AIBU to ask parents who also believe ...

[alwaysraining123]

...we need to open schools ASAP, and ensure the government is true to their word that schools ARE the last thing to close and the first thing to open, to put your thoughts and experiences to those in power and those with influence (e.g by writing to your MP, government ministers, newspapers).

I appreciate not everyone will agree.

I certainly hope schools are open ASAP

@notangelinajolie

No don't agree. Schools should only reopen when all the over 50's, all those considered at risk and teachers have had their 2nd vaccine. I'm thinking September.

That will be more like January if you are lucky. At which point covid will not be the major contributing factor to poor health.

I am very keen to have schools reopened and I do think that it is a priority for the government, but it’s clear that in some schools the risks are too great. I can’t understand why teachers and school staff are not first to be vaccinated alongside the elderly and NHS workers. We need them but it is unfair and unreasonable to expose them to unnecessary risk.

I'm torn on this, children need to be back in school without a doubt and I am saddened that so many see education as something that can be simply be put on hold. However I also want them taught by staff who (at that moment in time) want to be there and are happy to be there which is what isn't happening at present. My fear though is that this point will never be reached, either due to objections from staff or other parents.

I think though you have small minorities on either side - close/open at all costs, most people are somehow muddling along the best they can (either with a child at school or at home)

I do think schools should reopen ASAP. I work full time and have a 5 year old (only child too). The biggest thing for me is that he's not able to socialise with ANY children. We didn't have a single positive Covid case at his school. Not one. I completely understand that they're closed for a reason but it also means I have to take him to the supermarket (my sister, aunt and 2 friends have had to self isolate soon after visiting a supermarket), where there's zero social distancing and far too many people. I think it's really harsh to suggest that I don't care about the health of the teachers (or their family), I just think that the benefits of children being in school outweigh the risks. That's just my opinion though, and I respect those with different opinions and different circumstances.

Schools are not closed because staff might get the virus. All of the time the schools were open this was a possibility.
As others have said, schools are closed because they are a hotbed of infection. So many kids are asymptomatic that parents can be totally unaware when their child has the virus. Consequently it is passed on from child to child who all stay in school having no clue that they are passing on this deadly disease.

They then come home to their families, often younger people who are not floored by the virus. They go to work and pass it on again. With so many people in lockdown, the schools are one of the major ways in which this virus gets passed on. Think how seriously the government are taking any illegal group meetings in houses however rare they are as most of us are compliant. Every school open? No thanks. They really can't open until most people are vaccinated.

@MLM268 that doesn’t mean your school didn’t have any cases, it just means that none of the cases were serious enough to need a test.

@Onadifferentuniverse completely get that, although I'd hope that if someone displayed symptoms they'd get tested. I also appreciate that a lot of people are asymptomatic but that doesn't change my opinion of supermarkets being a higher risk than schools.

Just reopening asap won't do much good. Even for some schools or colleges that might be able to 'safely' reopen as they're lucky enough to have the space, resources, and location already that would make that possible, doesn't do much good for the many areas hard hit or deal with the many questions that are still under consultation.

For education, I'd rather lobby for better clarity asap for exam children -- those going through "alternative arrangements" particularly with the wobbling around vocational qualifications and those who have been exams through all this and likely will in upcoming months and more support and resources for staff to better be able to manage what's going on now and to safely reopen later.

In a dream, I'd like to lobby for a rethink of what education should be and how we want schools to play a role in our children's lives and wider society, but right now, I think the main focus is getting in appropriate resources without telling them to just take it out of their own meagre budgets and to deal with how we're helping the current group of those taking and/or meant to be taking exams get their qualifications. Live lessons are wearing my household out, but just putting them back into a school building isn't going to do much good for any of them.

This is an interesting read:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/12/when-should-uk-schools-reopen-safe-covid

@MLM268 nobody is disputing that supermarkets are safer than schools, we know they’re not.
However, you can take precautions and socially distance, wear a mask, stay well away from those not wearing a mask.

