The biggest problem is this issue of social distancing. As I said on a different thread and as many have said here, you can't do social distancing in schools. Yes, the kids seem to not get Covid 19 as badly as adults (although that's not a given, more children are falling victim to it now). But a school doesn't run on children alone. There are teachers and support staff involved, some of whom are shielding themselves or others. Your child may bring back Covid 19 into your household so adults there will be infected. If teachers become ill, classroom sizes will increase, not decrease.
My school is 2000 plus pupils strong - we have 40 minutes lunch where all of those children need to be fed. Can you imagine trying to keep some sort of social distancing in that? So social distancing ends. Therefore, the next question is, what's the point of having the supermarkets etc having the 2 metre markers at that point? There's not much point in letting your kids become, at best, carriers and then standing in a queue at Tesco for 40 minutes. Then to be served by someone who may also have a child who's bringing it home because they're in a class of 40 plus kids rather than the hubs many key workers children are in at present where they can do social distancing!
And we've had 9 bus drivers die in London and more across the country. What will the unions say to school buses under those circumstances? Any one spoken to them? Our double decker school buses are rammed and we're only one of four schools in the area to use them.
There are a lot of interlocking questions that need to be answered before the schools go back. Most schools are very good at working these out - my one became a hub when this happened and managed to get three schools set up in one building for key workers with very short notice with social distancing in place. But the questions have to be answered satisfactorily first then the logistics put in place.
So my questions would be...how are the kids getting to school? Those who travel by bus need a reassurance that the buses will take them - all of them - not leave half standing there because the bus driver isn't happy with the numbers.
Are there enough teachers? Are there enough classrooms if you're doing social distancing still? What happens about break and lunch time with regard to social distancing? What about moving around the school for the secondary school age kids?
Would part time weeks work? So schools may say year 1, 3 5 in until Wednesday, year 2, 4 6 in from Wednesday afternoon until Friday so core schooling, social distancing may be able to be done. That's fine if you only have one child or more than one but all in the 'right' years. You may be lucky and get the other days as work from home or be able to find childcare to cover them. But if your family is strewn across those days - say one in year 2 and one in year 5 you have a whole week with very young children not in school. Which means parents can't work or have to do half weeks each (assume both mum and dad are together and working).
It's fine needing the kids to go back. They should, they need educating. But it's not as simple as saying 'off you go'. Even a planned return - like allowing certain years back for a few weeks, then increasing - still means some children will be left at home. How do employers and parents manage that?
There aren't easy answers to this but the questions have to be debated. It's not all on the shoulders of schools to answer them either. If the school bus drivers, for example, refuse to take the streams of kids they currently do, then the parents will have to step up to the mark. There's no-one else to do it. And employers will have to give some slack to those parents who have to get in late because of it. Or help parents find solutions if they have children across years if part time or phased returns take place. A parent isn't going to find child care in a situation where every parent is looking for it because they have primary school kids who can't be left alone.
This is going to be a concerted effort between government, councils, schools and parents along with transport organisations etc., It is not just a case of saying 'schools go back on Monday' and getting on with it (although I fear that will be what happens and it'll be chaos).