Covid - news and views

We have our second "Oxford" jab on 16th April    ,with that in mind and the Lockdown being lifted?  We are booked to go away after Easter and returning the day before our second jab

It is possible restrictions permitting? we may have some sort of a meet up with some friends before;  probably at our "second home"

We're just in the next age group down  (just under the top end I hasten to add ) so we're hoping to hear soon but, for the present,  just keep doing what we've been doing all along, morning, afternoon and evening walks with the dogs, occasionally from one of the nearby villages but mostly from home and as little shopping as possible.

But what a difference a year makes! This time last year,  almost to the day, we were getting ready for our holiday in South Africa, being told it was nothing to worry about, all be over in 12 weeks, carry on as normal. So we were surprised when they were already doing temperature checks for international and domestic flights over there.

Hopefully we can look forward to travel again in the not too distant future; we have 2 cottage breaks and a trip to Greece all booked well over a year ago and rolled over from 2020 - keeping our fingers crossed now! 

Clearly for the economy things need to open up as soon as possible, but for me, if restrictions are in place until late spring / early summer it wouldn't bother me, more people vaccinated and (hopefully) a much lower number of infections.

The only exception would be to open schools when its safer.

There was an article on the BBC regarding how best to help children catch up on the lost time. A few options mentioned were:

1. repeat the whole year

2. summer schools

3. longer school days

4. more 1 to 1 tuition

Personally, an extra hour on the school day seems the logical choice. 

I had my first Pfizer jab last Thursday with no other side effect than a very sore arm but as that lasted until the following evening only it was well worth it.

Husband is in the next batch because, as I keep telling him, he’s my toy boy being over 4 years younger.

We were optimistic when the vaccines started to roll out and booked a couple of weekends away for the end of March but I suspect they will be cancelled and we will rebook for April. Would be happy just to drive somewhere different for the day, put the kettle on and eat bacon butties but hey ho, it is what it is.

One suggestion for schools that I saw last week was for them to shorten the summer break by 2 weeks and add a week on to both the Autumn half-term and the Christmas break when there was more chance of infections being passed on (colder weather).

Most of the Press emphasis has been on the fact that a study (small and not peer reviewed) indicates the AZ vaccine has little impact on mild to medium disease but surely the important point is that it reduces the chance of serious illness and hospitalisation?

Will be interesting to see what the scientists say at the Briefing later.

yes saw that but apart from item 1 all that won't (couldn't contractually) be done by the school's own teachers,  but by bought in staff I understand (or overtime) which there is a very high budget for.

But yes something needs to be done. I think primaries, as the report suggests, will need it more than secondaries. Imagine how much years 1 and 2 have missed, not just basic academic skills but social interaction skills 

yes same here

Out of interest regarding schools my daughter, who is a teacher, says that some of the most vulnerable children are getting very good one to one teaching at present. More than they receive in normal times and improvements are being noticed. These are children who are at school and not at home. 

yes my daughter is saying the same too.

3. longer school days

Best of luck with the teachers on that one

Following from the proposed ideas in Whittakerr's post, here are some interesting (well to me) points, 

Regarding repeating a year: And pupils who repeat a year make an average of four months' less academic progress than those at a similar level who continue on to the next school year, research suggests

Extra hours: The extra teaching time could be provided by "civil society instead of teachers", he says

The only idea that appears to work very well is 1:1 tutoring as indicated by Brue's post: One-to-one tuition is seen as a proven method of helping children catch up. Weekly sessions could help a student make three to six months of academic progress, with particularly large gains in literacy and numeracy among primary-school pupils, according to four recent UK studies.