Debate with friend about schools opening. Who was unreasonable?

[Freyaaaaaa]

I just got back from a walk with my friend. She is a secondary school teacher, I work as a HLTA in a primary school.

Friend thinks it's too early for schools to open and that she hopes they close again by October.
I said it's been long enough and children need an education. That will be almost a year off school which for many children will be absurd!
She thinks that schools opening just won't work and that she agrees almost a year off is bad but at the same time health is more important.
My opinion is yes health is important but we can't mess up our children's educations! And being in school one minute then closed again will do more harm than good.

The debate got quite heated as I said plenty of other people are managing to be back at work and so should we,
But apparantly I was being small-minded.
We changed conversations but things still seemed quite tense.

I thought you were saying they had been off come Sept for a year. It just confused me. When in reality it has been April, May, June and part of July. I'm hoping that school will be back from September and stay that way but we will have to see if that happens as I am entirely unconvinced that they have been made covid safe. Therefore I do think closures are inevitable. You work in a school are you feeling no concern at all.

I’m not sure either of you were unreasonable.

Secondary bubbles are massive up to 300 pupils (Each year group is a bubble). I have to teach 4 different year groups so that’s 4 different bubbles.

A primary school can bubble one class of 30 pupils (we have to pretend siblings don’t exist though).

Secondary and primary shouldn’t be treated the same.

There is no way pubs or soft play should be open if children can't attend school.

Bit of a moot point as schools will open regardless what anyone thinks.

And I really do not believe schools will close again.Numbers are low life needs to go on.This virus is not a threat like it was.

@Ilovegreentomatoes

Bit of a moot point as schools will open regardless what anyone thinks.

Very true.

Neither of you was being unreasonable. I don't want schools to close again, but I think it's extremely likely that opening them will cause a big rise in cases. However important we consider education to be, do you really think that schools should stay open even if it became obvious that opening them had started a second wave?

There is no way pubs or soft play should be open if children can't attend school.

Why? Soft play fair enough. But pubs following social distancing guidelines are surely far less likely to spread the virus than 30 people at a time packed in a small room together with no masks and mixing closely together with bubbles of up to 250?

I'm secondary and think we should be getting back to some kind of normal the rest of the world seems to be managing to go about its business. Yes we need to be careful, but after a term trying to teach online it was a challenge, its not easy students are missing out hugely.

@Widowodiw

Kind of Irrelevant tbh Leicester schools are opening next week.... schools will open, think the debate needs to stop and we are just going to have to see what happens with the measures in place.

Personally I can’t see how people think it’s ok for pubs to be open, holidays to happen, shops to open and yet argue our kids can’t go back to school. I can guarantee they have been doing some of those things and not sitting in all the time since lockdown but for some reason schools can’t open. Blah!

Sorry to disappoint you, but apart from having to return to work (primary school) when the government decided that clinically vulnerable school staff had magically become immune to the virus, the only other people I've seen since March are my Ds, dil and dgs. Neither dh nor I have been shopping, to pubs or on holiday. I will return to work next week where I will be working across two year groups, so almost 200 children. As a TA, I will not be able to maintain any form of social distancing from the children and I am not allowed to wear a mask. I do not want schools to remain closed. I would rather they didn't have to close again because I really do care about the children I work with. But I do think that people who are not actually working in the system need to understand that the propaganda around these bubbles, hand washing etc, is just that.

Leicestershire schools are back next week and I can’t see the government doing a u turn before then so I suppose it’s a moot point.

Yabu for not understanding its ok for her to have her own views.
To be honest I think in regards to primary and secondarys there is alot of difference in how they will operate there is a big difference of having a bubble of 30 to a 'bubble' of 200.
Secondary school children will also be mixing with more children everyday out of their 'bubble' on the school bus to and from school.
Also secondary pupils in our school will still be using the same cramped corridors at the same time as other years and moving to different classrooms where other children have been through out the day.
It will be lovely to have some normality but lets not pretend that enough is being done to make things 'covid secure' because its not.

You just both have different opinions. Health is more important than education she is right. Children, teachers and family need their health and then they have the means to study and apply themselves.

Using the word “bubble” doesn’t change the risk factors in both settings or the fact that every other workplace has to be Covid safe but schools have no SD/PPE. Remote teaching would be safer than large groups together for hours each day.

What about colleges? Staff not supposed to be wearing masks.

All 16 plus to mature learners, not masked in classrooms, masks on corridors voluntary. Lots of 'rules' all of which are voluntary.

30 to a class in small rooms, so two rooms needed for one class.....

Well retail staff manage it, public transport workers manage it- would her opinion be in anyway swayed by the fact her wage is guaranteed?!!!
Bloody ridiculous to deny millions of children an education, social interaction for the sake of 10 deaths a day!

I bet she didn't say hope.

Your friend is ridiculous. Well seeing she’s in a job where she’ll get paid regardless of her workplace opening and being able to fully do her job or not.

Sounds like she just wants some extra time off!

Also interesting as teachers on here are always saying “no teachers want schools to stay closed”. Obviously your friend is an example of only one person but it would tend to suggest there are indeed some teachers who do want that.

So if the virus is 21/100,000 do people really think that’s rational to wreck all of our kids education for. It’s madness

@Ilovegreentomatoes

And I really do not believe schools will close again.Numbers are low life needs to go on.This virus is not a threat like it was.

I've not seen any evidence that it's mutated to a less deadly strain.

Surely it appears less of a threat now because of the social distancing measures that have been applied?

And to pp who said that this proves some teachers want schools to stay shut - there are hundreds of thousands of teachers in this country, of course you'll find some who want this. Not all teachers think the same!

@Piggywaspushed

I bet she didn't say hope.

I'll make the same bet.

@Freyaaaaaa
My opinion is yes health is important but we can't mess up our children's educations! education doesn’t have to have in a school at a specific point in time or a child’s whole adult future is ruined.
Education can be done differently/later you can’t bring people back to life.

Of course @CountDuckulasKetchup. Teachers on here though frequently say no one wants them to remain shut. Clearly some do.

@Freyaaaaaa I do think schools should open but absolutely not as planned. They must be blended learning to allow genuine bubbles of 15 or less, strict social distancing, outdoor learning where possible and all children over reception age in masks unless they have a genuine medical exemption.

*there not they