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.

[PrivateD00r]

Mikki, ours are wearing some PPE and the numbers of children are extremely small. They are mostly playing outside and the staff are keeping their distance easy to manage when there's only 6 children! My children are still enjoying school.

[ineedaholidaynow]

I think masks will become more commonplace, as will probably be soon required whilst in public places, like in many other countries , so they might not be such an alien concept to children if teachers have to wear them.

[IceCreamAndCandyfloss]

I definitely think school staff should have PPE and if parents don’t like it then they can home school. The health of staff and families of everyone on the premises should be priority over parents wants and disklikes.

[EducatingArti]

"Op. The science is starting to show children don’t really get it or spread this. Yes some rare cases but they need to be contextualised"
This just isn't the case. There are studies ( remember hardly anything has been peer reviewed yet) I dictating both ways. The latest research coming out of Germany suggests that children can transmit Covid19 quite effectively. We just don't know for certain yet.


"I'd like to know what people think will change between now and September with regard to the virus itself."
Quite a lot if people keep adhering to the social distancing rules and the government gets its act together with getting a robust test and trace system in place.
With both these two things, absolute numbers of cases will reduce dramatically and new cases will be picked up and contacts quarantined really rapidly. This will mean that by September schools could open in a much more normal way with fewer social distancing requirements and the R value would still stay below 1.
If we get more pupils back in schools before this, cases could go right back up (even with best attempts at social distancing) and this could easily contribute to the R value going over 1 which means exponential growth in cases again, return to harsher lockdown and the NHS struggling to cope.

Although it is really hard to cope with kids at home and the economy is suffering, keeping going for a few more weeks now, could mean getting things back on track quicker and with less danger of another lockdown in the long run
From what I have read, this is what the WHO are recommending.

[Lndnmummy]

My children and dh are asthmatic and dh is black with other immunity issues. My children will not be going back.

[Sexnotgender]

I’m torn. DD is 16 and just going into her final year. She’s also in the shielding category 🙁 I don’t know what I’ll do.

[Lovemusic33]

People are in different situations regarding sending their kids back. If someone in your house is shielding how will you protect them when your child is going to school and possibly bringing the virus home? How will social distancing work with younger children?

My dd2 goes to a sn school, it’s a school for mainly children with autism and Down syndrome, how are these kids going to social distance when many won’t understand? I want her back at school, no one in our house is shielding so she will go back when school allow her too but I can see why many people will be too scared to send their kids back. I don’t see how September will be any different to June though? This virus won’t be gone until there’s a vaccine.

[CloudsCanLookLikeSheep]

I'm no virologist but it doesn't make sense to me that the virus couldn't live in children and be transmitted/spread by them. Why not -they are human hosts after all. Far more believable that they can carry the virus but be (mainly) asymptomatic seeing as this disease disproportionately affects the old.

[Appuskidu]

Oh, good-another thread on this.

If schools reopen In England before the summer, it won’t be in any way ‘normal’.

Your child might be in 2 days a week or a fortnight, they might not be with a teacher, classroom or children they know. They might be in part time Or would staggered hours, your child’s year group may not be back at all and there will probably be no wraparound care.

I think your ‘need for kids to be in school’ may not match up with what will be on offer.

[EducatingArti]

." I don’t see how September will be any different to June though? This virus won’t be gone until there’s a vaccine"

Much less chance of disease spread by September. See my post upthread!

[Chokablok]

I would prefer to wait until September, simply because we will have more knowledge of the virus, its transmission chains and how to break them. whether track/trace/isolate actually works etc

What makes you think this?

The virus has already been in circulation since November? December?

We're now in May and we don't seem to know any more than we did back then.

Why do you think we will know so much more in September?

For the record I'll be sending mine back as soon as the doors open.

The only thing we actually do know with some degree of certainty is that the virus isn't really killing healthy people under 65.

I think closing schools was a mistake in hindsight. (Definitely hindsight of course, I wasn't fussed about them closing back in March but that was before we had proper statistics on who was actually dying).

[Waxonwaxoff0]

I will be sending mine back as soon as they open for a variety of reasons. The main one is that I am a single parent, I cannot do my job from home therefore I need to send him to school so I can work and earn money.

Other reasons include wanting him to be getting his education (I'm a poor substitute for a teacher and I'm struggling to get him to do much at home), and he's an only child so I would like to get him back socialising with his peers. And I don't particularly feel like he will be at risk being at school.

I'd be happy to adhere to whatever rules need to be put in place - masks, PPE, providing packed lunch rather than school dinner - to get him back to school sooner rather than later.

