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Militant Leader of Teaching Union Warns of Further Disruption to Children’s Education

by Toby Young
31 August 2021 2:45 PM

Mary Bousted, the hard left General Secretary of the National Education Union, has warned that inadequate safety procedures in schools ahead of reopening will inevitably mean major disruption in the weeks ahead. In an interview with the Telegraph yesterday, she gave a strong hint that the NEU and the other teaching unions will soon be demanding school closures again – and blaming the Government.

On Monday night Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, told The Telegraph: “We have much higher prevalence now in the community than it was. So we’re going in with much higher rates of prevalence into schools where we are relying on one mitigation, which is lateral flow testing.

“In Scotland, they have not abandoned the safety precautions… they have still maintained social distancing where possible, they are still, in secondary schools, using masks.

“My prediction is that very shortly we are going to see schools all over the country in their hundreds having to operate contingency frameworks. But what you’re doing there is shutting the stable door after the Covid horse has bolted.”

Commenting on this veiled threat, Ross Clark says in the Spectator that the Government needs a plan for how to respond if case numbers increase as a result of schools returning, as they’ve done in Scotland following the reopening of Scottish schools a few weeks ago.

A lot of people won’t want to take much notice of Mary Bousted… It was the NEU, after all, which not only opposed the return of schools after the first lockdown, but simultaneously advised its members not to take part in online lessons either. The NEU has often given the impression of being motivated first and foremost by a desire to obstruct the government’s plans.

Sir Patrick Vallance’s original verdict on the virus – that it is not possible to stop it passing through the population – might be more valid now than it was in March 2020

But Bousted has a point in that the return of schools over the next week could have quite a dramatic effect on infection numbers, which will test the government’s faith in controlling Covid through vaccines and travel restrictions, and will inevitably lead to calls for the return of tighter restrictions, perhaps even lockdowns. The warnings of what is to come are there to be seen in Scotland, where most pupils returned to the classroom in the week beginning August 16th. Since then, infection numbers in England and Scotland have diverged markedly. In England, 169,899 infections were recorded in the seven days to August 9th, followed by 174,551 in the seven days to August 16th, 185,903 in the week to August 23rd and 174,760 in the week to August 30th. In Scotland the corresponding figures are 8383, 10,039, 21,164 and 37,917. The picture is complicated because the lifting of most restrictions – which happened in England on July 19th – did not happen in Scotland until August 9th. Nevertheless, it is not hard to see why schools might now be the epicentre of the epidemic. While most adults are now vaccinated, very few children are. In terms of the spread of the virus within schools, very little has changed since the first wave – except, that is, the more transmissible Delta variant is now dominant.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Mary BoustedSchool Closures

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42 Comments
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Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago

Tell em to f×ck off.

39
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago

Sounds like the union hates children and are determined to try their marxist agenda out on them

35
0
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
3 years ago

Take schools out of the government’s hands. loan parents the money to educate their own kids if needed, but the states role isn’t to redistribute education, just make sure parents provision it for their kids.

13
0
Squire Western
Squire Western
3 years ago
Reply to  TheyLiveAndWeLockdown

Since when did ‘provision’ mutate from being a noun to a verb? You mean ‘provide’.

6
-5
tom171uk
tom171uk
3 years ago
Reply to  Squire Western

I suspect it was predictive text rather than poor education.

5
-1
BungleIsABogan
BungleIsABogan
3 years ago
Reply to  Squire Western

Since when was a verb a “mutation” of a noun?

Get a life…

Last edited 3 years ago by ThisIsMyName
0
0
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
3 years ago

>Since then, infection numbers in England and Scotland have diverged markedly.

Look for a correlation in Orange juice sales in Scotland…

Want to bunk off skoul with Boris express permission? Dip your swab in some Sunny D.

Last edited 3 years ago by TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
18
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1984imminent
1984imminent
3 years ago

Will the unions have the teachers on their side this time? Do the teachers want another year of total disruption, or will they now be saying enough is enough?

14
0
DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
3 years ago
Reply to  1984imminent

Some disruption! Not doing your job, whilst being paid all your salary. The NEU are as bad as the BMA. Both take their principles from the shipbuilding unions in WW II. Slowing down the production of vital materiel by setting up demarcation disputes. Union leaders are only ever interested in getting more money for less work; the exact opposite of what society needs.
They are the worst form of parasites known to man.

