to wonder WTF Greenwich?

[Standandwait]

Okay: I'm a parent in London, but not in Greenwich -- and I do have some backup help. And I'm all for controlling CV. But still: Greenwich borough announces SUNDAY NIGHT that all schools will close and go back online from Monday evening. Does not a single person in charge of these decisions over there have both a job and a child????

Oh and for the school staff, parents and children having to deal with this utter shit show.

Someone above said an ill, later C19 positive child of Covid denying parents was sent to school wiping out a year group? FFS. I hope the family are contrite. That poor child.

Thelma it will hit schools that none of those issues. Better to let individual schools deal with high teacher absence. Or find another solution.

How many schools in North would you suggest should have been closed in this way this term and for how long?

Plus Khan is gunning for all London schools. This includes some who’ve had very few interruptions. Hardly any cases.

It’s a blunt tool which was blunt in March and still now.

Surely at the moment all parents should have some contingency plan for if the school closes. It could happen at any time.

I'm just waiting to hear from DC's Greenwich borough, private school. The head had already taken the decision to close the Senior school from Friday as they had a high number of cases, however the Junior school was going to stay open as they had had very few cases. Presumably, as a private school, the head is free to decide. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Yeah, I'm sure the virus would hold fire for a week so that they can give parents plenty of notice.

It's been creeping up for a while now, if they had announced last week that they were closing from today, it would have the same effects numbers wise, but people wouldn't have been left in the tricky position of last minute notice. Also agree that something should have been done up north earlier, but in fairness I don't believe this has been a government directive, but one made on a local level? Agree though in general something should have been done rather than waiting until precious London is affected.

Plus Khan is gunning for all London schools

Is his imperative here really anything to do with schools? Is it more simply that he wants to hold London together as a single entity as far as pandemic response is concerned, and does not want the boroughs acting individually on anything? Or at least not without agreement of the Mayor's office

There are 32 boroughs in London - same as number as council areas in Scotland, but about 3m more residents in London, but it's not devolved.

No not a single entity issue it’s due to cases rising.

He will brief London MPs today apparently

I’m in the north, in an area that was t3 before October half term. Our numbers were the same as the numbers in the worst parts of London (higher in fact).

Our schools never closed. Not a single one. Cases and contacts were isolated in high schools. Some primary school classes closed.

Why is it so different in Greenwich? Genuinely confused.

I meant single entity issue in the sense that Khan, to date, has been stating the need for all London boroughs to be treated as a single entity (in terms of tiers, transport etc)

And this is a borough acting unilaterally, which could undermine that.

As everyone knows, Greenwich's DC don't all go to school in Greenwich and not all pupils in Greenwich live in the borough. So should Greenwich be able to act unilaterally?

Was everyone else holding back because of DofE's stance on other regions? Does one London borough closing schools have more of a ripple effect than in other less densely populated parts of the country? There are a lot of political angles to this.

I'm really pissed off about it. What the fuck is up with announcing these things on TWITTER without even talking to the heads of schools - creating total uncertainty and stress.

Has nobody any idea of how to communicate with the public these days? The poor schools will have parents calling, texting, emailing before they've even had a meeting about how the manage this whole shit show.

Yay what a festive Christmas, not only will we all be in Tier 3, I'll have to work to catch up on all the crap I'll have missed with the kids being home.

I think at the moment, that sudden closures is something that both parents and employers need to be aware could happen. We all just have to deal with the situation as best we can.

We are rural South West but our local schools have remained open all term. Some in the cities have closed though.

We had 1 teacher test positive, the school did nothing other than she stayed off for 10 days.

A pupil was yanked out of class last week as a family member had tested positive. The college removed the pupils, cleaned the classroom , then sent them back in again.

Our HT is making it quite clear that you must be in school.

I say good on them, the rest of the country need to start fighting back now, just because it's now hitting London does this shite government listen, never mind the everyone outside the M25 who has just had to get on with it, with no extra testing.

