Nurseries back before schools?

[Russell19]

A friend of mine keeps saying nurseries and early years will be the first to go back.

AIBU in thinking this can't be right?!

Why would the smallest people who have no idea about social distancing and share saliva, toys etc. all the time be the first to go back? I get childcare problems but if we are looking at it from a health perspective surely older children would be best to go back first?

Beebie2
Actually the importance of the reception stage to future outcomes was the reason given. So yes, it is based on academic achievement. School is not childcare and childcare will not be the main consideration as indicated. Social distancing was not mentioned.

Its a mystery to me why people aren't more grateful for any extra time spent with their children really it’s a mystery? It’s a mystery as to why we aren’t enjoying having a toddler around all day whilst trying to work, trying to home school a reluctant 13 year old on subjects we can barely remember? Yes we’d all love to be at home with our children if we didn’t have to work, worry about money, had a playroom or the ability to take them out and about.
Comments like yours aren’t helpful - no one imagined house arrest when deciding to conceive.

OnlyFoolsnMothers I'm with you 100%. I'm done with all the people on FB going on about baking and planting seeds. They are not trying to work F/T at the same time. I'm the sole breadwinner here.

@Cam2020

What you say is completely true and can hardly be called unreasonable, but how can the nation get back to work if nurseries are shut? I'm currently WFH with my 3 yo at home and at it's just about doable because business is a slower. It's just not sustainable though. Maybe nurseries could open but people continue to WFH where possible? It's a real quandary and I have no answers!

So you want nursery workers to put their health on the line so you can work from home more effectively. It’s such a selfish attitude. You can look after your child and work, but it’s hard work I understand that, but you aren’t putting yourself or others at risk by working from home. But you are pushing for nurseries to return. Little children have no sense of social distancing, they climb all over staff and each other.

Nurseries can not keep your children safe.

Nurseries workers are being thrown to the wolves.

I have to ask- and I have asked in several threads and no one answers.

I see many of you say year 6 will be first back? Why? If for transition only then what about areas where we have the three tier system? Year 6 is literally of no significance here! It would be years 4 & 8.

@thegreenlight

I stand corrected. Hope it wasn’t supposed to be a confidential document 😳

Despite that, I was of the understanding that childcare was exactly our role at the moment, as set out by the U.K. government.

Beebie2
Not confidential, no. And not definite either but some sort of potential direction. Childcare is our role at the moment, but not when the children go back to school.

Freddiefox being able to work and look after a child simulataneously depends massively on your job. Mine is all spreadsheets and numbers with teleconferences. Its not the kind of thing you can do for 5 minutes, do a bit of playdough and come back to it. Just doesnt work.

You say
So you want nursery workers to put their health on the line so you can work from home more effectively. It’s such a selfish attitude.
My guess is most nursery workers are in their 20s. 'Putting their health on the line' statistically this is not really the case unless they have an underlying health issue. Anyone dying is of course extremely sad but we have to see this in perspective. The chance of someone in their 20s dying from COVID is probably less than 1%.
Would you rather everyone stay at home until a vaccine is found? How will we know its 100% effective? How will we know 100% of the population and anyone coming into the UK has been vaccinated? When will this vaccine be available? 6 months? 1 year? 4 years?
Should we all sit on our hands in the meantime?

@thegreenlight, many (most?) countries in the world don't start their children at school until 7 years old anyway, and have better educational outcomes then the UK, so getting children to read before year 1 really isn't a top of the list concern.

Bladeofgrass the scandinavians who dont start school til 7 have better quality nurseries than us and everyone goes to the same state nurseries. They also have a totally different social system - more equal society, more working mothers etc. In the UK some kids start so far behind their peers they need the time..

Its a mystery to me why people aren't more grateful for any extra time spent with their children
because it isn’t fucking extra time. i’m not on holiday, i work full time. so does my husband. next to that we also look after a 3 year old and home school a 7 year old.
„sorry, not now“ and”be quiet, i’m in a meeting” is what my kids hear most of the time. the time i gave is spend on schoolwork. we have no time for fun stuff, and i already reduced my sleep to 5 hours.

