‘Everyone is really nervous’: UK teachers on going back to school

Six teachers discuss their hopes and Covid concerns as classes resume after the summer holidays

As most schools across the UK start the new term, with pupils in Scotland having been back for two weeks, many teachers and students are no longer expected to socially distance or wear masks. Air quality monitors will be provided to schools in England to help combat Covid.

The Guardian spoke to six teachers about the start of term and how they are feeling about returning.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus | The Guardian

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In spite of Omicron, Britain’s schools must remain open | Devi Sridhar

Home schooling harms children. And we now have the knowhow and tools to mitigate the risks from Covid We still don’t know how severe the Omicron wave will be, and debates are raging about closing nightclubs, alcohol curfews and work-from-home guidance. It can sometimes feel like last Christmas all over again. But one decision should be clear. Given the tools and knowledge we have now, school closures should be off the table. Why were schools closed at all in previous lockdowns? The best approach was to minimise risk , given the limited knowledge about Covid-19 transmission and with no vaccination available to protect against severe health outcomes and death. Concerns about many different groups factored into policy decisions on schools. Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Continue reading... Coronavirus | The Guardian
Read more

It’s good Biden is suspending vaccine patents. But the whole rotten system needs overhaul | David Adler and Mamka Anyona

US tax dollars helped create the Moderna vaccine – and 59% of Americans say Moderna share its vaccine technology with manufacturers worldwide On 2 October – seven months and over 2,000,000 Covid-19 deaths ago – the governments of India and South Africa petitioned the World Trade Organization to issue a temporary waiver on the Trips Agreement and ensure the “unhindered global sharing of technology and know-how … for the handling of Covid-19”. Back then, no vaccine had been approved for the prevention of the spread of the virus. But the 100 countries that joined the October petition over the following months knew then what has become apparent to everyone now: the system of pharmaceutical patents is a killing machine. There is now broad and growing support for the Trips waiver – among doctors , Nobel laureates , senators and a large majority of the US public . On Wednesday, the Biden administration finally announced its intention to support some version of the proposal, changing cours...
Read more

The pandemic is a warning: we must take care of the earth, our only home | Bruno Latour

The climate crisis resembles a huge planetary lockdown, trapping humanity within an ever-deteriorating environment There is a moment when a never-ending crisis turns into a way of life. This seems to be the case with the pandemic . If so, it’s wise to explore the permanent condition in which it has left us. One obvious lesson is that societies have to learn once again to live with pathogens, just as they learned to when microbes were first made visible by the discoveries of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. These discoveries were concerned with only one aspect of microbial life. When you also consider the various sciences of the earth system, another aspect of viruses and bacteria comes to the fore. During the long geochemical history of the earth, microbes, together with fungi and plants, have been essential, and are still essential, to the very composition of the environment in which we humans live. The pandemic has shown us that we will never escape the invasive presence of these liv...
Read more