Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

All London schools now closed.

259 replies

stayingaliveisawayoflife · 01/01/2021 18:14

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

OP posts:
Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum · 01/01/2021 19:21

@ktp100

Should be all schools til 18th.

This is just unfair to all primary teachers now.

Yep
catgirl1976 · 01/01/2021 19:21

@MattTebbutsForearms I am exactly the same as you. I'm not sending DS back on Monday and I doubt his school will be open for more than a week or two

user1471530109 · 01/01/2021 19:21

Plus, if it keeps the teacher haters happy, I'd be happy to go into work to do my live lessons. My own DC would have to go into school but least their chances of catching it would be less than if their primary is open to all kids.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Wannabangbang · 01/01/2021 19:23

lilMzsnowflake thankyou this should keep them both of for atleast a week then i will say they have covid symptoms. My children are not being guinea pigs. An 8 year old died of covid today, it was on sky news. I'm taking no chances.

CabinClose · 01/01/2021 19:24

@MarshaBradyo Have a look at the graphs of the spread of the new variant. The NE is about 3 weeks behind London, with the new variant now being about a third of cases and increasing. The only way to prevent acceleration is lockdown, including school closures.

ilovesooty · 01/01/2021 19:25

@jessstan1

A good thing. It was ridiculous to even consider opening them.
Absolutely. And William's should go.
girasol · 01/01/2021 19:27

I don't know if I'm being dim, but I don't understand why the Primaries are being closed.

Before you jump down my throat (!) I'm fully aware of of the catastrophic Covid rates and if pushed I'd say that probably all schools should remain closed other than for KW and vulnerable kids.

But the point with postponing the return of Secondaries for a week or two was to allow time to put a testing regime in place - but that's not what is being suggested for Primaries (is it?!) so what is the game plan here? Is the government hoping that rates will start to drop by mid-late Jan such that it will be "safe" for the Primaries in question to reopen fully? Because that seems unlikely in the extreme...

So why aren't they saying that in all likelihood these Primaries will have to stay closed until at least Feb half term/possibly Easter (which is when it seems the vaccination programme might start to have an appreciable effect)? I feel like I'm missing something here, can anyone enlighten me? TIA

Wannabangbang · 01/01/2021 19:27

I hope Williams resigns he's an absolute disgrace.

AuditAngel · 01/01/2021 19:28

I live in a London borough that was already on the closed list, but DD2’s primary, 2.3 miles away is in Surrey. So as things stand, she will be in. The rate there is about 1/4 of our borough

m0therofdragons · 01/01/2021 19:29

I’m not a fan of Gavin Williamson but I think he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either he closes schools to reduce spread but risk mental health and education crisis or he keeps school open but risks the virus spreading. What is the right decision?

Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum · 01/01/2021 19:30

Well they announced that change quicker than I thought. I was thinking it would be on 3rd. After they realised the virus may just not know the difference between boroughs and health trusts.

So we in London now have a Simpsons style dome over us. Education settings anyway. Let us wait and see if that works.

singsingbluesilver · 01/01/2021 19:33

@girasol I would think keeping schools closed in areas that already have a high transmission rate is common sense. No one knows yet what the result of Christmas and new year mixing will be - but I think any sensible person can work out that it will only add to what were already very alarming figures. Keep the schools closed until the lockdown of other non essential services starts to help to bring down numbers. Allowing children and staff to go back into schools following what will have been a free for all for many would be madness imho.

loulouljh · 01/01/2021 19:34

I work full time. Even if it were obligatory to give me furlough my job would still need to be done. So what would my employer do? Ultimately I would be out of a job....so that does not help me at all. I need to work. My children need to be educated. I seriously cannot home school again.

HeelsHandbagPerfumeCoffee · 01/01/2021 19:38

I’m always bemused when posters demand a link please
Do your own donkey work, google is your friend, get your own link.please

NotSoHappyNewTier · 01/01/2021 19:39

@StealthPolarBear

People are missing the point of the tiers. If you have to take into account the tier and then awhile load of other things, the tiers have failed in their job and are just random categories assigned to areas.
Agree that the point of Tiers is being lost when we supposedly need extra details to define tailored restrictions, total lack of Transparency undermines chances of people following them. Marvellous!
ObliviouslyIgnorant · 01/01/2021 19:40

I'm in an area of London with 932 cases per 100k. London is rife with it.

Frazzled2207 · 01/01/2021 19:41

@m0therofdragons

I’m not a fan of Gavin Williamson but I think he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either he closes schools to reduce spread but risk mental health and education crisis or he keeps school open but risks the virus spreading. What is the right decision?
i think it's been quite clear all this holiday that schools opening in January in London was a stupid idea. But yet it takes him till the friday night before the monday to actually realise that.
Turmericpie · 01/01/2021 19:42

Where do you find the number of cases per 100K in your area? The site I look at is giving figures up to 24th only. Thanks

ThelmaNotLouise · 01/01/2021 19:44

@Turmericpie

Where do you find the number of cases per 100K in your area? The site I look at is giving figures up to 24th only. Thanks
This one is up to date.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274

GWLTM · 01/01/2021 19:44

Great news for those in London boroughs that weren't already closed.

