All London schools now closed.

[stayingaliveisawayoflife]

Emergency meeting today agreed it. All boroughs left off now included.

A good thing. It was ridiculous to even consider opening them.

Two things seem different right now:

• this new variant is affecting kids who are talking it home. For now it's mostly in Essex, Kent and London, i.e. the areas where schools are to shut.
• the rate per 100K is close to 1000 in many parts of London, Kent and Essex. That's insanely high.

I know dozens who have it right now and are proper sick. There's no way schools could return here right now as things stand.

Rather than trying to make this a North/South thing, let's just hope this variant stays confined to the areas where is rampant right now. It's awful.

Our borough is 600 and something but others were over 800 per 100,000. Where my parents are in the north east is tier 4 but rates are 140ish so quite a difference!

I'm T4, our rates are much lower than London, but London has more hospital capacity per capita than the rest of the UK, I personally think we should shut down until the end of January, cancel exams and try to keep numbers much lower than currently. But I understand that lots of people will object to that.

@BangingOn

I don’t think you can treat all Tier 4 areas the same- we have a rate of just over 200 which is significantly less than most areas in London and the SE.

Then surely they should be in different tiers! Surely the point of tiers is to group similar areas together according to their levels of risk and severity in order to make the rules the same across tiers and easier to keep track of. Different rules for areas in the same tier is just utter madness.

@NOTANUM

Two things seem different right now:

• this new variant is affecting kids who are talking it home. For now it's mostly in Essex, Kent and London, i.e. the areas where schools are to shut.
• the rate per 100K is close to 1000 in many parts of London, Kent and Essex. That's insanely high.

I know dozens who have it right now and are proper sick. There's no way schools could return here right now as things stand.

Rather than trying to make this a North/South thing, let's just hope this variant stays confined to the areas where is rampant right now. It's awful.

Yes it’s the new variant and rate of increase that is the key factor.

Just looking at coronavirus in my area stats is a bit eye watering in terms of jumps (London)

Does anyone know how i can avoid a fine if i don't send my children in on Monday please? Tia x

We are tier four.

Our rates are half what they were in October. Our schools were open then without issue.

It’s ridiculous to constantly keep changing plans at the last minute and expect schools to cope. Teachers should have been on holiday, but instead they are having to spend time changing their lesson plans at the a moments notice. Really unfair.

@CountessFrog

We are tier four.

Our rates are half what they were in October. Our schools were open then without issue.

Countess can you say whereabouts you are?

@BangingOn

I don’t think you can treat all Tier 4 areas the same- we have a rate of just over 200 which is significantly less than most areas in London and the SE.

This is why tiers don't work.

Does anyone know where I can find an accurate and up to date list of who counts as a keyworker?

I'm in the high spreading area and yes, the new variant is the issue - I'm for the first time aware of multiple people that have it. Previously, it was always one step removed - someone I knew would know someone that had it.

This new variant has yet to really be revealed yet as was hitting just before end of last term.

So agree, rather than whip up North/South divide issue - it is containing the new variant, if at all possible - or slow it down at least.

All schools in tier 3 and 4 need to be kept shut until half term to give us a fighting chance against the new variant. No more faffing about.

@StealthPolarBear it’s also to do with hospitals. London has a number of large hospitals whereas the south west (for example) has smaller hospitals but they’re nearing capacity so even though the numbers are lower, the percentage of icu beds available are probably comparable which puts us in tier 4.

@BangingOn

I don’t think you can treat all Tier 4 areas the same- we have a rate of just over 200 which is significantly less than most areas in London and the SE.

This. I'm in a London borough at 946 cases per 100,000. It's vastly different to some other tier 4 areas. I think they've gone off the rates of infections, not sure why all boroughs in London weren't included but it was the individual councils speaking with the government which got the change. Local schools were backed by their councils if they wanted to close they would support them.

Some tier 4 schools rates are lower than other tier 4 rates.

But let’s send back the kids and let them mix and get those rates right up again.

Utter madness.

@DancingLady they seem to have changed the language to critical workers rather than key workers - updated 31 Dec: www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-educational-provision/guidance-for-schools-colleges-and-local-authorities-on-maintaining-educational-provision

I’m in the north.

I also know that there were 16 patients in our ICU with covid by October half term and there are currently 9

I get that. Its not just about current rates. It might also be to do with trends, hospitalisation and capacity, the emegnecw of the new variant, how close an area is to other areas with higher rates. Lots of factors. But fundamentally the tiers should reflect the level of concern in an area and areas in the same tier should be roughly the same level of 'concern' . Otherwise what is the point.

The person complaining no one is talking about the Midlands... you featured on our news.

Same here @CountessFrog I'm on Tyneside T4 now with half the rate we had in October schools open throughout. A few burst bubbles at kids school but certainly nothing ridiculous.

Hopefully other Tier 4 areas will make their own decisions now. This only happened because the local authorities advised schools in those boroughs to close anyway.

F&ck

My dc have long since left school - but there is no way I would have been sending them in next week - and I live in a region with one of the lowest covid rates in the UK.

God only knows who in your child's class has had a Christmas party, a New Years sleepover, a multi generational get together. I would be waiting for two weeks and let the results of Christmas work their way through. I would lie - my children would be poorly with something, anything - no fines if you phone in sick. Not a chance in hell they would be going in for 2 weeks.