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Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

SwingsitlikeHogan said:
One thing I’ve been wondering about the schools. Has the government provided additional funding to your wife’s school over the last four months say, to enable the school to recruit additional teachers, TAs and support assistants? As a mitigation for what has happened? Has the school had additional funding to increase accommodation - so to have built such a portacabins in the playground or for booking alternative accommodation such as halls or hotel conference rooms somthat classes could be split. Was anything of that sort done over the last few months?

I hope you get that I am supportive and you get where I’m coming from.
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Nope no additional funding. I think the thing most people don't get is that it is difficult enough to run a school in normal times, what with the lack of investment that things just get harder and harder for everyone involved. It's not like a head can think , I know lets set up a marquee on the sports field, just not allowed, all has to go through the local education authority. Additionally where do we magic up these extra teachers if we split everything in half, like the Nightingales the resources are just not there any more.

We already don't have enough teachers and now we have society needing schools to not just be there for education but as a childcare service, kids dropped off at 7.45am and collected at 6pm every day so parents can work to afford everything they owe on, most families cannot cope with a loss of income in any way and this is leading to more support needed from others so they can work longer hours.

The reality is for some school is not as much about education but childcare too and the current situation has shown this warts and all.
 
Reemul said:
We already don't have enough teachers and now we have society needing schools to not just be there for education but as a childcare service, kids dropped off at 7.45am and collected at 6pm every day so parents can work to afford everything they owe on, most families cannot cope with a loss of income in any way and this is leading to more support needed from others so they can work longer hours.

The reality is for some school is not as much about education but childcare too and the current situation has shown this warts and all.
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The breakfast clubs and after school care are charged for and generally not run by teachers. These are additional services so if parents choose to use them that is not taking adding time to any particular teachers time unless they choose to do so.
 
Following on from the football thread, and numerous celebrities getting caught out today and facing no ramifications.

I don't know why I thought enforcement would be different this time around. But this whole thing is pointless and got me down so much.

I know it's not right, but I'm so close to jetting off to Dubai for a month. No one gives a s***
 
DanFST said:
Following on from the football thread, and numerous celebrities getting caught out today and facing no ramifications.

I don't know why I thought enforcement would be different this time around. But this whole thing is pointless and got me down so much.

I know it's not right, but I'm so close to jetting off to Dubai for a month. No one gives a s***
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Thing is it’s not just the celebs and the rule breaking for me. It’s the fact that Hancock is concerned about the SA variant (for example) yet we still have many travelling from that region who are not tested when they arrive, do not have to isolate yet we’re told that it’s more transmissible and possibly the vaccine will not be effective to it.

In an interview I was listening to today, we would be bringing in strictest rules however surely that’s too late. It’s now here so what’s the point in restricting people, that particular horse has bolted. I have friends who have dual Australian citizenship, they decided about 6 weeks ago that they’d rather spend the winter in Oz. They arrived, spent 14 days in a Sydney hotel being run by the Government. They said it was like something out of the Handsmaid Tale, couples in one hotel, singles in a other. It cost them £2,500 each for the privilege. That’s how you do it.
 
road2ruin said:
The breakfast clubs and after school care are charged for and generally not run by teachers. These are additional services so if parents choose to use them that is not taking adding time to any particular teachers time unless they choose to do so.
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They don't employ additional staff to run them, the current staff get paid extra to work it if they wish (you cannot get staff prepared to work 15.30 - 17.30 for low wages and be qualified and cleared to look after kids that easily), which is fine until things like covid but the management team, heads of year, heads of key stage are also there to monitor and ensure there are no issues. But it is no longer a choice it is an expectation that all schools offer this and the amount of work it generates for the school is massive. This choose to thing is so out of touch, for you it may be but the expectation and in all fairness need to is massive now, parents both need to work full time to afford all the goodies they require and they expect schools to do that for them.

