To think this procrastinating about school reopening is going to cause more deaths and long term issues than CV

[whenthejoyreturns]

Credit due to all the schools that have worked hard and found inventive ways to open this week. I know of some that have sent positive messages to parents and managed to reassure them that their dc won’t be traumatised by the experience.
What’s preventing all schools doing this? Our local primary has sent an email basically telling parents they will be committing murder if their dc step anywhere near school. Unsurprisingly they’ve decided they’re not ready to open yet. This is a modern school, all classrooms have doors to outside and are large and airy. The deputy head’s dc has diabetes and I believe she doesn’t want to open because of her personal circumstances.
AIBU to think schools are not thinking about children and the negative impact this is bound on thousands. I believe many will never recover from this.

Let the children mix And behave as normal.

The teachers can distance from them if they want to.

Those who want to keep the children at home can, those who are happy to send them in can.

My partner is surrounded by patients with it every day. All of our children are still alive and so are the teachers in the school where they have been going throughout this entire thing.

If it's not safe for teachers to be near a child that doesn't have it, then it must be more dangerous for care workers. Should all Heath care workers not go to work because it is dangerous

I am also currently very cross that children's mental health, vulnerabilities and education are apparently top of the agenda but my own disabled son receives zero help. Our LA is happy for him to wander the school coridoors in acute anxiety while we wage a legal battle for appropriate education. Frankly I'm the only one who gives a toss about his mental health, vulnerabilities and education and have been for the past 7 years!

We couldn't send him to school during the lockdown despite his having an EHCP because his support wasn't available and he can't be managed.

Now imagine how I feel when I see all the stuff about vulnerable children and how awful it is they are out of school. Why is scholl the only option? Why aren't these parents expected to step up like I constantly am!

@smogsville

No, I believe that if current trends continue (really hope they do) it will be much safer in September. The independent Sage study said even waiting two weeks would halve the risk. I’m generally optimistic about the future with the virus and think things will improve, I even have some hope that we could return to full classes in Sept.

I just think that opening now with the current level of transmission and no track and trace is a bit reckless.

No I don't think delaying opening schools will cause more deaths and long term issues that CV.

No, I believe that if current trends continue (really hope they do) it will be much safer in September

Why? Is covid going to totally disappear by then?

Surely it would be better if there was a second wave that it happened in summer rather than winter?

@MrsBobDylan

No I don't think delaying opening schools will cause more deaths and long term issues that CV.

I mean it will probably cause more unemployment. More mental health issues in children. Won't help the economy get up and running. A bad economy = a worse health service = worse care = lower life expectancy and more deaths.

It will have an effect.

@snowballer the vulnerable ones are the ones not going to school so actually my point is hugely relevant. These children are safer in school.

I have a friend who is a safe guarding officer at a school with a high number of at risk children. She can’t even get through to some of these families on the phone to check on the children who are at risk. She is very worried.

No it’s not going to disappear but with the R coming down less people will have it. It will be easier to track and trace fewer cases. Tests may deliver results more quickly. All of these things make full school reopening much easier.

A second wave is by no means guaranteed and I don’t think we should be trying to engineer one!

@Delatron schools are open to vulnerable children, they have been all the way through the lockdown. Its still parents choice though and until its not many will stay home. That isn't the schools fault.

We get a phone call from our school every week (disabled child). I ignore it, waste of time. They can't do anything. It's crap, hard to teach, I'm hugely stressed and anxious, trying to work as well etc etc. They can't take him, can't differentiate his work. A sympathetic phone call doesn't help.

“Our headteacher rang parents to warn them it would be detrimental to the children’s mental health to return to school. I am really angry!”

I’ve heard of this and read very unwelcoming emails from Heads. My son works in a London primary school and he says the Head is really keen to get the kids back in, knowing the challenges of home for them and their working parents. Mind you, they did pull the school out of special measures several years ago and it’s now rated “Outstanding “ by Ofsted so I guess this is a relatively small challenge in comparison 😊

Just another GF Teacher Bashing Load of shite

Tiresome

Your opening post is so ridiculously over the top, it's not worth responding with any kind of reasoned argument OP, as it's clear that reason is not your strong point. You are being completely unreasonable.
And if this post is an indication of how you are behaving around your children, then it's not wonder that you and they cannot cope.

@tonglong

Let the children mix And behave as normal.

The teachers can distance from them if they want to.

Those who want to keep the children at home can, those who are happy to send them in can.

My partner is surrounded by patients with it every day. All of our children are still alive and so are the teachers in the school where they have been going throughout this entire thing.

