AMA - my child’s been back at (Dutch) school for one week

[Flopjustwantscoffee]

Where we live (Netherlands) they re-opened primary schools part time to all children from 11th May. Although of course the rules won’t be exactly the same in UK schools a lot of the debate here before opening (child/teacher safety, the effect of the new rules on children etc) was similar to the UK. The UK and Netherlands are quite similar in their approach to covid in other ways as well. So I thought it might be helpful to answer any questions on the reality of how it’s actually gone for children/parents/teachers (admittedly from my own limited expat perspective). I’ll answer any questions I can, but obviously no teacher bashing please (my mum was a teacher)

@Y0ubetterwerk I think here you could get the regular paid after school care in your shoes. The impression I get (just an impression) is they say they won’t be able to be flexible but in individual cases they are - particularly as lots of parents aren’t taking up the after school care so there are then places for others. Part time working is also more common here, so parents already have some flexibility built in to their work patterns. It is a worry though. One of my friends is a hairdresser so meant to go back to work this week, however her son was back at school for one day last week and then came down with a cold so now she, as a single parent, has to stay home with him. I was working (from home) throughout so am actually in a better position now than before, but for parents that were paid to be of work and are now expected to go in its different. I do think single parents are the most disadvantaged group in all this, and hope that the government, and employers, recognize this and provide some support

Do you think parents in the Netherlands would be less inclined to send children back if they had the same excess deaths rates the UK currently has?

Are there any plans for secondary schools to open?

Was there much resistance from teachers' unions to getting children back to school?

no teacher bashing please

I wish people would stop accusing posters of "teacher bashing"

Another Dutchy here.

The primary school where my kids go, has divided the whole population based on last names, so that families stay together on the same day. A-J goes Monday and Thursday, K-Z goes Tuesday and Friday. The Wednesday is alternated between weeks/groups.
Days in school consist of mainly instruction, time at home for revision/practicing of that.
Hand washing before class, before and after morning drink, after recess outside, before and after lunch break, so about 5-6 times between 8.30 and 14.00.

They have 3-4 entrances to the school and have divided those entrances according to the classes that are closest to that entrance.
The entrance to the classes of the 2 youngest groups (not sure of the English term, but classes for 4-6 YO) is furthest from the main grounds entrance, those parents can come on the school grounds to drop their children, but need to maintain distance, and the whole route is one way only.

Because the groups are smaller, part of the furniture is moved to the sides of the room, so there is more space between the teacher and the children. There is a line at 1.5 meters away from the teacher's desk/chair etc. that the children aren't allowed to cross.

@51Pegasusb hoi yes the teachers have been amazing. Do you know if the Dutch are planning to quarantine arrivals to the Netherlands any time soon?

@LaureBerthaud
there are plans for secondary schools to open from June 1st, but AFAIK it also depends on how this goes. Secondary schools are making plans on how to do all this.

@Flopjustwantscoffee not sure about quarantining new arrivals. I know that with the restart of contact tracing for positive testing, they are strongly urging people to quarantine, although some experts last night on television said that that should be made mandatory.

In both cases, checking compliance would probably be tricky but also the key.

Are visitors allowed in school? Speech therapists, social workers, school psychologists and so on?

@WeAllHaveWings for me, as a healthy 30 year old with a child with no known health problems who was really struggling with not being in school I would still have sent him in as the least worse option. It is hard though and can understand others making different decisions. The difference in death rates is interesting and I suspect there will be a lot of debate about the reasons since although the lockdown started a little earlier here it was if anything less restrictive than the uk. I suspect part of the reason might be overal population health before the pandemic started, but there are probably a lot of nuances I missed due to not being Dutch (I try to read Dutch news etc but have the reading level of a 10 year old to be honest)

I’m glad the children seem to be faring ok. It’s sweet they’re bossing their parents about. Hopefully something positive about personal responsibility will come out of this experience rather than fear. I hadn’t thought about jumping in front of cars though! 😨

Hadn’t thought about thread worms also. I’m just wondering how the nit population is doing...

It’s good your ds is seeing children again. Idk what percentage of parents in the U.K. are letting their children play / meet with other children. Most of dds friends don’t seem to be allowed out to the park to meet up - she’s old enough to be out alone. Just wonder how our kids are coping.

@Tippexy speech therapists definately (my son sees one). She didn’t know if she’s would be allowed back until the week before though

Dutch schools are inclusive, but only up to a point... My friend's child has very serious needs (epilepsy, 8yo functioning as 2yo) and goes to a specialized school. Normally, the group has about 14 children, but there are now about half. My friends don't know whether that is due to a form of shielding, or because the other children have coughs etc. and aren't allowed to come in yet.

@dutchyoriginal and the other actual Dutch people - do correct me if I get anything wrong by the way. My Dutch reading skills aren’t perfect and I struggled at times with the exact rules re social distancing during the lockdown (and sometimes texted other mums for their opinions on things so my understanding of the rules is fairly crowdsourced)

Also - on the death rates, the Netherlands went into their 'lockdown' at least a week before we did. I remember this clearly from speaking to family there.

@Tippexy not sure about visitors/professionals at the school. My son's speech therapist was located a few blocks from school, so we always went there and I dropped him off at school afterwards. I know one parent said that they were doing online sessions, but that was a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks for answering my question. It's a real worry as I have no idea how we will manage If he's only in certain times and there's no childcare before or after school.

ILooks like I'll be stuffing him in a roll along suitcase and stashing him under my desk while I work.

@dutchyoriginal for example, I understood from reading the rules that previously children under 12 didn’t have to maintain 1.5 distance from each other, but where I live/within my circles people weren’t on the whole mixing children from other households so I interpreted it more as “don’t stress if children accidentally come into contact with each other” rather than “organize meetups” (unless all the other parents were organizing meetups without us but seems unlikely). That’s a confused expats interpretation though.

@Flopjustwantscoffee
so far everything was the same as I came across. Just feel sorry for the half days your school seems to do. That seems so much more hassle, and actually seems to go against the government recommendations. I know the Association of parents for daycare/afterschoolclubs was really mad at schools that wanted to do this (in the news just before the May break)

@Orangeblossom78 yes, and even then lots of people were saying we had left it far too late. Not compared to the UK I thought. Unfortunately that week may prove to have been crucial

Interesting stuff. Thanks OP!

Do you know what approach is being taken with the youngest children with regards to sharing toys and play equipment. As a reception teacher I am thinking about how to keep the equipment clean. I don’t want cross contamination but also they do need some shared resources or else it will be like a prison. Obviously will give out individual resources in personalised baskets where I can but outdoor equipment, paints, Lego etc doesn’t lend itself to that.

Thank you very much for this. It’s incredibly reassuring
I posted in the COVID topic earlier asking for experiences from other parts of Europe so this has been a real help. Very positive!

Are school buildings as small and decrepit as UK ones? Do they have working sinks in classrooms? Are the toilet and hand washing facilities better than the UK? (Our school has 3 toilets and sinks for all of KS1 (95 kids) and 6 toilets and 5 sinks for KS2 (127 kids).

I am also in NL, and my kids are back at school for 3 hours every morning.
As a working parent it’s not ideal, but still better than nothing. What I hear from speaking to friends and from my own experience is that employers are being very flexible, and are really trying hard to find workable solutions for parents.
The kids are loving being back at school, I don’t think I was a very good teacher!

@dutchyoriginal, I know. It’s fine for me at the moment but rubbish for other people. Luckily my work have said they aren’t going to pressure people to return to the office any time soon even as they start a phased return, as there is no way I could - by the time I arrived at work it would be time to head back