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

I would of course.
It’s simple really. If you are not happy to send them back, then don’t, regardless.

I’m badly asthmatic, just shy of the shielding group. DC are desperately missing friends. There’s kids in the class of ICU nurses. All my work is postponed till end July. I’m going with no for now but it feels terribly selfish.

There have been several posts along the lines of:
”But children aren’t vulnerable anyway”. 😒

It’s quite worrying that people don’t actually understand what the problem of sending children back to school too early is.

Why is this a question? When schools are open you send your children. Since when do parents get to choose? The only parents who should be allowed to choose is parents of children with health concerns, I can't believe how many people would keep children off for grandparents. Some people are so flippant about education, keep grandparents away.

It's not that simple. It's not only grandparents who are at risk. Looking at the ONS figures up to 3rd April, over 10% of deaths were in the under 65s. Surely most people have friends or family with asthma or diabetes or high blood pressure, usually living perfectly normal lives with medication, but who could be at risk of, if not dying, getting badly ill.

And parents do have a choice. There has always been the option of home-schooling for example. I would never have thought I'd do that in a million years, but if we were told schools were all opening in May and it was compulsory then I'd consider it because long-term health is more important to me than a temporary break in education.

Everyone has very different circumstances. I'm very lucky to be able to work from home at the moment still.
Anyone who needs schools open can make a choice on that - but to allow kids who can learn from home for a few months to do so then makes the school less full and so less risky for those kids who do go back.

@MigginsMs No one knows what will have happened in March. Why then?
Might it just make sense to get a better idea of what is happening in the UK first? To see when numbers dying start falling? To see testing rolled out so we have an idea how many have been infected?
The government are saying only 4% have been infected. If that is true most people getting it would lead to a very large death toll. But if most people had got it it may be safer to return to normal sooner. We have to test. We have to have evidence to make decisions. Instead of guessing and knee jerk reactions.

Totally agree HP. Even if children aren’t vulnerable they can catch it and be asymptomatic and spread to loads of others.

The virus will still be out there on May 11th. I want to wait till after the summer

I don’t really get this. Do you think the virus will be gone in autumn? Don’t you think catching it in summer will be safer than going into flu season, when there will be fewer hospital beds available?

I can understand people saying they won’t send their children back until there’s a vaccine. But I really don’t understand the people who think it’ll be safer to expose their children in autumn or winter.

No as one DC is on shield list.

My children are in key worker provision at the moment, so will continue attending regardless.

I’ll send mine back as soon as schools open, but I won’t ask my mum to do pick up until it is safe for her (I guess when there’s a vaccine available or a test to show she’s already had it).

To those of you saying that you'd send your child back in because they're missing their friends and the social contact that school brings- would you feel the same if schools were still observing social distancing guidance when they reopen? How are your children going to feel about being in the same space as their friends but not being able to hug/high five them? How do you think they'll react when told to keep their distance from the people they've missed and want to be close to?

I'm not asking to be goady, I'm genuinely interested because I'm trying to prepare for the issues that will arise as we start to reopen.

My school is currently open from 7:30 am to 6:00pm to the children of key workers. My staff have stepped up without hesitation and even worked Good Friday and Easter Monday because our parents needed us. However, to keep my staff and children safe, we have rigorous procedures in place including each child having their own desk and resources, having the tables and chairs wiped down at the end of each lesson, sitting at their own table for lunch and maintaining the 2m distancing even at break time. Normal playtime/lesson activities are out of the window. There can be no shared equipment, no tag games, no standing in teams.
The hardest part of all of this was the other week when one of my FS children was really upset in school, I think they were just over tired with the whole situation. It's absolutely horrible to watch a child cry and not be able to give them the comfort that a pat on the arm or sideways hug would give.
If schools reopen while social distancing guidelines are still in place, my fear is that children will find it very difficult to maintain without constant "nagging" from the adults in school. Which is going to make everyone unhappy. Then I fear, we'll have parents complaining that their children aren't happy in school but there'll be nothing we can do about it.

And if only 4% had got it as the government is saying, the current death rate could mean 60% getting it would lead to 210,000 deaths in the UK. Or if 80% got it 240,000 people dying.
These figures do not include care home deaths or people who were terminally ill.
It is a lot of people.
Now maybe the government is wrong? Maybe more have got infected?
But either schools going back would kill a lot of people. Or the government has no idea what is happening with this virus and we are being trusted to accept decisions made on that basis.
I don't understand anyone who has anyone vulnerable making decisions to send kids back based on this.
And yes I know there are medics working who have asthma. They are also wearing PPE. And they are dying.

I know there’s no money but I think schools have to change before they are able to properly reopen
I work in a setting which takes me into various primary schools
I find high schools are a bit better, but the following things I think will have to be improved. These are in high achieving schools also.

