To feel I can't cope with schools only going back part time in August?

[jbonsor]

Just that. I was coping OK with lockdown, and trying to keep positive about juggling kids and working from home til June, then take a few weeks holiday over the summer just to do things with the kids even if still restricted. This week I have received a letter from my son's nursery to say he has a space for the 2020-2021 school year but that due to covid 19 they can't confirm pattern of attendance, as in, they can't confirm if he will have the 30 hours he was having since August. I also have read a lot that primary school might be 2 days only a week or a very day but only morning or afternoon session.. This has really tipped me over the edge as I am dreading having to keep juggling all this for over a year. This really puts a strain in family life and finances because now we have to basically decide on one income only, and not onky that but I don't feel I am that good at home schooling and feel like my kids are going to fall behind. Sometimes I can't believe how everything fell apart so spectacularly and how is the Scottish government deciding this is the best course of action without any regard for the mountain of problems this will bring to a huge amount of families.

Lockdown is very much what you make it.

Oh please. I bet you think adults who have mental health issues just aren’t thinking positively enough, too.

I’m honestly very pleased for you that your children are enjoying it. Do you think you could summon a skerrick of empathy for children who aren’t finding it such a positive experience, who desperately miss their friends and aren’t old enough to run their own social media, who don’t find socialising online as easy or fulfilling as in person, who are worried or anxious or lonely for interaction with people their own age?

I would gently suggest you might try to make room in your mind for the idea in particular that teenagers will have very different resources available to them - practically and emotionally - than younger children.

Tell that to every therapist in the world, trying to help adults whose fears and relationships with others and the world around them were forged in childhood when their brains were developing.

Yep. All the talk around how important children’s mental health and wellbeing is has turned out to be lip service.

www.thenational.scot/news/18463909.union-boss-says-scottish-schools-will-part-time-vaccine/

Have you all seen this? "Scottish school pupils will be part-time until vaccine, says union boss"

I am bullish on a vaccine, but getting the vaccine rolled and delivered to EVERYONE is going to take some time.

@astrid the "huge numbers" is a very wide term. Please look up the way they are reporting, even the wording they use to describe those huge numbers "people have died that tested positive for covid" it does not mean they died from coronavirus. Also you might want to familiarise with " excess deaths" concept and read some papers, rather than getting everything from the news, I have posted a few throughout the thread about real numbers of people that require hospitalisation (randomizer data not calculated from their Very Poor testing implementation in the UK)

@FelicisNox well that's all very nice for you. The one thing you don't seem to have made her most of during lockdown is empathy.

@Kokeshi123
Unbelievable! All I can say is he must be awfully sure of himself that there will be a vaccine. The Oxford study is now at risk because infection rates aren’t high enough to test vaccines.
The Governments (including Scotland) are going to look pretty fucking stupid when they’re told no vaccine will be made available (mainly because the virus has burnt itself out by the autumn - just my opinion)

FelicisNox

I'm all right Jack....

My friend's SEN dgc is going backwards in spite of best efforts of her parents (no ECHP so hasn't been in school). She is luckily Y1 so hopefully going back next week unless unions scupper the opening.

I am bullish on a vaccine, but getting the vaccine rolled and delivered to EVERYONE is going to take some time.

And not everyone will want to take a brand new, insufficiently tested vaccine anyway.

*Have you all seen this? "Scottish school pupils will be part-time until vaccine, says union boss"

I am bullish on a vaccine, but getting the vaccine rolled and delivered to EVERYONE is going to take some time.*

That’s a joke

I hope when all this is over the government turn the thumb screws on trade unions even more. The way most of them have behaved throughout this is an absolute disgrace. No understanding whatsoever of the unprecedented difficulties many employers find themselves having to cope with an an assumption by the unions they’re all like Victorian workhouse owners.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52758024

Some perspective on the ACTUAL risks of COVID19 as opposed to the inflated risks in many people’s minds. The risks to children are virtually nonexistent - they are far more likely to get cancer (for instance).

