Has anyone else received notice that their child’s nursery is opening?

[Ethelfleda]

Received an email from DS’ nursery last week. Exact wording:

“The nursery will be reopening on the 11th of May for children who's parents are Key Workers/ Critical Workers and for those parents who are still working and have not been furloughed”

I haven’t responded and am resigned to wait and see what is announced tomorrow. Both DH and I are WFH but just about managing.
Has anyone else received similar?

For those wanting to send their children back to school or nursery as soon as possible, is that because you believe it to be safe or because it would be convenient for you to be able to work?

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET THIS BE TRUE

@Lindy2
Both. Plus she has been making wishes on the wishing tree every day that she can go back to nursery to see her friends and teachers. Plus she will have only just turned 4 when she starts school in September and I think it'll help with transitions. So 4 reasons. I will miss her when it all goes back to normal but luckily we do at least get 3 days a week together plus school holidays, even under normal conditions.

Lindy2 We’re at breaking point. Working with 2 under 4s is killing us and my working days are not as safe or as stimulating as I’d like for the children. My older one is miserable and desperately misses her friends and like a previous poster, she needs some stimulation and pre-school to help with school transition. For her, the balance of risk is worth it. For the baby, i don’t think the balance is the same, so we’ll potentially have some hard decisions.

If your post is a thinly veiled criticism, you should remember that no-one is experiencing lock down in the same way.

Cremebrule Not a criticism. I'm just genuinely curious.

I'm a childminder and personally I don't think opening in the near future will be safe. I have other childminder friends though that can't wait to open.

I'm just trying to understand what the general opinion and motivation is. I fully understand trying to work with 2 under 4 would be completely impossible. Caring for 2 young children is a full time job alone. I'm just not convinced that returning to childcare right now is a safe thing to do. Unfortunately I also don't have a solution as to what would be best.

I just wonder has your Nursery heard that Garden Centres are going to be allowed to open, and got confused over the type of nursery?

Good thinking @MollyButton

The DfE have said they haven't made any decisions yet and wait for Boris tomorrow.

Any communication from education settings now will be to source information eg who needs what childcare when. They don't know any more than anyone else about the lockdown release plans! Even governors, headteachers etc have been told nothing. It is all speculation, hearsay and rumours.

I do not plan to reopen until it's absolutely safe for me, my family and the children I care for.

When do you think it will be safe then and what measures are you putting in to place? Surely it's as safe now as it is in 6 months time.

Lindy2 I do feel for you. It must be hard as a childminder as I imagine it would be even harder to manage in a home environment than a nursery.

I think one of the bids (Tam I think) made a bit of a slip yesterday during question time. Someone was 'asking a question' (whinging) that Grant Shaps was going on about walking/cycling to work, when if parents can't send their kids to nursery/school they can't go to work..he was going on a bit & Tam said something along the lines of 'I'm sure you'll get an answer tomorrow that'll make you happy'

Seemed to hint that nursery/schools going back wasn't a million miles away.

🤷🏻‍♀️ Personally think any lifting is too soon, we need the R rate much lower first.

Plus social distancing is impossible, proper PPE won't be available and there are now quite a few kids in hospital with that new rash/temp/swelling that has been linked to CV and I'm hoping the Govt isn't going to choose to ignore that in order to shut the wringers up.

I really hope they don't open yet. I can't afford the fees as I'm not working. Not eligible for furlough so have zero income. Only keeping afloat because I don't have to pay nursery. I'm assuming they'll want fees whether mine attend or not if they are open.

Someone was 'asking a question' (whinging) that Grant Shaps was going on about walking/cycling to work, when if parents can't send their kids to nursery/school they can't go to work

God I hate the attitude that people shouldn't be asking the government questions, they should just shut up and stop whining. Grant Shapps was talking about how important it would be for people going back to work to use other means beside public transport, of course it's relevant to say that since schools and nurseries aren't open, a lot of people can't go back to work. Therefore is a new focus on commuting a signal that schools might be going back sometime soon? It's a reasonable question.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52575313

Interesting article showing the rest of Europe’s lifting of lockdown measures. Many are opening nurseries soon (if not opened already)
We may be 2 - 3 weeks behind many parts of Europe. But that would put us at a June opening time?

