Talk of pubs reopening on 22 June but not school for all years?

[mrsTC]

I am not happy seeing headlines about reopening pubs on 22 June when the priority should surely be how to get all our children back to school? Our children are missing out on education. Working parents (with the burden mainly falling on mothers in my experience) are attempting to teach and do their jobs at the same time. It is not good for parents and children's mental health and cannot continue indefinitely. I appreciate the hospitality industry and many other areas of the economy are under extreme stress, but getting children back to school has to be a priority.

I completely agree.

I can only imagine opening pubs has become a pressing issue for the government due to lobbying from the pub industry. I think working parents (mothers in particular) are a forgotten voice in this pandemic. I was happy to deal with homeschooling from March up to May half term, but the assumption this is a sustainable solution until 2021 is not acceptable.

I would imagine opening pubs does not require 7 year groups of upto 60 children to all be in one place at the exact same time.

Pubs are only opening if they have adequate outdoors space though - it's hardy comparable to opening schools to thousands of children.

I understand it but it's uncomfortable. It looks as if we have skewed priorities when really it's about social distancing.

Feel the same way OP. It is utter madness.
Maybe the hope is that if we drink enough that will stop us caring about our children's education?! I'm sort of being serious: I wonder whether the government hopes that if they give us plebs (in England at least) the right to play golf, get some bedding plants, and go for long drives, that will stop anyone from questioning their "plans". Rather like Rome providing gladiators and bread.

But pubs opening has no effect on schools not being able to take more children...

It does look as though priorities are skewed however it is simply a matter of space - schools can reopen to children they have space for. Pubs can reopen for drinkers they have space for. Most schools don't have space for more kids than are already going.

They should probably just reopen schools now and be done with it.

Oh pub gardens for just a few is not the same as opening up schools for everyone

It's not a competition , for goodness sake, just be happy for those people who can start making a livelihood again restaurants too who have outside spaces

And won't it be nice for the kids to sit outside a cafe and have a milkshake ?

Let's be cheerful not miserable for God's sake !

I agree. But does the pub issue affect the schools issue? Not directly, probably. If there's a second peak, will they reclose pubs first, schools, all shops except for food & essentials - what? Many businesses where I live have been diversifying - former cafe's opening as mini greengrocers, some opening as specialty food prep & delivery services, etc. Or some working purely as takeout services, one even has an option to order food & drinks ahead, then pickup at a specific timeslot, to minimise the need to queue. Interested to know (genuinely, not being goady) why some pubs can't follow suit - I'm sure many have adequate kitchen space, etc.

I am finding the lack of schooling very draining. DD (autistic, primary aged) won't buckle down to any work at all, & DH (supply TA) has no work. No furlough. No word on when/if there will be work for him again. Nothing.

TBH I don’t see the big deal about schools at this point.

They’ll be breaking up in just over a month anyway, so realistically how much education are they really going to get?

Pubs and restaurants with outdoor space are in no way comparable to hundreds of school children all in one place.

Pubs and restaurants need to make a living to be sustainable, children only need to stay home for another few weeks anyway and then they’d be on holiday, so bring back schools in September once the rest of society is more open and we have a better idea as to what the virus is doing.

That’s far preferable to opening and then potentially closing schools again.

It's outdoor spaces only - so beer gardens.

Adults sitting far spaced apart outdoors isn't the same as 2000 kids back in small buildings with 30 to a room.

There's just no logistical way they can safely seat all students in schools. The buildings aren't built for distancing. Certainly in my schools the kids were like sardines.

But they aren’t mutually exclusive. Just because the pubs are opening, doesn’t mean the government can’t work on opening schools (which is obviously a more complicated matter). They absolutely should be finding a way to open schools and educate our children!

Granted though, this government doesn’t appear to be able to do more than one thing at a time .......

I totally agree OP. Shows you where this government’s real priorities lie.

Don't think you've really thought this through OP. Pub gardens being open, where patrons sit outside socially distanced, is totally different to having 30+ children plus staff inside a classroom at the same time (without social distancing, given the classrooms wouldn't be large enough to keep 2m between 30 kids and staff).

I get that parents want their kids to return to education - believe me I do! But that doesn't correlate with pub gardens re-opening. The two are separate risk assessments entirely. We can't keep people's businesses suffering when they could legitimately open safely (i.e. pub gardens) solely because we havent figured out schools yet. We need to be opening things up in parallel on a case-by-case basis and sadly, that doesn't (at the moment) equate to schools fully reopening to all year groups.

Interested to know (genuinely, not being goady) why some pubs can't follow suit - I'm sure many have adequate kitchen space, etc

Plenty of them have. Most of our local pubs are doing home delivery for food, drink and even bar snacks too, as well as ready meals you can heat up or freeze for later use. Others are doing afternoon tea and things like that too. But it won't be sustainable long-term for a variety of reasons.

@Givemeabreakpls

I totally agree OP. Shows you where this government’s real priorities lie.

So should nothing re-open because school buildings aren't large enough to suddenly space all the children out, because teachers unions don't want to go back, because a large number of parents won't send their children? That would be economic suicide for the country.

Some pubs having large space for outdoor drinking has got absolutely nothing to do with the ability or otherwise to find a low risk way to re-open all the schools.

It's a nonsensical comparison

There's no comparison. Pubs will only be allowed to open outdoor space and lots of rules will be in place.

I get that they aren’t comparable, tysm, but the real emphasis at present is on the economy, and I feel that the education of our children has been pushed so far to the back of the ‘must think about’ queue it can hardly be seen. That’s what I meant about ‘priorities’. All these shops and businesses opening back up is great for the economy and for jobs, but if the government could even give us a rough indication of their plans for education over the next three -six months I’d be more grateful than I am knowing about plans for bloody beer gardens.

I agree 100% OP.

@Givemeabreakpls

I totally agree OP. Shows you where this government’s real priorities lie.

Really?

So you're totally ignoring the fact that pubs are only allowed to open if they have outdoor space and social distancing measures in place?

Strangely enough, schools are also only allowed to open if they have enough space and social distancing measures in place...

Opening the schools fully will have just as much an impact on the economy as opening the pubs. Plenty of people currently not working (or at least not working at their normal efficiency) because they have children to care for. Once the kids are back in school or nursery, they can get back to work. School is primarily for education, and rightly so, but equally they prop up this country's economy by allowing parents to work.

Vanillaandhoney I hope I made myself clearer on my second post which possibly you didn’t read.

One has nothing to do with the other.