Hertsscot

For such sad and tragic events this board doesn't half quickly sink into acrimony. I'd like to think we were better than that.

I've got to put in a big order for exercise books/jotters tomorrow. Had a big discussion the other week, the consensus of opinion was it would be useful for students to have a book to help them to help them organize their work. In the space of just a few short weeks they've turned from being dog eared stained innocent compendiums of learning to potential vectors of a deadly disease that we might bring into our homes!

Went into school today for the first time since mid-March. Taught a four hour lesson to 8 sixth form students with one quarter hour break. Then went home, dealt with emails, did some marking, and have still got some lesson preparation for tomorrow. I reckon we had about 1/10 of our students in, year 12s and key worker/vulnerable children. It was a strange an slightly eerie experience but nice to see people again. I think I was probably the only teacher who wore a face mask and I didn't see too many students wearing them either. I had kicked up a little bit of a fuss earlier in the week and ended up moving from my normal room to a substantially larger one which had far better ventilation. As far as I'm concerned 1m or 2m doesn't make a lot of difference. 2m you get 1/3 of students in school, 1m you get 1/2 students in, whether its 1m or 2m there's still a substantial problem. I know there's been a big fuss in Scotland but a similar thing has happened down here. Whilst the UK/English Govt hadn't said anything about blended learning I think most of us anticipated that's what would be happening in September. So it was a surprise to hear Gavin Williamson announce over the weekend that everyone would be back full time at the beginning of September. Admittedly Scottish schools will go back a couple of weeks earlier than English counterparts but Scotland appears to be in a far healthier position than England in terms of Covid deaths and circulation of the virus among the general population. What I would say is the skills teachers have acquired over this period and the practices that have been followed mean that we could switch to blended or remote learning quite quickly if necessary.

Presumably its because they're being rigorously and regularly tested for Covid but that is costly. Which is why the moneybags EPL can get back into action but why its a financial nightmare for smaller clubs that don't have the income from TV, sponsorship and have to rely on supporters coming through the gate.

I've always thought it was going to go by the end of the month. Unless i've misinterpreted it completely Gavin Williamson, the Education Sec, seemed to be saying last night that all students in all schools in England were going to be back full time every day in September. Nobody has picked him up on that as far as I know. Now unless there is a major investment in mobile classrooms that can only happen by having no physical distancing between students. I have a fairly small classroom where I can pack in 32 students. With 2m distancing I get 11 students, cut it to 1m distancing (leave as its rumoured 2m for teacher) and its up to 14 but the only way you can have everyone in is to have no physical distancing at all. I know that's children (though some of them will be 17 or 18) but that's what the implications are of what he said last night for education in England

Not really a transfer but I see that Ethan Hamilton is liable to be released by Man Utd. Some people here had him down as better than McTominay.

I'm normally quite proud of my ex-students but I am 99% certain I taught him. Name, age, location, mentality, all right. If it is the same person he wasn't very bright, vulnerable to being led astray by others and his claim that he didn't know what he was doing is probably true. If it is the same guy, nothing said in court or about him, surprises me except one thing. He's described as a Spurs supporter but was best known for wearing a manky Celtic top on non-uniform days (I'm not trying to offend Celtic supporters, it genuinely was a manky top!). Quite how someone known for wearing a Celtic top (not too many of them in rural Essex) ends up at a right wing rally is beyond me but as I said not very bright.

Okay latest figures, the UK has now overtaken Spain for deaths per million. I'm absolutely blaming the Tories, this Tory Government because of years of underfunding the NHS, not learning from history (I'm sure there were even posts on this message board about the centenary of Spanish Flu), paying sod all attention to Operation Cygnus, sitting on its collective arse when Covid-19 was ravaging Italy (we had warning!), allowing tens of thousand of people to jet into the UK and not self-isolate, not locking down quick enough when a blind man could see what was happening, ditching track and tracing at the first possible opportunity, bare faced lying to the electorate, being chronically abysmal in its communications strategy and public health messages, refusing to sack Cummings and sending out the message you can now do what ever you want, all underwritten by a massive delusional dose of BritNat racism and caused by a bunch of narcissistic psychopaths who really don't seem to give a toss. I'm not blaming the Government for people dying but I am blaming them for the amounts of death. It was their responsibility and they failed, they have blood on their hands.

Its desperate and there are still people who think the Government has done a good job.

Seems completely wrong that a well known political figure can defame someone in the column of a national newspaper and then the law turns round and say it doesn't matter, doesn't seem right. Whatever Campbell's faults the law can be a right ass at times.

I just wonder if Cummings is the squirrel. According to Coronavirus Update the UK has now surpassed Italy in terms of deaths per million: Italy that was such a desperate disaster according to the BBC, Italy that was so shocking, so desperate, where the virus was so out of control etc.

No complaints from me. I feel sorry for Hearts as looking at it objectively they had a decent chance of avoiding the drop. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong with Rangers but it all went pear shaped after the winter break, we can't complain.

Superior to anything I've made thus far! She makes it look easy.

Any tips? I'm trying to make one out of old socks but not been a total success so far, I could run out at socks at this rate!

My mother who is dyed in the wool Tory was saying she really liked NIcola Sturgeon! I don't know if the Scottish Government has got it right but think she comes across as compassionate and honest which is more than can be said for the spokesmen and women of the UK Government