7
-1
Stephanos
Stephanos
3 years ago
Reply to  1984imminent

I hope the latter, and given what I heard last night it seems that there is a gap between those on the ground (i.e. Teachers) and those in charge of the Unions.
Most Teachers, I understand, want to get back to normal as soon as possible.

9
0
RW
RW
3 years ago

Reopening schools cannot have an effect on infection numbers. If anything, pupils mixing freely with other people throughout the day would have had that (instead of locking them away in closed rooms for a large part of the day).

Restarting the entirely pointless mass-testing of healthy children as precondition of allowing them to meet teachers in school (and not just in public) might generate the kind of statistics the NEU would like to use to finally keep those darned schools closed as working is too much of a risk to the mental wellbeing of its members to be allowed to happen.

21
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Arfur Mo
Arfur Mo
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Mass testing is now Big Business. There’s a (n imperial) shedload of money being made out of it. Just when the government might close the scam, oooh, look, the numbers are up. Oh dear, better keep the testing going to ensure things get back on track.

0
0
BeBopRockSteady
BeBopRockSteady
3 years ago

Testing is the only reason they get to create the panic they do.

If they really cared then something like this, funded by public health bodies across the UK, may just peak their interest. They looked at the impact of measures last term.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.20.21262349v1

They conclude the following:

“There was no evidence that face coverings, 2-metre social distancing or stopping children mixing was associated with lower odds of COVID-19 or cold infection rates in the school.”

So, essentially, stop testing. If someone is ill then ask them to stay home, as we have done forever.

37
0
refusenick
refusenick
3 years ago

Solution? Reopen the schools with no masks/distancing or any other pointless & pernicious bs, and allow the teachers to appear Max Headroom style on a screen in front of the class, if they so desire.
and then reduce their pay accordingly.

5CDCD1C0-450C-4BD1-B8EB-160E4589BDDA.jpeg
Last edited 3 years ago by refusenick
36
0
Squire Western
Squire Western
3 years ago
Reply to  refusenick

There may be some discipline problems inherent in your suggestion!

3
0
BurlingtonBertie
BurlingtonBertie
3 years ago
Reply to  Squire Western

Only some?? 😉

1
0
John
John
3 years ago

It may be time to invoke the anti terrorism legislation.

4
0
ComeTheRevolution
ComeTheRevolution
3 years ago
Reply to  John

This whole event is an act of terrorism – literally terrorising people over something in line with the common flu in terms of mortality. GOVUK = SCUM
This whole event is an act of terrorism – literaly terrorising people over something in line with the common flu in terms of mortality. GOVUK = SCUM

Last edited 3 years ago by ComeTheRevolution
17
0
gone_loopy
gone_loopy
3 years ago

Maybe teachers are trying to do themselves out of a job? Replace them with robots

5
0
Squire Western
Squire Western
3 years ago
Reply to  gone_loopy

Better be Judge Dredd style robots in secondary schools.

3
0
annicx
annicx
3 years ago

What does vaccinating kids have to do with this? What difference would it have made, or rather what would these communists have come up with instead? A hard left union type threatening mass disruption – pity we can’t be vaccinated against this. Sack them if they don’t turn up for work- who’d notice?

9
0
Ruth Learner
Ruth Learner
3 years ago

okay I will repeat this again – there is no law forcing kids to get tested – all schools need parental consent – just do not give it. If every parent withdrew or refused permission there would be no more cases than there usually are for any seasonal virus in September (pre 2020) – measurable by how many kids are at home sick not by some asymptotic mythology. BTW apply this to vaccines because this lunatic union is out to kill or maim children through coercion- teachers have enough on their plate actually teaching in a highly woke environment- they don’t need this bullshit.

27
0
Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago
Reply to  Ruth Learner

The difficulty is that children hate to be odd ones out. Very few would be prepared to drop testing – or masking when it returns – if the rest are doing it. They are pack animals, and norms are reinforced by teasing and bullying. The parents would have to get together until they were a majority… that could be done, if they have the will.

1
0
Puddleglum
Puddleglum
3 years ago

Not worth reading in full. Time to come out fighting for the children.

15
0
Iain McCausland
Iain McCausland
3 years ago

Infections do not mean cases and children are pretty much immune so why all the hysteria again?

