Poll on if you would send your (primary) aged dc back to school on 11/5

[THATscurryfungeBITCH]

Would you be happy to send your primary aged dc back to school on 11th May?

Yes - YABU
No - YANBU

Just as an aside, I don’t think a vaccine for the common cold is analogous to a vaccine for CoViD19. There are hundreds of different viruses that cause the common cold, most of which are rhinoviruses or RSV and parainfluenza, rather than coronaviruses. That, combined with the fact that the common cold is very rarely fatal or even very troublesome for most healthy people, means there’s no point developing a vaccine to the common cold - there would need to be 200+ vaccines developed, and it’s just not worth the expense or time it would take pharma companies to do, especially as most people wouldn’t bother getting the injections. So the fact that there isn’t a vaccine for the common cold shouldn’t be taken as evidence that a vaccine for CoViD19 won’t be forthcoming.

That’s not to say there might not be other reasons a vaccine won’t happen - eg the virus keeps mutating too fast or immunity doesn’t last.

It just seems so quick and why have they cancelled exams when that's when they would start anyway?

Because the admin involved in exams takes months and involves thousands of people. They couldn’t go ahead with any uncertainties about whether closure would continue. Plus, hardly fair to expect teens (with very varied support) to just not know if exams would happen.

Cancelling exams is a completely different thing. Exams had to be cancelled as they had no idea when schools would be returning, not because they knew for sure that they definitely wouldn’t be returning in time.
I think some people think that all this has been completely pre planned... that schools would close on x date for x amount of time, that businesses would close on y date for y amount or time, that lockdown would last until z date. That’s not the case. It’s a fluid situation.

Personally I can’t see schools going back until the 12 week shielding is up is middle of June then it’s about 2 weeks to the Summer holidays

4 weeks from the middle of June until our school finishes, and we finish earlier than most.

Yes it is only the SUN saying this. So I think it is pretty safe to say that the sun saying this might happen is not reliable news.

Yes

I wonder how many of the people happy to return to school before mid June will need some sort of before/after school club/grandparent help in order to go to work?

If we open before the people who’ve been told not work come back before 12 weeks are up, apart from not having enough teachers to staff classes, we have nobody to run the breakfast club as that’s entirely run by TAs-ALL of which (only 4, but it is all of them) who are shielding because they or a household member is in the shielding group.

This is why I don’t think anything will happen till mid/late June at the earliest.

Is it not feasible that schools could go back before the end of the shielding period for those not in this category (or living with someone etc in this category)? I genuinely don’t know the answer to this, but it may be a way to make things work. In any case, if I were in the shielding category I think I would want to shield for longer than 12 weeks anyway.

If schools open before these who are shielding can return then that would put those in that group at an academic disadvantage. Many of them already will be due to the nature of the reason they need to shield

No I would not.

As far as I can see very little progress has been made in terms of reassuring the public at all since or during lockdown.

I also think those stating there's no choice of schools are officially opened are overlooking the fact of how completely unenforceable any type of fines will be, specifically if primary children are used as guinea pigs ahead of older children. Why should government determine which children are less valuable or at risk?

There's no evidence I've seen yet to convince me to send my 5 year old outside yet no way.

And as for the suggestion that the economy necessitates this - the government need to assume some responsibility here for their inaction when in full possession of clear warnings at very key early stages of this virus emerging. Human life surely trumps financial costs in any civilised society, however bad business is hit?

Is it not feasible that schools could go back before the end of the shielding period for those not in this category (or living with someone etc in this category)?

Well, certainly not in my school.

Those locally seemed to be in the same situation. Because we were all desperately trying to find as many supply teachers as we could to cover the gaps, there were none to be found because we were all in the same boat.

If the schools open before mid June-we’ll just be in the same situation again and it will be back to massive classes with a TA. Social distancing at its finest!

In Denmark, they are opening in classes of 10, mainly outside, with social distancing, testing and deep cleaning in place.

Why should our children and staff not be entitled to these sort of safeguards here? Especially as we are in a country with 12,000+ deaths and they only have 300.

To be honest though with regards to the shielding people it’s likely an alternative solution is going to have to be found.
It’s very very unlikely that those shielding are going to be able to go back out as normal after 12 weeks. It’s likely to be 6 months minimum. They will still be at risk after 12 weeks.
I think it’s fairly unlikely that schools will stay closed for 6 months.

Are we getting confused with what was initially said and what it turned out to be because the shielded group who are the below:

People who have had an organ transplant who remain on long term immune suppression therapy
People with specific cancers - people:
with cancer who are undergoing active chemotherapy or radical radiotherapy for lung cancer
with cancers of the blood or bone marrow such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma who are at any stage of treatment
having immunotherapy or other continuing antibody treatments for cancer
having other targeted cancer treatments which can affect the immune system, such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors
who have had bone marrow or stem cell transplants in the last 6 months, or who are still taking immunosuppression drugs
People with severe respiratory conditions including all cystic fibrosis, severe asthma and severe COPD. Severe asthmatics are those who are frequently prescribed high dose steroid tablets.
People with rare diseases and inborn errors of metabolism that significantly increase the risk of infections (such as SCID, homozygous sickle cell)
People on immunosuppression therapies sufficient to significantly increase risk of infection
People who are pregnant with significant congenital heart disease

Are going to hit a very small proportion of being who work or go to school and the majority it does will be those who ineract with them. They are not going to be able to go back to normal until a real long term solution is found

@Sirzy If schools open before these who are shielding can return then that would put those in that group at an academic disadvantage. Many of them already will be due to the nature of the reason they need to shield

You simply cannot Im afraid as awful as it sounds put the needs of the small amount shielding ahead of everyone else. Plus the fact its not in the best needs of those shielding to stop everything else either

If schools open before these who are shielding can return then that would put those in that group at an academic disadvantage.
The number of children shielding will be small, though, and if there's a gradual opening it is likely to be on a social and childcare model.

I think so Quartz2208. Those in the actual shielding group will unfortunately be shielding for quite a long time yet. The rest of the country cannot wait that long to go back to a semblance of normal.

For those still wondering why May 11th seems to be such a magical date it's because when Boris first imposed the lockdown, he promised a review on the restrictions every three weeks. The first one is today (Thursday 16th Apr) and it is widely anticipated that all lockdown measures will stay in place exactly as they are. The next one is on May 7th and it has been reported that some ministers, including Rishi Sunak, are pushing for some phased start to the lifting of the lockdown then. Based on other countries it has been assumed this may well start with schools. (Note that that this is all conjecture - there's no evidence this will actually happen). However if it does, May 7th is a Thursday so it makes sense that schools would go back on the 11th - the following Monday. This is where the date comes from, it has nothing to do with France.

Nope

It’s still complete speculation though JovialNickname

Yes for sure

Are we getting confused with what was initially said and what it turned out to be

I am not confused, no.

Yes

No, unless something drastically changed that made me happy that the risk had decreased.

so @Appuskidu your school has a high proportion of the shielded 1.5 million because there are those who are at a higher risk and those who are shielded and they are different

That said I agree I think the sensible time to start back school is the end of those 12 weeks.

Yes BUT only in the case of us returning to work... no point in sending DC when we are at home. There are no vulnerable people in our household and we are not in direct contact with anyone shielding either. So we would be able to test the water so to speak.