Ditto

Friday's case numbers were 40% up on the week before. Hospital admissions rose too. There are no updates over the weekend. I hope the data Monday/Tuesday isn't too dramatic and there is a level of random variation to those figures that means it is a less sharp change.

Excellent set of bird and nest cams - https://www.birdfood.co.uk/webcams Just had a quick look - Barn Owl having a deep preen. Garden Webcam fun too - 1 minute in and great pictures of Robin, Chaffinch and a variety of tits. There's an egg to be seem too! Have fun.

We are a charity that works with schools and NHS. We are going to have a trio of IT service providers in for interview at the end of the week. The core services we need covered are: M365 licensing - FT staff, part time and volunteers Mostly laptops for remote working No more than 2 or 3 desktops Small onsite network and Wifi service M365 suite software support Home working Printer/scanner - just a couple of devices Backup DPA/GDPR Data Security Telephony Whilst our focus is 100% children and young people, we don't need internet access for them, so filtering, monitoring etc. isn't at the same level as in school. If you have good scenario questions, please let me know for consideration.

@asteer, on topic (sort of) I used Scholarpack so briefly and so minimally, I can't give hands-on advice. Yet, your goal does seem very reasonable and should be straight-forward. A quick google of Scholarpack reporting sent me to https://support.scholarpack.com/hc/en-gb/articles/204438771-Attendance-Reports#reporting-reports-attendance-0-0 Is there anything in there that helps (and apologies if you have already researched that route). However, I would hope a 5 minute support call with Scholarpack should have you up and running - are they able to help? On the slightly more off topic conversation around data access and the pros/cons of cloud versus local server based solution, I disagree with a few comments made by others and agree with some. Like you, I am more of a data person than true IT techie, but I think we are both welcome to Edugeek! The bit I agree with is it all comes down to the design and data models and less whether the implementation is cloud or local server. I had quite a few years working on Progresso. I had access to the usual reports, but in addition I had access to SSRS to and would have been able to pull a report together in quick time if needed - and that system, whilst having some horrific data models, was fully cloud based. The non-school MIS I am using now is fully cloud based, but reporting is weak. I'm currently working with the provider to have read access to the raw data and developing my skills in PowerBI and possibly looking into Tableau. Even as read only, I need to be careful I don't swamp their resources with poorly written queries leading to poor execution plans. There is a danger I could impact other users performance (and I am aware there are solutions to that, indeed progresso implemented sharding), but the current MIS provider I am using is very small. So I guess in conclusion, the data conundrum for me is all about the provider, the data models and willingness to play ball, and not whether it's cloud or not.

I can see your dilemma and it's sad to hear. If anything, I would say schools and businesses have become more conscious about health and well-being and I would expect more employers are likely to be sympathetic for time off, whether it is for the common cold, flu or covid. I know from governance conversation I've have with the MAT executives, their legal advice is to be very cautious and conscious around health and safety and to ensure they have liability cover in case a litigation. It would be interesting to understand your heads wider attitude to health and well-being. I can imagine the PHE advise is contrary to the direction your head has given. Regardless of the current legal position, government advice is still contrary to your heads stance. I can imagine in some schools, your heads actions are likely to be detrimental to the pupils interests, even if the head thinks his position is for their benefit. I could see staff just leaving, I could see whistle-blowing, I could see governors getting involved. What do the parent population think? In spite of all this, I know many individuals wouldn't rock the boat - how many of us can truly whistle-blow without fear of consequence. The head of the school is such an important role and one that can massively influence it's outcomes. I have worked with truly outstanding heads and one complete muppet. I can see the need for heads to be firm and assertive. Unfortunately I've seen that drift in to an inability to consult, take advise and take rationale decisions - yes, ultimately I seen a head become authoritarian to the extent of being a bully, and dictatorial. I'm seeing the first signs of recent progress slowing in terms of cases and hospital data, for example today's week-on-week numbers are up for the first time in quite a while. One data point is not reliable in isolation, so it could be a blip, but historically, I've noticed that the turn points are generally following a consistent pattern, with few periods of random instability, particularly with case numbers. I think the danger is, if a large number of employers take the same path as your head, along with people dropping their cautious behaviour too much and too quickly, in conjunction with waning immunity, then the data may well start heading in the wrong direction before we get to far into Spring.

