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.

So let's punish some children because others fare better at home?

Or could we open schools and make it optional to attend until say September?

Or those who's children thrive at home could continue to homeschool?

let's punish some children because others fare better at home?

since when is the lockdown a punishment (or a holiday)?

reopening too early and damaging the majority of kids mental health because a few parents are hysterical is not a solution.

My kids would love to go back to school but I think it would be damaging to have to social distance at school. No playing contact sport at break. Sitting in the canteen in a socially distanced way. If ministers decide that it's safe to go back I will not discourage my kids to walk to and from school with their friends. Would schools punish kids who won't SD?

I think that a lot of people don't realise that when our kids go back they will be going back part-time so there's no guarantee that they will see their friends anyway. I think it could create problems seeing their teacher wearing PPE and cleaning the desk each time it is touched by a child.

People are confusing schools opening to non-key workers and schools being back to "normal".

Lockdown is a punishment for children. They're being seperated from family and friends.

reopening too early and damaging the majority of kids mental health because a few parents are hysterical is not a solution

How would reopening damage the majority of kids mental health?

Also can you explain exactly what is hysterical about my behaviour?

I can't see much difference between June and September reopening but I hope that kids will be allowed to play outdoor with their friends by the summer holidays. If outdoor gatherings isn't allowed by then I think that a lot of parents will flout their rules and do it anyway.

How would reopening damage the majority of kids mental health?

do you genuinely believe the school will reopen and things will be exactly the same in there?

Do you honestly believe that all schools have the same access to outdoor space?

do you genuinely believe the school will reopen and things will be exactly the same in there?

No but I haven't actually said that?

Do you honestly believe that all schools have the same access to outdoor space

No. I haven't said that either.

Neither of those things answered my question!

Wait, so you're confident that reopening in whatever form that takes will damage kids' mental health, but you're mocking people for being bad parents if they say that lockdown is damaging kids' mental health?

Surely the parents whose children are thriving outside the school environment, or who feel that the risk is too great, should de register and home educate. There are lots of resources and support available and where parents feel very strongly about this, they must surely be able to find solutions to make it feasible.

@OneandTwenty do you have children and if so how old are they - context is everything.

Mine are EY and KS2.

This virus is not going completely disappear for a long while, a vaccine may be available but in reality won’t be offered to most of us for a good few months. I’m scared of my gc returning to nursery if and when they reopen, but I know full well that if their parents are asked to go back to work and can’t for childcare reasons, there may not be a job for them.

It’s all very well saying that you won’t send your children back for months, if you actually need to work outside your home or there won’t be an income, you don’t have the luxury of choice.if you’re ft wfh and looking after small children or trying to homeschool, keeping this up indefinitely is not feasible. I’m an ex teacher but from reading mn threads and the papers (not the DM!) I am quite saddened by the negative attitudes of teachers and their unions...it seems to be a succession of no buts to any suggestion, and I’m usually totally pro teachers.

Im a nurse so my two primary aged children are both in school anyway. At present there is usually only around 4 children in total going in. I'd be happy for schooling to return though. I'm not sure what benefit teachers in full PPE serves either to be honest. They are not wearing it now. I manage a residential mental health unit and we only wear PPE if someone is symptomatic- and then it's to see to that patient and then removed. Wearing gloves throughout the day would be completely pointless for example, this is not their purpose.

Link to study confirming children are not super spreaders
.bmj.com/content/early/2020/05/05/archdischild-2020-319474

This one again Biscuit? The one that says no such thing and has no date and the one that is full of ‘could’ and ‘might’, that another poster linked to on a previous thread you were on?

I’ll repeat my previous posts to the same one and would be happy to be proven wrong with very recent data you can show.

