Schools should close for 2 weeks after the Christmas mixing

[OverTheRainbow88]

I think that schools should remain closed for face to face teaching 2-3 weeks after the end of the period in which Boris will allow families to all mix.

I don’t want to be in a classroom with 30 different kids 5 times a day who’ve mixed inside with all different family members and friends.

I say online learning until mid Jan, if Boris will allow us all to mix at Christmas

[quote LadyPenelope68]@WillowSummerSloth
And what should those of us that are both key workers (both doctors) with young children be expected to do
So you working is ok even if it puts teachers health at risk? Nice![/quote]
Of course its ok. What a ridiculous post. What are people supposed to pay thier rent and bills with if they just take 2 weeks unpaid from work on a whim? Doubt if thier employers would be very accommodating to that anyway.
My hours have been reduced to the bone i cant afford 2 weeks off unpaid and i dont know anyone else who can either.
Which planet are you on?

As the parent of children in Yr’s 11 & 13 I say absolutely not!! My family aren’t mixing this year and will be having a quiet, sensible Christmas.

@Willow2017
So it’s free childcare you’re bothered about then, not your child’s education. I’m a clinically vulnerable teacher in a primary school, I’m not allowed to wear a mask, or socially distance. I’m putting my health at risk in my job, are you? Or are you just one of those able to work from home. If I get COVID and it takes my life, which in reality it possibly could due to my medical condition, then that’s my children without their Mother. If I gave up my job, that’s more than 2 weeks I’d be off unpaid.

What planet are you on? Planet stupid?
I went in to teaching to teach, not to become frontline keyworker risking my health every day.

DH and I are secondary teachers. All we want for Christmas is to see our DS who is in a care home.

Please please please have a small Christmas everyone, for all our sakes.

We're not planning on mixing at Christmas & I'm happy my dc are back at school (& our school are doing excellently, no bubbles closed as yet & only 1 teacher has had to isolate due to a contact). I think it would probably be prudent to extend the holiday in to the first 2 weeks of January though, assuming measures are in place to a) limit mixing in those 2 weeks & b) allow access to 'key worker' places to those that absolutely cannot work from home.

[quote Waxonwaxoff0]@FranticBanana who gets to decide who is an essential worker though? My job is essential to me, to pay my mortgage and bills. But I can't do it from home and I'm not a key worker. I can't work if school is closed, DS can't be left alone at 7 years old. A firebreak won't stop classes having to isolate at times, it won't eliminate Covid.[/quote]
They don't mean is your job essential to you, they mean to the population at large. So if you're a hairdresser you're not essential. If you're a doctor you are. How can you not see that?

No they shouldn't. Schools need to cope with what's going and not keep closing.

So if you're a hairdresser you're not essential. If you're a doctor you are. How can you not see that?

This distinction was only really relevant for the first six weeks or so back in March/April.

We need private sector workers able to work and raise revenue for the exchequer facilitated to work. Public finances are in dire straits already without forcing more out of employment.

Oh no. Not more school closure. Lots of parents will have to return to work after Christmas or do you think hospitals, supermarkets and prisons should all close for 2 weeks too.

@Vivana

No they shouldn't. Schools need to cope with what's going and not keep closing.

Urgh 2.

If I gave up my job, that’s more than 2 weeks I’d be off unpaid

Most people aren’t in a position where they can just demand two weeks off, unpaid or otherwise. Exactly like you presumably.

@Waxonwaxoff0
I have every sympathy with people desperately juggling childcare and jobs. My workplace decided that at 11 my secondary school child didn’t require childcare and was absolutely fine to be left home alone , so I’ve had to go along with that to keep my house and pay my bills. People with younger children have lost their jobs because of isolation periods. It’s not fair and it’s horrible.

I don’t for a minute think that a firebreak will eliminate covid, but I do think it will make a difference. We have two local secondary schools, both on their knees wrt attendance and staffing going into half term. One had one week, the other two. The one-week school now has two whole year groups closed and wall-to-wall supply, while the other is still muddling along with small groups isolating.

