#closetheschools is trending

[Allthestarsarecloser]

I work at a university on the front line seeing students 1-1 (I work in student support) and have continued to see students this term at a distance & with measures in place. ALL the students I have seen have been grateful for the human contact.

I also have 2 kids in primary and secondary. I want them to stay in school as my eldest had to have counselling after the last lockdown.

Aibu to say that schools need to stay open and I say that as someone on the front line.

YABU - they should shut
YANBU- they need to stay open

Keep schools open

YANBU

Despite me and my husband being key workers and me working in a hospital one week out of two because my husband was working at home school wouldn't take our daughter and trying to home school while both working was impossible and she was lonely and miserable as an only child. She has been so much happier since going back. I don't think nurseries or primaries are the problem it is secondaries and universities causing most of the spread

Agree with Fame - keep the Primaries open and start blended/total distance learning for Year 9/10 and above for example.

DS attends a post-16 FE College. All term he has attended on a 1 week attendance, 1 week online basis. This is a Btec Course with Practical Elements. Next week all on his Course will be Online and this was decided before Half Term.

The College and it's catchment are Tier 1. The College has 5,500+ staff with a Total of 3 in-College CV Positive Results and subsequent 'bubble isolations and a further 3 not in College Positive Results.

I fully support what this College has done - made it's own decisions and acted accordingly with very good CV Results and the education part hasn't gone all to shit either.

As far as possible, within age ranges capable of self-care and accommodating any SEND or social vulnerabilities that Secondaries implement rotational timetables.

I am a teacher in a secondary school with almost daily cases of infection amongst our young people. I lost my daughter in December who was born sleeping & am currently pregnant again. I can’t even begin to describe the fear I feel every day being surrounded by children who refuse to wear masks & trying to move classroom in busy corridors during the changeover of periods. I don’t feel safe and I already know what it is like to give birth to a baby I don’t get to take home. I won’t survive doing that again and I feel like teaching and support staff have been completely thrown under the bus.

Nursery and primary labs lower part of secondary to stay open. Ser teens to stay home and study online would be best option.

The schools will be shut by and by as confirmed cases force bubbles to isolate with increasing frequency and they will be 'open' in name only. Head teachers will be forced to effectively close 20, 50, 80% of capacity. Then Boris can say he did all he could to keep schools open, and it'll be someone else's fault bubbles are isolating. Cynical. One bubble in my school isolated for 14 days, came back for end of term, but have since had a positive case and are now isolating again.

I am sorry for your loss, Jenet

My DDs school has had 1 isolated case. I'm sure her school isn't the only one with low-to-no cases. It would make no sense to close these schools.

Surely it's better to take it on a case by case basis?

[quote BoardingSchoolMater]@Norabird, how's that going to work with children who are boarding a very long way from home? Are they supposed to trail the 300 miles back by train, potentially infecting people if they are asymptomatic carriers, and then do the same in reverse two weeks later?

Schools are not a 'one size fits all'.[/quote]
If they are all boarding and not leaving the school then the risk of them getting covid is significantly less anyway so I imagine they'd be safer staying put. I'm sure it's possible to recognise different circumstances within the rules. The vast, vast majority of children are not in boarding schools though.

I'm so sorry, @jenet86
for you and your baby. x

Nora, the problem is that whatever is decided nationally (i.e. for state schools) also applies in practice to independent schools, too. During the last lockdown, my DC were all sent home, even though in theory they could have stayed open as sort of sealed communities. However, they have in practice to toe the line just as much as their state counterparts. So if state schools were ordered to do staggered school, boarding schools would have to do the same (though now I think about it, in practice, they would simply close. Urrrrrrghhhh).

What the hell? Anyone who wants to keep their child at home can. Homeschooling has always been an option. In fact if they did it would make social distancing easier for the ones left.

If a teacher is vulnerable they can be signed off by a doctor.

Closing the schools is CRAZY and I can’t believe some selfish people want to.

@Insertfunnyname

What the hell? Anyone who wants to keep their child at home can. Homeschooling has always been an option. In fact if they did it would make social distancing easier for the ones left.

If a teacher is vulnerable they can be signed off by a doctor.