16
0
tom171uk
tom171uk
3 years ago

I wonder how Mrs Thatcher would have dealt with the NEU? I would guess a little more effectively than the present incumbent of Number 10.

5
0
Epi
Epi
3 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

Nice thought she certainly wouldn’t pussyfoot about like this lot of wet w..ks.

4
0
Epi
Epi
3 years ago

One good thing, if they close the schools they won’t be jabbing the kids.

Last edited 3 years ago by Epi
3
0
helenf
helenf
3 years ago
Reply to  Epi

Don’t be too sure. If they close the schools I think that injecting the kids with the experimental shit will become even more likely, all in the name of giving them their “freedom” to attend school back. In any case, the government seem to be gearing up for this next phase of the rollout. Yesterday I saw a new “vaccination centre” sign up outside a local secondary school. This needs to stop now.

16
0
Epi
Epi
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

Yes, you’re probably right but it’s a nice thought! And you’re right again it needs to stop, indeed it should never have started, an appalling state of affairs.

Last edited 3 years ago by Epi
5
0
Pavlov Bellwether
Pavlov Bellwether
3 years ago

It’s not left or right. It’s immoral or moral. Evil or good. Presently, there doesn’t seem to be much opposition on either side. Hold *all* these people to account. FIGHT. BACK. BETTER. – Updated information, resources and useful links:  https://www.LCAHub.org/

17
0
JohnK
JohnK
3 years ago

Looks like a classic industrial dispute, with them rattling the cage to see what falls out – you never know, there might be some cash in it. Incidentally, in the extract Vallance’s view as of March 2020 was mentioned. It may well be that he lost his bottle and fell into the ‘club’, unfortunately. Maybe he’ll regret that in due course.

3
0
Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago
Reply to  JohnK

I believe the leaked emails show that Vallance was in direct contact with Fauci. Also there is the matter of his very large shareholding in pharma.

1
0
Zoomer@14
Zoomer@14
3 years ago

Its called dumbing down…wreck education so kids will become uneducated compliant zombies that these people desire to control.

4
0
lorrinet
lorrinet
3 years ago
Reply to  Zoomer@14

Meanwhile the children of the ‘elite’ will continue to receive the best education on offer. Divide and rule. It was ever thus – us and them – and never more so than now.

2
0
Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago
Reply to  lorrinet

Private schools handle the on line stuff better, but they all did the bubble stuff, the masks, the sending home of bubbles – those children were unhappy and disrupted too.
Their education suffered less because of the first point. And that was the effect of fees – parents paying directly expect to see value. But a fair number of parents were neurotic about risk, I’m sure.

0
0
Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago

Has Ross Clark not got it? “While most adults are now vaccinated, very few children are”….
I haven’t read the full piece. Maybe he retracts that.
But why even phrase this in this way? Does he not know that vaccination Does Not Stop Infection or Transmission? Does he believe that children should be vaccinated?

2
0
John David
John David
3 years ago

It’s was the closing of schools that’s made the pandemic last as long as it has. It should never have been allowed to happen. Children don’t get seriously ill if at all and they do become immune. That in itself would help build up effective immunity within the community. Government needs to slap down hard on the unions.

0
0
marebobowl
marebobowl
3 years ago

More about the push to get kiddies vaxxed then anything else. Sad.

0
0
brachiopod
brachiopod
3 years ago

Politics aside – I know it is hard to break the habit of a lifetime – the real issue is that HMG, Bill Gates’ bought and paid for medical authorities, and the media, have worked really hard to ensure that everyone is scared witless.
She is only representing the fears her members have had inculcated in them by people they trusted to be straight with the facts.
First change the perception her members have of the ‘pandemic’ by exposing the truth and lies currently censored and propagandised respectively.
Daily Sceptic does a bit, but there is much more that needs exposing.

0
-1
Arfur Mo
Arfur Mo
3 years ago

Child abusers one and all. Fsck them (am I am a lefty, a real one, not the fake wokesters type). These people are unfit to hold their job.

0
0
SomersetHoops
SomersetHoops
3 years ago

It seems the NEU is against educating children and in favour of its members being paid for doing nothing. Children rarely get serious symptoms from Covid-19, but having had the infection builds their future immunity, if they are not already immune as many are. On balance, it seems there is more damage done to children’s health and well-being by shutting schools than Covid-19. As for mask mandates in schools, surely there is enough data and hard evidence to prove this does more harm than good

0
0

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