All London schools now closed.

[stayingaliveisawayoflife]

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

@sassbott

Nope. Not one parent in RL echos the sentiments on this thread. I technically class as a critical care worker based on the vast list and as such, my children will continue to be sent to school. I’m not having their education continually disrupted (not to mention the vast mental/ emotional issues schools had to deal with post the last lockdown).

Not an option for everyone if if you didn’t want them to shut. Sadly. Maybe they should divide on who wants to go

Maybe people might like to take a look behind the mainstream media at the scientific reports on this new strain the rise of it in children and also the worrying rise in hospital admissions of children in London.
Its much better to take a cautious approach to this than start to have lots of very unwell children !
It used to be the case that children didn't seem to get infected as much by the virus and also didn't seem to get too unwell. There has been further studies into the new strain just starting to be published in the last couple of days that suggests higher viral loads etc....really its still too early to know what the impact on children will be never mind them spreading it to the rest of the population

@MarshaBradyo I 100% agree with you. Let those who are happy to send children do so. Those who have concerns / live with high risk members can make decisions that ensure they all feel safe.
What I am strongly against is the strong arm tactics being deployed. And on such short notice.

@Babito link to your scientific numbers please. I’ve reviewed some and based on the data I saw, the sub 20 category remains lowest. Primary school age remains minuscule.

The list of critical workers a PP posted is huge.

I work in HR in an FE College. We have been told we are critical workers. In the March lockdown when schools closed but workplaces were still open we were told we would not have any childcare issues as we were critical workers and our children would be entitled to go to school

My school would have laughed in my face (rightly) if I'd try to pull that. "HR coming through - I'm critical to the COVID response me" But techically as the list says support staff in education it's technically true. We are also required to be onsite currently despite being tier 4 as we are "critical workers" even though my role is far from critical and can be done entirely from home.

I want the schools to close and I am lucky enough to be able to work mainly from home but I know that if I say I will struggle to come on site a day or two a week I will be told I can get a place at school as a critical worker. I would not dream of asking for such a place and I know the school would not provide one (they were saying only where both parents are front line workers etc last lockdown) but it leaves me with no understanding from work. I am lucky as DH works from home fully so we are fine and I am not sending DS back on Monday regardless but so many others either can't work from home or fall in the massive "critical worker list"

Ideally there should be a statutory right to be furloughed due to childcare reasons but I imagine the cost would be huge.

Maybe people might like to take a look behind the mainstream media at the scientific reports on this new strain the rise of it in children and also the worrying rise in hospital admissions of children in London.

Could you link to data? I’ve been trying to find source

I can see how if you only mix with Covid sceptics and extremely self centred healthy young people, you might not know anyone who wants their kids at home. Otherwise I find it extremely unlikely. I know people with a mix of views.

@catgirl1976 the school has to provide one. They cannot refuse. They don’t get to say ‘sorry you don’t meet the criteria’ if you clearly do.

As a member of support staff in a secondary school it is very frustrating to have to send my primary aged child into school to be babysat as a child of a ‘critical worker’ while I go and babysit others children. This puts us both at risk and is particularly galling when we have (11/12 year old+) students sent in daily when dad delivers for Sainsnburys doing 2 shifts per week ☹️ Meanwhile I can only access the provision if I provide my full job spec and adhere to strict drop off and pick up times. After that, I’ll have to go over everything my child has done that day to fill in the gaps as ^ she will have been merely babysat. No option for furlough either.

Exactly Babito I'm not putting my children at risk as we don't know enough about this new strain. I have a choice so i choose not to put my children at risk based on the new strain and my ability to home school them.

I think it’s verrrrrry simple
There should be a national online school for anyone who doesn’t wish to send their kids
Then the numbers in school will already be significantly less without requiring the teachers to try and do both
I’m in a critical role but not key worker and the prospect of having to do that but manage homeschool is impossible. Again.
I am happy to send my kids to school because it’s tiny and the local rates are low yet we’ve gone from t1 to 4, but are absolutely not the same scale as London. We only increased in infections when London suddenly ran to the hills...

I can see how if you only mix with Covid sceptics and extremely self centred healthy young people, you might not know anyone who wants their kids at home. Otherwise I find it extremely unlikely.

I mix with covid sceptics and non covid sceptics. I mix with Gp’s, icu doctors, gardeners, teachers, SAHM’s, plumbers, mechanics. All are sending their children to school (including the person who is one of the top cardiac surgeons at st Thomas’s and has been treating covid patients).

All are sending their children to school. Every. Single. One. So don’t make sweeping judgements on here.

@sassbott that might be true on paper but it wasn't the reality. We had plenty of staff who were turned down by schools for critical worker places. We contacted the LEA on behalf of a few and they were less than interested and said it was a decision for each individual school. The schools didn't have enough staff to give everyone who wanted one a place so set their own criteria which the LEA said was within their gift to do.

Could it be that the new variant is actually making more children sick? twitter.com/bbc5live/status/1345006866829463552?s=20

Our borough are reporting 1200+ cases per 100,000 btw

The criteria for the critical workers is so broad that some schools will have hundreds of pupils in anyway. This just creates a nightmare for parents who have to work and try and home school.

Sorry - not read whole thread.
So is Greater London now tier 5?

@1805 we are tier 27

So what about non London tier 4 areas, some of who have very similar rates, even higher rates? Are those kids expendable?

@catgirl1976 that’s super tough. My SIL says their school won’t be turning any children away and as such their staff in place will be there expecting 3/4 of pupils to show up.

[quote sassbott]@Babito link to your scientific numbers please. I’ve reviewed some and based on the data I saw, the sub 20 category remains lowest. Primary school age remains minuscule.[/quote]
Read the latest data published by imperial college London yesterday afternoon the largest rise in the 0-9 and 10-19 category.
They don't know if this is still just as a result of more testing in this age category recently, but that would then indicate that they are experiencing symptoms more than they were before hence the increased testing. There was a doctor on radio 5 earlier from a hospital in London as well saying how they weren't seeing children in the first wave but they now have a full ward and its been noted across other hospitals in London as well

@greenbinday

The criteria for the critical workers is so broad that some schools will have hundreds of pupils in anyway. This just creates a nightmare for parents who have to work and try and home school.

Our school has very high numbers of kw

Plus those who didn’t use it last time who said if they shut again they wouldn’t not use it

The ONS data would also suggest they are amongst the highest groups and on an upward trend

I am glad for London, it will reduce transmission and help the hospitals from being further overwhelmed.

@Babito thank you

It is (as you say) super unclear as to whether this is a direct result of increased testing. My eldest school have all had compulsory covid tests done just before they broke up. That’s hundreds of previous untested children. They are due to be retested.

They are refusing to release (from what I read) what % of tests were previously done on this age group. If the % of tests done in the age groups has increased 20% (as an example), there is going to be a corresponding increase of positive tests. Especially in a largely asymptomatic age group.