Schools have become childminders not educators and my wife's school is a small school, single form entry is the lowest numbers and definitely easier to manage than the larger schools like my sons school is two form entry so double the numbers. Today i spoke to a colleague who is working from home as is his wife (Part time 3 days a week as a fund raiser), they have 2 kids, one 18 months and the other 5 and in reception year. The 18 month is in nursery but the other spent as much time as possible in nursery last lockdowns, but now he is at school and he was saying they were arguing over how they could get him on the key worker list as it was a pain having him home. We aren't key workers he just wants someone else to deal with his problem so he doesn't half to and in his eyes that's the school. Times this by 1000's and you see the issue. Always different looking from the outside in.
 
Fully agree that people don’t understand the teaching profession until they have either worked in or or lived with someone who does.

My wife was up until 11:30 last night planning both online and in class lessons, up again at 6:30 this morning. On top of us sharing childcare for our 15 month old daughter whilst I am working from home. Add to this she is recovering from catching COVID in school at the end of last term.

We are fortunate that we have grandparents who do our childcare, next week our daughter will start going back to them, but we are doing an extra week of isolation to minimise the risk of passing it to them.
 
Friend called me at 3am absolutely hammered having a breakdown.

Works as a Physio for the NHS and loves his job. He signed up to help people recover after operations and get them back to normality. He got thrown into help the covid ward since the start of this. He said this latest round of constantly setting up, then pulling Intubators from dead people has broken him. Not sure he can do it anymore. He was in a very bad way and I'm pretty worried.

So when you see someone on Twitter say hospitals are empty staff are having a jolly. Think of most that have been moved around and are almost at breaking point.
 
DanFST said:
Friend called me at 3am absolutely hammered having a breakdown.

Works as a Physio for the NHS and loves his job. He signed up to help people recover after operations and get them back to normality. He got thrown into help the covid ward since the start of this. He said this latest round of constantly setting up, then pulling Intubators from dead people has broken him. Not sure he can do it anymore. He was in a very bad way and I'm pretty worried.

So when you see someone on Twitter say hospitals are empty staff are having a jolly. Think of most that have been moved around and are almost at breaking point.
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Physio has turned out to be a very big deal as the positioning of patients in ICU beds to allow effective clearing of gunk from the lungs is pretty critical.
 
This goes some way to painting an accurate picture of how tough it is at the moment https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-a-doctor-shares-images-of-a-london-coronavirus-ward-12180269

For those that think staff have been on a jolly after the first lockdown need to wise up. Most departments have been at full tilt trying to catch up with missed appointments, often with staff missing through isolating or taking much needed annual leave. There was a huge drain on staff in terms of physical effort and mental fatigue during the first lockdown and most haven't recovered before we saw a second wave and then this new surge. They are empty but expected in every day. It isn't just front line nurses looking after Covid patients but all nursing staff are having extra demands put upon them. There has certainly been no downtime I've seen in this trust

Our physios have seen their workload ramped up in assisting with proning in particular which can take a large number of staff (all in PPE) to turn a patient correctly

It annoys me when people buy into media hype or make wild assumptions based on limited experience or knowledge
 
Reemul said:
Nope no additional funding. I think the thing most people don't get is that it is difficult enough to run a school in normal times, what with the lack of investment that things just get harder and harder for everyone involved. It's not like a head can think , I know lets set up a marquee on the sports field, just not allowed, all has to go through the local education authority. Additionally where do we magic up these extra teachers if we split everything in half, like the Nightingales the resources are just not there any more.

We already don't have enough teachers and now we have society needing schools to not just be there for education but as a childcare service, kids dropped off at 7.45am and collected at 6pm every day so parents can work to afford everything they owe on, most families cannot cope with a loss of income in any way and this is leading to more support needed from others so they can work longer hours.

The reality is for some school is not as much about education but childcare too and the current situation has shown this warts and all.
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I rather guessed as much. Sounds like there wasn't a lot of support for the school's governance/head from those in 'higher authority' who could have enabled/funded the school's ideas of what more might be needed were to we to get to where we are today.