What I wrote:

I couldn’t find the date on that data/paper, which is important because recent studies have confirmed the opposite but that article was full of ‘may’, ‘could’ and ‘might’, such as Evidence is therefore emerging that children could be significantly less likely to become infected than adults.
And
On the other hand, children could have the less likely scenario of showing minimal symptoms despite significant viral shedding.
And
Until there is high-quality sero-surveillance data, these questions will not be able to be answered with certainty. It is possible that biases in population selection for testing or false-negative swabs due to difficulties sampling in children contribute to existing findings

On the 30th April in The Lancet, an article was published that showed more emerging data from China that had the proof of children just as likely to catch and spread Covid19 as adults. The graphic attached shows the graph from that article. A quote from that article states ’Notably, the rate of infection in children younger than 10 years (7.4 per cent) was similar to the population average (6.6 per cent).

In response to that paper in The Lancet:

Professor Simon Clarke, a virus expert at the University of Reading, told The Times: 'This is an important paper. It means we should be extremely careful. As children are carriers, reopening schools could expose parents, grandparents and teachers to infection and in turn anyone they might come into contact with... risking a second wave.'

I know that teachers as a whole will go back when they are told to, despite what posters on Mumsnet think/accuse, because that is what teachers do by and large and are used to their concerns being ignored yet carry on for their students. However, I do wish that still using early/out of data data that children don’t catch Covid19 as much as adults or are low risk, would stop being used as the excuse to send them all back to school ASAP. Heck, send all children back on Monday but if there is a second wave as a result, remember posters on threads like these tried to warn of the possibility.

@milkysmum

I hear you on the PPE. People are now so panicked that they are demanding things that are completely useless and possible detrimental.

I want to know what Henry Brubaker at the Institute of Studies thinks about it all.

If you know, you know.

**‘since when is the lockdown a punishment (or a holiday)?’

OneandTwenty I can assure you my child sees it as a punishment. No amount of pretending it’s a lovely break with mummy and daddy and her baby sister can breplace: seeing her grandparents, seeing her friends, doing activities like forest school, swimming, gymnastics etc. If she’d had an older sibling, I don’t think it would have been so bad but being stuck with a baby 24-7 means she is missing out.

@Summertime2

"These show as of today a total of 238 under 60 yr olds without pre-existing condition have died.

Only 31 under 40 year olds with no pre existing condition.

So it would appear your experience is unusual, not that the information is nonsense."

I'm sure my experience is unusual but my point is that these "statistics" aren't useful or helpful.

I've never known anyone die from psoriasis....but it is one of the many things classed as an underlying condition for the purpose of these statistics.

LittleBearPad

My kids are 5, 6, 13 and 14. And I work full-time.

Yes I'm keen to know why those teachers who are wanting full PPE think this is helpful, it's really not. I see my local shop keeper in his gloves and think why!? He had the same pair on, handling everyone's change all day long etc.. no point at all.

Surely the parents whose children are thriving outside the school environment, or who feel that the risk is too great, should de register and home educate.

and who is paying for that? I had a look at home education during the lockdown, it's actually really expensive.

Plus for those like me who work, when are we expecting to do both? Employers and clients currently don't have the choice, and are mostly in the same boat anyway so are pretty understanding.
They do not have to be so understanding when you CHOOSE to home educate and employers tend to resent paying someone who uses that time for childcare...

So absolutely not, it's not about reopening schools or home education.

If they want to home educate their own children they quite obviously pay for it themselves.

I work too and I want schools to re open so I can do that.

@OneandTwenty lockdown is a punishment for my child. He's an only child, he's not had anyone of his own age to speak to or play with for 2 months. We live in a flat with no garden, so apart from a daily walk he is cooped up indoors for the majority of the day. He is struggling to learn at home as he can't concentrate and he is in tears most days.

He would be better off going to school even if it's with PPE.

had a look at home education during the lockdown, it's actually really expensive

Are you not in the uk? Homeschooling here can cost nothing due to the fact there is an avalanche of free resources and no compulsory purchase,

So you could indeed home school your child for nothing. For as long as you see fit.

You need to Make your decision what’s important to you. If you’re that scared then quit your job claim benefits and home school your kid for free.

No one is stopping you.

How is home ed expensive @OneandTwenty? It doesn't have to cost anything. You can spend whatever on resources and stuff, and obviously someone can't work as much, but it really doesn't have to cost anything.