What’s the likely hood of Primary Schools returning to full time in September?

[Ladywinesalot]

Just that really.

I’m full of fear that they schools will only open part time and split classes in half.

I’m in aghast at what the Government has done to the schools and our children.

The impact of this over exaggerated lockdown on the children’s education and mental health is just horrific.

You're very happy for your child to go back to school and mix with lots of children and you go to work and presumably mix with lots of people

Yes I am.

Yet you haven't met a friend with a similar aged child in a local park?

No I haven't.

This is permitted and it's obviously as safe as houses (if schools and workplaces are). I don't understand why you haven't done it

A) it's not permitted. One person is allowed to meet one other person. Me and my son are 2 people. And b) I don't have direct contact with ds friends parents from nursery. My friends with kids are either wfh and stressed to fuck with juggling or key workers and their kids are at school.

If you can't understand think harder.

Thank goodness that when my dad suddenly died in the street, I could within days go back to the familiarity of my junior school and pretend to be normal for 6 hours a day.

Children facing bereavement don't have the comfort of their routines and peers. Whatever the cause of death.

Death happens, 100% guarenteed to all of us. I l learned tge real value and cost of life while I was at junior school. We cannot hide from death forever or we are not truely living.

@Bflatmajorsharp

Guidelines state one person from a household meeting one person from another household.

I have more than one child so then what?

The new rule is that you can meet one other person from another household, provided that it is outdoors and you stay 2 metres apart. So parents can’t take their children to meet friends as that would be a larger group.

FWIW I think schools will be back full time in September. I think this government will go hell for leather without test, track and trace or any other coherent plan. I think that the R rate will increase and we’ll be back in lockdown by the end of the year.

Gene and Lady okay, I'll think harder.

I'm confused as why you're so adamant about strictly adhering to some guidelines ie only meeting one person outside of your household, when logically meeting two (or more) people from the same household carries exactly the same risk, yet you're up in arms about the guidelines about schools opening.

So you won't meet another family in the park but you'd send your child/ren back to school or nursery on Tuesday if you could, regardless of the fact that most of the world has closed their schools - even with much lower fatality rates - and that there's no safe way to do it at the moment?

Okay then. Can't argue with that.

I'm not!! I'd love to break the fucking rules but I've nobody to break them with!!!

Try reading harder too!!

Genie I'm sorry that you're so isolated. This situation is shit for so many people, in so many ways.

@Bflatmajorsharp

I’m following the guidelines, my dc are at home.
My dc will go back when schools say they can. I have not broken any rules.

So your remark is pointless.

Yes you should think harder outside of your very teeny tiny box that you seem to live in.

Totally agree with the op. The people fighting schools going back generally live in a bubble of financial security. They have no idea what’s coming. It’s utterly terrifying.

Bflatmajorsharo the point is to only do the things that are necessary. Going to school and getting an education is important, going to work is important, seeing your mate on the Park is not important.

olive who is ‘fighting schools reopening’?

@olivehater
Yes I agree.

Olivehater going to work and going to school are important, but not possible at the moment.

Given that, going to the park for a change of scenery, exercise and some socially distanced socialising is very important. People were expressing concern about their children not socialising.

I don't live in a bubble of financial security. I would like schools to return for many reasons.

But I, no more than anyone else, can see how that can happen at the moment. September - who knows? But working on the premise that they won't be back full time seems realistic at the moment.

This thread is a bit light on practical suggestions about how schools can return safely. It's very easy to say 'schools must go back, children need to be educated and mix with their peers' but much harder to explain how that can realistically happen.

I don't think it's as simple as people 'fighting schools going back'. People are concerned about the increased illness and death rates that this looks likely - at the moment - to involve.

Closing schools was pivotal in 'flattening the curve'. Opening them without the curve rapidly rising again is the challenge.

*Those with conditions and over 70 should have been directed to isolate and every support possible should be given to these groups to enable them to do so but it should be business as usual for everyone else - esp kids

This!!
The Goverment failed to put the above into place!*

Isn't this effectively 'herd immunity' that the government leaned towards at the beginning of the pandemic? Anyone vulnerable needs to isolate and everyone else can take their chances with the virus and hope for the best? Because everyone was up in smoke about that, so they changed their minds, and now all of a sudden it's a brilliant idea?

