To prepare DC for the fact that schools may not open?

[collageofphotos]

It's now looking like full school re-opening is in doubt, unfortunately - I'm so torn about whether to be open with my DC (10 and 8) about this fact or just keep talking as though it's definitely all back to normal in September.

I'm leaning towards the latter, but wondered what others are planning to do? For context, one of my DC is desperate to get back to school, the other is absolutely dreading it, which makes things complicated...

It feels like it will be a huge shock to suddenly have to announce on eg Sept 1st (as last-minute announcements seem to be this government's specialty ) that it won't be happening after all, but on the other hand I don't want them to be worried for a whole month before we know what's actually happening...

[Chloemol]

I am not reading schools won’t be open. I am reading that in order for schools to open some other areas may have to close, ie pubs etc

[collageofphotos]

@SaltyAndFresh

Please bear in mind that schools can only stay open as long as staff are well enough to work. You can demand all you like but if I get ill, I'll be staying home until I recover.

Well yes this is clear to me - before the govt mandated all schools to close many were closing anyway due to staff shortages.

Just seen on Guardian govt now looking to close pubs so schools can open - feel quite doubtful whether this would be enough??

[fflelp]

The plan is that the children will be going back. Who knows for how long and if they might be part time.
What I think is completely wrong is having pubs and everything else open while kids stay at home. If not everything can be open so that transmission is reduced and the NHS is not overwhelmed, then the priority should be getting children back to school and not getting drinkers back in pubs - sad as that is for pub owners who are going o have serious financial difficulties.
I am in another European country and our children went back part time in the middle of May, before pubs and restaurants were opened up again. It seems like the UK has their priorities completely fucked up.
Everything seems to be reactive, not proactive and there seems to be no sensible thought out plan. I appreciate they were caught on the hop at the beginning - but we are now 4 months on since lockdown and it still seems to be chaotic. That's why it's taking longer to get back to normal than other countries.
We had a very sudden and strict lockdown which lasted around 5 weeks and then there was a clear plan to open up with different things opening every 3 weeks followed by analysis of the figures before proceeding with the next step. We are beginning to see signs of clusters popping up again and I think we will see tougher measures soon, but at least the children were able to get back to school from the middle of May to July, albeit part-time and those who had fallen behind during home-schooling are going back to school for three weeks in August for catch-up lessons.

Regarding the OP's problem - I think the best thing to do is not mention it too much. If it comes up say that the government's plan is that all children will be going back in September. If that then changes you can deal with it at the time.
My Mam always used to say to me "There's a lot of water to go under the bridge before then" if I ever started to worry about things happening in the future. Maybe you could say that to the children too but only if you think it would help them. It helped me as a child.

[Letseatgrandma]

@Echobelly

I'm going to prepare kids for the possibility - my guess is they will open but they'll shut again by or after half term, unless the government adopts a policy of keeping schools open come hell or high water, which I also suspect is a possibility.

I suspect they would love to do this! I just can’t see that they can though-if there aren’t enough members of staff in due to staff illness, and supply teachers won’t go into a school with suspected cases, they will have to close. They can’t exactly jam the whole school in the hall with the deputy and a dvd to get round it.

[Sarahbeans]

"As a secondary teacher, my feeling is that we will open in sept but that the plan for the whole school to be back in huge bubbles just won’t work and there will be a change of plan by Oct."

And this "Please bear in mind that schools can only stay open as long as staff are well enough to work."

Legally, for safety reasons, children have to be supervised. If we do see rises of people being told to self isolate for 10 days etc, then schools will have to close if they can't get enough teachers.

It's easier for primary schools to keep their bubbles and separate out the children. It's also more important that they are in school, to help parents work etc....

However, I can see secondary schools needing to use blended learning when the bubbles inevitably fail.

[labyrinthloafer]

It is an adviser to the government saying that, has there been any indication the government would be willing to actually do that?

[alittleprivacy]

As things have reopened I've told DS7 that they are opening for now. And hopefully will stay open but that there is a chance things will close again. That things will probably swap between opening and closing until there is a vaccine, which will hopefully happen in the winter but isn't guaranteed.

[BelleSausage]

@glitterfarts

The issue is that most holiday care is provided by private companies, many of whom can’t meet the Covid secure guidelines because it eats into their profits. Also why nurseries are struggling too.

What the government need to do is step up and either provide schools with the resources to set up their own childcare services or build government supported childcare.

That’s only if the government actually want working parents back at work. If it comes down to restaurants or schools we might find that schools get nothing to support the sectors that drive the economy. Because that is what has always happened.

[shallpoetwake]

I've been thinking about this yesterday and today, I'll have a teenager in year 11 so GCSE year. I honestly don't know whether to talk to him about the possibility of school not re-opening or not, I don't know what he is thinking about re school. It's difficult to know what is best.

[Littleposh]

@collageofphotos honestly so many comments I couldn't tag them, plus the other 100s of threads on this exact subject. But out of interest, do you watch the news or pick up information from here/SM/friends etc??

[SueEllenMishke]

@cansu

I think it is very very unlikely that they won't open. Government know this would be a very unpopular move. What may happen is that they open and then are closed as part of local lockdowns. I think this is the more likely scenario. I also wonder if they will reimpose other restrictions in order to keep schools open as long as possible. I can also see mask wearing being more likely in the future in schools.

I think this is a likely scenario but what concerns me personally is that we seem to be seeing regional not local lockdowns.
I live in the NW and we're in a mini lockdown and have been all week. This is due to an increase in specific two wards - in one case literally a handful of streets. We are nowhere near those wards and have hardly had ANY cases locally at all ( the last recorded was April) but the same restrictions have been placed on us.
I worry that we'll see our school closed despite there being no cases locally to us because we happened to pay our council tax to a particular Borough.

