate going to a blended model of learning for older age groups - the 17 and 18 year olds to start with. All evidence we've seen suggests younger kids make up very low proportions of symptomatic cases and do not appear to be strongly linked as index cases for community transmission.
At the same time we know that it can spread like wildfire through a bunch of 18-19 year olds in close proximity for 24 hours a day.
The issues around blended learning, beyond the oft discussed issues on here around quality of learning, seemed to be logisitical and financial in terms of how the LAs and government organised it in away that kids still received an appropriate level of teaching time. 
If we limit blended learning to what we can reasonably expect the higher risk groups to be, then it should be far easier to organise logistically. By focusing on the older age groups it should be easier for them to take in the personal responsibility for their own learning, to an extent and has the bonus effect of having a lower knock on effect to parental working and childcare arrangements since we can reasonably expect 17 and 18 year olds generally to cope for themselves.
We can then see if that has a further effect of dropping transmission in those age groups that the older kids mix with in schools. If it doesn't then we look at salami slicing down the years until we find the right mix to lower risk without the massive disruption a blanket move to blended or even remote learning would cause.
At the same time we need to get the Unis onto remote lectures for the time being, and prioritise getting drop in test centres opened in close proximity to the halls of residence, since these seem to be powering infections at the moment. I don't think sending them home will be helpful. The unis have to be doing a lot more in terms of pastoral care to help these kids out. 
Of course, if the spread of this is based on massive asymptomatic transmission evenly spread across all age groups then nothing short of mass testing, total lockdown or a vaccine will work.
 

Trying to have a blended timetable only for S5/6 is impossible - a lot of N5 classes will be S4/S5/S6 - particularly in smaller departments.

As for timetabling a split blended/full timetable - I have doubts - our timetabler was struggling to get lower school classes to even 50% because of the demands of the blended Senior Phase model.

It's a no from me.

If you are going blended it needs to be for everyone.

[Aufc]

I see NI are closing schools, bars and restaurants

[DeeTillEhDeh]

You don't need IT access to execute blended learning in the vast majority of subjects though. If it were fully remote learning then that would be an issue but the teacher is not going to be on Zoom for the other half of the week: they'll be teaching the other half of the class in a properly distanced classroom setting instead. Tasks can be paper-based and distributed to students from there or use basic software like Word that really does not need state of the art equipment or fibre broadband to access.
 

Paper-based stuff can only go so far - when it comes to assignments (remember N5 has no exams this year so there is greater emphasis on this) - then pupils, even in what are seen as theoretical subjects, are going to need IT access. Some don't even have devices with access to Word or the Internet.

There has also been an increased use in IT across all subjects - a lot less theoretical and much more related to real life, particularly in researching and applying knowledge.

As I said though, even with increased IT access there is the whole isduye of motivating pupil to work independently when at home during blended learning.

[bendan]

20 minutes ago, virginton said:

You don't need IT access to execute blended learning in the vast majority of subjects though. If it were fully remote learning then that would be an issue but the teacher is not going to be on Zoom for the other half of the week: they'll be teaching the other half of the class in a properly distanced classroom setting instead. Tasks can be paper-based and distributed to students from there or use basic software like Word that really does not need state of the art equipment or fibre broadband to access.

 

I agree. There's a huge difference between a blended model and what was happening in the spring. Half the teachers didn't seem able to set proper IT-based tasks anyway and were basically just putting scans onto teams.

[Marshmallo]

Interesting mix of restrictions in Northern Ireland. No alcohol sales after 8pm anywhere is a new one for the UK. 

Is two weeks going to be enough to make a noticeable difference?

I'm now minded that we should be making masks mandatory in classrooms. 

[doulikefish]

Lockdown part 2 may commence ive had a haircut 

[renton]

7 minutes ago, DeeTillEhDeh said:

Trying to have a blended timetable only for S5/6 is impossible - a lot of N5 classes will be S4/S5/S6 - particularly in smaller departments.

As for timetabling a split blended/full timetable - I have doubts - our timetabler was struggling to get lower school classes to even 50% because of the demands of the blended Senior Phase model.

It's a no from me.

If you are going blended it needs to be for everyone.

Well, look, obviously I don't know how the balance of efforts lies in this, but if push came to shove would it really be more effort to disentangle the S5/S6s into seperate timetables and find extra teaching resources for them vs. Having to create a whole new timetable for the whole school, find extra premises to teach on and find extra teaching resources for a larger cohort than just the S5/S6s?

I suppose a third option is to lump the S4s into the blended model a la Sweden?