@JayDot500

The schools around my area were holding strong with the 'we will be open until the end of term line' until Covid came and took that decision from parents. If you live in and around London, then you better get wise to the fact school could close at any moment, or that your child may need to isolate over Christmas if they go into school this week.

This is my issue, why is it only because it is London? What about every child in the country who are struggling?

I think it’s so difficult with Xmas coming up
People don’t want the schools to close early at all not even by a day but will also complain if a positive Covid case in their class means no nanny visits over Xmas

So they can’t really win can they 🤷‍♀️

Meditrina yes there are which is why I pressed on the importance of the decision. And thought this last night. It sets precedence. And not just pre Christmas.

How are the decisions made? What number of rising cases triggers it and who can make that call?

Plus if people think this tier 2 / 3 unfairness is bad then wait until problems in other schools but not yours trigger the closure. You will get a similar issue. School fine but on wrong side of LA / area line closed.

Obviously Khan could get this unity or Greenwich could be told no. Does that mean cities can do the same?

It’s going to bring about more disparity not less if so.

@BethlehemIsInTier1 it’s not only London though it’s one borough in London. My dc school have refused to close even the day early and have the bloody pantomime and zoo guy in The building next week 🙈

@BigGreen

I'm really pissed off about it. What the fuck is up with announcing these things on TWITTER without even talking to the heads of schools - creating total uncertainty and stress.

Has nobody any idea of how to communicate with the public these days? The poor schools will have parents calling, texting, emailing before they've even had a meeting about how the manage this whole shit show.

Yay what a festive Christmas, not only will we all be in Tier 3, I'll have to work to catch up on all the crap I'll have missed with the kids being home.

They didn't announce it on twitter.

Read the full version on the council website. And see the email

Yes the news was also tweeted. But that was not the main way it was communicated to stakeholders.

I’m in a neighbouring Borough to Greenwich and our cases have also gone through the roof, so I hope the Mayor is successful in his bid to close schools before the end of term. If we close now and go back a week later, then maybe it would have some effect on the rapid spread.

I live in Greenwich (the town itself, not just the borough) and the issue here is more than just the schools! All throughout lockdown Greenwich was ridiculously ridiculously busy, genuinely, it was actually worse than a summers day. There were huge gatherings taking place around the food markets every single weekend, and this has carried on post lockdown with the non food markets now opening for Christmas shopping too.

It’s not surprising that rates are so high here so they’ve had to do something to address it. They are taking the necessary precautions to avoid it getting worse.

Although since he’s briefing MPs they will make the decision ultimately

@Givemeabreak88

My children go to a school in the Greenwich borough, we have been off self isolating for FOUR weeks, 2 isolations back to back, I’ve had to have all 3 children at home because I’m a lone parent with no help, we’ve had no support from the school what so ever despite being on FSM. It’s been very hard tbh, they were due to go back tomorrow so I’m pretty annoyed!

It's not acceptable, I too am a lone parent shielding since March, my youngest is having to shield as well, and his school have done absolutely nothing for him what so ever. Remote learning! They have just abandoned him, no excuse for it considering they know what they should be doing, and have let my son down badly.

@BethlehemIsInTier1

It’s not London as a whole. Greenwich has broken from the ranks and done its own thing, whilst the rest of London stays open.

Okay, I feel better already. But I also agree with some of the OPs -- these decisions need to be made earlier so people can plan.

It is simply the nature of the virus. They won't make decisions until they have the data and the trend is consistent not just a blip, once they had the data which shows cases doubling every 4 days they needed to act swiftly. The pandemic is an ongoing emergency situation and decisions like these should not be unexpected in the circumstances.

@CountessFrog

I’m in the north, in an area that was t3 before October half term. Our numbers were the same as the numbers in the worst parts of London (higher in fact).

Our schools never closed. Not a single one. Cases and contacts were isolated in high schools. Some primary school classes closed.

Why is it so different in Greenwich? Genuinely confused.

Kids get public transport to school, often travelling through multiple boroughs. Here in east London you can go through Greenwich, Newham and Tower hamlets in 3 stops. It's not like they're confined to a small number of bus routes.