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 can't see them opening for the summer term, tbh. It scarcely seems worth it, with easter being so late this year, it's barely 4 weeks before half-term, then they break up a few weeks later.

I also think that they won't want the hassle of putting the arrangements back in place if, after relaxing "lockdown", infection rates start to climb again and we have to go back to how we are now.

If your children are secondary school age and NT, they can still access education via a wealth of resources surely? Not exactly the same as being at school but not a complete write off as it is for so many others?

We were just waiting on final confirmation from the local authority on whether our twins would be starting at a specialist school after Easter or a different one in September. There is basically nothing I can do to help them at home at all, I’m literally just taking turns with DH to stop them hurting themselves. I don’t have the skills or training to teach them anything - believe me, I’ve been trying for two years!

I’m just crossing everything that the schools reopen in September and the Corona bill does only last 6 months because the bill essentially renders EHCPs completely meaningless. They’re 3.5 so the next year is absolutely crucial in their development and the impact of not getting any support during that time could change the entire course of their lives. I’m absolutely gutted at the timing especially after a long battle to get what they need.

Managing to engage one of them with the odd puzzle but the other is interested in nothing at all. Nursery helps them so much and already seeing the negative impact of them not going. I am so envious of those who can get their children to just sit down and paint or do an activity.

The damage to disabled children is going to be dramatic, which is why they included those with EHCPs in the closure exemptions in the first place but of course that’s been significantly dialled back.

I know this absolutely sucks for everyone and there are different challenges for different ages - we all just need to do what we can for our kids and hope it improves as quickly as possible. I think expecting any schooling before September is very optimistic sadly, and even then we don’t know.

Right, DH has to start work in a minute so back to it!

Zafferana it doesn’t have to be those people but others would keep the economy going.

Private schools are better off to work out how to teach by video to try and keep fees coming in.

You can get the people who’ve had it working again harder to get half the students who’ve had it back in.

We are mostly on a rota basis, so I'm working the Easter holiday but have had this week off and get the week after the holidays off.
Good for you.
Meanwhile in many schools staff are attending on site for key worker children on a rota, but are also working from home, have to do their gained time work, are remotely planning and teaching,are available for students and so on.

It's depressing so many on MN seem to think teachers aren't working and should have 9 weeks of their holidays removed (so go from Feb half term to October half term without a break).

Lola I think it’s crazy to remove holidays

I'm glad you do, but others on here are seriously arguing it's reasonable to expect teachers to work 7 days a week, through all the Easter holidays, open the school site for longer days, teach through the summer holidays because teachers have already had their holidays.

Most teachers are happy to be flexible in a national crisis, but for some it seems to go hand in hand with the usual bitch about teachers sentiment, whine about the summer holidays.

@zafferana Where are all these posts you refer to saying people want it to be September? That's not what I'm reading.

Lola I know and people need to rethink. Teachers are already doing more than many.

If lockdowns stop under the time expected may be schools will go back on say 1 July and then have a 2 week break in 1st 2 weeks of September - in other words in England they are at full time school in July and August which parents getting back to work and needing to make up for financial losses will need anyway.

If your children are secondary school age and NT, they can still access education via a wealth of resources surely? Not exactly the same as being at school but not a complete write off as it is for so many others?

This is completely missing the point. Yes, of course there are online resources, yes most schools are providing online teaching of their own, but what about their DPs who need to work or the families with a mixture of school age and babies/toddlers? Most of my friends are professionals who are not considered to be key workers. They are lawyers, accountants, business professionals of all kinds and they typically work for between 7-10 hours per day. They are all tearing their hair out trying to do that while caring for and home schooling their DC, many of whom are under the age of 11 and need support, help and attention in order to access all this online learning. My own 8-year-old is completely incapable of getting on with this stuff on his own, unlike my 12-year-old. To say that they should all just muddle through for another five months is crazy. Many of them with lose their jobs or their businesses will fold and where will the country be then?

