The big Coronavirus thread
Comments
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Also, to be clear, I value "barely any commute" extremely highly for kids, probably higher than any Brits.
(It is also the rule in Netherlands - you must go to your nearest school, which makes a lot of sense to me. But then the entire system is less elitist)1 -
I'm a bit concerned at the moment, nobody has posted a nice meaningful graph in quite a while.0
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I was going to guess that. So some schools get more kids than will fit?rick_chasey said:Also, to be clear, I value "barely any commute" extremely highly for kids, probably higher than any Brits.
(It is also the rule in Netherlands - you must go to your nearest school, which makes a lot of sense to me. But then the entire system is less elitist)
Also, it will be reflected in your property price, I would presume
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It's more the commute I have a problem with. Think it's a really bad quality of life for kids to be schlepping back and forth for hours a day to school.pangolin said:
But the manky schools are fine for the people who live near them?rick_chasey said:
Because in my specific instance if she don't get the local school (which is already oversubscribed), all the other locals are so oversubscribed with people who live nearer than me, so my little one ends up in the lottery which likely means some manky school with the benefit of a 30-40 minute commute each way?rjsterry said:
It's not complicated. See above. Schools are all different with different specialisms, and (whisper it) varying degrees of quality in their head teacher. Why on earth would you not want some choice.rick_chasey said:
System seems crazily byzantine to me. I don't really see why they can't just say you have to go to your most local school, period.surrey_commuter said:
strangely around here you can apply for any school and the catchment area is set by the number of applications. ie priority is given by siblings and then distance.rick_chasey said:Yeah, I'm beginning to think about schools etc and it seems like a crazy system.
Because of where we live, the only school we are within the catchment area for is oversubscribed even within the catchment, and so if ours doesn't get in there they'll end up with a lottery for anything in Cambridge which could mean a 30-40 minute schlep each way, which seems nuts for primary school.
If there is a bulge class added then the catchment area grows but two/three years later shrinks dramatically because of the greater number of siblings.
They also do online maps so you can calculate your chances and plan accordingly.
For those who know Maple Road School in Surbiton the head used to say if you can't see your house from the playground you won't get in.
All this shopping around makes it more difficult for everyone and just exacerbates differences.0 -
You sure that's less elitist RC? Would your policy mean the school in the east end of Glasgow was better, or worse, than the one in Finchley?rick_chasey said:Also, to be clear, I value "barely any commute" extremely highly for kids, probably higher than any Brits.
(It is also the rule in Netherlands - you must go to your nearest school, which makes a lot of sense to me. But then the entire system is less elitist)
Think, then speak.0 -
So when i say the entire system is less elitist, that's what I mean, not just the bit that relates to which local primary school you go toFirst.Aspect said:
You sure that's less elitist RC? Would your policy mean the school in the east end of Glasgow was better, or worse, than the one in Finchley?rick_chasey said:Also, to be clear, I value "barely any commute" extremely highly for kids, probably higher than any Brits.
(It is also the rule in Netherlands - you must go to your nearest school, which makes a lot of sense to me. But then the entire system is less elitist)
Think, then speak.
. Things like there is no real hierarchy between universities and you get allocated a place at a uni to go, that kind of thing . Or the fact private schools as we know them don't really exist - if you send your kid to private school it's usually because your child has been expelled from state school. 0 -
No disagreement there.rick_chasey said:
It's more the commute I have a problem with. Think it's a really bad quality of life for kids to be schlepping back and forth for hours a day to school.pangolin said:
But the manky schools are fine for the people who live near them?rick_chasey said:
Because in my specific instance if she don't get the local school (which is already oversubscribed), all the other locals are so oversubscribed with people who live nearer than me, so my little one ends up in the lottery which likely means some manky school with the benefit of a 30-40 minute commute each way?rjsterry said:
It's not complicated. See above. Schools are all different with different specialisms, and (whisper it) varying degrees of quality in their head teacher. Why on earth would you not want some choice.rick_chasey said:
System seems crazily byzantine to me. I don't really see why they can't just say you have to go to your most local school, period.surrey_commuter said:
strangely around here you can apply for any school and the catchment area is set by the number of applications. ie priority is given by siblings and then distance.rick_chasey said:Yeah, I'm beginning to think about schools etc and it seems like a crazy system.
