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 can't think of a polite way to say what I way to say so I will stick with 'NO'

Most school are practically open because we have a pm who hates what he regards as 'personal freedoms' being removed and has been slow to lockdown at every turn.

I have lots of very valid reasons as to why me and my kids are particularly affected by schools shutting. I won't bore you with them but I wish people would just try a bit harder to remember that it is a pandemic causing this, not mps or teachers for that matter.

Put your energy into helping people affected by this shit situation rather than lobbying for schools to re-open.

I'm sorry if I've offended anyone but that really wasn't my intention. My sister works in a school as well as my aunt. Both have tested positive for Covid (in the past 2 weeks though).

I haven't judged anyone for saying they would not send their children into school or those teachers that don't feel it is safe for them to be in school. I don't think it's fair for people to judge me because I have a difference of opinion. My son has been greatly affected by schools shutting and I would choose to send him to school, if I could. But it's okay, because I can take him to the play park for him to socialise with 50 other children 🙄.

Also, in November supermarkets still had a higher rate of infection than secondary schools. Primary schools being 3rd.

No, I think they need to stay shut, I don't want to rush mine back at the moment.

Merkel has less deaths, less transmission and she's after a stricter lock down, she's had school closed since mid December.
I'm not finding hs easy, our primary posts stuff and it's me, in between breaks at work whose rushing to get dd to do stuff. She has sen and is not easy to work with I'm doing everything.
But it's easier than the sheer fear of sending her in, worrying about her or anyone falling sick and not getting medical help.
. Yes being at home is hard, the weather is against us, January is an awful month, but we are safe and keeping others safe.

Protect I wish you had written it, it's not scare mongering to know the truth of your perspective.

I've not taken my dc to play pairs and would not right now but mine are older thankfully.
I don't blame anyone for using play parks and of course they are much safer by virtue of being outdoors than dc mixing in an enclosed room!!

They will open as soon as possible OP, when transmission rates go down and the NHS is no longer in danger of collapse.

Vaccinations of the most vulnerable will help this.

No point in writing the letter you are suggesting.

Oh wow definitely missed the end of your post about writing to MP's, newspapers. No, despite my opinion, I would not be doing that. I think people should feel safe, and should have a choice. I do not think teachers should be forced into school nor parents forced to send their children into school.

Teachers being vaccinated isn't going to make schools reopening ok! Children spread to other children, who go home and spread to their families!

Every time I read someone claiming that vaccinating teachers is going to make schools safer I roll my eyes. I have no problem with this happening. I do think teachers are at high risk because it is impossible to have social distancing and good ventilation in small classrooms. It would certainly be safer for the teachers, and put heir families at less risk of them taking it home, but it would not make school safer. Even Boris has called schools 'hubs of transmission'. Infected children in school will pass it on to other children, who then may pass it on to members of their household.

Sadly it's pretty obvious universities and high schools in particular, fuelled the massive increase in cases, and probably accelerated the new variant which spreads so rapidly

@MLM268, I think you've mis-read those stats from November about infection rates.
If it's the set I'm thinking you mean, they separated out school staff into 3 different groups, primary, secondary and "teachers," making the total overall figures look less alarming. The "teachers" group would have included many primary teachers also, whose stats if included in the 'primary' group, would have pushed it higher up the table.

No, I think they need to be the near last thing to reopen. The reopening in Sept / Oct clearly triggered the massive second wave.

Last time the schools were fully opened here (September to Christmas), most year groups had to be sent into isolation at some point, and not just once, and some schools even had to close when they ran out of staff!

I'd rather the schools closed but offering emergency childcare to critical workers than close for EVERYBODY and affecting us all badly. And I am struggling with work and homeschooling like anyone else, but I still want the luxury of finding essential workers when I need them!

and at least I can take my kids outside instead of keeping them in house arrest when they are isolating for 2 weeks at a time.

So no, I don't want the school opened, and I don't want WFH parents to send their kids there too either. It's should be emergency childcare (and schooling, poor kids) for critical workers who are not home only. (and genuinely vulnerable children.)

Schools are not closed to protect teachers or staff. The government didn't give a toss about that. So giving the vaccine to school staff won't make a difference. Schools are closed because they are 'vectors of transmission' to the community so until that is under control schools won't be going back.

I thought Us4Them had been a bit quiet lately.

No, OP I won’t be writing to my MP asking for schools to open ASAP because cramming large numbers of people into small unventilated classrooms, with no social distancing and no masks would be a ridiculous thing to do in a pandemic, and sadly that seems to be the government plan for having ‘schools open’.

Our hospitals are very close to not coping and we know the virus spreads quickly through schools when they are open.

If you were to suggest writing to our MPs to suggest measures such as more funding in schools, mask wearing and discussions with head teachers about the best way to plan a reopening, I think you’d get a much better response. Sadly all we are going to get by the looks of things is unapproved inaccurate lateral flow tests instead of self-isolation, so I expect schools will open at Easter and then be closed again by May half term.

Think it through.

Not a single solitary case of a teacher being seriously ill anywhere near me.

How on earth could you possibly know this?? Do you think schools notify the local press everytime a member of their staff becomes seriously unwell? When a dear friend and colleague of mine was in ICU with covid the only people who knew about it were her family, close friends and a handful of staff in school who would never have dreamed of broadcasting her private medical information.

No!

Schools are perfect places for spreading this virus and we need to stop transmission as much as possible.

Since Christmas, I know of so many families ill and badly affected by Covid - imagine if these people had come back to school in January and unknowingly spread it to more families. There are likely to be many people who caught it on that first Monday back.

Since the Christmas Day mixing, I have friends whose parents ended up in icu and one is now on end of life care.

This is not the time to encourage more mixing of people and families - if you can, stay at home and stay apart from other people.

Couldn’t disagree more. To those people saying that there haven’t been any cases in schools in their area, rest assured you are not being told the truth. There were over 100 cases in my local school including staff and pupils who were hospitalised. This is not unique in my area or elsewhere. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that because it’s not being reported that it isn’t happening! The government did not want the true number of cases coming out because it would totally disprove the ‘schools are safe’ bollocks they were peddling before Christmas. It will be interesting to see what the next report due later this month mentioned in a previous post says.

Couldn’t disagree more. To those people saying that there haven’t been any cases in schools in their area, rest assured you are not being told the truth.

Exactly. Cases in schools were being kept very quiet - remember, the government were maintaining that schools were safe... and actual data wasn't going to help their campaign.

My local newspaper has printed cases in schools which have been released after a freedom of information request. One school had 42% positive cases to students on roll from sept to dec. special school.

Yay another one of these threads

Nope I don’t agree with you at all I’m afraid. When teachers are vaccinated, able to wear ppe and children can be spread out to adhere to social distancing.

@PaigeMatthews
That doesn’t surprise me at all!

I schools shouldn't reopen unless they vaccinate staff. I work in a school and am still going there every day due to vulnerable and key worker children. I feel relatively safe at the moment, but I know I wouldn't be if all the kids come back. As an asthmatic I would be very very worried.

The lack of thought or care for school staff is sickening really.