Keeping children at home until September

[Witchcraftandhokum]

I work in a school and I'm seeing and hearing a lot of this both on here and in the contact I have with parents. I am worried about how we will manage social distancing and whether we will have PPE if the schools open soon, but I do appreciate the need for kids to be in school, particularly Year 6 and 10.

I also don't know how it will work if a lot of parents chose not send their kids back until September. I wonder just how many parents will do this?

So...
YABU - My kids won't be back until September.
YANBU - My kids will go back as soon as the schools open.

I asked a simple question about masks based on what I’d read and rather than an actual answer I got this...

You seem to be confusing masks with nappies? We all wear masks where I live. No, we do not change them every 20 minutes. I am getting more and more baffled at the utterly weird reactions towards masks in western countries. They are simple to use and really really not a big deal!!!

I’m sorry if I’m ‘weird’, I just have no experience of them.

I'm really surprised by a lot of these answers. My kids (2 & 4) seemed to have benefited from being at home and vocalise their preference for not going back on a daily basis. We are relatively comfortable financially. However, there is absolutely NO WAY that one of us could just give up our jobs at the beginning of what is set to be the biggest recession in 300 years. Even if we did, we have both have 3 month notice periods. My husband and I work in very different settings, but I can't imagine how either of us would just proclaim we're not going in to work. I am NHS, so have still being going in any way, but I can't imagine saying to my boss that I won't be seeing patients in clinic or I'd like to take some unpaid leave. That's just not how the real world works is it? If we don't send our children back to nursery when my husband's furlough finishes then we'd be struggling to pay the mortgage by the end of the year. Aren't most people in that position???

masks get soggy on the inside because of the water vapour we breathe out not because of saliva, any mask whether fabric or not will be wet on the inside within 30-60 minutes

I don't think it's a choice people will have to make. Schools won't go back until September.

So no one can go back to school at all because some kids are scared of masks🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Pretty sure kids were scared of gas masks in the war but don’t think they had an option.

Kokeshi123 do you know how they manage the issue of young children changing soggy masks etc there? I can’t see how it’s in any way hygienic to wear the same soggy mask all day so they must take multiple masks and change regularly?

So far I've never sent my child to school in a mask----because schools are still canceled here. She has worn a mask outside the house ever since schools were canceled, and will have to wear one when they start up again.

As far as I know, they just wear the same mask throughout the day. I could be wrong though. In Taiwan, the government has set out a rationing system allotting three disposable masks each day to every person in the country, so perhaps the schools make them use a different one in the afternoon, after lunch.

As for removing masks, you'd just remove it and throw it away in the case of a disposable mask, or put it in a bag to take it home if it is a washable one. I have seen instructions showing people how to remove a mask without touching their face and I guess they probably teach these things to the kids, same as teaching the hand washing routine.

Super super high-level fiddly handling of masks with all these elaborate rules and protocols is essential in medical settings, where doctors are doing highly dangerous operations like intubating patients, getting close to them and getting their masks splattered with flecks of phlegm carrying scary amounts of the virus. In ordinary civilian settings, just remove the masks by the elastic so you are not getting your fingers all over your face when you remove it. That's about it. Masks don't get soggy, in my experience---I've never had an issue with this. Again, it's not like we are intubating patients!

Thank you Kokeshi123

@stilltiredinthemorning alot of families with young children have one working parent/one working full time and one working part time, one parent working shift work around other partners job, so I can totally see how keeping kids home in those situations is doable. Infact most of the families we know, one parent either stays at home or works part time/weekend hours, us as a family included. I would quite happily keep my children home and drop as it wouldn't affect my working hours. I know this isn't th case for everyone, but I certainly don't think it's that unusual. For some, nursery fees outweigh a working parents wage, so it makes sense for that parent to stay home when the children are young.

@TeacupDrama

the R rate in Germany has continued to fall since schools reopened and other measures eased, there was a one day spike the day after but a week later the r has falled from 0.75 to 0.65

Thank you for supporting the benefit of PPE for the general public and in schools. As germany have made face masks compulsory if you leave the house. So it's very likely that has contributed to the lowering r value in germany. Which supports the needs for facemask in public and while in schools.

And actually there is a lot of research that shows that facemask have a SIGNIFICANT impact on the rate of Covid infection. It's quite prevalent and more is being submitted to peer reviewed journals quite frequently currently. Although it has been disputed (as all good research is), ultimately the research has been able to prove its importance and the importance of masks and refute any research disputing it. (Which is good academic practice and shows that the research supporting masks is rather solid and statistically significant).

What will be different by September though?