Because of where we live, the only school we are within the catchment area for is oversubscribed even within the catchment, and so if ours doesn't get in there they'll end up with a lottery for anything in Cambridge which could mean a 30-40 minute schlep each way, which seems nuts for primary school.
If there is a bulge class added then the catchment area grows but two/three years later shrinks dramatically because of the greater number of siblings.
They also do online maps so you can calculate your chances and plan accordingly.
For those who know Maple Road School in Surbiton the head used to say if you can't see your house from the playground you won't get in.
All this shopping around makes it more difficult for everyone and just exacerbates differences.- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0 -
I know quite a few people who’s primary school kids go to different schools as siblings didn’t take priority where I used to live.
There’s also a big difference in before and after school provision between schools so just the nearest can’t work for all parents.0 -
Everyone else is in the same boat. It doesn't matter how oversubscribed the school is, they will still take the nearest X pupils after places have been allocated to vulnerable children, SEN and siblings. The problem is with the under supply of school places not the allocation system. Don't whatever you do pin your hopes on one school. Put down as many as you can that you would be happy for your child to attend. If you only put down one (unlikely) choice you will get pot luck.rick_chasey said:
Because in my specific instance if she don't get the local school (which is already oversubscribed), all the other locals are so oversubscribed with people who live nearer than me, so my little one ends up in the lottery which likely means some manky school with the benefit of a 30-40 minute commute each way?rjsterry said:
It's not complicated. See above. Schools are all different with different specialisms, and (whisper it) varying degrees of quality in their head teacher. Why on earth would you not want some choice.rick_chasey said:
System seems crazily byzantine to me. I don't really see why they can't just say you have to go to your most local school, period.surrey_commuter said:
strangely around here you can apply for any school and the catchment area is set by the number of applications. ie priority is given by siblings and then distance.rick_chasey said:Yeah, I'm beginning to think about schools etc and it seems like a crazy system.
Because of where we live, the only school we are within the catchment area for is oversubscribed even within the catchment, and so if ours doesn't get in there they'll end up with a lottery for anything in Cambridge which could mean a 30-40 minute schlep each way, which seems nuts for primary school.
If there is a bulge class added then the catchment area grows but two/three years later shrinks dramatically because of the greater number of siblings.
They also do online maps so you can calculate your chances and plan accordingly.
For those who know Maple Road School in Surbiton the head used to say if you can't see your house from the playground you won't get in.
All this shopping around makes it more difficult for everyone and just exacerbates differences.1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Obviously everyone is in the same boat. Doesn't mean it's not a sh!t boat. Not only, that, every school nearby seems to be backed by some weird charity or church. Can't we just have state schools run by the state and be done with it?
Anyway, this is for another thread, but I think the whole system stinks to high heaven.0 -
But the further away you push it the more dispersed they'll be as it increases entry points much like when you drive into a city centre it becomes more congested.rick_chasey said:
This is a bit like the security conundrum at big venues.TheBigBean said:I object to the creation of crowds to check everyone's vaccination status
They want to avoid crowd that haven't been checked yet incase a bomber gets near them, so they create security barriers further and further away from the venue but all that does is push the crowd further away.0 -
That's really interesting, actually. Particularly the university part. One for another thread, methinks.rick_chasey said:
So when i say the entire system is less elitist, that's what I mean, not just the bit that relates to which local primary school you go toFirst.Aspect said:
You sure that's less elitist RC? Would your policy mean the school in the east end of Glasgow was better, or worse, than the one in Finchley?rick_chasey said:Also, to be clear, I value "barely any commute" extremely highly for kids, probably higher than any Brits.