I also heard the news that falling infection rates make the ability to properly assess a vaccine questionable now. This ties in with the absence of second waves (this far) throughout Europe after various countries have eased restrictions. I really wouldn’t be surprised if it did pretty much disappear over the summer.

I hope someone with deeper pockets than me raises an action for judicial review against this government. They can’t be allowed to damage kids education like this. Schools were open as normal when the virus was circulating widely and there weren’t kids and teachers dropping dead all over the place. Now it’s virtually gone and they can’t even open up schools to half capacity? Nope.

Come on now, I'm not against the re-opening of schools but it's a bit daft to say the virus is "virtually gone" isn't it? We still have hundreds of people dying a day and that's with social distancing and lockdown measures in place.

In Scotland we have 10s of people dying per day (if that) and it’s falling off rapidly. By August it could very well have virtually disappeared.

As said above 10s of people are dying a day and most are probably in care homes. They are struggling to get the testing for the vaccine done as the virus has dropped in the community so much so people aren’t being exposed to it. Obviously it’s not gone for good but the chances of getting it now are much less than in March when it was OK for hundreds of people to be in my son’s unventilated school assembly hall for parents night.

Loving the use of the word “skerrick” JessyRadlett.

As said above 10s of people are dying a day and most are probably in care homes

Fuck 'em. Oldies. Probably boomers. In the bin.

The majority of Scotland’s deaths occurred in care homes (a greater percentage than England but another scandal NS has swerved).

Currently in one of Scotland’s “super hospitals” that covers a huge geographical area there are 4 patients with COVID in the hospital.

You can protect isolated groups like ‘oldies’ by shielding them (should they want it) without damaging the educational prospects of the younger generation in the process.

@FamilyOfAliens I had a moment of ‘is this a word used in the UK?’ (I’m from Australia originally) but it felt like the only word that really fit in the circumstances!

Fuck 'em. Oldies. Probably boomers. In the bin

Oh do fuck off. I neither said, nor meant that. The reason I mentioned it, which I suspect you know but decided you’d rather be a bit of a dick instead, is that it means the virus is not circulating widely in the community.

I had a moment of ‘is this a word used in the UK?’

It is now - at least in the Aliens household

Older people have it so much easier to shield if they wish to do so. But at least here in my town they were the ones breaching lockdown all the time. They are giving priority to get food deliveries, there are groups in the community to provide them with help for errands (post, shopping, a helping hand and a chat) they have no jobs or kids depending on them. Another fact that further support our case of opening schools is that people in care homes are isolated, shielded etc and yet they are still catching the virus and sadly passing away, so how is the wrecking of kids education and the economy going to save them from falling ill?

I suspect the ‘seeding’ of care homes with untested elderly patients decanted from hospitals (who weren’t kept isolated), coupled with the unavailability of testing for care home staff (despite what was said in briefings), coupled with lack of PPE, coupled with staff shortages meaning staff were moving between care homes, has led to a perfect storm of infections in care homes. Although I agree, the relevant data is the impact in the wider community since (in theory at least) older people are easier to keep isolated. If they want to be, which is another conversation I suppose. I also know people in that age group who continue to go out for their weekly shop despite easy availability of home delivery slots because it’s the only social contact they get in a week. They know the risks and have decided they are happy to take them.

Exactly!
And actually harsh as it may sound older people are generally going to die before younger people. Fact.

Older people have it so much easier to shield if they wish to do so.

You think?

But at least here in my town they were the ones breaching lockdown all the time.

But were they supposed to be shielding or are you just basing that on nothing?

They are giving priority to get food deliveries, there are groups in the community to provide them with help for errands (post, shopping, a helping hand and a chat)

ALL age groups on the shielding list have the same access to these things.

they have no jobs or kids depending on them

A lot of older people also have no one to depend on. What part makes it easier for them shielding?