[megletthesecond]

Yanbu.
I've been muttering about it for a while to mine.
If too many teachers and pupils are ill they won't open. Without masks it'll go wrong very quickly anyway.

[WeAllHaveWings]

Don't tell them what you don't know it will just make them more anxious if they can't trust you, it is ok not to know and they are old enough to understand this. No one knows for sure if schools will open full time, part time, or lessons will be online, even the government.

Hopefully they are already fully aware of the virus and the uncertainty it brings to us all, just tell them the priority for the government is for schools open if safe to do so and that won't change.

I am not religious at all but if they are anxious maybe explain to them the concept of the serenity prayer as good advice - grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference..

They can't change what will happen with schools in September so there is no point in worrying now, they can look at ways to enjoy their summer holidays within the confines of the restrictions.

[uglyface]

Surely ‘closures’ would be on a local basis now?

I suspect someone within the government has been tasked with working our the financial cost of delaying fully opening schools vs closing pubs, restaurants etc. That’s likely to be how a decision will be made.

Sadly doesn’t help the OP, as the nation is normally told about changes to education c48 hours before said changes are supposed to be fully implemented.

[collageofphotos]

[quote Littleposh]@collageofphotos honestly so many comments I couldn't tag them, plus the other 100s of threads on this exact subject. But out of interest, do you watch the news or pick up information from here/SM/friends etc??[/quote]
I watch the news (well read the news online) several times a day. I read that ministers were warning the second wave could threaten schools re-opening, I read that the government response this past week has been described (internally) as a 'shit show', and I read that despite schools reopening being a 'priority', the government have provided little additional funding for this and are expecting large bubbles of older children (who do still spread the virus) to learn, eat and play together without masks on.

So yes, I do follow the news and all that I've read led me to conclude that school re-opening is by no means certain and schools staying open seems unlikely.

[LegoMaus]

Why are the government prioritising pubs and restaurants over children?
There are more people who would face hardship from the closure of the hospitality industry, than would face hardship because of not being able to send young children to school. Literally everyone cares about being able to go out for meals etc, but maybe only a quarter of people care about schools because the rest don’t have kids. Schools aren’t making profit and paying tax. And schools could be closed for years and still reopen but pubs and restaurants can’t, they’ll have gone out of business and caused significant damage to the economy in the process. It’s clear that the government prioritises the economy above people’s health and safety, and probably above education as well.

[GabsAlot]

i read something about closing resturants /pubs so schools can reopen-i think this would be a better idea rather than no school again

[ddl1]

It looks likely at present that full school re-opening will happen in most places; and that, if (as is likely) there are still problems with control of the virus, the government are far more likely to re-impose some other restrictions on socializing, rather than delay school re-opening. Of course, both the government and the virus are hard to predict; but the re-opening of schools seems to be such a priority for the government, that it's likely to happen if at all possible, even at the cost of sacrificing other activities.

[zafferana]

I think the govt will do pretty much anything at this point to reopen schools in Sept. There is an article in The Guardian today (and stories in other papers as well), saying they could close pubs again in order to get the schools open. I would definitely be in favour of this as I think it's the right set of priorities, for once!

[RedRumTheHorse]

@fflelp and @GabsAlot I have just heard on the radio news that a professor on SAGE has said pubs will have to close for schools to reopen.

[Nitpickpicnic]

Sorry, not read the full thread.

In my country, we locked down (closed school) in late March until mid-June. Then kids went back for 2.5 weeks before the normal mid-term 2 week break. During that break a new lockdown was called (second wave). So now we’ve been remote schooling again for a month, with a very shaky end date in 3 weeks to look forward to. All indications are that our current lockdown (and therefore no school) will be extended.

Our street has about 12 kids, aged 7-11. All the parents and kids have talked this week (socially distanced mainly) and we’ve been figuring out how to help the kids deal with all this on/off uncertainty. I can tell you that the kids are actually fine. They are pretty happy living with a day-to-day schedule. The teachers here have had time to hone their skills and what resources they send out each day. The contact they have with the kids means not everything is left to the parents to deal with (emotionally).

It’s weird and not ideal, but as long as the kids are getting some fresh air and some solid video contact with school and friends, it really is mostly ok. Even when today I had to tell DD it was all a bit ‘up in the air’, she was resigned and fairly positive about making the best of things (should announcements be made tomorrow). It’s possible we adults overthink things on their behalf?

[RedRumTheHorse]

This is the story in The Guardian - www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/01/pubs-england-close-control-coronavirus-adviser-graham-medley

[GabsAlot]

[quote RedRumTheHorse]**@fflelp* and @GabsAlot* I have just heard on the radio news that a professor on SAGE has said pubs will have to close for schools to reopen.[/quote]
thanks redrum must be same thing i heard

[thepeopleversuswork]

I think its highly unlikely that schools won't open across the board. There would have to be a really huge national spike for that to happen. I got the impression from Chris Whitty's comments that its more likely that leisure activities would be reigned in than schools. I can imagine it's possible that there may be some regional variations though. Where abouts are you in the country?

I think you have to say something like "schools are planning to open" and leave it open ended. Not much more to be done.

[fflelp]

I am not religious at all but if they are anxious maybe explain to them the concept of the serenity prayer as good advice - grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference..

My parents taught me this too - in a religious context. But I think that it's a very useful piece of advice - for the non-religious, you can simply take God out of it. The philosophy behind it is very useful for the situation we find ourselves in at the moment.