Also, early to mid March MN was full of threads screaming about how schools need to close, parents making the decision to stop sending their kids to school as they didn't feel it was safe, anyone remember those days? So the schools were closed, now there are threads telling us it was unnecessary to close schools and kids need to be back.

I am far far from a BoJo fan but sometimes I get the feeling the government can't so right for doing wrong.

Yes, I do remember those days Mulhollandmagoo. My children were in school until the last day and there were fewer and fewer children there each day that week.

I know several families who chose not to send their children not because they were symptomatic, but because they were nervous about the risks. Fair enough, absolutely.

And yes what is being proposed is effectively a ham-fisted attempt at herd immunity. With the added bonus if you're in a shielded or very vulnerable group, you're likely be told to self-isolate for many months more.

I wish the UK had had a much harder lock down initially, with a clear strategy to stop the transmission routes of the virus as much as possible. This 'lock down lite' hasn't been as effective as we needed it to be, and it's increased social and economic problems for so many people.

I agree @Bflatmajorsharp what went wrong here is the government should have implemented a tougher lockdown much earlier, with the aim of it being a much quicker turnaround. Borders closed, mass gatherings such as Cheltenham festival/international football/concerts cancelled in an effort to stop the virus completely rather than drag it out to flatten the curve. In that instance we may not have even had to close the schools at all and even if we did it would have been for a much shorter time.

I think 10 weeks is far too long for children to be away from schools, both from an educational and mental health perspective, particularly very young children who cannot comprehend why we're doing this. As you say in addition to the school kids, many adults have experienced mental health problems during this period, the economy has also suffered, small businesses gone under and inevitable job losses once the furlough scheme ends and a fast approaching recession, We're also now the country who's has the longest lockdown and I don't think it's really proven anything as our death rate is still fairly high to say we've been in lockdown for 9 weeks.

@Bflatmajorsharp apart from the shaming you'd inevitably get on your local Facebook page if groups of more than two started meeting up - people actually want to follow the rules.. if you're not maybe that's why you're finding this easier?

Ha! The parks around here have been gradually getting fuller and fuller of large groups of people.

I run past them most days on my daily permitted exercise.

I think in all honesty fair play to them. People are doing their best to manage and balance all the risks in this shitty situation. Many posters have pointed out the importance of mental health on this thread.

I haven't said that I'm finding this easier. On the contrary, I've said that I want schools to reopen and that I don't live in a financial bubble.

But no-one, from the govt to people on this thread, have got practical suggestions to how this can happen safely for some time.

That's the problem.

Mulhollandmango yes a much tighter lock down even one week earlier when it was totally obvious that it was going to have to happen, including the borders, and getting an effective test and trace programme in place.

The UK will be paying the price for these bad decisions for a very long time to come.

Couldn't rtft because of all the....This!!!!

When did we stop saying "I agree" ?

Ladywinesalot

No. If you read my post I clearly said I will return when my school and the Government says it's safe enough to do so. Not when some MNetter thinks it's fine for me to do so.

And FWIW - by September I think most children will be back in some for most, if not all the time, unless there is another rise.

For those wanting full time for all now - you do realise that British children aren't the only ones in this situation. Very very few countries remained open for all. Most closed to all. British schools remained open for some students throughout.

Almost every other country across the world are starting to reopen or increase opening in phases - part time rotas, half size classes, restrictions, etc.

In England, this isn't a reopening of schools, it's a phased increase in pupils. Our children are dealing with pretty much the same as other children in other countries across the world.

@Aragog I totally understand why schools are having a phased return now. Makes complete sense to me. What I don't understand is why this needs to be the case in September. Obviously only Scotland have planned on this so far but it worries me that England might follow suit.
I think blended learning is an awful idea that will just widen the gap and leave some children with half an education and a lot less chance of a successful future. I think Nicola sturgeon has lost her mind to be honest.

As an aside in angry because my child could have returned to nursery in June but the council have stopped schools and nurseries from opening.

I think we need to stop calling it ‘blended learning’.

For a large number of children there will be no learning going on at home, because...

• their parents are holding down two full time jobs and don’t have time to teach them
• they don’t have the necessary technology to learn adequately from home
• their parents don’t have the required education level themselves to teach them from home

We need to call it what it is... part time education. And the attainment gap will be getting wider and wider, the longer it goes on.