People might have to access other cc when some of the restrictions are lifted

@Manchestertimes
Though not ideal, surely you can support the children by doing work at home with them, even if means buying workbooks and materials just for key subjects?

It's depressing so many on MN seem to think teachers aren't working and should have 9 weeks of their holidays removed (so go from Feb half term to October half term without a break).

Yup!

Luckily, the unions will never let that happen.

Also has anyone thought that those teachers WFH may also have their own children to look after. My friend is a secondary school teacher and she is planning and delivering lessons on line. She is also going into school a couple of days a week to supervise the key worker and vulnerable children. She is waiting to find out what is required for her year 11 and 13 classes in respect of grading for their gcse and A levels. Chances are she will have to provide shed loads of evidence to back up grade predictions. Her dh is WFH also. They have 1 secondary age child and 1 primary. They are juggling their jobs plus child care and education for their own children. She will be providing this indefinitely until the kids go back to school. If they cancel the summer holidays she would have worked straight through from February to the next possible break in October. I dare say those of you who want this will be quick to take your kids out of school for a nice 2 week holiday whilst the teachers are still expected to carry on.

I hope they’re not. That will leave possibly hundreds of thousands of children in vulnerable groups, unable to return with their peers and falling behind through no fault of their own.

September.

I think it would be better for schools to reopen after the May bank holiday. That way if infections start rising once children begin mixing again the NHS has a better chance of coping over the ‘quieter’ summer months.

If we wait until September and the curve starts rising again we’ll be back in lockdown before Christmas, again worried about flattening the curve until the warmer weather kicks in.

People might have to access other cc when some of the restrictions are lifted.

If people are going to be accessing childcare en masse then it would make much more sense to reopen the schools. Let's hope that's what happens.

We’ll still be in the same mess as before they shut with vulnerable people off. We will know the impact and if the risk is thought to be higher due to death rate I’d expect teacher unions to protect the teachers. Or if not teachers making their own decisions.

Not really as it puts teachers and vulnerable at risk.

I definitely don't think it should happen until the antibodies test is available. I have what's in all probability a moderate form of COVID-19 (it doesn't feel moderate but I haven't had to go into hospital and hopefully won't now) and I could only have caught it from my DD2 (8), who had had been really unwell with what had been diagnosed as a 'respiratory virus', high temperature, chest pain, headaches, and aches and pains all over. Back then, they were only asking whether people had been to 'infected areas overseas' or been in 'direct contact with a confirmed case'

No cough or not much so it never occurred to me that it might be different from the nasty virus I was recovering from (a normal winter virus).

5 days later, I ended up with a horrendous cough., and that was two and a half weeks ago. I've had some very scary moments, with bad chest pain, really horrible coughing fits and times when I've been almost unable to breathe due to a build up up sputum which the coughing doesn't get rid of, I've had to forcibly clear it, puking or with decongestants. Now I can't keep food down.

I haven't even been tested, so I don't know for sure that it's COVID-18 though I can't think what else it could be. I've had good support from NHS 111 and our surgery, however. My DH once called 999 when it looked like I was losing consciousness. He was called back by paramedics who talked him through ways to help me breathe again.

I wouldn't want my DDs back in school until I know that I'm not at risk from this, I wouldn't want the same thing happening again!

En masse childcare isn’t the same as expecting teachers and vulnerable to go back.

Exams being cancelled is not an indicator of kids definitely not returning until the new academic year. Exams administration for schools is a years work, the months and weeks leading up to exams, sorting out pupil exam classes, SEN arrangements, invigilators, receiving boxes and boxes of exam papers and storing and securing them appropriately, organising complex seating plans to name just a few. There is no way any of that could be happening right now.

There will also be parents who are far more vulnerable than me. There's no way to protect them from infections their DC pick up, or from others in the playground.

As a cminders with keyworker children in my house I have cancelled my Easter and May holiday so they can work but really will need a break at some point.

I am expecting September but have been given no information from department of Education