If it's not safe for teachers to be near a child that doesn't have it, then it must be more dangerous for care workers. Should all Heath care workers not go to work because it is dangerous

I can think of half a dozen pupils in Years 5 and 6 alone whose "behave as normal" will mean wandering round the school/classroom at random and displaying threatening behaviour and/or fighting. Then there are younger pupils who refuse to leave their parents in the morning without being helped by a member of staff normally, never mind with all the new measures in place. How are school staff supposed to distance themselves "if they want to" at those times?

Health care workers can ask patients to keep their distance and, if they can't, they (I hope all now) have PPE. They see usually one patient at a time and, for the majority of patients, only see them for short periods. School staff will be spending six hours a day with fifteen children at a time, in small classrooms without much space to distance, with little or no PPE. Can you not see how these two groups are different?

(And I am in no way bashing health or care workers, nor minimising what they do or all their number who have died. Nor am I saying teachers have it worse than anyone else; I am just saying it is different, so you can't compare the workplaces or roles, they each have their own challenges in these times.)

@Ginandbearit1

I agree OP. I think schools thought closed until September, six month paid holiday.

Do you present multiple hour long video conferences while on holiday for work? Or call 30 clients, make work, deliver work packs etc?

My personal circumstances have nothing to do with this.
I agree things need to start reopening. I don’t think this should be primary schools first. If it was about education secondary would be open.

Instead they will be locked out of school so the current year 6’s can still have their transition days. I’m sure the current y7’s would have preferred to see the school again before September. And even then, it will be the new year 7’s education will be focused on. Same with yr1’s.

If it really was about education, private schools would also have to open.

This is about continuing to treat educators as childcare. The backlash to those who have opened will be insane. And as a result of how they are treated many are thinking about quitting, if they haven’t already.

@IncrediblySadToo

Just another GF Teacher Bashing Load of shite

Tiresome

I'm sick and tired of people's concern for their own children being passed off as "teacher bashing" ffs.

This is MUMSNET for Christ sake. If you should be allowed an opinion on your own kid somewhere it should be here.

@Myothercarisalsoshit

Who could have predicted though that MH for adolescents and young people, along with the care and education of vulnerable children would be such a concern for the population as a whole? It's almost as if people are just using them to strengthen their argument and get what they want...

YY

(I wrote more but I deleted it because it was just an angry rant!)

@tonglong I do believe care workers and doctors etc are allowed to wear PPE, which is not the case at primary schools.

[quote Kittenlicker]@tonglong I do believe care workers and doctors etc are allowed to wear PPE, which is not the case at primary schools.[/quote]
Presumably because doctors come into contact with people who definitely have covid? Teachers aren't going into a classroom full of infected children.

Has it been concluded either way that children are/aren’t carriers?

I feel sorry for teachers. Less than two hours before the onslaught will start about the crap day the child had.

Not enough money for the what heads their way from parents. The ones that were in, calls because little Johnny did not a lot. Calls because little Sally didn’t make the cut. The hysteria because you let a child touch mine. The moans because they cannot barge into the class to collect the child.

I’d be typing my resignation letter now ready to send. It’s going to get worse. It’s not working in the countries that have tried it. Go and read local papers from around the world. With better controls and face masks, still having to close down again.

Presumably because doctors come into contact with people who definitely have covid? Teachers aren't going into a classroom full of infected children.

My cousin is a community nurse. She's not necessarily visiting the houses of people with Covid19, yet she is encouraged to wear PPE for her visits.

That's for one-to-one for a short period of time. Teachers could be up to 1:15 for six hours.

@Useruseruserusee does this call for a localised approach then? It would seem odd for all schools to be closed because some areas are judged to be hotspots while others are not. As @formerbabe said, there's always such a fuss made about attendance records even when there's a genuine medical reason (let alone term time holidays). What I can't quite square in this debate it that people (not necessarily you!) seem to be suggesting that a prolonged period of time without formal education doesn't actually matter as its 'only a few months' and these same people don't seem to have an end point in mind after which actually it really will start to matter a great deal to the chances of a huge number of kids. I totally take your point about the need to have the data to allow us to track the infection though. Ultimately it's just a shocking situation for all of us - parents, children, teachers, working people, keyworkers - to be in because we have a crap government.

I wasn't quoting you...it was the implication that children with mental health difficulties have difficult family circumstances no you have misunderstood @formerbabe like I said my eldest had severe mental health issues.
I am saying that for those families with a difficult home life not having the sanctuary of school will be detrimental to their mental health.
That is not the same as saying all children with mental health issues come from difficult backgrounds.

Who are all these medics who are shouting about it?

The BMA review fed their opposition. DH is a medic and he thinks schools should open for key years.

Recinded