To feel in despair for the kids

[JudesBiggestFan]

My son was one of 400 children sent home from two bubbles in his high school today to isolate for 14 days. He's in Year 7 and it was his fourth day in his new school.
He'd been catching the bus, made a new friend, had settled in so much better than I hoped after the past few chaotic disrupted months. And now he's home again.
Not only that, he is now going to miss his cricket presentation and first two football matches of the season, not be able to see friends and family, all for the pleasure of three days of schooling.
And I can see this happening over and over and over again. Luckily childcare isnt an issue as I work from home, but I'm just so sad for kids missing out. Six months off and it seems we're back where we started with no end in sight

And so on... this is why a whole year group bubble is needed
Which at Peter Symonds is 2000 teenagers
who travel to the college by public transport
from Hampshire, Dorset, Sussex, Wiltshire, Berkshire and the Isle of Wight
on a daily basis

the bubble system is a joke
(especially when many of those kids have younger siblings at secondary and primary schools)

@midgebabe

And how exactly does society keep running with all those people tidied away? the elderly and vulnerable are doctors and teachers and shop assistants and childcare support and parents and careers and hospital drivers and they have money that keeps the economy afloat

Oh, and they are human too

And how do we protect them given they need fresh air, exercise , food, love like anyone she ?

the definition of vulnerable will need t9 be rather broad if we are to avoid overwhelming the NHS. Make sure you don't catch yourself.

Majority of vulnerable didn’t even get fresh air, as for food that came down to reliant on charity if they couldn’t afford the £40+ min order for a supermarket order and if they didn’t live somewhere remote enough or with a garden. As you say they are human too, it scares me how people seem to forget they are human and just see as collateral damage heaven help a child should have to isolate for 14 days or until tested

@Witchcraftandhokum

I absolutely agree with comments upthread - vulnerable and elderly self isolate and the rest of us get on with it.

So only children's physical and mental health matters?

Not at all. But if we're looking at the overall good of society, its future, its happiness, its productivity (and I don't just mean wealth) and its happiness, locking up kids and denying them a social life and education will matter a very very great deal.

Shutting down society for a virus which makes only a small proportion of people who contract it actually ill, is a disproportionate response.

Happiness is so important I listed it twice 🙄

Many vulnerable people are also key people in the workplace across the country, including holding essential, key worker positions. I am classed as vulnerable on two accounts but I am a specialist subject teacher and my school will struggle to replace me (when they found me, I was the last in a very long line of supply teachers that hadn't cut it - I am paid slightly more to keep me than I would have been had I started there and progressed up the scale). Moreover, I can't just isolate myself or my family because I have children who need to be in school, like so many others. And as a single parent, no one is going to pay my bills if I don't work. What you are suggesting is untenable - both from a professional point of view where my experience and skills are essential to getting young people through a rough exam year and from the point of view of managing the situation financially for us as a family.

I am only 50 years old. I can't just be put out to pasture. It is utterly ridiculous that someone with my skills and experience should be written off in this way. It is also ridiculous that my children should suddenly have a massive drop in the standard of their living because I can't work. I guess it suits you to ignore the very real fact that as a society, we have a duty to protect each other, reign ourselves in, try our upmost to protect the vulnerable with social distancing, masks, and hand washing.

Enoughnowstop, you have addressed your comments to me but I have been making the same argument on this thread! The part of my post that you quoted was a quote from someone else that I was taking issue with.

I completely agree that we can't ask the vulnerable to sacrifice everything so that others can just carry on as usual. That isn't how a humane society should work.

Also, from a practical perspective, by the time we have taken 7 million vulnerable people out of circulation (based on the figure quoted above) PLUS all of their family members, society won't be able to function every effectively for all those who are left.

Hester you’re right even with it twice

Poor boy. This is not sustainable. All kids should be at school regardless.

Not at all. But if we're looking at the overall good of society, its future, its happiness, its productivity (and I don't just mean wealth) and its happiness, locking up kids and denying them a social life and education will matter a very very great deal

Oh well, as long as your kids get a social life...

I worry what this generation will grow up to be with such entitled attitudes coming from parents.

locking up kids and denying them a social life and education will matter a very very great deal.

But it's ok to lock up the vulnerable children and/or the children of vulnerable parents, and to deny them an education, so that nobody else is inconvenienced?

@Livelovebehappy

I absolutely agree with comments upthread - vulnerable and elderly self isolate and the rest of us get on with it. There really is no other option as we’re months, if not years, from getting a vaccine and there’s no way that we are going to ever get infections or deaths down to nil in the meantime.

Oh Christ.

Not this again. I haven't the patience.

Can someone else explain that there are vulnerable people in all age groups, that you can't just shut millions of people away for years because you lack the wit to think of anything else,

And there is a solution. It's called effectively fighting the virus.

It requires a fit for purpose test and trace system

But by all means carry on not doing that for another 8 months. After all, It's going so well.

So you are talking the extreamly vulnerable only? A million or two?

And the plain common or garden vulnerable...the other 5 to 10 million? They should just suck up the risk?

" locking up kids and denying them a social life and education will matter a very very great deal."

Honestly the pp was talking about a generation that fought two world wars for years at a time, kids who got moved to the middle of fucking nowhere.

Most kids here had had the longest holidays they will ever have,. Most have had lower anxiety and got the best grades ever despite probably having to do the least work compared to other cohorts. Yet people will then moan about how they are "suffering" and mental health. Almost none have been stuck on ventilators and unable to breathe and died alone unable to see their family

Lots of kids are stuck in abusive homes etc and for them I feel genuinely sorry but how many people advocated for them when social services were being cut to the bone or worry about them every school holiday? Marcus rashford.