(It is also the rule in Netherlands - you must go to your nearest school, which makes a lot of sense to me. But then the entire system is less elitist)
Think, then speak.. Things like there is no real hierarchy between universities and you get allocated a place at a uni to go, that kind of thing . Or the fact private schools as we know them don't really exist - if you send your kid to private school it's usually because your child has been expelled from state school.0 -
So when my mother first arrived here, you can imagine the conversation "so we want to send our children to private school" "why what behavioural problems did they have?"First.Aspect said:
That's really interesting, actually. Particularly the university part. One for another thread, methinks.rick_chasey said:
So when i say the entire system is less elitist, that's what I mean, not just the bit that relates to which local primary school you go toFirst.Aspect said:
You sure that's less elitist RC? Would your policy mean the school in the east end of Glasgow was better, or worse, than the one in Finchley?rick_chasey said:Also, to be clear, I value "barely any commute" extremely highly for kids, probably higher than any Brits.
(It is also the rule in Netherlands - you must go to your nearest school, which makes a lot of sense to me. But then the entire system is less elitist)
Think, then speak.. Things like there is no real hierarchy between universities and you get allocated a place at a uni to go, that kind of thing . Or the fact private schools as we know them don't really exist - if you send your kid to private school it's usually because your child has been expelled from state school.
etc1 -
Yes and the way the school run contributes to congestion - I know some would drive their kids in even if they live half a mile away but kids going to local schools makes sense.rick_chasey said:Also, to be clear, I value "barely any commute" extremely highly for kids, probably higher than any Brits.
(It is also the rule in Netherlands - you must go to your nearest school, which makes a lot of sense to me. But then the entire system is less elitist)
At secondary my 3 had to travel 2.5 miles each way because the two nearest schools one was Catholic and the other makes kids take an exam then selected a range of ability randomly. I suppose it kept them fit walking in.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
This is good, the wife has dozens of boxes for work and we also seem to have been sent way more than we need for our offices so I can feel a little black market activity coming up to fund Christmas.N0bodyOfTheGoat said:
Last night you couldn't order LF tests online for delivery, just popped into two local pharmacies and they were wiped out of stock yesterday.rick_chasey said:UK seems to have run out of PCR tests...
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rick_chasey said:
Obviously everyone is in the same boat. Doesn't mean it's not a sh!t boat. Not only, that, every school nearby seems to be backed by some weird charity or church. Can't we just have state schools run by the state and be done with it?
Anyway, this is for another thread, but I think the whole system stinks to high heaven.
It's the system you've got so more productive to get the best out of it. Also, I wouldn't dismiss church schools because you aren't religious. They are still state schools with a pretty modest top up in funding from the CofE or local RC diocese. There will be a few more prayers and hymns; it won't harm your child. I'm sure you can provide a counterpoint to any overtly Christian teaching 😉 if you feel you need to. Anyway, I'll leave it there.rick_chasey said:Obviously everyone is in the same boat. Doesn't mean it's not a sh!t boat. Not only, that, every school nearby seems to be backed by some weird charity or church. Can't we just have state schools run by the state and be done with it?
Anyway, this is for another thread, but I think the whole system stinks to high heaven.1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
This is a downside of those people that fight against large housing developments. Large developments come with all the facilities such as schools but people get up in arms about there being 2000 new houses near them so you get piecemeal development of 50 or 100 houses where the developer hands over cash towards school places and once there's enough cash in the pot they'll add a classroom to an existing school or, maybe, eventually build a new school.pblakeney said:Whisper it. More schools are required.
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pangolin said:
But the manky schools are fine for the people who live near them?rick_chasey said:
Because in my specific instance if she don't get the local school (which is already oversubscribed), all the other locals are so oversubscribed with people who live nearer than me, so my little one ends up in the lottery which likely means some manky school with the benefit of a 30-40 minute commute each way?rjsterry said:
It's not complicated. See above. Schools are all different with different specialisms, and (whisper it) varying degrees of quality in their head teacher. Why on earth would you not want some choice.rick_chasey said:
System seems crazily byzantine to me. I don't really see why they can't just say you have to go to your most local school, period.surrey_commuter said:
strangely around here you can apply for any school and the catchment area is set by the number of applications. ie priority is given by siblings and then distance.rick_chasey said:Yeah, I'm beginning to think about schools etc and it seems like a crazy system.
Because of where we live, the only school we are within the catchment area for is oversubscribed even within the catchment, and so if ours doesn't get in there they'll end up with a lottery for anything in Cambridge which could mean a 30-40 minute schlep each way, which seems nuts for primary school.
