To think schools should not reopen in Sept?

[SusanFrimp]

I think that schools should not fully reopen in September and instead be partially reopened to some years. It is just not safe enough to reopen yet. I'd say December at the latest for full reopening. If they can't reopen other smaller places, how can they reopen schools with 1000's of kids? AIBU?

I don't want my child doing online schooling. As it stands, schools are planning to open full time so if you aren't happy with that then deregister.

Well OP none of my friends are particularly concerned about it and want their kids back in school in Sept. This is both working and non working parents before the old 'school isn't childcare' bullshit gets mentioned.

Over the summer DS has been to holiday camps and clubs, with nearly about as many children who he would normally be in school with.

This is probably true for thousands of young children who have been going to private childcare providers for the last couple of months.

Yet I haven’t seen one article that suggests any increase in cases is linked to tor’s children in private childcare facilities.

Personally I think they should put a curfew on the bars and start policing people who don’t social distance better, like packed beaches etc

I agree, not sure how it can work otherwise.

For example, my DD is going into year 2. That's a bubble of 120 as they're including year 1 in their bubble so teachers work across the 4 classes.

Of the 30 in her class 18 have siblings in other bubbles, and another 2 have siblings in the KS1 bubble. So in DDs class that's potentially over 300 points of exposure (they're doing an Early Years bubble with N/R and then 2 KS2 bubbles, 1 3/4 and one 5/6). Imagine if the entire school is similar? I give it until half term before our school is closed that's if we're lucky. I know of 4 members of staff with children at other local schools, so we could end up with a local lockdown.

I will lose my mind.

Keep your kid off then and let everyone else get on with their education

Last week the number of deaths (Covid and non Covid) in the U.K. was lower than normal at this time of year so if it isn’t safe now when will it be?

If kids can't spread it then why were schools closed for months?

@Lockdownfatigue

YANBU but we’re in the minority here.

I agree but at the same time I no longer have a child at school so my opinion is probably too vague. Someone upthread, from Scotland, said children are returning to school tomorrow and suggested we wait and see how they get on (I'm so ignorant I didn't realise terms were at different times in Scotland to here, can't imagine school in August).

@SusanFrimp Most children have not been to school since March you say December thats 9 months of 0 learning!

My daughter is only in nursery but is delayed and I can already tell her speech is suffering from not being at nursery...

@SusanFrimp

And why must I have to deregister? Again, I am not saying we must keep them off. I'm saying for a few year groups in at a time. Not all at once. I've spoken to many parents about this and they also believe that it's not safe and would rather do online schooling.

You should deregister if you don't want your child to access the education provided for them but would prefer to do your own thing - which is what you are saying.

Who will provide the online schooling you mention so breezily?

Why will schools be safer in December? What's so magic about then?

How do you expect the part time timetable to be supported? Whilst working remotely I was answering questions from students throughout the day. Setting remote learning took a lot longer than preparing a normal lesson, responding to remote learning massively increased my workload. If I am juggling teaching in class, teaching remotely I am unlikely to be able to do either job well.

I am prepared to go back and want things to get back to normal, we can not sit back and wait for it to go away - its not going anywhere soon.

Also how is this going to help parents who are trying to get back to work, I know school is not childcare but it does fill a big chunk of the day - how am I supposed to add in juggling my own children being in school/not in school etc.

Encourage your child to understand all the rules and stick to them, make the teachers lives easier by making sure we don't have to constantly remind them to wash hands, keep distance etc.

Having said all that I know mine wouldn't have cared about being off school, would not have suffered mental health problems and would have managed exams quite well a year or so late as would their friends. It was a very laid back era :-).

@SusanFrimp

If kids can't spread it then why were schools closed for months?

Um - everything was closed. Did you miss that the UK went into lockdown? It lasted for a while.

For those who don’t want their DC’s to go back (yet), who will provide online or other teaching materials. The teachers will be back full time in front of their classes and not available to produce materials for those staying at home?

I think one difference between when we were first locked down, and now, is that in that time, there have been a vast array of studies, in many countries, studying the spread and effect of the virus, and with particular focus on school children, and in school environments, that have enabled a conclusion that it is relatively low risk for children to go back to school, both in terms of contamination of children, and them infecting others. (I'm no kind of scientist though, so I'll happily be told by others better informed and able to 'do the science' that I'm talking shit upstream!)

The thought of schools not going back is bringing me out in a cold sweat - stop it!

@PTW1234

Over the summer DS has been to holiday camps and clubs, with nearly about as many children who he would normally be in school with.

This is probably true for thousands of young children who have been going to private childcare providers for the last couple of months.

Yet I haven’t seen one article that suggests any increase in cases is linked to tor’s children in private childcare facilities.

Personally I think they should put a curfew on the bars and start policing people who don’t social distance better, like packed beaches etc

Theres no evidence showing Covid spread on "packed beaches" either.

YABU, children have been let down, far too long out of proper education with social aspects/sports/academics all playing a part. All the other countries are managing kids back at school largely full time. If kids aren’t educated they will be left behind worldwide. The world is already moving on with more home based work and employers will seek foreign based and better educated foreign employees in the future. You can’t let a whole generation down for a disease that affects mainly the elderly and obese, it is just not fair on them and I think we will see some human rights challenges on behalf of children and the young in the courts quite soon if schools don’t reopen fully. Government should give schools further funding though if they can. Other countries have prioritised education above other things which is the rational thing to do. Of course there will always be some discussion on how to make schools safer and rightly so.

Ridiculous.

Children need school more than you realise.
For a huge number of reasons.
If they don’t go back in September it will be devastating to more than if they didn’t go back.

I'm assuming all those with kids going back to school are not wearing masks then?
If bubbles of 120+ kids with no masks and not social distancing for 5+ hours together are safe then I'm guessing that standing next to a couple of strangers for a few minutes in a supermarket without PPE must make us all safe then, no need for us to have masks if the kids don't.
I'm also assuming that the lack of symptoms in many people is also false reporting, we will know' if anyone has it, this has helped stop the spread of it so far , hasn't it?
I have both yr11 and yr13 doing exams next year.
There is no good solution at the moment, our going back does however look very very different to other countries version of going back to school.
Do have a look at the Korean report of kids returning to school. It makes very interesting reading and they are much better set up in so many ways than us.

[quote SusanFrimp]@Drivingdownthe101 It should be safer at least![/quote]
That's nonsense. Deaths naturally peak annually between December and March so on that basis they shouldn't go back until next April. Unless of course there is another wave of the virus next spring, or another virus - there are loads of potentially fatal viruses floating around - this might just be a precursor.

YABVVU

@SusanFrimp cases may have risen, but hospital & icu admissions haven’t. This most likely means that younger, healthier people have been catching it and recovering. Way more people are being tested now, so cases will be picked up that previously wouldn’t have been too.

What is your definition of safe anyway??

YABU. Children need to be educated. Online learning is a very poor substitute for actually being in school. As teachers and other school staff we have worked our socks off to ensure we can have children back as safely as possible.

What do you think will be different in December? If kids are home, how can their parents go to work, especially if they cannot work from home? What about the kids sitting exams next year? The kids whose home situation means that trying to learn at home is nigh on impossible?

For once, I agree with the prime minister, schools opening should be an absolute priority.