But you can’t have a firebreak unless you close school to the vast majority of children, and that will inevitably cause problems in itself. If you’re a parent in an area where you’re permanently on edge waiting for yet another isolation phone call, you might be more likely to support it than if you’re in a school that’s lucky enough to be relatively unaffected.

There’s no solution that will benefit everyone. It might help, though, if the ones making the decisions would stop pretending that schools are fiiiiiiine and take the actual real current school conditions into consideration when they’re making their mind up.

A lot of projection from teaching staff on here, what about those who do not celebrate Christmas?

I can completely understand why you would support this and in some ways I do agree with you. However I really dont want my dc to miss out on any more learning. It's a hard balancing act.
Tbh ide be quite happy having a quiet Christmas as long as single people were allowed to bubble up with another family for the day.

@LadyPenelope68 frontline Drs are more at risk than teachers, @WillowSummerSloth is saving lives whilst you are being dramatic!

Completely agree. Care for vulnerable and key worker kids and primary schools possibly staying open

@GalaxyCookieCrumble
She signed up for that, plenty of other frontline key workers didn’t.
Now do f**k off dear.

@LindaEllen everyone's job is essential to the population at large. If people aren't working, they aren't spending. I understand that certain jobs keep the country running but I want to be able to pay my bills and feed my child, thanks.

So glad someone has started a thread about this. As I am a teacher and work with no social distancing or any measures to prevent coronavirus other than a bit of hand sanitizer (not even any real bubbles as they all mix through after school club), I decided a long time ago that we couldn't see any family this Christmas. Even if I wasn't a teacher, my DC are at school anyway. So me and the DC mix five days a week with hundreds of other people.

I can't believe that the government might want to throw away any gains against coronavirus for the sake of a few days get together, when in only a few months spring and vaccines are probably coming.

If I am taking personal responsibility not to infect my relatives over Christmas, is it too much to ask that I not be put at risk in January? Even the inevitable spreading of coughs and colds due to mixing at Christmas will cause problems with pupil and teacher absence due to having to self-isolate.

[quote LadyPenelope68]@GalaxyCookieCrumble
She signed up for that, plenty of other frontline key workers didn’t.
Now do f**k off dear.[/quote]
I always think the arguments lost when the swearing begins!

[quote LadyPenelope68]@GalaxyCookieCrumble
She signed up for that, plenty of other frontline key workers didn’t.
Now do f**k off dear.[/quote]
I understand your anxiety, I really do. I feel so sorry for you. But please think about what you are saying here. If you are unfortunate enough to contract covid and again unfortunate enough to require hospital care (and I hope you don't) - do you want there to be staff there to treat you? Or do you want them to be having to stay at home to mind their dc?

There is no easy answer to any of this but your aggressive posts are helping no one, including yourself.

Please don't attack posters who are stressing about how they can get to work to treat people like you.

Oh my god get with the program. Teachers are, as a whole, on a statistical level, at very low risk from covid. Even with no measures whatsoever.

As a result, this means the government accepts that some teachers will catch Covid and that a minuscule % could even die, just as a tiny % could die of various other diseases each year. They will not close schools again.

Doubt many doctors or healthcare workers signed up thinking there would be a pandemic which put their lives at risk but there you go.

@Solidaritea

I'm going to guess that all of those saying "we don't need to mix" don't live alone. I do. For me, mixing at Christmas is a neccesity. I'm working (teacher) and that is all I have had in my life since the beginning of September apart from the occasional zoom call. I will be mixing with my family at Christmas - about 6 people.

It's all well and good for those of you not dealing with the real isolation of living alone to call it unnecessary, but not everyone has that luxury.

Completely agree.

LindaEllen

The economy is so fucked right now we need everyone working. Everyone. Doctor, hairdresser, everyone. So that as a nation we can afford to keep paying for refuse collection and healthcare and food imports & energy and clean water and everything else that keeps us safe & alive.