It is hovering around the value I expected. Not good news but it is what it is.

Originally Posted by: Ulric 

It's not a decision I've taken lightly I can assure you. We've had a number of discussions about this in the mods forum and in honesty I've made this call without reference to the rest of the admin team, so if there are any objections I'm quite happy to take responsibility and accept pm's about finally making this call.  

Originally Posted by: llamedos 

Breaking: All John Lewis shops will close at the end of business on Monday.

Originally Posted by: Gavin D 

The UK's current account deficit in recent years has increasingly been funded by the capital inflows from overseas investors. If they lose confidence in the UK the £ will go down even further and the country will find it increasingly difficult to afford imports - many of which are essential because we are now primarily a service based economy.

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

This whole horrific nightmare that is unfolding has become very real for me today.

I learned this  morning that a very close friend of mine has contracted Covid19 while working in Germany last week.

He developed symptoms earlier this week and has deteriorated rapidly and is now in intensive care in a coma and a very critical condition.

This guy is a fantastic man, newly married, and he is 35 with no underlying health conditions that I am aware of.

This is REAL guys. 

Originally Posted by: moomin75 

Very sensible IMO , I wonder if others will follow suit . 

I still maintain a total lockdown is the ONLY way we can sort this be it 2 weeks or 3 weeks ?

Originally Posted by: Gooner 

There’s always the IMF bail out option. That would certainly look good on Johnson’s CV.

But this does put into even sharper focus that imbecilic comment recently that we don’t need an agricultural sector.

There will be a lot of rethinking to be done once we emerge from this. 

Originally Posted by: Gandalf The White 

Very sensible IMO , I wonder if others will follow suit . 

I still maintain a total lockdown is the ONLY way we can sort this be it 2 weeks or 3 weeks ?

Originally Posted by: Gooner 

There’s always the IMF bail out option. That would certainly look good on Johnson’s CV.

But this does put into even sharper focus that imbecilic comment recently that we don’t need an agricultural sector.

There will be a lot of rethinking to be done once we emerge from this. 

Originally Posted by: Gandalf The White 

I think it would need to be for quite a lot longer Marcus and as things stand some of us have been instructed to go into work as normal on Monday (which seems a bit strange to me!)

Originally Posted by: doctormog 

I think it would need to be for quite a lot longer Marcus and as things stand some of us have been instructed to go into work as normal on Monday (which seems a bit strange to me!)

Originally Posted by: doctormog 

Are you expected to look after (because you wont be teaching in the normal sense) the kids of essential workers? If not and you are doing admin work / preparing future course work or lessons, then surely you should be working from home?

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

Oh come off it , there are worse things said about Boris on here and you know it , a personal attack like that from you is bang out of order .

Boris Johnson hasn't taken this seriously IMO and been  too slow .

I'm entitled to an opinion about someone , oh and I haven't labelled him a knob

Cheap Shot from you , IMO 

Originally Posted by: Gooner 

Sorry Marcus I didn't think you were so sensitive...you know that wasn't any more of a personal attack than you regularly post in the sports forum. It was intended as a bit of a jibe, but I will obviously need to moderate my language in the future. 

You are obviously entitled to you opinions and I clearly shouldn't have questioned it with a one-liner.

FWIW I don't do cheap shots

Originally Posted by: llamedos 

Lombardy deaths alone total today 546. Italian deaths overall are going to be horrific.

Originally Posted by: Heavy Weather 2013 

Are you expected to look after (because you wont be teaching in the normal sense) the kids of essential workers? If not and you are doing admin work / preparing future course work or lessons, then surely you should be working from home?

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

Just watching a report on Italy , it really is horrific for them , pictures of the Army transferring bodies , bloody awful 

Originally Posted by: Gooner 

There’s always the IMF bail out option. That would certainly look good on Johnson’s CV.

But this does put into even sharper focus that imbecilic comment recently that we don’t need an agricultural sector.

There will be a lot of rethinking to be done once we emerge from this. 

Originally Posted by: Gandalf The White 

No, apparently we are there to help support pupils completing their coursework. I am set up and more than ready and prepared to work from home. It's all a bit of a mess and not one of the school's making.

Originally Posted by: doctormog 

It's a taste of what will be happening here in a couple of weeks, as per the logarithmic growth function. At least in Italy the growth rate should start to tail off soon... we've got another 2 weeks of unfettered growth and given that not a great deal has happened yet, quite possibly more weeks beyond that.

We'll only see a marked slowdown 2 weeks after more extreme measures are taken.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

I'm going to bump into this next week - I'm the IT support manager at a very large secondary school (1650 pupils, to be exact).

Although I'm self-isolating at the moment (just as well, as I have a cough), I'm meant to be back on Wednesday.

I honestly can't see the point at the moment: we support staff aren't going to be supervising children and the vast majority of what we do can be done from home anyway (as has been the case for the past 3 work days, as we're all self-isolating at the moment).

I'm going to suggest to the head on Tuesday that I maybe come in for one day a week, but that given government guidelines (work from home where possible) and the fact I'm not a key worker (despite the Trust's head of IT insisting I am) it would be prudent for us all to stay working from home.

There are, of course, jobs that could be done on-site (mainly of the mundane sort - replacing keyboards and cables) but they can quite easily be done in the week or two before normality resumes. There's absolutely no point in my view of having to go in to replace a dodgy keyboard in a classrom which won't be used for months!

Hopefully the head will agree with this line of thinking, but we'll see.

Originally Posted by: Retron 

I would have thought it better for all if you and Darren were working from home. 

Originally Posted by: Brian Gaze 

Unfortunately it is not my choice to make. Hopefully it is just one more week, although on the plus side the majority of pupils will not be there for the majority of the time. If it needs to be longer to help others out so be it.

We have been left in a situation by the qualifications authority where essentially there is no alternative (that doesn't cast the pupils adrift). I'm not impressed to say the least. Still, compared with other people's situations it is an irritation at present rather than anything else and of little consequence (and hopefully will have limited if any increased risk for all involved).

A rota was mentioned here in passing but nothing has, as yet come of it. I'm fortunate enough that my kids are old enough to fend for themselves albeit my elder is at the mercy of whatever the exams body decides (and has as yet refused to clarify with us).

I can only hope the situation in parts of Italy are not an indication of what most countries "need" to go through and as there are so many unknowns at present I'm not sure how certain we can be,

Originally Posted by: doctormog