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 can’t see masks being practical at all. 4-5 year olds won’t keep them on and you wouldn’t be able to teach children that age with one on. They need to see your lips when teaching phonics. It would be a lot of show for little benefit.

The only logical thing to do limit exposure.

• encourage parents who can and want to continue learning at home to do so (reducing numbers)
• keep vulnerable teachers and those with vulnerable household members at home in charge of online learning.
• those teachers who are not vulnerable are assigned a small group of children of no more than around 10.
• you spread children across the classrooms and keep them entirely contained within the class all day e.g they have playtime together and lunch together. You either staff it so that lunch staff are also assigned just one class, or teachers forgo their breaks (like childminders do) and then have time off on Fridays (schools close) so they can plan and make up for time they should have had as lunch breaks in the week.

Masks would be a nightmare, can you imagine dealing with this all day plus everything else?

Daffodil101
Year 10 are halfway through their GSCE curriculum, with no teaching going on.

More misinformation again.

Dh and I agreed that wont be going back til after the second peak, which I reckon will be happening 4-6weeks from now. So probably wont be in school til September.

I will send dd back as soon as they reopen
However, as she is year 7 Seems unlikely to be a choice I face

Neither for me. My child will go back it is as safe to do so. If schools can manage it in a controlled way way social distancing (unlikely) then he will.
As it currently stands.. no. I’m not giving a date on when this will happen, as no one knows when the second wave will occur.

How are they going to deal with all the cleaning of shared equipment, especially with reception? It is play based learning, so masses of toys that children use together. They are still of an age where many will put toys in mouths etc.

Year 10 are halfway through their GSCE curriculum, with no teaching going on.

More misinformation again.

I don't understand why this is misinformation though I think it may well depend on the school.

My Y10 had few subjects set nothing yet, better ones have set mostly recap work which I feel dosen't hurt but often isn't marked - increasingly there's more and more busy work make a card for NHS etc.

There are no zoom lessons here - which I understand as one of my Y10 friends only has internet half the week at one parent's house but there are fewer work sheets or anything but busy work.

I am frankly worried - it's a state school in a mainly deprived area but I have a bright ambitious child who should be doing well and there isn't teaching going on.

There's is more teaching going from the primary school and my younger child at scondary is being set more work than my Y10.

Dh and I agreed that wont be going back til after the second peak, which I reckon will be happening 4-6weeks from now. So probably wont be in school til September.

Why will it be in 4-6 weeks? September edging into flu season will be much worse in terms of NHS' ability to cope.

Dh and I agreed that wont be going back til after the second peak, which I reckon will be happening 4-6weeks from now. So probably wont be in school til September

Will you pull them out again for the third peak, approx 3 weeks after they all go back in September?

Yes, why do people think that September is going to be any 'safer'?

Yes, why do people think that September is going to be any 'safer'?

Months more evidence on the virus, how to break the transmission chains in the community (whether and how effectively low-symptom children can transmit to adults, and if the apparent difference in severity between pre and post pubescent children is real)

Also more evidence on effective treatments - are any of the drug therapies really living up to their early promise? Does plasma therapy work?

Plus time for contact tracing to have bedded in, and sticks of both PPE and testing kits to have been secured

Im in shielding, but I have young people living at home at the moment. I talked to my doctor about how this could possibly work, and by the end of the conversation she said that 80% of us were going to get Coronavirus in any case.

@NuffSaidSam
googles and gloves
What planet are you on? Do you think teachers need intensive care medical grade PPE? What point would some of this stuff do if you had to change it every half hour? It would be better to wash your hands every half hour than transfer infection on gloves.

You're very optimistic @iVampire!

Plus, is any of that actually going to make things safer at everyday ground level in terms of contracting the virus anyway?

What planet are you on?

Earth of course! No travelling at this time!

Do you think teachers need intensive care medical grade PPE?

No of course not.

What point would some of this stuff do if you had to change it every half hour?

I imagine it would be an absolute nightmare.

It would be better to wash your hands every half hour than transfer infection on gloves.