[Heatherjayne1972]

I wonder about special schools

• some of those children are extremely vulnerable health wise But also aren’t good at understanding basic hygiene/social distancing
  

Some of them aren’t vulnerable as such but won’t cope with teachers or themselves wearing masks
How things feel on the face are very important
Often they just can’t cope with anything different like
It’s so tricky

[blubberyboo]

To be honest I haven’t really given it a second thought as we have no idea where this virus is going, if it will still be around, if there will be immunity /vaccine/cure, if there will be a second wave. Uncertainty around the structure if they were to go back. There is too much unknown so all I can say is they might go back, they might not and there’s no point stressing about it now. In Northern Ireland our schools close at the end of June for 2 months anyway so we only have 7 weeks to go which I fully expect they will remain at home for. Maybe the other regions schools could end up adopting similar models next year and have shorter half term breaks throughout the year to make up some lost time?

[Bubblewings]

“Arise please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's been confirmed that you can't catch it twice, or have I missed something.“

This has always worried me - some people think they are immune if they have had it when the medical professionals don’t even know about immunity yet.

[Witchcraftandhokum]

Apiskidu If you think there's been too many threads why bother opening it?

[Maybelatte]

I’m seven months pregnant so I’m not sending my DC back to school any time soon. I’m a teacher so I’m coping ok with the homeschooling and DC are doing fine.

I’m not sending them back until I can be certain we’ll all be safe, including the newborn.

[EducatingArti]

We absolutely know much more than we did in December. We didn't even get the viral genome sequences or a reliable test until January/February.

[sweeneytoddsrazor]

I am wondering what other factors are in play and need to be looked at in regards to this virus. @crustycrab knows 3 people under 45 who has died, I know only 1 person who has been confirmed as having the virus, despite me knowing a large amount of people. I live in a large city, am still working, so I really should know more people. Does area, lifestyle play a part as well.

[Drivingdownthe101]

I definitely think school staff should have PPE and if parents don’t like it then they can home school. The health of staff and families of everyone on the premises should be priority over parents wants and disklikes

I’m a Chair of Governors and, bar none, the staff at our school have fed back that they’d rather not wear masks as it would hinder their teaching and scare the children. So hopefully the staffs views are taken into account too rather than mask wearing being compulsory.

[Lovemusic33]

Heather it will be tricky, I am preparing dd to wear a mask, we made some and she will wear it for a few minutes but I can’t see her wearing it all day, she has a lot of sensory issues as a lot of kids at her school do, social distancing just won’t be possible, also some kids need 1;1 and personal care.

[thunderthighsohwoe]

I don’t want to teach in PPE. I have eight children with SEN needs in my (mainstream) class of 31. Three of them have hearing issues.

Tbh, if we go back I think it would be far more realistic to just accept that social distancing can’t happen for under 12s and instead focus on things like hygiene, and a robust test/trace/isolate system.

You’ve also got to accept that grandparents will be back out in force once schools go back. A sizeable majority of the children in our school who do not attend wraparound club are dropped off/collected by grandparents.

I for one am keen to go back for selfish reasons - it’s nigh on impossible to teach from home with a small toddler. However, I won’t be sending her back to nursery for the one day a week that she attends (grandparents do the other four days) if they are trying to enforce social distancing with the under 2s. That’s just damaging to them. We will work something out for that day instead.

Yes I know I’m a massive hypocrite, but at this point in time it’s all become so confusing that I’ve decided that I’m going to narrow my focus onto my family and my class.

[mrsspooky]

I love homeschooling so im in no rush to go back. I feel waiting is better to see how things go and to give schools a chance to get used to their new normal - would not want a scary world school where they have to be shouted at to social distance etc, its much better for them not to have that as a worry so will wait until schools feel comfortable with what they are doing and not stressed trialing things. Its all going to depend on individual circumstances anyway, some children do well at home, some at school etc, and some people work and some dont.Wel all just have to make the best of it once we know the choices. There are lots the schools can do to make it not scary and Id rather a divided style, where half the chidlren go in 2 days and the other half another 2 days with a day to clean or whatever, something like that, to create space rather than try to enforce it which just wont work and will stress children and teachers out! I have seen some fab childrens masks on etsy so could try them like minecraft ones etc which will make them fun but also totally think having masks on will have them touching their faces all the time and be worse! I wont send them back with the meter hats from china or a militant no touching system as that will be too stressful. Will have to wait and see what schools do but think discussion with parents one the plans will be really important.

[Drivingdownthe101]

Yes that’s interesting sweeneytoddsrazor. I have a wide social circle across multiple countries (I’ve lived in Spain, Italy and France as well as a few counties in the UK). Worked for a couple of extremely large banks. I know one person who have been confirmed as having had it, and that’s my mum! She was tested as she’s NHS.

[Londonmummy66]

I really don't understand why you think year 6 have to be prioritised - especially over year 12....

I personally think that years 10 and 12 should be the first to go back and soon.