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.

Are parents going to get a choice about sending their children back? Or are we going to be fine or loose school places? I'd like to keep mine off as my husband and youngest are, asthmatic and I'm pregnant

If the rule is that teaching staff have to be in then children need to be in. End of. You can't be precious about your children if you're not arsed about staff.

Nuffsaid and Frustrated While I'm aware that staff in PPE may be frightening for children I think it will be a baseline requirement before the unions agree to send the staff back. I will refuse to be back in the classroom until I have some.

Witchcraftandhokum the teachers at my daughter's school have had discussions surrounding PPE and not a single one wants to wear PPE because of upsetting the children

Yes, when our head asked whether we would want to wear PPE. nobody said they would. We are not currently wearing it in school and social distancing isn't happening either - anyone who thinks it can happen in primary school (or secondary probably) is delusional.

I have a daughter in y10. I cannot see why y10 couldn’t go back first in an empty school. There are 300 of them and I suspect not all would go back.

Same with y12, I didn’t include them though because our school doesn’t have a sixth form - so if they are in a sixth form college, it would be important to get them back.

The more time goes on, the more I worry that my child will be part of ‘lost’ year who either didn’t get GCSEs or didn’t get the grades they ought to have had.

And it’s not just lack of teaching, it’s motivation and mood. Mine is predicted mainly level 9s with I think two 8s. So she’s normally a hard worker, but she’s really dipped in mood and motivation already. She’s a bit lost.

You can't be precious about your children if you're not arsed about staff

That makes no sense. Who says that the parents wanting to keep their children at home aren’t ‘arsed’ about staff?

I know of 3 confirmed deaths of relatives of children I teach. 2 were men under 50. I can imagine the community around my school being very anxious about sending their children back to school.

Artie I completely agree that social distancing won't work. But I do think that staff should be given PPE if they want it.

I've seen that elsewhere too (the children not being superspreaders) I'll see if I can find it again

Mine will go back when schools do because I'm in there anyway (I work in their school) and our area is very unaffected so far 🤞🤞

From all the stats I have seen the younger half of the demographic are relatively unaffected (the ones I just looked at showed approx 350 deaths under 45) and whilst I appreciate that is unrelated to population wide spread, I don't think keeping the kids away from school indefinitely is the answer to that.

And if the furlough scheme ends in June them what? Are people happy to sit back with no income til September? I think we have to go on as best we all can and get the country moving again.Not easy and very frightening but what else can we do? I work in a school and I want our kids,parents,staff to be as safe as they can and I would gladly stay off til september but the government cannot be expected to subsidize our wages til then either...rock and hard place always round..

I cant believe parents saying they'd be disappointed if teachers wore PPE. Thank God it's not your choice to make. So selfish. Adults are at risk. Anyone thinking they will be sending their child back to school so they can return to work are likely to be in for a shock. I would imagine it will be part time, perhaps a day or two a week. You will still need to find childcare. Also primary schools will have more key worker children in full time to allow teachers to return to work. There will be less space for other children as a result.

The idea of school staff wearing PPE is ridiculous. NHS staff who are wearing it have to put it on and take off very carefully and presumably are careful about who and what they touch etc. Plus they have their names/photos on their PPE don't they so that they can recognise each other.

I can't see any of that working in a school, for starters once one child has sneezed and then taken your hand, it's pointless anyway isnt it? And PPE just wouldn't be appropriate around little kids for lots of reasons. Plus the fact is that you can't compare a school to an NHS Covid ward anyway.

I work in a school by the way.

@Healthyandhappy - our local Tesco has gloves for the check out operators and everyone on them have the plastic shields in place across the checkout area. There's spaces on the floor where you are expected to stand and pack and only every other till is open with someone guiding you to the next available one. The shelf stacking staff are all in gloves and masks.

My local Boots has staff working behind plastic shields with gloves and face masks on and my post office lady is behind her normal glass screen with gloves on.

And I've seen the buses go by with drivers in masks - I assume gloves potentially to and they are also, obviously, behind their 'attack' screens as they've always been.

So it's hardly beyond the realms of possibility for teachers and the like to refuse to work if they aren't offered the same PPE - whether they decide to take the chance is up to them. But if PPE is good enough for the chemist, supermarket, bus drivers and post office it's good enough for the schools.

Even the nurses union about a month ago said, whilst it was a last resort and nurses didn't want to do it, the union supported their right to refuse to work if the correct PPE wasn't available. I don't think the opportunity to wear a mask and gloves is asking too much.

On the gloves thing... I’m not entirely sure how they work. Wouldn’t a teacher have to change their gloves every time they touch something that has been touched by a child?

I haven’t decided but I don’t need to decide yet.
DS goes to a small one form entry independent school. Their online learning provision since Easter has been good.
Their summer term dates as they stand are 8th June for 5 weeks. The classrooms are small. I can see them having to split the class in half or into 3 so a few sessions per week per child.
On one hand DS is an only child and although he’s ok, he is finding it hard.
On the other I’m not sure that 5 weeks- probably less- part time - in a very different looking school set up is worth the risk.

Easy to access stats here for those who were doubting the 350 claims.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19roundup/2020-03-26#coviddeaths

I saw something on Facebook saying not sending mine in, think how quickly nits spread, it's impossible for children to socially distance. Kinda agree, and that's not a dig at schools, without a robust realistic plan it's not possible at all to expect young children to stay apart all day. DS isn't old enough for school yet, but if it was just a case of meh everyone go back in I would be hesitant, and very worried for the staff.

My worry is me having asthma (I am wfh and will be able to wfh for the rest of the year if I wish to (was able to choose wfh as suited before covid so this has little impact to my role), so whilst Ds may be not impacted himself if he catches it he could pass it on to me.

For us, the longer we postpone it the more chance of treatments and vaccines Imo.

Don't get me wrong, homeschooling and working full time is head battering, but potential death due to underlying condition is worse.

Additionally, for young people there is a chance that they have an undiagnosed underlying condition that may not be discovered until later in life.

Additionally, this rhetoric of "the only ones dying are those with underlying conditions" is not reassuring for the millions of people with underlying conditions.

What kind of PPE are people talking about here? Gloves? A mask? Those full on plastic visor things?!!!

Joeexotics Then why are shop workers and bus driver wearing it?

Wouldn’t a teacher have to change their gloves every time they touch something that has been touched by a child?

Yes. What would be the point of wearing gloves?!

What PPE are you proposing OP? Visor / surgical mask / cloth mask? Surgical gown? Gloves? How often will you change your gloves. Gloves will just give a false sense of security - you’d be better off hand washing

I won't be wearing ppe.

You all need to re-evaluate what you perceive as getting back to normal.

Schools will never look the same as they did pre-Covid, school leaders are assessing how to implement the changes this virus has forced on us.

The days of cramming 30 kids into a room, sharing books, resources, working in groups, lining up for lunches, eating together, being together, socialising are over for the foreseeable future.

Doctors aren’t walking around hospitals with gloves on. Just put on when examining a patient and then they are promptly binned and hands washed. Wear gloves if you like but it won’t make any difference. The visors are incredibly uncomfortable too.

Unless ordered too obviously

What does everyone think will be different in September? There will be no vaccine and we will be coming into main flu season, why will September be safer than June?