To think schools will close soon

[hibbledibble]

We may well have as many cases by new year as we did in the first peak. In which case school closures could be a very real possibility.

You can't expect to carry on working from home as if your children weren't there....it's just not realistic.

I don’t think anyone’s said they do expect to be able to WFH with their children at home as if their children aren’t there, have they? That’s the point - you absolutely 100% can’t. The simple question is - whose risk is it? Who bears the pain?

Do employers bear the pain of having half or more of their workforce having to parent at the same time as working? That creates some obvious issues of its own. Remember a job doesn’t have to be classed as ‘critical’ to play an important role in the smooth functioning of the country and maintaining our quality of life. Is it the parents’ problem? After all, they chose to have children. They should suck it up and work 18 hour days for the foreseeable. Is it the government’s problem? All parents could be furloughed for the duration of the crisis so they can teach their children. That would get expensive and messy. Or is it the schools’ problem?

I don’t know the answer. I think the reality is that the solution is some give and take from all four groups. But I think telling people to ‘do some parenting’ and that they aren’t being realistic in ‘expecting’ to be able to work is placing the problem solely at parents’ door to fix.

The primary age children of my friends watched loads of tv and played with their toys in the playroom during the first lockdown. She was working in their study and her DH in the dining room. Both were working long hours (both their jobs got busier not quieter). Their employers, not unreasonably expected them to be working during the working hours.
School work didn’t happen.

Right then. Thoughts now? Now that more of us are going into tier 4?

Looking at the projections at my work, we are headed into possibly a worse situation than in the first wave. I don't see how schools could reopen for anyone but key workers/vulnerable children, for primary or secondary.

@Parker231

The primary age children of my friends watched loads of tv and played with their toys in the playroom during the first lockdown. She was working in their study and her DH in the dining room. Both were working long hours (both their jobs got busier not quieter). Their employers, not unreasonably expected them to be working during the working hours. School work didn’t happen.

Same. Work puts a roof over our head...that had to come over school work.

@hibbledibble what is your work?

NHS hospital doctor. Locally we are likely to be on a worse situation than the first wave soon, and we were one of the worst effected in the first wave.

Thanks

Parker, actually I think it's totally unreasonable for any employer to expect a parents to be glued to their desk for their working hours and yet have to simultaneously do emergency childcare!

Not unusual - same expectations from employers of friends.

Was school teacher secondary, excellent post.

Our school was shown to have feet of clay during this pandemic, I still remember how smug the head and deputy were at the initial open days.
I'm desperately trying to get dd out into a school that went on line in days and is now ahead of the curriculum.
Gone a little like hospital where front line staff are squeezed by removed ivory cloud slt.

@PandemicPavolova

Parker, actually I think it's totally unreasonable for any employer to expect a parents to be glued to their desk for their working hours and yet have to simultaneously do emergency childcare!

Unfortunately that’s the case. The job still has to be done to full. If childcare goes it’s impossible. Younger children still hard.

I am a primaryteacher and fully understand the difficulties online learning presents. Some of my children in the last lockdown worked in the evenings instead, some parents took their luchbreaks so they supported their children then. I wasn't worried when work was done as I made teaching videos for them so they could watch whenever they were able to. I marked and gave feedback during my evenings as I was working with keyworker children during the day. If we return to school closures it's very hard but so long as parents put some time aside for their children that's important as I put time aside for my own children as well as work too.

Yup, no way the kids are back in January. But at least even our school which did the bare minimum during the first lockdown I down is now set up for some home learning online.

My primary school is ready to teach online at short notice. Last term we were informed at 10pm on Sunday night that the 3 year 3 classes (And teachers and TAs) needed to self isolate for 2 weeks. On Monday we set lessons on Google classroom and by Tuesday we were teaching live online From home to our classes from 9 to 3.30.
However, this only worked for me because my DCs were in school and so I was home alone and able to live teach with no distractions. If my DCs were home and also home learning it would have been pretty much impossible.
But If schools closed then my children could go to school as children of a key worker I hear some of you say. This leads me to my next point which is that if schools shut then a large number of teachers will need to be in school with key worker bubbles. In the spring we had 6 key worker bubbles each requiring a teacher and TA. It becomes incredibly difficult to give good quality online learning for those at home when so many teachers are actually in school. If the criteria for what is considered a key worker is the same as it was in Spring (including all children of teachers), then I worry that the vast majority of children at home will again suffer.
I know that something seriously needs to be done to lower the COVID rates but I’ve been teaching 20 years and I honestly don’t know what’s the best thing to do!

@millymollymoomoo

I think you’re right But they should stay open We need to stop the hysteria

Problem is when it comes to school it’s not hysteria .... it is spreading around schools especially secondary like wild fire, they have been very selective in reporting it to prevent hysteria.

I don't think they will close schools again, no matter what. And they definitely won't close primary schools or cancel exams.

We are in a different situation now, with the vaccine rolling out to the most vulnerable as we speak and lots of testing capacity to throw at schools. They will test as much as they have to to keep the schools open.

Marsha - I am not saying a job doesn't need to be done in full but at the same time its a pretty morally bereft employer who wouldn't understand short breaks throughout the day to care for small children in he middle of a once in a generation pandemic?

cmmid.github.io/topics/covid19/uk-novel-variant.html

Nevertheless, the increase in transmissibility is likely to lead to a large increase in incidence, with COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths projected to reach higher levels in 2021 than were observed in 2020, even if regional tiered restrictions implemented before 19 December are maintained. Our estimates suggest that control measures of a similar stringency to the national lockdown implemented in England in November 2020 are unlikely to reduce the effective reproduction number Rt to less than 1, unless primary schools, secondary schools, and universities are also closed. We project that large resurgences of the virus are likely to occur following easing of control measures. It may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine roll-out to have an appreciable impact in suppressing the resulting disease burden.

^^ its going to get far worse than 2020 unless we close schools.

bold fail

Nevertheless, the increase in transmissibility is likely to lead to a large increase in incidence, with COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths projected to reach higher levels in 2021 than were observed in 2020, even if regional tiered restrictions implemented before 19 December are maintained. Our estimates suggest that control measures of a similar stringency to the national lockdown implemented in England in November 2020 are unlikely to reduce the effective reproduction number Rt to less than 1, unless primary schools, secondary schools, and universities are also closed. We project that large resurgences of the virus are likely to occur following easing of control measures. It may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine roll-out to have an appreciable impact in suppressing the resulting disease burden

I don’t they would dare to close them again like they did in March. They know there would be chaos if they did. I fail to understand sometimes the lack of priority given to education in this country. It seems an endless race to the bottom with an ever widening attainment gap.

The government will keep primary schools open no matter what, or who has to die.

@DfEisashambles well they haven’t kept them open in most of the UK .They are closed till the 18th in Scotland.

@ZipLips

I'm a TA in a primary school.

We're still seeing the fallout of the previous closures:

• The % of children accessing either online or paper-based home learning was very low in our school.

• Many had lost the ability to sit still and focus for even a minute.

• There were clear signs of regression in some of the children, particularly with toileting and general social skills.

I'd like schools to stay open for as long as possible and for them to be given enough funding to do so. We were being asked to be as sparing as possible with the cleaning sprays and cloths while simultaneously being expected to keep our classrooms extra clean.

This. Schools need funding to employ more people for cleaning and people to for the testing required. Teachers should teach not cleaning or test