Lot's useful insights at https://blog.theserverlessschool.net/

Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day..? Pancake day or St. David's day..? All very tricky questions - the first thought that Springs to mind for me... it's a bit of a toss-up which I'd pick

Bit of a side topic, but we had a new head that want to move from our cloud based system to SIMS - it's was an utterly selfish and illogical approach just because they didn't want to spend a little time learning something new. He wanted to ditch gmail for outlook too, and tried to do it himself by using some replication tool and caused havoc resulting in endless numbers of staff to complain about non-replies - he never saw them!!! We were a new cloud based school and the policy for our MIS and Google Suite was long established. Fortunately the exec-head, aligned with the governors, put the head straight! On your topic of the transfer of data, I would expect Bromcom manage this for you as part of the well-tested migration piece.

You do, both legs! Your neighbour has no right to attach to your fence, no right to paint it! You could even involve the police as it is illegal, but the legal route is best left as last resort. Could you find another neighbour that is friendly with your troublesome one and see if they can act as an intermediary to try to establish a sensible dialogue. I know this is sometimes impossible, a few people can just be stubborn and unhelpful. Then you do have to decide whether to pursue a legal solution. I have had a similar challenge over several years on a neighbour who has planted the dreaded Leylandii and has deliberately then grow to such a height it blocks most of our evening sun (when it's out!). Legally I can force it to be reduced to 2 meters. OH not keen on a dispute, neighbour has been asked to reduce the height but has openly admitted they want to block our house out from their view. It's niggles at me every year and one day I just might push for resolution and call upon legal process if necessary. What's really annoying is the council have massively upped their charges to do there bit and it would cost me several hundreds of pounds even before getting to the legal process. This is a neighbour that we have never in 13 years had a ball returned when the kids have had accidentally kicked over the fence, or if one has returned, it's flat as a pancake (appropriate for today perhaps?!) but we couldn't proved they wildly knifed it. On the upside, every other neighbour we have and the 9 in the culd-de-sac are delightful.

I'd suggest speaking to Citizens' Advice. Neighbourly disputes are never pleasant. There may be mediation options, but CA could advise. Could you put some lattice fencing on top of yours and grow a climbing plant to hide the eye-sore. Unfortunately being legally right in situations like doesn't normally lead to a resolution and ultimately taking legal action may get the 'right' result for you, but comes at a price, not least of which is stress.

Further to this, now that the graphic has been updated, it look even more ridiculous. On a positive, the downward trend continues with the lowest published 7 day case average below 400 per 100k for the first time since mid November 2021. Mechanical ventilation numbers are the lowest since June last year. Hospital admissions and total in hospitals numbers continue to fall, but it would be good to see them drop at a faster rate than currently.

Thanks for that and being open with your situation. Firstly, I think we have to acknowledge it's not illegal. Yet, government advice is still to isolate. Going to https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus, the first few lines recommend isolating at home. Digging further in to the site, it does advise staying at home if you feel unwell which I believe you acknowledged. I'm not going to tell you what you should do, we all have choices. Besides, to reiterate, it's not illegal. Yet, I think it does need to be acknowledged others are going to think it's wrong and have very strong views. I think your situation is of interest, in part as you are an early example of what is allowed since recent changes. This scenario may well become much more common in the months ahead, and indeed at some point (possibly several years away though), it may become a norm, indistinguishable from how many of us behave with the common cold. One further question if you don't mind. Would you say the 'expectation' from the school is beyond the threshold of being regarded as pressured to go in, or would you say there is an aspect of free will on your part?

I want to avoid jumping to conclusions, could you give a little more background information and context.

Looks as though he nearly took out a few other services too? Could it have been avoided with better checks? As for mobile data routers, what's your 4G like? Could VM provide you something at short notice? If not, hopefully someone will be along shortly if not to make a suggestion.

This weekend just gone is when the gov coronavirus data site doesn't do weekend updates. Fine, but the decision not to continue separating out Sat/Sun seems unnecessary. See https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/whats-new/record/65a19809-ffac-4cf7-b4fd-f1a3dad5cac2. I can not see that it is easier to make the cumulative figures than to keep them separate. It makes interpreting the data just that little bit harder, something a good data analyst would really want to avoid.

@Steve21, if I understand the challenge correctly, this will do what @MatthewL requires. It's worth adding if you make your B3 value 24/01/2022, it returns the correct answer as it is between the dates, not just matching the start date column.

Never used it, but every bit of feedback I've heard matches the last three posts.

At no point have I suggested "Don't get vaccinated". Suggesting "Pro COVID propaganda" to my engagement in this thread is completely misleading and frankly, is utterly wrong.

