To wonder how schools can realistically reopen when there is still a killer virus about with no vaccine?

[JustCantShakeIt]

I’m not talking about them reopening now, in May or June or even September.

Who is prepared to send their DC into a school with hundreds of other DC, where social distancing and keeping a germ free environment is literally impossible, even with the best wills in the world, when there is a life threatening disease floating about which is highly transmittable and you have no guarantee it won’t make your DC severely ill or die.

Social distancing just between parents will be impossible at my DC’s school of over 500 where we all have to wait outside the main gates at pick up time.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m desperate for schools to reopen before my DC turn completely feral, but I don’t see how that can happen until we have a vaccine. We’re being told to stay home and keep our distance now due to the risk, the risk will be the same next month or in 5 months won’t it?

And listening to children read - that really makes a difference to their progress (esp the children who don't get the input at home).

The children love the 1-to-1 time with an adult. But there is a shortage of volunteers for that regardless of Covid.

*Teachers on here just appear to be saying it can’t be done, it’s going to have to be done so now is the time to make plans

Teachers in here are saying that people who actually work in schools should be part of the planning to reopen. That sensible questions need to be robustly answered so that the children and communities we work for are not put at risk.

Teachers on here just appear to be saying it can’t be done, it’s going to have to be done so now is the time to make plans

The virus has turned the whole world upside down and shaken up all kinds of things. A couple of months ago, GPs were still against phone/email communication with patients, now once they've been forced to embrace it, it seems to be working well and has surprised them. Same with people working from home and not having physical meetings - a couple of months ago, employers/employees believed meetings and working in the office were essential - now they've found that remote working from home actually works after all.

Schools/teachers will have to stop the "we've always done it this way" mentality and move with the times to what will be a very different world as we come out of the covid pandemic. Things have changed forever and we won't be going back to how it was before.

This is absolutely what we are doing now and on a daily basis! To say we aren't is ridiculous when teachers who have never ever taught remotely or worked form home are now all doing it.

We didn't start this thread.

I do rather wonder of someone started a thread on GPs and their new regime whether it would appear quite so much that it is working well and going smoothly. Or whether all businesses would say all their employees WFH is efficient and effective (of course they wouldn't!)

Everyone is facing obstacles and barriers. Teachers are working very very hard to overcome them. But none of the examples you cite involve huge numbers of children in usually overcrowded facilities as well as adults so I think education staff are allowed to discuss the unique ramifications of this.

Schools/teachers will have to stop the "we've always done it this way" mentality and move with the times to what will be a very different world as we come out of the covid pandemic. Things have changed forever and we won't be going back to how it was before

I’m teaching my classes from my house. I’m dreaming up well-being and relaxation activities for the KW children we’re looking after. I’m deciding the grades for my yr 11s. We’re redesigning next year’s curriculum so year 10/12 aren’t too disadvantaged. As are my colleagues countrywide.

On what planet are we not working exceptionally responsively?

User your post is completely wrong and inaccurate. GP phone appointments have been fully embraced and encouraged for years. My surgery suggests a phone appointment as first port of call and has done so for a long time, years. I’ve had several due to work, far more than face to face. I don’t think they’re ideal and can extend treatment. I’ve also had medication needlessly that I’ve tried myself that hasn’t worked on occasions. Often you’re called in anyway.

Re wfh my husband has been doing that for years, ditto several members of my family. That too isn’t ideal and has big limitations. There are several things he can’t do from home and several households don’t have the space or resources for a wfh office. My Dh is currently suffering from a bad back as he is hunched over a sofa trying to work and struggling with not having face to face meetings. Some meetings work by conference call and Zoom, some dont.

Teachers are currently spending hours preparing, teaching, supporting and ringing parents which then needs to be logged. It’s very time consuming and not a great use of time albeit necessary at the moment. Many teachers and staff are also risking their health and still going in to teach key worker children alongside all the above.

I seriously hope life does go back to normal after this.

