Why can't there be a proper lockdown in January, schools to but open them for any extra month in summer?

[TheInfected]

So schools closed Jan but open until Jul/August? So no education missed and people & NHS are protected during the most dangerous time of the year?

Because people have to work?

Sod that.

I'm a teacher, why should I give up a month of my summer?

Education is missed for GCSE and A-Level students, putting exams back isn't an option.

Kids having nearly 2 months off will be a huge setback. They've suffered enough.

Where I work we've only sent one year group home at the beginning of term. No other positive tests from any staff or pupils. We've been shit hot on the PPE and social distancing and enforcing it with pupils too. Everyone has worked so hard to protect one another. I don't see why that hard work should be needlessly punished.

Also the break in summer is fantastic recuperation for pupils especially those who've worked so very hard studying for exams. People's MH matter too

The government is desperate to keep schools open as much as possible. The week later start for most secondary schools is only out of panic.

I can imagine the reaction if school summer holidays were only two weeks long, and if travel is OK then, everyone wanting time off work in such a short period and holiday prices being astronomical. Even if there is the usual six or seven week period there will be loads of complaints about prices and availability.

If it were me and restrictions are required in January and/or February it would be non-food shops, travel restrictions properly enforced and an overnight curfew.

Please no, I don't want the schools to shut again.

Exam classes need to be taught in Jan, whether this be face to face, blended or online learning.

Also, as a teacher, I’ve got plans for next Aug. Which don’t involved me being in school.

Because schools have been closed enough thanks

Because kids have had enough disruption and parents have to work. We can't just decide not to work for January, even in a lockdown a lot of people have to work.

I’m a teacher and I’m not working in the summer.

Terrible idea - kids have missed enough school as it is. And why should teachers have to give up their breaks in August in order to have a shit, miserable month long break in January?

Oh come on @OverTheRainbow88 you're a teacher therefore you have no life you're just a slave to your pupils, but someone who has no idea about how exams work (no we can't just "push them back" ) clearly knows better than you

This perception that us teachers are just workshy idiots desperate for schools to shut so we can watch Netflix for months, are so wrong - it's NEVER the teachers suggesting schools close. None of my colleagues want anything but a normal school year either

Very simply - people will have already booked holidays for next summer - school staff (not just teachers!) and kids' parents alike.

Also the November lockdown was working even with schools open. It would make more sense to go back to that than close schools and keep other things open.

Are you aware that the UK doesn’t have a national curriculum?

The 4 nations school system is devolved meaning we all have different holiday start and end times. Scottish schools, for example, are returning to school in August having begun their holidays in June.

How would you suggest this works? or are you doing the usual English centric thing of not even realising that we’re devolved nations?

You’d like schools to shut in January for 4-5 weeks, and for teachers to have their holidays now in a big block? So schools will be closed for between 6 and 8 weeks from today?

The kids will all be at home, without anything to do in terms of learning, and parents will need to find 6-8 weeks of last minute childcare?

What would NHS key workers do with their kids?

@Flipflops85

What would NHS key workers do with their kids?

Well obviously they would still go in and be taught in Jan, come on, show some good will, you don’t need a break from school, you’ve had a 4 month break from March-sept

In fairness, if the government had started planning and negotiation for this in May, I think it would have been doable.

There are several other measures which could have reduced the spread in high schools and kept them open which would have been much easier to organise.

But this government starts discussing plans for the first week of January the day schools shut- they can't make a decision more than two weeks in advance and when they do they change their minds.

Altering the school year is so far outside their abilities you might as well ask why we don't all move to the moon.

What would NHS key workers do with their kids?

Teachers would have to teach them in addition to giving up a month of their summer.

I'm going to New York in July (hopefully!!) no way am I coming into work

Another teacher here who thinks that your question is one of the stupidest I’ve seen all year (and that’s quite something.)

Even if we could just ‘push exams back’ (which we can’t), why should the exam classes have to deal with that kind of disruption? What happens to the many, many vulnerable children who suffered during the first lockdown?

Does all of the above answer your question, OP?

Who will look after my child while I work? I can't just take all of January off and make the time up in summer.

Why should teachers have to give up a month of their summer?

What about vulnerable and disadvantaged children who really, really need school?

Yes the schools need to shut if there is a lockdown.

@OverTheRainbow88 and @GlummyMcGlummerson

😂

That was kind of my point though, the OP doesn’t mean let’s have the holidays in January at all.

@kittensarecute

Yes the schools need to shut if there is a lockdown.

Again, how will people be able to work if schools close??

Oh ffs! No!

No

No terrible idea.Im hoping by summer we can do more so I want time of with my dd to go away days out etc.
However I do think we will be in a national lockdown in jan anyway so think schools will be shut most of jan anyway.
I think some provision needs to be made to enable school children of all secondary years to be able to catch up with their education as they have basically missed a year of schooling ( and home learning is not an acceptable replacement) but how that would be coordinated I have no idea.