If there is a bulge class added then the catchment area grows but two/three years later shrinks dramatically because of the greater number of siblings.
They also do online maps so you can calculate your chances and plan accordingly.
For those who know Maple Road School in Surbiton the head used to say if you can't see your house from the playground you won't get in.
All this shopping around makes it more difficult for everyone and just exacerbates differences.
The reality is that it’s a bit of Hobson’s choice between a manky school and one like SC cited where you can’t attend unless the HM can see your huge, leafy house from the playground.
Neither are great places for raising well adjusted kids.Ben
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Your problem is not the oversubscription it is the selection criteria. You need to figure that out then plan accordinglyrick_chasey said:
Because in my specific instance if she don't get the local school (which is already oversubscribed), all the other locals are so oversubscribed with people who live nearer than me, so my little one ends up in the lottery which likely means some manky school with the benefit of a 30-40 minute commute each way?rjsterry said:
It's not complicated. See above. Schools are all different with different specialisms, and (whisper it) varying degrees of quality in their head teacher. Why on earth would you not want some choice.rick_chasey said:
System seems crazily byzantine to me. I don't really see why they can't just say you have to go to your most local school, period.surrey_commuter said:
strangely around here you can apply for any school and the catchment area is set by the number of applications. ie priority is given by siblings and then distance.rick_chasey said:Yeah, I'm beginning to think about schools etc and it seems like a crazy system.
Because of where we live, the only school we are within the catchment area for is oversubscribed even within the catchment, and so if ours doesn't get in there they'll end up with a lottery for anything in Cambridge which could mean a 30-40 minute schlep each way, which seems nuts for primary school.
If there is a bulge class added then the catchment area grows but two/three years later shrinks dramatically because of the greater number of siblings.
They also do online maps so you can calculate your chances and plan accordingly.
For those who know Maple Road School in Surbiton the head used to say if you can't see your house from the playground you won't get in.
All this shopping around makes it more difficult for everyone and just exacerbates differences.0 -
Not always.Pross said:
This is a downside of those people that fight against large housing developments. Large developments come with all the facilities such as schools but people get up in arms about there being 2000 new houses near them so you get piecemeal development of 50 or 100 houses where the developer hands over cash towards school places and once there's enough cash in the pot they'll add a classroom to an existing school or, maybe, eventually build a new school.pblakeney said:Whisper it. More schools are required.
I was involved on the fringes of setting up a Free School locally. We met several times with the Chief Exec of the local authority who bemoaned the fact that there was an acute shortage of secondary school places in the area especially with the new 400 family homes that were being built on a development (without considering any of the other local developments with permission). I did ask him why no provision had been made for a school during the planning process and he did not/could not/would not answer it.
I fully appreciate that ring-fencing x acres of land in a proposed housing development may make the difference between it being viable enough to go ahead but this is a pattern being repeated time and again.0 -
I'm pretty sure RC moved to Cambs while his wife was pregnant and bought his house at the same time.
Surely you knew something like this would happen?
We are hoping to buy our first house early next year - apparently the catchment area for the local school is guaranteed. Not sure how that works, but I'll take it as apparently its outstanding and we're sort of friends with the head teacher.0 -
We found out she was pregnant the day we signed (big day) and tbh I figured it was some way off, so I didn't really look into it. I figured how bad could it be?shirley_basso said:I'm pretty sure RC moved to Cambs while his wife was pregnant and bought his house at the same time.
Surely you knew something like this would happen?
We are hoping to buy our first house early next year - apparently the catchment area for the local school is guaranteed. Not sure how that works, but I'll take it as apparently its outstanding and we're sort of friends with the head teacher.0 -
Anyhow, back to Covid.briantrumpet said:It's the Mail, but...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10306211/DR-ANGELIQUE-COETZEE-alerted-wider-world-Omicron-believe-Britain-overreacting.htmlPatients typically present with muscle pain, body aches, a headache and a bit of fatigue. And their symptoms don't seem to get any worse than that. After about five days they clear up, and that's it.
