Back to school, back to work....

[User1123788363]

I’m struggling to see the issue with children with no underlying health issues returning to school and adults under a certain age with no underlying health issues going back to work.

Surely shielded people should stay shielded. Anyone who’s higher risk should be allowed to shield if they choose to and everyone else should be getting back to living their lives?

And yes the infection rate will likely go up but as long as shielded people are still doing just that then they won’t be exposed.

It feels like our children’s education and the economy are suffering massively because we’re locked down in solidarity.

Even the years that are back at school are not properly back. My ds is in year 6, in a special school. His usual class is 6 children and 2 staff. The room is plenty big enough for them all to be in it at 2 m apart.
He also has an echp and is classed as vulnerable.
During most the lockdown he was given 1.5 hours, three times a week, with 1 other child.
Now, because he is year 6, he is allowed back more. So he is doing 2 days of 2 hours each, with 2 other children (half the usual class)
I really dont understand why the hours are so restricted. Even if they decided to split the class into 2 groups, surely he could get 2 or 2.5 full days. You really dont learn much in 2 hours, especially in the type of school he is in.
I guess the school have reasons, but I'd love for them to explain them so I could understand, cos to be honest it just looks like they are reluctant to open and doing the bare minimum. (Although his class teacher is fantastic, she is happy, positive and so encouraging)

Lots (probably hundreds of thousands actually) like me have been at work (in a bog standard office admin job) throughout. My colleague is refusing to come back though (and has been furloughed despite her role actually being needed). She won’t send her DS to school (opened last Monday) until it’s ‘safe’. Funny how she thought playdates and friends/family over constantly was ‘safe’ though.

To say schooling has started to return is really not true for most children.
In Lancashire for example it is is still only key-worker provision. Maybe Y6 and possibly Y1 and R will get back before the summer holiday but no other year groups. Come September who knows? Unless social distancing is abandoned there is no way all the children can return. So how does the government propose everyone returns to work? Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to work from home, this is completely unrealistic.

YANBU

In DC1's primary school class barely a fifth of the class has returned.

I do respect the fact that every family has to make the best decision for all its members, based on individual circumstances, however there is a strong feeling of "what's the point in going back for a few weeks?" or others saying it's still not safe, I don't want my child to be a guinea pig or I love my children too much to put them at risk.

This is from the class whatsapps group, I've not replied to any of the above messages, others have waded in and it's caused quite a bit of tension. For example, the children who have attended school throughout lockdown as parents are key workers- they have carried on as normal by comparison to those now planning to remain at home longer term.

As you may have deduced, out DC has returned to school.
Before anyone asks, none of the children in DC's has a chronic/long term condition however can't say this about their extended family members etc.

Squidgebum so what have the teachers in my nephews school been doing "working their full hours all the time" for the last 10 weeks? Certainly not providing an education to my nephew and the rest of his school because according to the head teacher that's " not practical". It does not make sense. Hos brother by the way is in year 7 and his school can not be faulted so it's not that schools cant.

Very fortunately for us our children happen to be in private schools and you know what.. distanced learning hasn't faltered as the school "reopens". As I said before the bottom line really does concentrate the mind. Incidentally there have been loads of KW pupils in school throughout which have received exactly the same lessons as those children on distanced learning.

People are saying their Y10s will be getting one day a week in school between now and summer holidays. My Y10 child will be getting ONE 30 minute meeting with her English, maths and sciences teachers next week and that is it for the rest of the school year. Half an hour, and nothing with other subject teachers.

This is so unfair.

In some ways, parents choosing not to send their DC back has made things better/easier in some ways as class sizes kept to a minimum and social distancing marginally easier to enforce.

I don't quite get the school fear when these children are pictured on social media on trips to the beach and to other places with family and friends...but this insane fear exists for them to return to school!

Teachers are back in school or will be in the next few weeks.

The delay to returning students is that some schools are determined to try and manage it with 2m distancing, despite guidance being that it is not required. This means that most classrooms can only accommodate 8-9 children and you need 3 adults to teach one "class". Whether this is a good or a bad thing seems to be a matter of opinion.

All children won't be back fulltime until social distancing is abolished both in and out of schools. I honestly dont know how schools are supposed to staff children in school in very small groups and continue to support home learning.

@listsandbudgets eh.... I dont work in your nephews school so I obviously dont know .... I just know in my situation all kids have had work given, all kids have been in regular contact with teachers, I am have marked everything that comes in (even though only about 20% of my kids are submitting work now) and I spend most of my time emailing parents and students offering support.

I am simply telling you the realistic logistics of opening a school. Your anger towards your nephews school should be directed at them, not me.

It's becoming natural selection, these demonstrations will have us locked down again in a few weeks.
Kids going back to school will see an increase, more people back at work.
My dd has been told school could be back November, if not September. I won't be mixing in any hurry, apart from family, outdoors.
I think if people want to take the risk, they should be allowed back to work now, and those who don't stay furloughed. Lots of people can't wait to get back to the grind.

The government threw money at making the Nightingale hospitals and had a big drive at getting recently retired nhs staff back to work.

