Schools reopening before May half term?

[Manchestertimes]

What's everyone's opinion on when the schools will reopen? I think they will reopen a few weeks after Easter.

Denmark reopening April 15th . Interesting to see how that goes.

twitter.com/DarrenEuronews/status/1247447175405211648

It will be September. I am a teacher due to start maternity leave early July and was told by my HOD not to expect to return before that.

Yeah but you’ve just said you “expect” ,that doesn’t mean that’s fact.
Nobody knows , not you, not your bosses , not even the government

Whoare - won’t that be because you are an at risk person? I have teacher pals prepping for potential June return.

I’d really like to go back in June. I work in a preschool and the thought of not seeing our older children again now makes me really sad ☹️

It will be September. I am a teacher due to start maternity leave early July and was told by my HOD not to expect to return before that

And what inside information does your HOD have?

Nobody knows. But if other countries are starting to go back there's no reason why we shouldn't follow. I still think it will be May half term, at least for the older year groups who (a) need to get on with things ie Y10 and Y12) and (b) can be trusted to wash their hands and look after hygiene (yes I know it's teenage boys we're talking about but even my disgusting specimen was washing his hands 10 times a day while at college).

I am really hoping it will be june/ july. But I'm worried it won't be until September.

The problem is going to come if they start lifting lockdown but they keep the schools shut. As everyone will need to return to work, but the children will still need to be looked after.

@Mia1415 from what I’ve been reading today, schools are more likely to reopen before anything else including people going back to work .
Again do t know how true that is

I think they will. If the worse of the cases are expected this week and next hopefully the infection rate will be dropping throughout a May.Things will be slowly reopening at the beginning of a June . Schools will gradually fill up anyway as the vulnerable and key worker children return back in droves.

I read an article on the BBC today that said similar Fluffy
Even questioning the mass closure of schools in the first place. It’ll be interesting to hear what the exit strategy is!

There is so much wrong with that article

The kids need to go back.
So workers can go back
Then other parts of life can reopen.

So perhaps in a month or 6 weeks they stagger the kids going back. After a month look into allowing certain places to open again.

Theres many health benefits of people mixing a little again. Getting outside in the summer. I know the beaches are currently a no zone. But the sea air and going out on the woods etc is fantastic for the lungs and immune systems. So perhaps outdoor mixing could resume quicker than pubs etc.

Zoos garden centres and farms etc could reopen as it's outdoors and the workers and animals etc will need our money to continue.

Then see how 6 weeks of this goes then maybe start opening bars etc.

Totally making this up as I go along but it makes sense that kids need to be back to open the rest.

I'm really really hoping for the start of July, just so we have a couple of weeks of "closure" for this school year, and hopefully some structure of work to do over the summer hols, and some taster days at new schools etc if poss!

Theres two ways.

We wait for a vaccine and that's very unrealistic

Or We get life going again gradually in the next 1-3 months

The scientists now think school closure has a minimal affect on the spread of the virus (this was on teletext) so the government are reviewing all (not just school) coronavirus after Easter. I still can't see them reopening any time soon. For a start how can all the students and staff keep 2 metres apart?

I read an article on the BBC today that said similar Fluffy.Even questioning the mass closure of schools in the first place

The BBC reporting of that article is pretty flawed.

It's rubbish.

There's no way kids can keep 2m apart. I could get....5? in my classroom. The corridors aren't even 2m wide.

Prof Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, worked on the scientific modelling that the current government advice is based on. He says the Lancet research fails to take into account the impact that school closure can have alongside other lockdown measures.
"When combined with intense social distancing it plays an important role in severing remaining contacts between households and thus ensuring transmission declines," he said.

I suspect that research in the Lancet is going to be roundly ignored if that’s what Neil Ferguson thinks of it!

But surely the whole point is that if they re-open schools they won't be expecting the school to use social distancing?

At some point the distancing policy has to be gradually reduced.

Schools could be the first step in this, if that is what the scientists/government agree on. Someone has to be first. This would then enable some people to get back to work etc.

if that is what the scientists/government agree on

That being the key point. Neil Ferguson doesn’t seem to be advising this which is reassuring.

But surely the whole point is that if they re-open schools they won't be expecting the school to use social distancing? Yes ,
that’s how I read it

I think a lot of people on here assume that us who work in schools do not want to go back to work properly, we do!! But it must be a time that is safe and with reasonable expectations (eg not expecting young people to sit 2m apart, impossible due to classroom size)

I guess the earliest will be after half term maybe just for primary kids if they want people back to work.

Otherwise childcare will prob open over summer to phase the integration for kids In slowly

If the schools do reopen soon I won't be happy. What about children with asthma, recovering from cancer with vulnerable adults at home? We all know children carry it, we all know children can get sick and die from it.
Why the hell would we use our children (along with all the school staff) as guinea pigs to see if we can return to normal?

They obviously won’t reopen if they think it’s unsafe..