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!

The schools are not shutting to protect teachers. It has been made quite plain throughout the whole of this pandemic that the government does not care about risk to teachers.

Schools are shutting to protect the NHS. No need to wring hands about not protecting shop workers or delivery drivers but protecting teachers. Teachers will be sent straight back to it as soon as the immediate threat to the nhs has passed and I’d bet that if they can do that with no additional safety measures they will. They do not care about our health.

I will be accused of being facetious, but I’m not. It is a simple fact that has been demonstrated throughout.

As a teacher, that fact has been hard to accept but it might bring comfort to some parents who feel schools shouldn’t close.

Well I have a big house and garden OP. DH has a WFH secure job and I work part time. So on the face of it able to check my privilege
Yet I don't want schools to close.
Dd1 has exams which haven't been cancelled. DD2 has SEN and is not in school. Just 3 hours f2f teaching which now be on ZOOM. No fucking whether she will cope with this.
DD3 currently being assessed but probably ADHD willnot take to home learning.
Privilege is very subjective.

Meant to say but mI accept us is necessary fkr the greater good. Pkus I don't especially want my ECV DH to catch COVID and potentially get very ill

Berryful my son has special needs and wasn’t in school during the first lockdown and won’t be for this one either. He is considered vulnerable amd was offered a place but I’m in a position to homeschool him adequately so have no need to send him in to take a place that could be needed more by another.

@SaltyAF

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

Exactly.

Schools aren't babysitters.

The fact is schools will stay shut until they can be sure the NHS isn't going to be overwhelmed. No amount of threads on MN will change that.
There is also no point shouting at people or posters to 'check their privilege'. One because it's a phrase that means nothing and two you're ignoring your own privilege that you don't have family members whose health is vulnerable.
But to provide a balance to some of your points - social services were working throughout the last lockdown. They weren't just working from home.
There's a multi-agency strategy to identify vulnerable DCs. Yy some will fall through the gaps but people worked hard and put themselves at risk throughout the last lockdown to teach DCs, to identify vulnerable DCs and to support families that were struggling.

If it wasn't enough for your family (and there are families with DCs in specialised education settings who felt abandoned) , call for more funding rather than ignoring all the other vulnerabilities that don't apply to you. Because in more than one specialised school, covid ran through the teaching staff necessitating school closures. Schools can't open if teachers are ill or isolating. No amount of complaining can change that. But if you start a campaign calling for more funding or respite then lots of people will support you.
But they won't support you ignoring others' vulnerabilities and increasing others' risks. imo you can't expect compassion or understanding from others when you're refusing to extend it to them.

Everybody took schools granted for their extra help they are doing. Now when they are actually thinking about themselves and their families; people are demanding 'help'. They arnt the ones who are answerable, its the social services

I don't think it's just social services to blame, tbh. Local government has had its funding from central government slashed over the last few years and they're not allowed to just put up council tax enough to cover the loss.

They therefore have to make savings, and many authorities are barely able to fulfil their statutory duties as a result. School budgets are protected, and they are funded according to a formula, so they can't be cut (rightly imo, school funding is woefully inadequate).

What we are seeing is the outcome of years of cuts and councils can't do anything about it.

Imo, the people who are answerable are those in government, and those who voted for them.

@LakieLady
I don't disagree. The govt is such farce. Schools aid govt in maintaining countrie's economy and nurturing vulnerable kids. They are not soley responsible.

Some people ask why food and nhs should be open but schools could be closed:
Closing nhs will kill people
Closing food shops will kill people
Opening schools will kill people

Austerity cuts have now hit everyone society is breaking down.
W.C, unemployed and disabled people have felt the squeeze for years same in Ireland now the ripple effects are obvious.
Cuts to MH and social care moved the load onto emergency services and schools both are at breaking point.
I don't blame teachers not wanting to sit in a class with 20 odd DC from all different families many living in overcrowded houses mixing families.

@Almostslimjim

Schools are not childcare.

I can't believe people still spout this shit.

This. It is infuriating.

Of course they don’t provide child care. But they do educate children and hopefully care. Most parents are not expecting childcare. I can get an au pair for that. But some parents do need to go to work and need someone to “care” for their kids for the 39 weeks they are at school.

Schools are there to provide education and to look after childrens well being while they are in their care. Free meals, childcare and every other extra provision that children get when at school are surely in addition to their education, not a right.
There seems to be a lot of people focussing on the fact that when schools close their child care is disrupted, not that their childs education is on the back foot.

I don't want the schools to close but YABU for using the term 'check your privilege'.

Schools are open to the vulnerable.

No they are not ,not in.my LEA anyway my son has a full EHCP in a special school and yet again his school is closed to all but keyworker children ,every child in the school has an EHCP and every child is considered to be vulnerable due to their disabilities im sick of reading schools are open to the vulnerable.

@ekidmxcl

Schools are open to the vulnerable.

where do people get this nonsense from? and why do they keep repeating it????

no, they are not!!!! I am a parent to a vulnerable child. No school from March - Sept and no school now! it's like that everywhere up and down the country!

YANBU of course but the majority still voted YABU. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH PEOPLE.

Ok breathe.

@MissBaskinIfYoureNasty

🙄 no mention in your post about safety of teachers.

Unless they are very old or have a few very specific conditions (in which case I think they should be put on full pay furlough) THEY ARE NOT AT RISK!!! When will people understand this? Look at the data. Yes of course there has been the odd case of younger folk with no underlying conditions being struck down but this is very, very rare. Just as it is rare to be struck down by flu, or run over by a bus, or struck by lightening, or killed in a car accident or a myriad of other risks they’ve been taken every single day they have worked at a school.