Or have they just not got a clue

[Yolo2]

Jenny Harries today at the Government press briefing suggested that pencil cases will be banned at schools in case children share their contents, but lunch boxes will be allowed as she could "almost guarantee" that a child would not share their lunch with anyone sitting 2 metres away. What a load of utter nonsense. Is that based on any science whatsoever? If the Government are following the science, and this is the sort of dross the science is coming up with, we should worry!! How can a child not borrow a pencil but we can order takeaway food to our homes? How can the Deputy Chief Medical Officer "almost guarantee" that kids won't share their lunches. I'm afraid her medical training doesn't qualify her to have a better idea of the likelihood of kids sharing lunches than the average man on the street

So now we know pencils transmit Coronavirus (!) can we ever be safe using the supermarket? I handle my products, pass them to the cashier, who handles them, after touching all the products handled by every customer before me. (I understand some people have taken to bleaching their shopping but come on ) But shared pencils - prohibited. If kids can be trusted to not go near each other (?), can't they be trusted not to lend pencils?

We are in danger of utter madness invading every aspect of life. Social distancing, yes. Ridiculous rules from government on pencil cases etc. is quite another and is making things seem ludicrous.

Also, kids are going to learn to be terrified of each other and feel that they are something to be terrified of

If the kids go back to school they need to relax social distancing for them. Not sure how that works but there’s enough rules in schools in. Normal environment - feels like the teachers will spend their days yelling at the kids for doing very normal things.

@SimonJT For low risk activities that feels like overkill - I cannot image a chil just starting school at 4 years old being shut in a classroom alone until their parent collects them - it’s in humane. I would be more worried about the impact of those rules on the mental health of the children than catching the virus.

@SimonJT that is disgusting nonsense about the EpiPen and completely unethical. I hope you are complaining to the school (I say that as a parent of 2 children with anaphylaxis). My children's school would be getting a lawyer's letter if they dared to suggest that would be the case . That is absolutely not in line with the govt. Guidance.

This is utterly ridiculous. I see the need for some of this, but a lot of it is nonsense considering what is going on outside the school.

I am not sure what is going on where you live, but where I am, a lot of people think lock down is over. I went shopping on Friday afternoon and I saw lots of groups of 3-5 people all out together. These were either groups of friends in their early 20's or 3 generations of a family from granny to toddler. The supermarkets are wiping the trollies, but letting in groups of people.

Coronavirus is going to spike again and it will be blamed on the children when all you have to do is look in your local shops to see that a great number of people think it is over.

The job of the teachers should be to articulate how they can make this a happy atmosphere despite the measures. Not send frankly untrue and manipulative emails designed to make parents keep their children at home .

I can just imagine this generation in the workplace in the future getting really stressed about sharing equipment and other resources because they have become habituated to the my stuff/your stuff divide.

And the children on our close have invented lovely games they can play from 3-4 metres apart (each in their own front garden). They haven't been traumatised, they have made new friends.

Also, just to add that my DC2 will be one of those going back in June as he is year 6. I will send him, but if all the above rules make it a really negative and stressful experience all round, then I'll pull him out again. Things are bad enough without the last 4 weeks of your primary school experience resulting in terrible memories.

This is ridiculous, do people think this is what happens at Tesco?

LadyPenelope68

Wow. What's the actually point in sending them back then? That's insanity. I'm not in the UK but I would not be sending my child into that environment. Are they going to be chastised throughout the day if they forget themselves? Making them clean their own cut? Leaving them to it if they have a toileting accident? No side by side help from the teacher? Fuck me, it would be much less stressful for the child to be at home IMO.

I totally agree with you. The psychological mess that it going to appear after this will be appalling. And like you say, I simply can't see these measures making any difference We are going to have a generation with massive OCD problems. Mark my word.

How does that stack up against the damage done by being largely confined to their homes, unable to see friends, and parents no doubt making them terrified of going to school? Nothing about this situation is ideal, but to some the effects of being home and not having anyone home to support them with work amongst everything else is going to be worse imo.

@OutwiththeOutCrowd since they were babies my children have had to learn not to share food or touch other childrens plates. They don't find it traumatic and they and their classmates (even at nursery and preschool) have been capable of following and understanding the rules without it needing to be scary or traumatic. Let's give children a bit more credit. With the right attitude from teachers they don't need to find any of this traumatic

Teachers need to stop saying "this will be horrible" and start saying "how can we still make it nice".

Bloody stupid!

If they can't have pencil cases what are the alternatives?

Sharing from a central pot?
Having their own set provided by school?

If they have their own set of equipment provided from school then where will they keep it? - No individual drawers in my classroom, how about their locker? How will we stop them losing their equipment- Oh I know, a pencil case! Little Johnny has lost his rubber? Borrow the person's opposite- from his pencil case!

I can just imagine this generation in the workplace in the future getting really stressed about sharing equipment and other resources because they have become habituated to the my

Totally agree. The amount of issues this so called lockdown will cause is going to be huge and very real long after our illustrious "leader" has left office.

For those saying the schools measures are horrible, yes they are but they are in accordance with the guidelines as set by the government. If the government think is so safe for children to return to school why all these guidelines? 🤷‍♀️

Pepe really don't get! There is no way NO WAY that any modicum of normal life can resume without an element of risk.

The government is only I retested in risk reduction not ensuring that not one single child, teacher, parent catches it. That's not possible unless we go in extreme lockdown which would have a significant impact on our lives longer run.

We need to learn to live with the risks, very small for younger and healthy people of Covid19 just as we with every other risks we accept to take to go on with our lives.

This desperation for a black or white guidance from the government to take away our responsibility to consider what we can all do as individusls to reduce the risks is getting pathetic.

It's been said over and over what we need to do to reduce infection. What more can be said. We have a responsibility to instruct our kids of new behaviours that they will have to adapt to. Of course it won't stop some kids to forget, and pass food without teachers noticing, but as a one off, the risk will remain very low as hopefully, it will be ingrained in kids that this is something they can't do any longer.

Unless of course it's a case of ticking the boxes on paper but things being much more lax in reality? Like a pp said, my local tesco etc. is really quite lax these days.

Exactly @dontdisturbmenow

Zero risk has never existed anyway and never will for Covid 19 now it is endemic.

What’s the setup like for children who are currently going to school?

@LadyPenelope68 - Notwithstanding the content of that letter, I would be appalled if that is an example of the English they use when sending communications to parents. Two examples of 'need cleaned'!! How difficult is it to say 'need cleaning' or 'need to be cleaned'? Not a very good example to children, is it??

Good question @daisypond

And are teachers going to be saying " well I will administer annEpiPen to a keyworkers child but if they are a June 1st returner then I will just watch them die from 2 metres away?".

Absolute breach of the Equalities Act to say you won't administer an EpiPen . And that's just for starters. it would be manslaughter to allow a child to die when you could save their life.

@NeverTwerkNaked They can’t magic epipen trained staff from thin air. Government guidelines also stress that schools first aid provision does not need to be in its usual state.

It sounds like teachers are going to spend hours every day cleaning, 15 little ones needing to go to the loo and teachers cleaning handles taps etc, cleaning all desks, pencils, chairs etc. How will they get anything else done?

While the teacher is off cleaning the loo who is supervising the 15 children? There won't be TAs available as they will be with the other 15 from the class won't they? Or are they going to employ a cleaner to be in the loo all day? That would sound more reasonable.