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?

2 weeks off in the summer?? No fucking way!

And childcare would be no more of an issue than it already is in the summer holidays for working parents.

I can't take time off in January. Especially not at such short notice. Who had that sort of flexibility?
The summer holidays are predicable and I've already planned for those.

As a university lecturer I'm back teaching w/c 4th Jan and I can't move that to July or August.

SquirmofEels But the exams could also go back? In fact, they'd have to, otherwise the whole move would be fairly pointless.

In won't happen because it would need planned, coordinatefd action with support for those who would find it hard (like those who've said they can't just take time off in January, for example). In the summer there is organised childcare available. That would have to be made available to those who really needed it.

So no, it's way too late to organise it now. But I think it could have been a very good move. If organised about a month ago!

year5teacher no, I don't really want January off either. But it would be better than going back and then shit hitting the fan regardless. Maybe it won't happen, I don't know. My school was so lucky last term - not a single case despite really, really questionable Covid practices. I don't believe our luck can hold forever.

@manicinsomniac

Actually, I think this is a very good idea - and I am a teacher.

The OP said schools closed in January. Not online learning. So there would be no requirement for us to work. So the suggestion is that the holidays are changed, not cancelled. At least, it seemed pretty clear that that was the intention to me. Really don't think we were being asked to do an extra month's work!

And childcare would be no more of an issue than it already is in the summer holidays for working parents. Again, just moved, not added to.

Seems like good sense to me if things really are as bad as suggested tonight.

Childcare is an issue though. Holiday clubs won't be open, grandparents are more likely to be immunised by then so more able to help out. And of course getting leave at short notice is impossible for many especially the keyworkers if in lockdown

Excuse the typos ....

This post speaks volumes about your contempt for school staff OP. No I'm not teaching your children in summer. I've already risked my health through the autumn.

Christ, parents can organise their summer holidays for the actual schools holidays as it is! With 6-7 weeks to choose from! How will the whole of the uk’s school population and their families go away over a two week window?

I worked unpaid for the Easter holidays and May half term and had to leave my children at home without me while I did, they had no time to relax with me in the holidays and financially it was difficult because I was having to pay extra petrol money to go to work. I was spending time out of school doing extra planning and spent some of my own money on activities for the children to do.

I am not doing that again in the summer.

Our school have only had a couple of classes out once each and the school has pupils aged 4-18. Why should these pupils education be disrupted unnecessarily

@studychick81

Our school have only had a couple of classes out once each and the school has pupils aged 4-18. Why should these pupils education be disrupted unnecessarily

It is almost as if we could do with a working track, trace and testing system.

Please don't shut schools again! Mine are primary age and I will be due at work which I cannot do around having children at home. I will be able to take holiday to cover it but would rather not use it all up to cover lockdown as I then don't get a break myself which I very much need when it comes to taking my A/L!

It is almost as if we could do with a working track, trace and testing system.

😆 true. Those who are ok shouldn't be penalised

Let's face it, without Summer, what is teaching? Fucking hard so don't take away Summer. Take that, and watch the teachers disappear before your eyes. Gone.

I do think schools need to shut, certainly secondaries - I think many now do have a plan to teach online in event of closure so it's not necessarily that big a deal and it's less difficult for working parents than shutting primaries.

I had already told DD to expect a school shut down, probably not longer than a half term. I have kept by some holiday I could carry over to next year in case its primaries as well (which it probably will be if they shut secondaries) so I can take time off to help. Luckily DH is working pt for a few months if it comes to that.

@DipSwimSwoosh

Let's face it, without Summer, what is teaching? Fucking hard so don't take away Summer. Take that, and watch the teachers disappear before your eyes. Gone.

Haha ive said this for the past decade. Take the holidays and you wouldnt have teachers.

I bet those who are saying they need to shut are those who are lucky enough to be sahp or can work from home.

Also I highly doubt you have SEN kids who were largely forgotten during the last lockdown, if you do and yours weren’t then count yourself lucky. My child is not losing out on any more education to a virus that statistically is extremely unlikely to kill him.

If anything there should be stricter lockdowns for elderly.

I think people need to be mindful of the recruitment & retention crisis in U.K. teaching.

I'm overseas, in an international school, & my work/life balance, finances, & the quality of my own dc's education are quite astonishingly better than they ever were during my 15 years teaching in the U.K.

Nonetheless, we still normally struggle to recruit; teachers aren't generally desperate to bugger off to the other side of the planet on a whim - they have extended families, they don't want to live in a very different culture, they aren't that keen on all the logistics of shipping their stuff about & living in rented staff accommodation, & so on.

This year our applications have skyrocketed from the U.K. 30-50 proceedable applications where we are used to 3-5.

Colleagues already on the international circuit who are used to thinking 'mmm...Malaysia next year maybe?' or wherever, & swanning into a choice of jobs, are finding they're up against massive competition from highly qualified U.K. teachers looking to move abroad.

Anecdata, I know, but there's a definite exodus from the U.K.

I think all those arguing that U.K. teachers should somehow suck up working their unpaid summer holidays whilst being called a bunch of workshy bastards, need to recognise that quite a few of those teachers are thinking 'yeah - screw this for a game of soldiers; I'm on TES international & actually Qatar/Ascension Islands/Beijing looks quite tempting.'

& international schools are suddenly in a position to be fairly picky, so it'll be the talented, gung ho, highly qualified & adventurous teachers we are taking from the U.K.

Even for the most hawkish critic of teachers, it seems bloody daft to push them to a point where significant numbers of them just fuck off (not just overseas, obviously - I'm of an age where ex colleagues are also bringing forward retirement to get out of U.K. teaching).

Teachers are expensive to train & drop out rates have always been high. It's incredibly short sighted to blithely continue shitting on them, if you want to keep the education system in the U.K. just about hanging in there.

@Sorryusernamealreadyexists I agree with you. It's an unpopular opinion but it frustrates me that young people are sacrificing so much while many older people refuse to curb their lifestyles in order to protect themselves.

Schools will shut again, the government won't announce it until a few days before. Best get prepared.

Ok, so my profession has been vilified in the media, subject to ever changing and ridiculous last minute demands from the DFE and I worked solidly from March to July with no break (including weekends, when I filmed videos for online learning). And the suggestion from some on here is that now have to spend my Christmas break prepping and filming online learning for January AND then pay £1200 for extra childcare to cover me working through August. I think not.

I have a friend who works on a COVID ward as a nurse. She reports that the unanimous feeling amongst her colleagues is that they (nurses) would not be teachers for all the money in the world right now.

FFS. This obsession with "proper lockdown."

If what we had in April was "proper lockdown" (many say it wasn't PL), then the schools had to be closed for 4 months. I mean, if you're gonna screw with everyone's lives why not "proper lockdown" until April, OP? I guess you're happy to pick up the tax bill too?

It wouldn't work for all the reasons detailed here.

But something needs to be done about January. Schools as they are, are not safe.