To think that those people calling for the schools to shut should check their privilege

[berryfull]

It’s all very well and good to decide to keep your kids home or call for the schools to shut when you have enough space/have a garden/ have enough bedrooms/ have a home office/ can work from home/one parent doesn’t work/ you can work flexibly / your work can furlough you/ you have enough savings/ you have enough money/ you have WiFi / you have a device per child/ your children can read and write/ your children are independent/ your children are neurotypical/ your children don’t have disabilities/ you’re not scared of your partner/ you’re not scared of your children/ your mental health doesn’t make you a danger to your children/ yiu can cope with the stress/ your partner isn’t a danger to your children/ your health is good enough to allow you to look after your children/ your education level is sufficient for you to help educate your children you can feed your children throughout the day ..... etc etc

Stop presuming that all children will be safer at home. There are bigger and comparable dangers to the Covid that school keeps children safe from. And the vunerable ones are not being looked after.

Keep the schools open .... please!

'Check your privilege' is the most annoying term I've heard. Having said that, you are right that some children are safer in school than at home. They are classed as 'vulnerable' children, so are given school places even though the school is closed to other pupils.

Hmm, how long before the first teacher basher pops up?

Stop asking members of school communities to cure all society's ills by risking their health.

🙄 no mention in your post about safety of teachers.

The families on my caseload (who you mainly describe) got a school place though in the last lockdown and I am pretty sure I spent hours writing plans, visiting them in their home and school and standing in gardens and fields, and ringing other agencies to liaise about their support? The police, schools, paediatricians, OT's and social workers didn't stop working?

All children are going to become vulnerable by their lack of education.

It's awful. Completely undeniably awful. No one wants them closed. I work in one of the poorest boroughs in the country and I'm horrified at the thought we're closed.
But the Covid rates locally are incredibly high and we cannot teach and socially distance.
We're well prepared for online learning. We have all our vunerable children in school and we will do our best.
You need to call the school and tell them you're struggling. We've lent lap tops and iPads to children and called to help set up work.
We've also taken work to kids houses so they have things to do.
Let's shut down quickly, be very careful then open again asap.
I'm so sorry it's all so terrible.

The phrase "check your privilege" always undermines the point being made, but ignoring that - it's not just the children's safety; it's that of the teachers and school staff, plus the people the children are then coming into contact with outside of school; they may be safe, but they can carry the virus to others that aren't.

The vunerable children are all not in school! I have two kids with learning disabilities, they were not in school in the first lockdown.

Stop presuming that the vunerable children are being looked after, they are not!

Maybe everyone who has no experience of working in a school should 'check their privilege'.

There’s unfortunately no right or wrong answer to this. I’m lucky I can home school but I’m very worried for my teacher friends, one who has already had a terrible case of COVID-19. Someone else I know was working in close contact with another member of staff who tested positive but was told they didn’t have to isolate. There’s huge complexity in this which is why sweeping statements like ‘close the schools’, ‘keep the schools open’ and ‘check your privilege’ is unhelpful. It also undermines the difficult and complex work those in social work, education and healthcare have put in to meet the needs of different children which can go unreported.

Schools are open for all vulnerable children.

For those that assume all the vunerable kids are being looked after read this thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4113739-Disabled-kids-the-forgotten-Covid-victims

They are not all in school.

Do you see how hundreds/thousands of households mixing affects whole communities?
Do you see that if cases spike then the people you claim to care about will be the worst hit?

Here's a couple of questions:

1. Do you want schools to open in a way that is safe for children, staff and school communities?
2. Do you want to limit disruption to children's education by continual bubble bursting and/or school closures?

If so, back teachers in their campaign for safer schools because the quicker we get a handle on Covid, the quicker we can get back to normality.

You sound like one of those Us4Them people who want a good old moan.

Urrrgh! Whenever I read the words 'Check your privilege' it conjours up an image of a teenager clicking their fingers in the air, in the shape of a Z.

Completely agree!! Sense at last!!!

All the vunerable children are not all in school.

How about having first:

A working test, trace and isolate system for all.
The testing of pupils in place, with the right resources.
Meaningful sanctions for rule breaking, not just a glorified parking fine.
Face coverings (or shields/visors) being compulsory, or at least any shop being entitled to refuse entry.
Vaccines for teachers and others who work in schools.

Then schools could reasonably be expected to open, for more than children of key workers and vulnerable children.

@EvilEdna1

Maybe everyone who has no experience of working in a school should 'check their privilege'.

This.

Also, OP, don't forget to tell all the healthy parents to check their privilege because they can send their kids to school without worrying that they'll bring covid home and kill them.

@MissBaskinIfYoureNasty

🙄 no mention in your post about safety of teachers.

Because the safety of a vulnerable child who cannot speak up or protect itself surely grumps that of a grown adult??

So what you actually mean is 'my kids need to be in school therefore everybody else's must'?

Don't think it's up to you op. This is a lousy situation but we have to stop the virus. The deaths are awful. I work in the nhs. We can't save everybody.

I don't agree with closing schools at all. If teaching and school staff were at such great risk from the children, they would have all had covid between Sept and Dec when the schools opened. If staff are truly vulnerable, they'll be high on the list for vaccinations. And if they're not, they need to get on with it, like ALL key workers.
As for children spreading it to others, if you're sticking to all of the other rules, they should only be coming into contact with their own household.
Weighing up the reality of the risk, i think it's considerably more harmful that our children are just left to wing it with their education.

All the vunerable children are not all in school
So we open all the schools as normal, let covid spread, have schools open and close at random, let covid affect families and have households endlessly isolating. This will obviously be best for vulnerable children.

I don't know why I bother to be honest because it's abundantly clear that goady posters claiming to care about vulnerable children don't actually give a damn. They just want schools open at any cost.

It looks to me like most of the parents of today's children look on schools as a place to give the parents a break from their children. Schools are there to educate and to a certain extent socialise children not to give parents peace.
This is a seriously tough time that we are all going through and it is not just difficult for school children and their parents. It is really tough going for everyone for a variety of reasons.

Everybody I know who wants schools to shut means what was meant to happen in the first lockdown- vulnerable children in school, the rest of us staying home to slow the spread and allow for some of the teachers to stay home too.