But I'm disappointed and angered that only London has been reassessed.

I'm in Tandridge. (But less than a 5 minute walk into Croydon borough)

My children go to a Tandridge school. But have friends on our street who go to Croydon ones.

We have a higher count this week than Sutton who are closing primaries.

And yet because we're not London we're being left to put our children and ourselves in danger.

Surrey exists. Something needs to be looked at for Tandridge. This is all so worrying.

SimonJT · 01/01/2021 19:46

@GWLTM

Great news for those in London boroughs that weren't already closed.

But I'm disappointed and angered that only London has been reassessed.

I'm in Tandridge. (But less than a 5 minute walk into Croydon borough)

My children go to a Tandridge school. But have friends on our street who go to Croydon ones.

We have a higher count this week than Sutton who are closing primaries.

And yet because we're not London we're being left to put our children and ourselves in danger.

Surrey exists. Something needs to be looked at for Tandridge. This is all so worrying.

Its only changed as the individual councils took action, what action is your MP taking?
Turmericpie · 01/01/2021 19:47

@ThelmaNotLouise - thank you very much.

Xenia · 01/01/2021 19:47

This is not quite right. In a sense it is every London school MUST remain open for this vast number of workers' children. I bet in some classes at school almost every child will have a parent on the list below and the school will be breaking the law if it does not let their children come to school. I think almost every member of our family for example is on the list from my doctor sibling to lawyers and even my son who drives a food delivery van.

"Critical workers

Parents whose work is critical to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU transition response include those who work in health and social care and in other key sectors outlined in the following sections.
Health and social care

This includes, but is not limited to, doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics, social workers, care workers, and other frontline health and social care staff including volunteers; the support and specialist staff required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector; those working as part of the health and social care supply chain, including producers and distributors of medicines and medical and personal protective equipment.
Education and childcare

This includes:

childcare
support and teaching staff
social workers
specialist education professionals who must remain active during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response to deliver this approach

Key public services

This includes:

those essential to the running of the justice system
religious staff
charities and workers delivering key frontline services
those responsible for the management of the deceased
journalists and broadcasters who are providing public service broadcasting

Local and national government

This only includes those administrative occupations essential to the effective delivery of:

the coronavirus (COVID-19) response, and the delivery of and response to EU transition
essential public services, such as the payment of benefits and the certification or checking of goods for import and export (including animal products, animals, plants and food), including in government agencies and arms length bodies

Food and other necessary goods

This includes those involved in food:

production
processing
distribution
sale and delivery
as well as those essential to the provision of other key goods (for example hygienic and veterinary medicines)

Public safety and national security

This includes:

police and support staff
Ministry of Defence civilians
contractor and armed forces personnel (those critical to the delivery of key defence and national security outputs and essential to the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and EU transition)
fire and rescue service employees (including support staff)
National Crime Agency staff
those maintaining border security, prison and probation staff and other national security roles, including those overseas

Transport and border

This includes those who will keep the air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport modes operating during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response and EU transition, including those working on transport systems through which supply chains pass and those constructing or supporting the operation of critical transport and border infrastructure through which supply chains pass.
Utilities, communication and financial services

This includes:

staff needed for essential financial services provision (including but not limited to workers in banks, building societies and financial market infrastructure)
the oil, gas, electricity and water sectors (including sewerage)
information technology and data infrastructure sector and primary industry supplies to continue during the coronavirus (COVID-19) response
key staff working in the civil nuclear, chemicals, telecommunications (including but not limited to network operations, field engineering, call centre staff, IT and data infrastructure, 999 and 111 critical services)
postal services and delivery
payments providers
waste disposal sectors"
x2boys · 01/01/2021 19:50

I'm in Tier four too ,but our rates are 178/ 100,000 and whilst they are rising again they are a lot lower than they have been our schools have been open throughout

girasol · 01/01/2021 19:50

[quote singsingbluesilver]@girasol I would think keeping schools closed in areas that already have a high transmission rate is common sense. No one knows yet what the result of Christmas and new year mixing will be - but I think any sensible person can work out that it will only add to what were already very alarming figures. Keep the schools closed until the lockdown of other non essential services starts to help to bring down numbers. Allowing children and staff to go back into schools following what will have been a free for all for many would be madness imho.[/quote]
I agree it's common sense @singsingbluesilver, but the latest evidence on the new variant (Imperial College study published today) highlights that during lockdown rates rose by 30%. So even after the effects of the likely Christmas and NY spike have worn off, surely rates will continue to rise if schools are allowed to reopen, until such time as the vaccination program has reached a lot of people.

Which underlines my confusion as to what the government plan (ha ha) is for the primaries which are being shut - closing them might be enough, along with other T4 measures to start to flatten or even bring down rates, but that will surely take at least half a term (and may not happen at all, ie rates may continue to stay high even with primaries closed).

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55507012

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread