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

Nope, but then I have been home educating for years anyway lol. My kids can sew & knit, cook a meal from scratch, clean and do their own washing, pay bills, do a shop and actually learn something that they can use!! lol.
Tbh aside from our lack of their clubs ie Drama, walks and trips to London for the free museums and parks, they have barely noticed anything is amiss!
They do miss their mates though, but are playing a lot of online games with their cousins so its pretty fun. x

@Standingstone77

As an A+E doctor my daughter is already staying in school. There is no choice. Its interesting to read the armchair epidemiologist/virologist/public health perspective though.

I take my hat off to you for your job. Your tone however lets you down somewhat. People here are not 'armchair' anything. They are worried parents making horrible decisions under circumstances that even the experts don't fully understand.

I work as a TA in a primary school and have two primary school aged children. I’m still working (reduced hours) to cover emergency care for vulnerable and keyworkers children. I’d say no, at the moment I wouldn’t. It’s pretty much impossible to get primary age children to socially distance from each other, our classrooms are too small to allow enough space between them at desks or on the carpet. Our corridors aren’t wide enough for children or adults to pass each other with the distance guidelines say between us. Until we’re well past peak and have reassurance that the virus is under control and those who’ve had it can’t get it against I don’t think schools should return. If they did I think it would be a disaster. The economy might need workers to get back but all of those families dropping off at the same time (400+ children at our setting), children learning and playing together which can’t be done at distance would result in so many people risking being infected.
My children are desperate to get back, as am I, they miss their friends and I’m very worried about the kids I work with but it has to be done in the right time scales with the right evidence based reassurances.

100% YES

I'm not expecting schools to go back before half term

Yes dd back at school and ds back at nursery as soon as they reopen.

Yes I would.
I'm still going in to the office two days a week and dh having to use holiday.

My boss wants me to go back to my normal hours after lock down which I have no idea what I will do with the kids if schools don't go back.

Yep. We live in a small village and I’m a key worker

Absolutely YES.

For those who want to send their children back to school are you worried that leaving lockdown without an proper containment strategy will lead to a second worse peak?

Or are you confident the gov will contain virus so this doesn't happen again?

Or are you not thinking about the virus spreading further and basing your decision solely on financial considerations?

Knowing what I know and see every day at work? No.

We will not be put of the woods by then.

Absolutely not. DS has severe asthma, enough that he's shielded and DD has asthma and two congenital heart defects. The fear of what this might do to them is in no way diminished until there's a vaccine. When I hear people saying the first things they're going to do when the lockdown is over I want to cry. It feels like many think the danger will have passed because schools reopen or restaurants and pubs begin trading again. That being said, I don't expect schools to reopen before September.

Or are you not thinking about the virus spreading further and basing your decision solely on financial considerations?

It's not ridiculous to consider the financial implications. Austerity on steroids will cause far more deaths than covid ever will.

No. We are a family of 4, working/attending 4 different schools, so feel quite vulnerable. Social distancing is impossible for children and staff. At the primary school there are a lot of grandparents who drop off and pick up. Huge bottle neck, all squished in together. Normally quite fun but the thought of it now, quite dystopian.

Yes. I would send my DD. No you are not being unreasonable

Yes there is concern about children's education and well-being, being off school. But the main reason for people wanting schools to go back early is childcare so people can go back to work. So all those people proposing children in on a rota, half day here, half day there .... That's not going to work. How are parents going to work of they have to pick their children up at lunch time?

And we cannot practice social distancing with all children in school.

My DD goes to school most days anyway as both me and DH are key workers, although there is usually no more than 15 kids and just a few teachers. It won’t be 11th May as they would need to plan and give advanced warning to teachers etc and they can’t do that as they still don’t know where we’ll be figures wise in 3 weeks time.

No

No

Perniciousdot, apologies for my tone, it was not meant like that, I simply mean that honestly there is no conspiracy. If children are well/normal health and their parents are too, then catching this virus is not a very big risk To them individually as in at least 90% it’s a mild self limiting illness. The point everyone forgets because they are afraid (Understandably, but frustratingly in threads like this leading to poor decisions imo) is that social distancing/lockdown etc is to protect the people most likely to get it badly and be seriously ill or die- the elderly, infirm, on immune modulating treatments. So sending kids to school is not a problem if they are still not seeing their grandparents and not going home to the sibling on chemo or with severe asthma etc.
Bearing in mind also we only test people severe enough to be in hospital- I suspect there are hundreds of thousands who have/had it now- mild, unremarkable, completely recovered and not tested.

Standingstone77

Surely you must see that your DD being in school with a small number of other pupils and staff is considerably different to the whole cohort + all staff and all of the mixing and moving that goes on during a normal school day?

Yes of course. This is going to take years to get through, not a few more weeks. There will never be a vaccine/ cure as it is a complex disease regarding the immune system (one example; 40 years since HIV and no cure there).
The only way to fight this is to contract it and build immunity.

The head of eldest DC's school (middle school) sent out an email today on behalf of all three schools about lockdown and when it will be phased out or ended for schools.

The main points from the email were:

• there are currently no plans to reopen this academic year or even next academic year as no one knows when the lockdown will end

• plans to reopen will be made once an end date is known

• when they do reopen there are likely to be measures in place such as social distancing. The layout of the school, number of pupils, and the structure of the school day make it impossible to keep everyone 2m apart as there simply isn't the capacity for it (lunchtimes, breaktimes, and moving around school are specifically mentioned). With this in mind they anticipate it is going to be unlikely that will be able to operate a full school day for all pupils at the same time and are currently exploring potential options with the governors and LA. They will keep us posted on what is discussed

• school want parents to know they are committed to the safety of their pupils and staff and even when lockdown is lifted they will not reopen unless they can meet the requirements of social distancing and have enough staff to cover, if they cannot meet these requirements then online remote learning will continue

I’m a teacher. I’ll go back when I’m told to but I won’t be bringing DC with me. DH will take unpaid leave if necessary.

@Brogley Thank you for sharing that. I have not had any communication from DCs school about this. But that email is very reassuring. We all want our kids to be safe, not just to be told its okay as kids rarely die from this.