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.

I have been asked to work Easter holidays to keep the hub school open. I could be paid or have time over during the shutdown to help with my childcare. There are ways that we could be open during the summer.

Casino218 you’re right. If there was any reality that schools would reopen before the end of the academic year they would never have cancelled exams.

@blimey

Our (private) school has too. They use ‘Team’ so they’re having ‘live’ classes. They’ve planned this until September so far.

But not all schools have the funds & not all kids have the technology or supportive parents. It’s not a case of ‘not having got it together!’

September at the earliest - anyone hoping for May needs to look at the news occasionally.

Personally I think they will re open schools in May/June but continue to have the elderly and at risk isolate.
The economy and businesses needs to get back to some degree of normality at some point.
Also once the children start mixing again they can develop herd immunity. We are currently delaying the infection rate to allow the NHS to cope.

TheLittleDogLaughed The reasons for cancelling the exams were two-fold though – not having children gathered to sit them, but also not having people gathered to mark them, which would normally happen during the early weeks of the summer holidays. So it was a more complex decision than just whether the schools are open or not.

@MarshaBradyo it’s been pretty poor so far. A pack of worksheets sent home on their last day, no video lessons or online presence, which is absolutely fine and understandable given teachers has so little time to pull it together. We’re told they are looking into something more substantial after the Easter break. Our school is actually closing as normal over the holiday so the teachers will get their Easter break as normal.

Our school (where I work and DS2 goes) has a full timetable on Google Classroom. Its honestly amazing.

DS1 is in Year 10 and also has virtually a full timetable (he is doing GCSE PE so the practical side is difficult but he has been going on exercise bike or a run late at night)

Im also in now and over Easter for the children of Key Workers.

I think we will be back in after May half term. This is unsustainable until September. I realise the exams were cancelled but I think that was because the Year 11's and Year 13's were missing out on so much that making them sit exams wouldn't be fair.

The main push for closing was teacher sickness wasn’t it - if the peak is expected to be may/June I’d say it’s v unlikely

@MarshaBradyo. Our (private school) has come up with lots of things for the kids as well as a full on academic timetable via ‘Team’. They have said they are cutting costs where possible (its largely boarding though ours aren’t) so they’re saving in overnight staff, food, & various other things and that they will issue refunds at the end when they know how much they’ve been able to save.

I think their approach is fine.

They have said the peak will be in May / June so can’t see schools opening before then.
I work in a very small school and we are open for some children.
Not many staff and some off isolating. So only a few of us working.
We are already losing Easter holidays and likely May holidays and I am a ta so don’t get paid for the holidays.
I think asking us to give up our holidays booked in the summer to help children catch up is highly unfair on my family.
I am hoping to spend time with them when this is all over. It’s very stressful being in school right now so staff will need some respite once all this is over.

I would hazard a guess at September really .By the time we have had 3 weeks Lockdown it will be mid April ,and only a few months until July when Schools break for the Summer Holidays .Therefore it would make sense to return in September really .The earlier they go back the more the risk of Infection returning .

September at the earliest

All the parents on this thread blithely saying 'Oh I hope its September' clearly aren't trying to balance two working DPs with having their DC at home FT and having to home school them! Yes, our school is setting work - shit loads of it - but to get through it with primary-aged DC takes up almost the entire day. Then add to that all the housework and cooking that needs to be done with everyone home 24/7 and the situation is very hard. Personally, I'm in favour of the original model of allowing the young/healthy/fit continue as normal and keeping the old/vulnerable protected. More than 80% of people get a mild infection. I'm up for that rather than letting our economy crash.

All those saying the peak is May/June – they revised it yesterday.

www.newscientist.com/article/2238578-uk-has-enough-intensive-care-units-for-coronavirus-expert-predicts/

They have said the peak will be in May / June

Not any more - since the lockdown they're saying it should peak in three weeks' time.

September at the earliest.

For those teachers working through their Easter holiday looking after key worker children, to cancel their May holiday and then the summer holidays would be awful.

There is no 'peak' it is a series of peaks

StirCrazed Care to elaborate?

As a country we are building temporary morgues and field hospitals. Every NHS worker is being told to prepare for redeployment,a Conservative government is going to pay employers 80 per cent of wages to tell their workers to stay at home. We have closed schools, are creating a Volunteer army to help the NHS. We are in lockdown. Please don't be naive and think the schools will be back anytime soon. Stay at home, follow the rules on social distancing, isolation or shielding to help our key workers save as many lives as they can. If you can help educate your kids at home great, but don't stress if you can't right now.

@zafferana

How do you know who is carrier? What if the ‘young,fit and healthy’ have a vulnerable relative living with them and relying on them.

Fucking hell. How do people still not get it. The incubation period is 7-28 days. You could be walking around spreading it to loads of people. The young and fit are also dying, just not at as high a rate as the elderly. Over 30 days one person could be responsible for infecting 59,000 people (of whom approx. 5% will die- 2900 people). THAT is why schools are closed.

I reckon after May half term, so kids get some kind of acclimatisation to school again. Not only that, but setting and timetables will need to be done- and appointing new staff/ sorting out redundancies etc. Although my childminder is self isolating for 12 weeks, so fuck knows what I'll do.

I was thinking about this earlier.

Given they have said we might need mini lockdowns, I wonder if they might open primary schools earlier than secondary.

By opening primary schools you get a bit more mixing, and parents of primary children can go back to work as the government allows more businesses to restart. Primary schools are smaller and more community based, so an infection breakout could be more controlled.

Secondary children can carry on doing online work, and have much greater catchments. Also there is more mixing within the schools as children move between classrooms and are in different sets for each lesson.

The series of peaks thing is part of the projections for this lockdown. I know there is this weird belief that we do a month or so and it all goes away but that's not the projection, unless we are going for the 80% become immune all in one go projection. Apparently we aren't doing that, altho I have my doubts looking at our half arsed lockdown

So say it’s August (Scotland here), do you think kids will move up a year or repeat the year they are in and therefore deferring 4 and 5 year olds for a year? Obviously, that wouldn’t include resisting exams as that’s been covered.