In the part of South Africa where I work, there haven't been many patients admitted to hospital with Omicron, and most have been treated at home, using anti-inflammatories, such as ibuprofen, and low doses of cortisone.
Bear in mind, too, that most of those who contract Omicron here are unvaccinated (only 26 per cent of South Africans are fully vaccinated). While this is certainly not an argument against vaccination — I cannot stress the importance of that enough — it's reassuring to know that even unprotected bodies fight off this variant much more easily than Delta. Current data indicates that the majority of cases admitted to ICUs are unvaccinated people.
In the UK, where the levels of vaccination are much higher, there is even less reason to worry. A Pfizer/BioNTech booster, given after an initial round of either Oxford/AstraZeneca or Pfizer, raises the level of protection, offering 70-75 per cent protection against symptomatic infection.
Reading around this at lunchtime, looks more and more likely that the "less serious disease" observations loudly touted by opinionated clinicians in SA who should know better, is very possibly merely a reflection that more people have now had another variant since the last wave. Which is pretty damn obvious if you think about it and nothing more than the difference between UK data pre and post vaccination roll out.
The silver lining is that it does at least infer that the T cell response (from previous strains) is still effective. That's not the same as the T cells resulting from vaccination would also be as effective... I don't understand enough to know whether a whole virus induced T cell immune response could differ or not.0 -
It boils down to % of infected ended up in hospital x number of people who get it.
Lots of people focussing on the first half of the equation (it's "less lethal") but not so much the second bit, which can, in the right circumstances, more than compensate.0 -
Whatever the facts regarding the pathology of the Omicron variant, any addidtional measures of any efficacy will surely reduce spread of Delta too . . .Wilier Izoard XP0
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Scotland have 'strongly recommended' people limit Christmas to 3 family groups.- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0 -
"Ms Sturgeon says: "For employers more generally, the guidance will make clear that enabling staff who were working from home at the start of the pandemic to do so again is now a legal duty." "
So, kids, what's the legal duty?0 -
FYI @rick_chasey - I tried today and moved my booster from Saturday to first thing tomorrow. Worth a go if you have 5 minutes to wait in the website queue.- Genesis Croix de Fer
- Dolan Tuono0 -
Thanks. Will take a look.pangolin said:FYI @rick_chasey - I tried today and moved my booster from Saturday to first thing tomorrow. Worth a go if you have 5 minutes to wait in the website queue.
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First.Aspect said:
Anyhow, back to Covid.briantrumpet said:It's the Mail, but...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10306211/DR-ANGELIQUE-COETZEE-alerted-wider-world-Omicron-believe-Britain-overreacting.htmlPatients typically present with muscle pain, body aches, a headache and a bit of fatigue. And their symptoms don't seem to get any worse than that. After about five days they clear up, and that's it.
In the part of South Africa where I work, there haven't been many patients admitted to hospital with Omicron, and most have been treated at home, using anti-inflammatories, such as ibuprofen, and low doses of cortisone.
Bear in mind, too, that most of those who contract Omicron here are unvaccinated (only 26 per cent of South Africans are fully vaccinated). While this is certainly not an argument against vaccination — I cannot stress the importance of that enough — it's reassuring to know that even unprotected bodies fight off this variant much more easily than Delta. Current data indicates that the majority of cases admitted to ICUs are unvaccinated people.
In the UK, where the levels of vaccination are much higher, there is even less reason to worry. A Pfizer/BioNTech booster, given after an initial round of either Oxford/AstraZeneca or Pfizer, raises the level of protection, offering 70-75 per cent protection against symptomatic infection.
Reading around this at lunchtime, looks more and more likely that the "less serious disease" observations loudly touted by opinionated clinicians in SA who should know better, is very possibly merely a reflection that more people have now had another variant since the last wave. Which is pretty damn obvious if you think about it and nothing more than the difference between UK data pre and post vaccination roll out.
The silver lining is that it does at least infer that the T cell response (from previous strains) is still effective. That's not the same as the T cells resulting from vaccination would also be as effective... I don't understand enough to know whether a whole virus induced T cell immune response could differ or not.
That report has now specifically been mentioned in the HoC debate as being potentially misleading. Serves me right for bringing it up.0