However in schools nobody is wearing a mask or social distancing. Just because zero cases in a school had a positive test it doesn’t mean it wasn’t spreading silently which is exactly the point to closing them.

Surely you can see that?

Shutting schools makes the community as a whole safer.
Those children who are silently spreading it to their parents, those parents would’ve been mostly asymptomatic also and would’ve continued to go to the shops for essentials, continuing the spread.

That’s been stopped in it’s tracks but shutting school. It’s why they need to remain shut, that was only one example.
School staff are the same.

I know in our school there’s been multiple staff mixing in between the classes.

I hope that stops when they open.

@Onadifferentuniverse but I have a different opinion to you. That's okay. I'd rather go and sit in a school full of children than go to Tesco. I'm 100% sure supermarkets are where Covid is being spread. Whereas you believe the majority of Covid cases come from schools. And that's fine, that's your opinion. I really hope Covid cases dramatically decrease now schools are shut, and that I'm wrong. Anyhoo, I best get on with work and home schooling .

Also, as I said previously I understand why schools have been shut, but in my opinion, the benefits of schools being open outweigh the risks. Again, in my opinion.

Where are you? Not a single solitary case of a teacher being seriously ill anywhere near me. You’d think them numbers would make the news.

Our primary has had two staff hospitalised, one has been in over a month now, the secondary it feeds into has had a teacher sadly pass away from covid19, they were 55 and apparently very fit. The teacher who passed away was in the local press, but certainly the two at the primary my children attend weren't, it wasn't even told to the parents, I only know as one of the TA's is a friend of mine. A school 8 miles away has had a 42 year old teacher pass away as well. Again no clue about hospitalisations as they're not in the press, but I can only assume that there are a greater number of teachers and support staff hospitalised than the two who have sadly died.

@MLM268
You are speaking from a position of privilege, working from home and keeping nice and safe. Aren’t you lucky judging who should be willing to work in unsafe conditions (and rating the comparative danger) whilst not being in any danger yourself?

I believe we should open them asap, yes, but it is not yet 'p'.

If anyone can point me to a campaign to get school staff vaccinated with equal priority with health and social care staff (I'm the the latter and my vaccine is booked for this weekend) I'll happily support that. If school staff were vaccinated we could indeed open the schools.

@BustopherPonsonbyJones but is your comment not judging me and also presuming you know my life? I've already said, multiple times in fact, that I understand why schools are shut and that everyones' circumstances are different. Also, unfortunately I'm unable to avoid supermarkets and therefore stay home, keeping "nice and safe". I wouldn't judge anyone based on their circumstances, but thank you for judging me.

@unmarkedbythat I would also support that! If you find one please let me know .

MLM268
Yes I am (mildly) judging you. I don’t pretend that I’m not. Going to the supermarket once a week is not the same risk as working in the schools you want to open. You are certainly entitled to your opinion (and I actually enjoy reading them because it’s interesting to see how people feel) but if you are not working in a school and you are cocooned away working at home, you really have no idea what the situation was like in schools before Christmas.

"I think it's really harsh to suggest that I don't care about the health of the teachers (or their family), I just think that the benefits of children being in school outweigh the risks."

You think the benefit to YOUR child being in school outweighs the risk to MY health (as a teacher), not to mention the wider community.
That's not your call to make.

@MLM268: "I'm 100% sure supermarkets are where Covid is being spread. Whereas you believe the majority of Covid cases come from schools. And that's fine, that's your opinion."

Well no, that's not an opinion; the stats back up the fact that infection rates when schools were fully open were the greatest in schools.
If supermarkets are top of the list now, it will be because schools are partly closed.

I'm still in school working with keyworkers' and vulnerable children every day but my colleagues and I are regularly made aware that we are a looooong way down the list for vaccinations. A little compassion might be called for from those safely working from home, in my opinion.

I disagree OP I'm sorry. I feel so strongly that if schools were to reopen I'd keep D.C. home and pay any fine that generated .
This is simply too soon