My neighbour thought one boundary was ours after reviewing his details - I thought otherwise. His 'T's suggest mine, mine suggested his. Unfortunately for the neighbour, he had been provided with the bungalow boundaries of the property that was demolished and with a number of large back gardens reducing in size to allow the cul-de-sac development . Fortunately we are on good terms and no issues as a result. However, following recent storms, his fence is lying on my vegetable plot for the third time in less than a decade! Our kids and the neighbours kids did enjoy a larger football pitch though

Similar in the Surrey Hills - 6:30 to 7:00 - very lively! I think the rear windows on the house have not be cleaner since installation after the jet washing they got!

When on mechanical ventilation, case severity is at the most severe - at times survival rates weren't good. Figures published today for those on mechanical ventilation are the lowest since early July last year.

My error - the charts I posted appear to have been 7-day rolling-rates - apologies. However, taking your chart I added EU countries in alphabetically order and selecting Austria as the first it showed a higher rate than UK, so I stand by the statement UK isn't the highest. Ultimately I'm not sure it matter that much, but without knowing each countries testing strategies, it would be fallacy to draw black and white conclusions. I don't understand the meaning of your antibody question - could you explain? Is it rhetorical? If you know the answer do let us know. Are you talking about antibodies regardless of whether via vaccine or infection? In terms of social benefits of mass vaccinations it's fairly clear, but JVCI advice, in my view rightly, is based on the benefits versus vaccine risks by age cohorts. For some context, my wife and I are treble vaccinated, 2 children single vaccinated. We all got covid post vaccine at different times. The youngest had it the worst against normal expectations and was just shy of an A&E visit. We have close family relatives who have reacted badly to vaccines in the past, including a sibling who the GP subsequently advised not to pursue further vaccination (not Covid vaccine). I have friend who's daughter (child) ended up in ICU as a result of the covid vaccine. Another friends daughter (adult) had an anaphylactic shock reaction a week after the vaccine. Both are rare and known side-affects, but for the individuals and relatives extremely scary times. Both my children are advised against a 2nd jab right now due to recent infection. When the time comes, I'm broadly in favour of a second dose. My wife is weighing it up and she works in depth in this field. We'll probably go ahead, but our motivation will be to protect our children, not for social benefit. Maybe that's not particularly altruistic, but I think the majority of parents protect their own first - human nature if you like. So to your classroom analogy, suppose a class of 30 children were to get covid. In the main they will all survive and generally have mild symptoms. If they were all vaccinated, the symptoms are likely to be less severe on average. But, if you are the parent of the 1 child that has an extreme reaction as a result of vaccination that results in death, you live with that thereafter. If you are the parent of a child that didn't vaccination and the same outcome happened, it's the same, you live with that thereafter. Whole society numbers don't capture or convey the decision making for individuals, they can however inform the decision making. In the case of 'whole' society, I've no doubt that universal vaccinations would have the most significant benefit the the 'whole'. However, in the scenario where we have had the vaccine roll-out by vulnerability cohorts, and a series of variants, including the current one that seems to infect widely in spite of vaccination, along with, at best, marginal benefits to those in the 5-12 age range (and I accept the wider benefit to elder relatives up to a point) I just feel it is too simplistic to go ahead with a 'vaccinate them all as fast as possible'.

A small numerical positive - hospitalisations as reported on Gov site show they have dropped to below a 1,000 per day (for 19th Feb 2022). It's the first time it has been below a thousand since mid December last year. I'm hoping the downward trend continues and the admission remain low longer term.

Indeed, and allowing for that as best possible, I remain unconvinced it's as simple as "get the children vaccinated asap" have as dramatic a difference on transmission as you suggest. Besides, there are other factors to take into consideration before such a blanket approach with the next generation of custodians of the planet. I don't also accept it is correct to just say UK has the highest number of people who have had an infection. Just a few seconds on https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus#coronavirus-country-profiles shows that Greece, Spain and Germany have a higher recorded rate per 1m of population. Of course, as pointed out on that site "Due to limited testing, the number of confirmed cases is lower than the true number of infections". To what extent for each country I've no idea, but in the UK, it can't be due to lack of opportunity to date.

I'm not convinced it's that simple. This article discusses countries that are vaccinating children under 12. Putting the listed countries of Germany, Spain, Greece, Hungary along with the UK in to ourworldindata shows cases per million and UK is the lowest. With an ever increasing number of reinfections and more evidence vaccines are protecting against severe infection, but weaker evidence that it stops the spread, whilst vaccinating under 12's might have some impact on spread, it's likely to be short term and needs to be weighed up against the risk to those children.