Teachers in here are saying that people who actually work in schools should be part of the planning to reopen. That sensible questions need to be robustly answered so that the children and communities we work for are not put at risk

Completely agree with that, but do we know that they’re not being involved? Or are not planned to be involved when the time comes?

I have no issue sending my children in. It’s not any more of a risk to them than a seasonal flu.

Completely agree with that, but do we know that they’re not being involved? Or are not planned to be involved when the time comes?

The NEU are concerned enough to have written to the govt and have also started a petition. I hope their very sensible questions are listened to.

There will be two streams of education until a vaccine.

Low risk kids from low risk households will go back to school (probably September) with little change from the past.

Kids who are the highest risk or from a highest risk household won't be going back to school until a vaccine is available, due to shielding themselves or a household member. The most vulnerable won't be setting foot out of their homes for the duration, maybe not until next Summer. Their kids can't be going out to school and mixing with kids who may be spreading it, as they'll just take it home and pass it to the vulnerable parent/grandparent. This latter group will need to be educated at home via remote/online teaching.

Your DC are far more likely to get hit by a car on the way to school, than to die of C19.

Evidence suggests that shutting down schools has had minimal effect on transmission rates. There are ways to keep children safe.

The major sticking point is children who live with people in one of the vulnerable groups, especially those who are shielding. Advice is that people with a family member shielding are allowed to go out, but it honestly seems too risky to send a child to school under those circumstances. I don’t know what allowances you could make for those children.

StrawberryF1eld You are lucky. I’ve been fighting for phone appointments for years!

StrawberryF1eld You are lucky. I’ve been fighting for phone appointments for years!

Likewise. I've asked countless times to be able just to speak to the GP or consultant by phone, to be refused point blank. The nearest we could get was being able to get a call back from a nurse or nurse practitioner who'd usually just listen and say we need to see a GP and to make an appointment for face to face! All changed now - when it suits them!

At the end of the day, the lockdown was meant to slow the infection rates. It’s been successful in that, and there is now capacity in the hospitals. It is grim, but the Nightingale in London is almost entirely empty. If people want there to be an NHS after all this, they need to get the economy moving again. That involves the schools reopening.

@kazzyhoward. Fine for those low risk or the shielded group, but what about those who are vulnerable? Those initially told to stay at home for 12 weeks. Are they going to be classed as low risk? Because they are not.
And assume same will apply to school staff. So shielding school staff or those who live with someone shielding will not have to go to work?

Also a medically vulnerable child may be at more risk of corona than being hit by a car. You ac

Evidence suggests that shutting down schools has had minimal effect on transmission rates. There are ways to keep children safe

Can you expand on this? Take my secondary as an example- 1000 ish children plus staff in very close quarters for several hours a day. How do you stop those people transferring the virus between each other and then out into all their separate bits of the community?

@Reginabambina Your kids may be low risk. But this is more dangerous than seasonal flu. Some ears as little as 400 people die in the UK from seasonal flu. The year the flu vaccine did not work 17,000 people died from flu. That is less than will die of corona in the UK.

I have no issue sending my children in. It’s not any more of a risk to them than a seasonal flu

Hugely risky for who knows how many adults who,will be expected to work in schools, however.

The schools shutting has minimal effect on transmission statements has no evidence base at all, zero. It is someone's opinion not backed up with facts.

If it's still unsafe when mine reopen i won't be sending them in. My kids, our lifes and if they fine me i shall not pay it or turn up to court.

Interesting article in The Times today about different European leaders' anxieties and plans : none of the mare about reopening all schools en masse to all children.

Obviously, I can't link because of Paywall.

If any member of schools staff who has been identified as vulnerable i.e. receives the annual flu jab, then I think it would be fine to send low risk kids back.
I suspect though that the government want school staff to work who are at risk.

Evidence suggests that shutting down schools has had minimal effect on transmission rates.

Is your evidence the recent newspaper reports based on a Lancet Report that no journalist actually read in full? if so, that is crap evidence.

I meant to say vulnerable school staff did not have to go to school.