But as you say - pretty much the same for for the Nightingales - though at least they did get built - most likely because the government (and NHS) needed them to be built I suppose.

And as far as having a top level strategy defined and agreed well in advance for student assessment in the event that exams could not go ahead as planned this year...hmmm. That we have yet not heard anything definitive on it does rather speak volumes I am afraid - though thankfully I think that we'll hear today.

Anyway - more positively - my wife's aunt seemingly doing OK at the moment as she copes with covid in the care home (prayers)
 
DanFST said:
Friend called me at 3am absolutely hammered having a breakdown.

Works as a Physio for the NHS and loves his job. He signed up to help people recover after operations and get them back to normality. He got thrown into help the covid ward since the start of this. He said this latest round of constantly setting up, then pulling Intubators from dead people has broken him. Not sure he can do it anymore. He was in a very bad way and I'm pretty worried.

So when you see someone on Twitter say hospitals are empty staff are having a jolly. Think of most that have been moved around and are almost at breaking point.
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I get the impression that many of the 'deniers' simply look at a hospital and superficially all seems calm...there is no apparent chaos and staff getting overwhelmed - it's as if they expect to see frantic activity as you might see following a major incident/accident when many are injured or killed. But because the hospital is just getting on with treating the ill as calmly as possible - there is little or no superficial chaos apparent - and so for these folk there is no problem at the hospitals and it's all an invention. Happened last night on Ch4 news with reporter Victoria Macdonald - a passer-bye called to her that it was all fabricated - the hospital she was reporting from (Milton Keynes) was 'empty'.
 
DanFST said:
He's a respiratory physio. Retrospectively, a shocking choice.
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unfortunately he cannot save everyone, and rather than focus on those that he and others in the NHS could not save. He needs to look at the ones that are sat at home with there loved ones because of him and others. He needs to look at those that can walk with there children, the ones who will get to see there kids grow up and get married. The ones at are thankful and alive because of his skills. Slowly slowly the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming brighter. Above all, he needs to talk to someone. Unfortunately we don’t choose the time and place when people like him want to open up.
 
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SwingsitlikeHogan said:
I get the impression that many of the 'deniers' simply look at a hospital and superficially all seems calm...there is no apparent chaos and staff getting overwhelmed - it's as if they expect to see frantic activity as you might see following a major incident/accident when many are injured or killed. But because the hospital is just getting on with treating the ill as calmly as possible - there is little or no superficial chaos apparent - and so for these folk there is no problem at the hospitals and it's all an invention. Happened last night on Ch4 news with reporter Victoria Macdonald - a passer-bye called to her that it was all fabricated - the hospital she was reporting from (Milton Keynes) was 'empty'.
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Milton Keynes currently has approx 220 inpatients with Covid, there was a 10 % rise in one day earlier this week. There were 15 covid deaths reported in the hospital yesterday (combined deaths since 1st Jan), according to our daily news update.
 
need_my_wedge said:
Milton Keynes currently has approx 220 inpatients with Covid, there was a 10 % rise in one day earlier this week. There were 15 covid deaths reported in the hospital yesterday (combined deaths since 1st Jan), according to our daily news update.
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Aligns with what the reporter found - 10 out of 14 (ITU/ICU?) wards full of Covid patients. Yet a passer-bye called out that the hospital was empty...yeh...:mad:
 
ColchesterFC said:
Should've taken the passerby in for a tour of the Covid ward. Obviously wouldn't have needed any PPE as the wards would all have been empty.
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What I said to my Mrs - they should have dragged/invited the passer-bye to don some PPE and have a look inside...

Meanwhile 1:50 of us have the virus...that's just a number - a ratio - and it seems not too bad - it seems OK - until I thought about what that actually meant in respect of transmission. And as I was walking back from town yesterday evening with my one bag of essential shopping - I thought of my wife's aunt ill with covid - had the thought that I actually could catch this, and I could get very ill - and I really didn't like those thoughts one little bit.
 
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