@AlexaShutUp

locking up kids and denying them a social life and education will matter a very very great deal.

But it's ok to lock up the vulnerable children and/or the children of vulnerable parents, and to deny them an education, so that nobody else is inconvenienced?

You misunderstand me. I'm talking in general...the majority of society.

What's that saying?

You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time. You cannot please all of the people all of the time.

No it's not fair. Life isn't fair. It sucks.

@mrpumblechook

Our Y7 and 8 remain in one room too. Their teachers, however, teach across all the bubbles and can’t get 2m from them. Plus they are on the school buses altogether. Think you are probably kidding yourself, to be honest.

They are 2 m away from pupils at DD's school.

Parents will be told that at my school too. Very few classrooms at an actually accommodate 2 m space at the front. I can theoretically get 2m in my main teaching room if I press myself against the front wall for the whole lesson. It’s a bigger room than I’ve had in most places I’ve taught. Other rooms I can’t get to the front without passing very very close to other desks And still can’t get 2m away without actually pressing 8nto the front wall.

The “part time solution” we were offered was ONE day a week 9-3!
Really not good enough.

If a part time solution was offered closer to 50% contact time that would have been more reasonable.

@HesterShaw1 seriously firstly when your kids not at school do you lock them in a cage? There is no reason children cannot socialise outside of school. This has been permitted for months.

Secondly are you following the news? The Government yesterday recognised “Long Covid” as a medical disorder. So to say it only affects a small proportion is wrong. It affects (under current estimates 10% of society). Can you imagine the cost of ongoing medical bills for 6.6million people (children included)?

You are another denier if the actual reality we face. Ignoring medical debate of IFR’s or comorbidities what state do you think the U.K. economy will be in even if a magical vaccine is distributed tomorrow? Do you have any comprehension of the situation we face over next 5-10 years which will affect your kids job prospects?

Naivety on your part doesn’t cover it 🤦🏽‍♀️

^Parents will be told that at my school too. Very few classrooms at an actually accommodate 2 m space at the front. I can theoretically get 2m in my main teaching room if I press myself against the front wall for the whole lesson. It’s a bigger room than I’ve had in most places I’ve taught. Other rooms I can’t get to the front without passing very very close to other desks And still can’t get 2m away without actually pressing 8nto the front wall.*

My DD has told me that rather than the school.

Parents will be told that at my school too. Very few classrooms at an actually accommodate 2 m space at the front. I can theoretically get 2m in my main teaching room if I press myself against the front wall for the whole lesson. It’s a bigger room than I’ve had in most places I’ve taught. Other rooms I can’t get to the front without passing very very close to other desks And still can’t get 2m away without actually pressing 8nto the front wall.

My DD has told me that rather than the school.

@lljkk

Cardibach, the teachers move around each new lesson time. My big worry is that DS gets on well with his bubble classmates. Since he will see so much of them, the friendship circle just shrunk massively & DS didn't really make any friends in yr7. My little worry is whether DS enjoys academics & learns new things.

I have zero worries about the virus & the school gets to worry about staff getting ill or poor discipline in the small time gaps when no adult in the room. DS rarely takes the bus, I actually am not sure what's going on with bus service since it is charter, nothing to do with the school or LEA.

So the teachers can bring infections from other bubbles. If staff get ill there will be a real problem - non specialist teachers or none at all. Poor discipline is always an issue in unsupervised classrooms and in my experience classes which have one room which teachers ‘Visit’ leads to the pupils thinking they are in charge as it’s their room. It’s a nightmare. Charter buses will be worse than timetabled ones as they are generally overcrowded and have no adults on to mitigate.

And it would be good if people stopped going on about the bloody war. People in the UK were not isolated and denied contact with other humans during the war.

The war was an ever present and existential threat. Coronavirus for the vast majority of people is not.

I've asked this before: do we honestly think the over 70s would happily and without complaint give up their social lives, their freedom of movement, their shopping visits, their general activity that makes their lives happy and purposeful for a virus which was risky for certain children? No, they would not.

@ListeningQuietly

And so on... this is why a whole year group bubble is needed Which at Peter Symonds is 2000 teenagers who travel to the college by public transport from Hampshire, Dorset, Sussex, Wiltshire, Berkshire and the Isle of Wight on a daily basis

the bubble system is a joke
(especially when many of those kids have younger siblings at secondary and primary schools)

Well yes. That’s my point. It has to be the whole year group, and that’s pointless.

@loulouljh

Poor boy. This is not sustainable. All kids should be at school regardless.

How will that work then if Covid is ripping through the school and sending all the staff home? And infecting their parents who won’t be able to work?

@Oaktree55, yes I'm following the news. I'm also reading lots of reports which are not on the news.

We are being continuously scared o death and manipulated about a virus which whose main symptom is no symptoms.

Yes Long Covid is a thing for a small number of people. So are the post viral effects of glandular fever and flu.

The reality is (and this won’t be popular) this Pandemic will reduce the number of kids doing Mickey Mouse degrees. University won’t be the aim as it has been. There won’t be the jobs to go to afterwards. Apprenticeships will make a resurgence and University will revert to possibly as it was 30-40 years ago. No I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think too many now pursue pretty useless degrees for no benefit. This will result in enormous change. A catalyst for what was slowly occurring anyway.

"No, they would not."

You honestly think if it was the other way around and the message was don't kill your grandchildren, people's response would be nah fuck em? They can stay at home ?