We now have clear evidence that children under 6 can't spread it. So it's the staff transmitting it to the children and each other that's the issue. That can be solved by PPE.

In other countries the Primary years have gone back and GPs are allowed contact with GCs. So within a week, we will see the results of that.

The next issue is public transport.

@thegreenlight

I don’t know if I’m happy or not about it.

I like the fact they’re considering educational outcomes, but I’d prefer them to be coming at it from a long term success perspective and how it might affect the R value - I guess consideration of all together would be best.

If they’re looking at educational outcomes. I hope they consider year 6 too - transition from primary to secondary is so important. It could impact on some kids for a long time.

@MotherofDinosaurs because it is 24 hours a day 7 days a week, relentless! While trying to fit in a full time job working from home. I don’t give a crap what anyone thinks when I say I just want 30 minutes to myself to drink a cup of coffee while it’s still at least warm.

This isn’t a bloody holiday!

At some point society is going to put itself at risk. This lock down was never until corona was eradicated or a vaccine was found, it was until numbers were controllable. Society has to start easing back in, why schools should be exempt from that is beyond me.

MrPickles73 baked with my 2yr old today- right that’s 30mins done with, what do I do for the remaining 11.5hrs? !!!

And to add to that, I know how to look after my children and I love them to the ends of the earth. But trying to juggle all the things at once is exhausting and i’m not surprised people are at breaking point!

Beebie2
Other countries may not send children to school until 7 but we do. We send them early, mainly because the government doesn’t trust early years development to parents and families, especially if they are on low incomes otherwise why would they provide the earliest free childcare to those in receipt of benefit that don’t work? All the correspondence I have been party to also stresses that we MUST get the children in vulnerable groups (free school meals, children with a social worker) to come to school for the same reason. At reception outcomes can be improved, the older a child gets the less likely they are to catch up with their peers. Not saying I agree with the motivation but it has always been the stance of the government before this crisis and it continues to be.

Ireland are opening nurseries first for key worker childcare - we already have childcare open for key workers so that's not really relevant.

@MrPickles73
I work in a nursery and of the 11 staff only one is in her 20s and thats the cleaner who isn’t in when the children are in
So, no they are not mostly in their 20s

@Ponoka7 do we? I thought the latest research showed children caught and spread it at the same rate as adults?

That is what the risk assessment is for, all schools need to discuss risks to individual children in their setting. I don’t think they are particularly concerned about year 6. You wait till everyone finds out they’re considering scrapping 11+ this year too!

@Bladeofgrass my mum teaches in a primary school in a country where school starts at 6/7. She belongs to a (big) group campaigning for school or compulsory pre-school to start earlier. Why? Because she gets 7 year old who have never seen a boom in their life. They have no support from home, so many reach secondary school unable to read. They get no qualification, and end up unemployed.
Kids from middle class households do well with the later start, kids from underprivileged backgroundes stand no chance. My mum has been in the same area for close to 50 years, she’s seen generations of this happening

My guess is most nursery workers are in their 20 one of my staff is under 30 the rest are 40 or above.

Not all workers have children. Not everyone needs childcare. Wouldn’t it be better to start people retuning to work who don’t have childcare needs and are able to work with social distancing? There are plenty of work places where people can sit part from each other, Who walk to work. Can work shorter shifts so they aren’t coming into contact with others.

Schools could open with older pupils, split classes so children aren’t next to each other and who have the capacity to understand social distancing. Who are able and are able to wash their own hands, and use hot water, wipe their own noises and cough into their hands.

Nursery I work at did open for key children but only had around 6 turn up a day out of 40 we expected so closed. Now just waiting to be told when to go back which they're no doubt hoping be sooner rather then later as no fees coming in etc.
Social distancing be impossible though just something have to work around I guess.