Closing the schools is CRAZY and I can’t believe some selfish people want to.

I think it’s more selfish to keep them open given the cases in schools are higher than anywhere else. Children take home to families who then spread it elsewhere and businesses are being made to close For something that could be done remotely.

For something that could be done remotely.

Badly

@TheKeatingFive

For something that could be done remotely.

Badly

If only there had been some warning that this might recur this Autumn/Winter and the Government had felt minded to prepare schools for it.

If only there had been some warning that this might recur this Autumn/Winter and the Government had felt minded to prepare schools for it

So true. :o

If a teacher is vulnerable they can be signed off by a doctor.

No, that is only the case for those who are extremely vulnerable, and even then only in some cases.

All my consultant could do was tell me, as someone who is clinically vulnerable, to try and stay as safe as I could, to practise SDing (impossible in an infant school) and advised masks, where possible (not supposed to in the classroom, plus the children wouldn't be wearing them anyone so not really an ideal solution.)

I guess I could have given up my job but I enjoy my job, and before Covid it was perfectly safe for me to do it. The health issues that make be vulnerable to Covid aren't ones that make me unable to do my job or will lead to be dying earlier, for example.

I figured that I would do what I could to stay safe but also felt it was inevitable. It was. I caught covid and I am now off sick trying to recover from it. I will be off work for at least a month in the end; maybe more depending on what the GP says later this week.

And if i am recovered enough to return - lets hope I ave some immunity!

And despite all this I do NOT want schools to close.
I want schools to be more covid secure. Currently they are not.

There always has to be someone on MN with the opinion that schools don’t exist to provide free childcare.

For starters schools aren’t free, we all pay for them through our taxes. Secondly, it is obviously recognised that schools do provide invaluable childcare for working parents hence why they stayed open to provide just that for key worker children.

They are obviously primarily there to educate children but it’s stupid to deny they also act as a sort of childcare for working parents. There’s no shame in that, we all need to work to earn a crust...

@Sewrainbow

Nursery and primary labs lower part of secondary to stay open. Ser teens to stay home and study online would be best option.

You see, that is what is best probably for working parents imo, rather than based on educational need.

However if we did it purely on education needs surely it would be better for exam years to be prioritised - year 13 and year 11, followed by year 10 and 12.

Lower years will catch up, older years have far less time left and a huge amount of curriculum to cover Although lockdown is hard for younger children from the socialisation and routine side of things, on the whole they will all catch up on return.

If I remember rightly, the line in the govs guidelines for school reopening was “We understand it is not always possible ti adhere to social distancing in schools and we have taken that into account.”
I’m still not sure what “taking it into account “ means. Do they m mean they have factored teacher deaths in?

There always has to be someone on MN with the opinion that schools don’t exist to provide free childcare

It's not an opinion, it's a fact. School exist to provide education in a particular setting

On the last day of term before the holidays 8 of our 9 classes (infant school) had had to close. Covid spread quickly across the year groups and classes within a 2-3 week period.
School has reopened to do with 3 classes still closed for much of this week.

My DC’s school is not ‘covid secure’ whatever that means.

They created a separate exit through the car park which is a good idea except for the one flaw being the exit now passes by three classrooms so when you exit the school you also pass queues of parents waiting for their children to come out in extremely close proximity.

They only made masks mandatory at pick up and drop off a couple of weeks ago but many parents don’t bother or wear them as a chin warmer. I’ve seen some parents pull them down when the headteacher is out of sight, others pull them down to talk to their friends. They all still stand in groups gossiping ironically about covid. They’re not bothered about it and the school can’t police it.

The classroom windows aren’t opened, it’s completely unventilated. TA’s cross ‘bubbles’ as do teachers. My DS’s teacher, for example, has her lunch with DD’s teacher in DD’s classroom. They let three classes play together at playtime so 90 children. I guess they must think it doesn’t transmit outside...

I don’t feel safe sending them there at all.

universities are a different kettle of fish
they shouldn't be putting it all together..

primary schools - keep open
secondary - part time
universities - close

@IncyWincyTincy please don't let comments like that make you feel like a failure, you are not. I don't know anyone who found it easy, even the people who don't work and had the time still found it a nightmare. x