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?

Looking forward to sending kids back to school as soon as it opens.

Because people need to work? Not everyone can work from home and the government aren't going to pay people's wages until a vaccine is available!

Why are we thinking so much about schools?

What about businesses reopening? In major cities transport is overwhelmed with commuters. It's not just about schools, it's every commuter, every open plan office with high volumes of staff etc.

I’m not too concerned about my children, I am very concerned about my DP who falls into the vulnerable category. He will however be going back to work fully directly his office is back running and so I guess I will also send the kids back and we just cross our fingers and hope when he gets it, he doesn’t die.

There are lots and lots of people in my school who use grandparents as childcare. No idea how that’s going to work.

Both my eldest 2 children are classed as vulnerable and we were vent sent an email to say they could leave earlier before they closed them last month. I have no intentions of letting them go back, until numbers have really dropped. My third child also is meant to be starting reception year this September but I dont even know when I will be letting them go back in. I think it could even be next year. Who knows. Only God knows. I think realistically it would be September the government will allow, but perhaps in drips and drabs. My eldest will be going into year 8. And it's such a shame he missed a good portion of his first year of secondary school. I am home schooling them and just hoping for the best and staying positive and optimistic. I think that's the best we can do for now

The lockdown isnt about stopping people getting the virus. It's about stopping lots of people getting it now and overwhelming the already underfunded nhs.
During this time new hospitals are being set up. The nhs is desperately recruiting more staff, companies all over the world and churning out ventilators....
I would expect the virus to naturally reduce over the summer months and life will hopefully get back to some sort of normal.
In the autumn it will start to pick back up.... Particularly vulnerable people will be advised to self isolate. The rest of us will be expected to catch it and recover, creating a herd immunity and the hospitals will be ready to deal with those who do suffer complications.
Lockdowns cant go on indefinitely, the economy simply cant cope...

I honestly think in the end the government will say to everyone, you have to do a personal risk assessment and decide whether you should be shielding or somehow lowering your risk of transmission. They can then take a step back and put the responsibility onto the individual.

@justanotherneighinparadise I don't know how that can work. Most of those people will need a living, where will that come from if their personal risk assessment says they can't go out? I think it's more likely that we'll be (eventually) told business as usual and some people have to just accept that they're at increased risk.

@elizabethrose Macron announced yesterday that schools are to go back on 11th May. However, there is no announcement yet from Spain. If Europe sends kids back to school, one imagines that the U.K. will follow. Until Macron’s announcement, I was pretty certain we wouldn’t go back til September.

The virus will still be as dangerous in months to come but they may have found more effective ways to treat it by then and hopefully hospitals will be able to handle it better. We can’t predict the future but I can certainly keep positive that the situation won’t be as dire as it is now.

Oh goodie. Another bloody thread about schools reopening.

I guess it will be Universal Credit for those in the shielded category.

Lockdowns cant go on indefinitely, the economy simply cant cope.

Yes.

Also, we can’t have hoards of children missing out on education for a very extended time period.

I don’t know what the answer is, particularly for the vulnerable, but full scale lockdown can only be a temporary measure. And was always intended as such.

How on earth is it possible to say that children aren't super spreaders of Corona when they are not being tested! The fact that they could easily have it without showing symptoms surely suggests that they WILL be super spreaders. I just don't understand how it's possible to get any evidence that they are not super spreaders without any testing in the community.

I am prepared to send my kid to school as soon as it opens. I'll myself be out and about everywhere as soon as everything opens: hairdressers, cinema, clothing shops, restaurants, mingling with people. I also have a flight mid-July to a country I'm a citizen of (dual nationality, they will let me in), and if the flight is happening - I'm obviously going.

Both my child and me and absolutely healthy with not a single underlying condition. Both fit, both slim, I'm also young. I'd be happily living in Sweden now, if I could realistically.

I understand it's scary for elderly and for people with underlying conditions. I'm not one of those, I'm not scared and I want to get back to my life as soon as possible.

I agree with PP that it is going to be a personal thing when to send your child back.

For example, I wouldn't send DS back on Tuesday, but may send him back in May.

My friend is refusing to consider sending her DS back till at least September

Difference being my DS is not vulnerable hers is.

I also think that the government and schools should back the parents decision and absence records etc should be binned till September.

How this is all going to work though is so complicated because while I would send DS in, that is relying on teachers not being vulnerable and happy to go back to work in what is a germ filled environment on top of all the other shit they have to deal with day to day.

Also if they open schools, they need to open businesses at the same time or as soon after as possible

I understand it's scary for elderly and for people with underlying conditions. I'm not one of those, I'm not scared and I want to get back to my life as soon as possible.

You understand it is about protecting people form catching it from your super it family , right?

The virus won't ever go away, it's here now and that's how it'll stay. Would you prefer schools never reopen??

Have you looked into home schooling on a permanent basis??

I am not in a vulnerable group but am middle aged and over weight and think my outcome might be pretty poor if I catch it. I don't want to leave my dc without a mother. I would not have any choice about returning to work if the schools open but am definitely more at risk than some of my very young colleagues. Not a great time to decide to look for a different job either. When we are all accepting it's time to end social isolation then fair enough, but the idea that schools should be the first to go back really worries me.

Well tis difficult, you send your children back, if grandparents are carers, well realistically that is out.

I do wonder if and when the schools will go back to fining those whose children do not attend

You do realise there may never be an effective vaccine?
A lot of the people dying over the past week/now were infected before schools closed, when we were all happily sending children into school (well we weren’t as we were self isolating due to symptoms, but most were). The risk when they go back will be the same as it was before they closed.

Be ridiculous to wait til a vaccine the country wouldnt survive-i dont know how it would work half thr class in the others at home its just not feasible teachers wouldnt cope

Well I am a bit alarmed at the recovery rates. Have noticed that worldometers is now just putting N/A in the place of results. This has been for the past three days. I found this out by googling it. I find it incredible that the people recovering is barely 2000. How can we send children back to school when the recovery rates are quite honesly appalling compared to other countries.

United Kingdom cases:
Updated 14 Apr at 13:42 local
Confirmed
88,621
+4,342
Deaths
11,329
+717
Recovered
1,918

Its is shocking

Once they decide to reopen the schools they will come out with some studies to show "the science" says it's perfectly safe and much more beneficial for dc to be with friends and get educated.