Mine are year 10 and 12. Both will go back as and when their schools are open. But, both are boarders and I suspect their schools will be pretty careful. The older one has pointed out that if her school is able to open part time she can probably manage to commute (with our help!!)

While there is a lot they are missing out on at the moment I think the essentials are keeping going pretty well on the whole so we can wait. I'm very aware how lucky we are.

TeacupDrama

But schools in Germany are not fully open. and the pupils are social distancing and wearing masks.

and the Danish government has recorded a rise in r value since they partially re-opened schools.

Although they have remained both lower than 1

@LittleFoxKit

It is puzzling the UKs aversion to fabric masks, even more so when theres huge amounts of research currently being published which supports there value in preventing spread of Covid..

I wonder about that too, and the only answer I can find is that English people don’t want to be wrong.
we can’t take a look around and think hmm other countries have lower infection rates than is what are some of the things they are doing that we could easily do?
But rather than back track we carry on pushing through spouting the same old lines that masks don’t work, even though there are now many reports that suggest they can help, give it a go.

I also wonder whether there is an element of thinking we are superior and have better ways than those other silly countries.

Either that or people just don’t want to put themselves for others.

Also I've worn face masks in varying forms for years, all day for either work purposes (toxic chemicals/substances) or more casual fabric ones for sport (cold in winter/stopping flies going into my mouth/up my nose in the summer), and have never have a issue with hugely soggy masks, and that's even with breathing heavily due to doing sports.

R will rise. That’ll just happen. Just needs to stay low

Drivingdownthe101 OK--fair enough, my response was pretty snippy. I apologize for that.

It's a snippiness that is borne from my frustration with the whole situation. I'm in a culture where people wear masks and don't have all these problems with them that are being claimed, and it really does seem to help keep infection rates under control (not a magic cure, but quite a big help).

And I look at the situation in the UK-high death rates, economic collapse, poor parents absolutely at breaking point-and it's just so frustrating because I don't want these awful things to be happening to the people I care about in the UK, and I know that the situation could be improved quite a lot through a measure that is relatively cheap and imposes very few costs in terms of convenience.

So... anyway, if my post sounded grumpy, that's where it was coming from. I am sorry about the tone of my post.

The staff that do school transport wear masks and my son has got used to that but they are not teaching or communicating.The staff in school don't and I don't believe would as it wouldn't be possible to teach or even communicate properly with children with his needs and the children would pull them off. There is also no way he would keep one on.

ISawATiger yes that makes sense. I do only work part time, but both my husband and I are out of the house for 10-12 hours on the days we work and neither of us could work from home. For us our income is much higher than nursery fees and I guess because of our relatively high incomes we have chosen to have a bigger mortgage etc. I think most people I know are in a similar position, I don't know a single SAHP. I think we all get in our own little bubble and forget we're not necessarily in the majority. Makes me feel a bit guilty to be honest, that because of our choices we'll have to put our kids back in childcare.

Daffodil101

Lets be specific, it needs to stay below 1.

I think the schools either go back in June (those who want to stay at home can), there is a small increase as people go back to work etc. but then over the summer kids will kinda be socially distanced and then they go back again in Sept and there's a 3rd smaller wave. Holding out til Sept will increase the recession and job losses and increase the chance we get a wave in the winter? I don't see that waiting an extra 3 months will be any 'safer'? There wont be a vaccine by September..

Aaah it's a thread allegedly for someone to get opinions and then just bash those who dare differ from what they're thinking. Again.

Basically the OP doesn't want to know who is thinking of sending their kids in - the OP wants us all to clutch our pearls in horror and demand schools are never opened again because... germs!

DominaShantotto I agree :-)
Teacher's unions are very vocal but truth is most parents would want to send their children back and need to in order to get back to work.

I am a teacher and I won't be working without a mask and gloves. Children don't understand what is happening and I understand that it is our job to try and make them feel safe. However, we must also think of our own health and the health of our loved ones at home.

I would want the N95 masks with the Central core to trap things on the way out and in

I very much doubt you'll get these.
I spent a large portion of my day yesterday in an enclosed space with a positive patient coughing everywhere, as they refused to keep their own mask on, In just a bog standard surgical mask, plastic apron and gloves. If its deemed OK for me to do that with an actual covid patient, it will be ok for you also in a school.

Although on the point of gloves, I wouldn't use them in your setting, completely pointless. You'd have to change them so often (and wash/sanitise your hands everytime you do so) to make them in anyway effective

Can I just ask in terms of practicality, how is a reception teacher meant to teach phonics if they are wearing a mask? I’m all for masks on public transport etc if the evidence is there but I can’t see how they can be compatible with jobs requiring lots of speaking and communication.