Of course!

Now, may I ask you a question?

Why have you quoted me on three words completely out of context?! I wasn't saying I thought teachers needed those things. I was asking a previous poster, wouldn't it be hard to teach through those things.

enjoyingSun

I don't understand why this is misinformation though I think it may well depend on the school.

It is misinformation exactly because it does depend on the school.

Stating that yr 10 (whole cohort) isn't receiving teaching is misinformation

Stating that 'some' or 'the yr 10s in my school' would be a fact.

the difference should be plain to see

JoeExoticsEyebrowRing
Yes, why do people think that September is going to be any 'safer'?

To add to ivampire's list

A smaller R value.

enjoyingSun

and you have stated that that your yr 10 is receiving teaching.

That you may not be happy with it is something that you should take up with the school.

But without a vaccine your kids or the people you want to protect are still 'at risk', the virus will still be here, September will be heading into winter, germ season and possibly another peak, coupled with flu season which will also be taking up NHS space as well?

I understand people's concerns that this is only 3 weeks away and Sept feels a long way off, but once we actually get to September will it feel any better?

‘Plus, is any of that actually going to make things safer at everyday ground level in terms of contracting the virus anyway?‘

Yes, understanding (and breaking) transmission chains is about the only thing we can do to control the spread of the virus, and us the basic principle which underlies the global lockdown.

Better understanding of treatment does not affect spread, but may increase survivability. Which could mean huge change to the type and extent of restriction on the population. This breakthrough might never come. Or it might be round the corner - we don’t know, and we may or may not have a better idea in a few more months

Of course I’m not saying that this will all he sorted by September. But I do think that the improved evidence base will
lead to better decisions.

And that is why waiting until September does make a difference (previous poster was suggested nothing could change in that time) Remember how recently this virus emerged - a further 3 months in increasing the length of time by about 50% and also gives more time for assessing transmission (globally) as each country approached its peak, and then began to ease restrictions

That you may not be happy with it is something that you should take up with the school.

Of course I've been in touch with the school several time and at several differnt levels.

There a low expectation from top about hours they can expect and many kids from the area are failing to met those- for a variety or reasons many good like like of internet access.

I've also got her on Senca, paid for Tassimo, Dulingo and doing text books with her and BBC daily lessons, Oak academcy and looking out for progams and other stuff and printing out past papers to do.

Many of her GCSE subject have set no work at all - and I can't say the subject have set work are really teaching - nothing new is being done.

I don't blame the teachers I think they're in a bloody hard position - but it doesn't mean it's all fine and dandy for my child or that it somehow okay to pretend they are being taught and everything is fine.

The more time they lose the harder I think it's going to be on everyone in Yr 11 including the teachers.

But yea - what a bitch I am being worried about how this is affecting my mid GCSE child .

South Korea - population 51 million - Covid-19 cases 10,909 - deaths from Covid-19 256.
Compulsory mask wearing in public. When the students go back to school, there will be multiple H&S measures, including wearing masks.
There is a right way and a wrong way of doing things in a crisis, so I will leave it up to folks to decide who is doing things the right way - UK or South Korea.

uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-southkorea-school/wearing-masks-south-korean-students-to-go-back-to-school-idUKKBN22G0TN

@Daffodil101 - You said the following ....
Year 10 are halfway through their GSCE curriculum, with no teaching going on

What do you mean?? At my school we are cracking on with the syllabus. I am starting Theme 2 of my course in a weeks' time.

You need to talk to your school as a matter of urgency.

Those who say they're keeping their kids home till there is a vaccine what do you intend to do really? To wait for a vaccine is unrealistic.

If a vaccine could be developed in the next five years (they've been trying to devise a human immunodeficiency virus for 40 years with no success) and could vaccinate an unbelievable half a million people per day, it would take over 40 years to vaccinate everyone.
The difficulties of manufacture, prioritisation, distribution etc would be immense even if a vaccine had been developed and the virus did not mutate.

Also, I would imagine that on any prioritisation the least vulnerable group, children, would be last to get the vaccine routinely.