No soap or proper hot water for hand washing
Food all over tables and floors building up for days/weeks
Shared facilities like pens, pencils, books, computer keyboards that are never wiped down
One cleaner for a primary school with three forms per year
Shared cups and water jugs that are just rinsed with cold water and put away
Staff rooms that are literally never cleaned

There’s just a layer of grime in most schools I find. A lot of schools round here are
I know the virus doesn’t live for weeks on surfaces etc but kids constantly put things in their mouths, share things etc. I’m not sure how it could be remedied. Nothing shared ? Food in disposable happy meal style boxes ? Supervised hand washing with actual soap and warm water ?

@Tulipstulips With all the social distancing and lock down, I would expect deaths from flu to be very low this year. They have even without a lock down in previous years went as low as 400 people dying. I suspect this year will be a record low. Flu is not as contagious as covid 19. And with people keeping apart 6 feet and not going to gatherings, the chance for it to spread is very reduced.

There may never be a vaccine.
The new normal may be choosing between your children going to school and your children seeing their grandparents. But then children were going to school and seeing grandparents in flu season even though the flu jab isn't 100% effective.
If you are saying now "I can home educate for years to come" will you also not let your children go to shops, the library, Cubs, ballet, and swimming? For years?

It depends on what it will be like for them. It’s at least 50/50 mine have had it DD had an awful cough temp chest tightness red eyes and lack of taste and smell (as did I) during this lockdown period and we live in london so without actual proof in an antibody test I am fairly confident she has had it (and by extension so must her brother though he was merely slightly tired with a sore throat) so I am not worried about the getting and passing on
I am worried though that if it is too different to normal how it will effect them

That said I am expecting from the 11th it will be an increase in key workers (back to what it was at the start) alongside other things opening (which seems to be the model) and actually mine won’t be able to go back until at least mid june onwards

Will depend on the science. Tbh, I highly doubt that the schools will be reopened that early anyhow. I'm imagining Sept.

Why is this a question? When schools are open you send your children. Since when do parents get to choose? The only parents who should be allowed to choose is parents of children with health concerns, I can't believe how many people would keep children off for grandparents. Some people are so flippant about education, keep grandparents away.

This ^

And parents do have a choice. There has always been the option of home-schooling for example. I would never have thought I'd do that in a million years, but if we were told schools were all opening in May and it was compulsory then I'd consider it because long-term health is more important to me than a temporary break in education

You would, of course, have to give up your child’s place if you decide to home-school.

Each to their own but it’s going to be harder to home-school when school reopen because all the online resources and support from the school will stop.

I don't think people are really hearing this loudly and clearly enough:

The UK economy is about to enter the worst financial catastrophe in over 300 years. Think how many will die as a result of that.

FWIW, I don't think schools are going to reopen in May. But we can't magically cheat our way out of people dying as a result of this - we're just choosing who. The longer the lockdown, the worse the economic hit, the worse the impact will be over the following DECADES, in which people will yes, die. Not from some virus, but from economic dearth.

I don’t really get this. Do you think the virus will be gone in autumn? Don’t you think catching it in summer will be safer than going into flu season, when there will be fewer hospital beds available?

Again, this! Some people seem to be uncritically fixed upon the idea that September is the safe and reasonable point at which to return kids to school. This has come from NOWHERE scientifically. People have just married up looking at the normal school calendar and adding a few months of fear on top, and boom, September.

People should absolutely be listening to the experts here - if nothing else, the best position to take is one of informed agnosticism to any official source.

@Chillicheese123 I am not English. I agree. I know it is because of money but I find most public buildings in England including schools and most workplaces to be dirty. It is something that is really noticeable if you have lived somewhere where public buildings and schools are cleaned properly. So where my cousins send their kids to school, the school cleaners do a more thorough job of cleaning and they have a deep clean 4 times a year. During the deep clean everything is thoroughly cleaned. It just does not happen in England.

I'd rather send mine back in May or June than later in the year, given that we've no reason to expect there'll be either a vaccine or cure within the next few months.

The risk of the disease to them doesn't particularly concern me. I realise a few children without underlying conditions, which mine don't have, still got pretty ill. But the odds are very small. The reason schools were shut is because of children potentially spreading the disease. That's not changed, but I'd rather mine were contagious in summer instead of in autumn right in time for flu season. Purely because of pressure on the NHS.

@drspouse You are scare mongering.
And I want it be low risk. I know no vaccine is 100% safe. I know for example that people still catch TB in Britain. But I want it to be low risk.
Given Matt Hancock said numbers dying will still rise from the number of dead reported yesterday, how would it be low risk to send my kids back to school?

Surely we wouldn’t get a choice? If schools are open our children will be expected to attend.

In some areas primaries are divided into infants and juniors. I think you could more easily open junior schools because the kids are older, hopefully all toilet trained except for SEN and understand hygiene.

4-7 year olds, not so much.

I think 11 May is too early.

Why do people think flu season in Autumn will be an issue this year. In the best years only 400 people die of flu. With social distancing and lock down I expect us to have very flu deaths.