With schools-they made a decision about who should go back which was a complete surprise to most primary schools who had planned for different scenarios-YN and YR/1 not being part of them! They released over 40 lengthy pieces of guidance in the following 2 weeks and were surprised when heads weren’t all ready to open. Schools have been told they can claim back some money for the extra costs that opening safely may incur, but ONLY if they end up out of pocket by it at the end of the year.

If they want to help schools reopen further, they need to provide enough money to fund extra staff and classrooms.

What I expect they’ll do though is just tell all vulnerable staff they’re fine and force them to go back as normal and tell us that having 30 to a class is fine.

The autumn term will probably be spent closing down and reopening classes/schools when people test positive. Whack a mole.

You are right OP. Most kids are NOT back at school. It's ridiculous

Oh yay! Another “let’s just lock up old and vulnerable people so I can go out to the shops” thread.

Let’s ignore the fact that young people, healthy people, NHS, care and shop workers will die too.

Opening up will not fix the economy. People won’t flock to bars and restaurants in numbers that will help. People won’t go to work whilst there is still a risk. And people who are at risk will be forced to go to work as the schemes to support them are stripped away.

The interruption in education isn’t as bad as people want to pretend it is for the vast majority of students and if you’re that bothered about your kid there are plenty of resources to help them. They system will adjust to make sure they hit the level of attainment needed. No kid will be sitting GCSE questions about things they weren’t taught because of Covid.

But Squidgebum you stated that in "every school every teacher works their full hours all the time". Please dont make blanket statements if you can't back them up because it certainly seems to me that this is a false statement as it does not appear to apply to all schools.

It sounds like your pupils are lucky to have you

It's becoming natural selection, these demonstrations will have us locked down again in a few weeks

Are you deliberately ignoring all the VE Day celebrations and the packed beaches?

Oh yay! Another “let’s just lock up old and vulnerable people so I can go out to the shops” thread.

So you think this group shouldn’t be shielded? Or that everyone should be locked down in solidarity?

The issue is that the majority of kid can't go back to school. It's not as simple as just sending them back. While this virus is still here the only way to get them back is by investing in schools like the government has done with nightingale hospitals and furloughed workers to increase space and staffing levels. Then it may be a possibility. At the moment it's just an wish with no practical reality. Either that or they need to eliminate the reason we're all in this mess in the first place and get rid of the virus but this half way house of not investing yet simultaneously opening things up is just going to delay life getting back to any sort of normality.

I think the wrong stress are opening up first, all GPS and hospitals should be opening up more first, people see missing important operations, I don't understand why the high street is opening up, as if its going to go exactly as they planned, I'm supposed to be going back to my retail job next week but my partners clinically vulnerable and I'm his carer, the givernment says he should be staying at home still but I should be taking public transport for an hour every day while having my family over is prohibited in my house, I'm not gonna sardine on a metal box with strangers everyday when it's still not safe enough for my friends and family to come into my house.

I think June 15th is gonna be mayhem, staff who have received a couple of hours of training having to keep customers to strict social distancing? I've heard all about the b&qs/home base that devolved into crowds of people with staff just chatting huddled around in groups, it's an experiment in opening up again and I don't want to be a part of it.

So yes households under a certain age with no health conditions should start coming out of lock down if they deem it safe to, the givernment still doesn't deem it safe to have people in my house so being stuck in a shopping centre with everyone is gonna be great :/ having to wait outside the shop to be let in, having to wait next to display for people to stop slowly staring at stuff so you can have your turn, even before lockdown happened the amount of people coughing into their hands and then rifling through piles of children's clothes was shocking so I'm sure that's not gonna have stopped.

So you think this group shouldn’t be shielded? Or that everyone should be locked down in solidarity?

FFS it’s not solidarity, it’s about stopping the spread of the virus so everyone can get back to some semblance of normal life. If we reduce R, then even the vulnerable groups can start to see their lives return, access to respite, care and health services, seeing their families etc.

Incredible that people at this stage still don’t understand what lockdown is for.

Sending Year 10s in for only 1/4 at a time is a joke. That will be 1 day a week, so perhaps 1 hour of each class per week. Pretty pointless.

They should all be doing in 3-4 days a week and just spread out across classrooms. there are enough teachers for this in most subjects, just might not get your regular teacher for the rest of this year.

I agree. I feel like the teachers union are holding the county to random. Our kids have lost out big time to this. The only group not at risk yet most effected

The unions have stopped nothing. It's the government who've decided who's going back. Some local councils have decided their numbers are too high and told local schools to close. Unions guidance is to make sure schools are safe for staff, students and parents

Err what? The GOVERNMENT have said only 25% to be in on one day, not the teachers or the unions.

I feel like the teachers union are holding the county to random

This has nothing to do with the unions. The plans have been made by and released by the government and them alone.

Schools are merely following what they are being told. The problem is the ever changing guidance they are receiving. So BoJo makes an announcement then the dfe gives guidelines in reaction to that, then something is pointed out and so we get another set of guidelines. Councils are then doing something else. Unions have very little impact.