I know it’s a scary time and Covid has completely taken over everyone lives and have made people very anxious. But, for me, I’m happy to trust the science being provided to the government and so if that points to nurseries being safe to return then I would be happy to send DS back - granted I probably won’t rush to send him back immediately - but that’s not because I don’t think it’d be safe but more that it isn’t harming him or us a great deal him being at home at the moment. He is still only young and actually seems to have thrived having so much attention from him parents! Both of our employers are understanding and we have been working in the evenings and weekends to catch up.
It’s not ideal, but it’s not as bad as some people have it either.

Personally think any lifting is too soon, we need the R rate much lower first

Not a criticism at all as this is your personal opinion and you’re entitled to it but... may I ask why you believe this? Is it based on any evidence or is this just your gut feel?
Not that basing your opinion on a gut feeling is wrong of course when it comes to safety of you and your family. I was just curious.

The government can not keep the economy afloat until September, it is as simple as that. It is not a choice or a question, it is the reality.
In a very literal sense we will run out of money around July.

We are finance based, and can say with some certainty that we will not be able to keep the economy in deep freeze until September - just look at the numbers, so there has to be a solution in the very near future to getting everyone back to work.

Most schools have been asked to measure up, and work how they can reopen safely. This advice was given to them around 7/10 days ago from the government.

There will be no magical solution in September, coronavirus will still be with us then, as it is now. So we may as well save what we can of the economy in the meantime, as safely as we can, until next spring/summer when the vaccine will be ready.

lindy I would like to send my dc back to school because it is safe, well as safe now as it is ever going to be. The actual risk to them is miniscule. The real risk to my children now is not CoVid but mental, physical and emotional harm from being locked down for eight weeks. I am more concerned for them now than at anytime before, not to mention the educational impact on them.

I do not say this lightly, but the prospect of no school or contact with friends for six whole months will have terrible consequences for the young of that we can be reasonably certain. It is too big a sacrifice when we consider that most children are at no risk at all from coronavirus.

Most schools have been asked to measure up, and work how they can reopen safely. This advice was given to them around 7/10 days ago from the government.

No they haven't. If they chose to do this in anticipation of social distancing when students return then that is their choice. No directive has come from central government about this at all despite the media rubbish!

Ask any headteacher, we know of three in our own social circle - they have been asked to see how it would work. No one has given dates or definite plans to reopen, however most schools are now planning how they would reopen. You can call it rubbish if you like, but it is true.

Lockdown has always been about flattening the curve so the NHS can cope and not completely preventing infection. The NHS is coping, time to send the kids back imo. Unless you're intending to lockdown until the vaccine is available then Covid is something that we just have to deal with.

Not from central government they haven't. No directive from. DfE either. They may have been advised by LEA (who are trying to remain useful). Lots of schools have chosen to measure up with a 2m distance.

There have been no plans released for re opening at all. No time scales, no clue as to how many children, no indication of which year groups. I wish people would stop pedalling this bull shit.

We will know by 7.15pm herc so we haven't long to wait.

Our local authority advised the headteachers in our area to get some plans underway as to how it would work, what the issues are likely to be etc. I would expect this to be done, as a bare minimum I imagine the sectors that will be reopening soon will need their children to go to school in order to go to work.

The vaccine in the best case scenario will be ready and rolled out in 12/18 months we can not keep the schools closed until then, so we may as well open them now.

Biscuit that is the same argument I keep coming back to. That, and to wait until September could cause a second wave during flu season.

The second wave will come whatever will do. Right now, the imperial forecast tells us it is likely to be in mid December. We have some confidence in this modelling now, as it was able to confirm accurately the peak infection date at Easter, and it was spot on.

So if we know a second wave (that is different from a spike) is due in December, we really ought to be doing everything we can now to get the economy restarted, the children into school knowing another lockdown is possible, even inevitable.

Yes we may see a slight increase in cases as people return, but it won't cause a second wave, and even if it did. It is far better for this to happen in the middle of the summer, than in the depths of winter when the NHS will be struggling anyway.

A June phased return will be good opportunity to road test the infection rate, the operational logistics and more importantly to give our children some sense of normality. I can not imagine what kind of state our children will be in if we end up with a September return date for schools. Six months out of school more or less it will be...

Going back to school now or September, it will make no difference in terms of risk. We will be in precisely the same position whatever date we choose from a risk perspective.

I don't disagree with schools reopening. HTs should be information gathering eg which staff are shielding, how many students could fit in each classroom, possible sites for extra sinks. But there's no point in planning anything because we just don't know yet.

I heard of staff in 5 hour long meetings to discuss potential re opening strategies.... What is the point until we know the government plans? 5 hours of everyone's time wasted.