If you don't want your child to go back, homeschool them.

[Mrgrinch]

I've seen so many people on here ranting about how they don't think the schools should open. Many even saying they won't follow any other rules anymore if they do.

AIBU to think they should just homeschool their DC then?

Do they not realise how badly this is affecting so many children and families? Do they not realise how many children have been having no education at all? Some parents are at breaking point trying to keep their jobs and make sure their children are doing some school work.

Homeschooling was always an option, even before covid so if you are so concerned then unlist them and provide their education yourself. We can't stay home forever.

I will be sending my dc back but I don't want to because I think it's daft and I don't want to be continuously locked down if schools play a part in the virus transmitting on and on.

I'd rather wait until everyone is suitably vaccinated especially as the vaccination campaign appears to be going very well.
I think it's reasonable to wish schools weren't going back but also of course some people are happy for their dc to go back. Saying it's easy just homeschool it's a black and white decision is a bit of a cop out, if you pull your dc out of school to homeschool until you feel schools are safe again you might find you lose your space.

@noblegiraffe

People also talking as though there is no way out of this, seem to forget the vaccine

Is that the vaccine that the vaccine minister said would be first dose administered to vulnerable people by April which would mean they all had some protection by 3 weeks previously in March?

twitter.com/mikegalsworthy/status/1363802692599046144?s=21

Try not to hit your head too hard when you face palm.

Its this vaccine: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56153600

HTH

The most vulnerable in society have now been vaccinated

Except they haven't.

Masks in secondary classrooms seems pretty easy.

I really don't understand the opposition to this. If we want schools open, surely it's a small price to pay.

If you think there aren’t militant teaching unions on the continent, I have news for you.

If it’s not a time-travelling vaccine, siestalady then giving it to people in April won’t help them in March.

Hth.

@Mrgrinch Year groups are not mixing at all with different year groups. If they are required to pass in the corridors (they aren't usually as lesson times are different for each year group to prevent this) they wear masks. They also have staggered start and finish times.

^ think you're living in a dream world here. That is absolutely NOT happening. Lessons are not at different times, no staggered starts and finishes and year groups mix all the time , the most obvious being if one household has children in different years, get the school bus etc.

Opening schools now is not the same as opening in September or January because about 17 million people have now had a vaccine. And if that doesn’t affect transmission or sickness rates then seriously what was the point?

Well the vaccine won’t affect transmission rates in crowded classrooms will it?

@Devlesko

YABU, parents should have a choice. Expecting them to deregister and be completely on their own ito their child's education is wrong. Education should be taught by the school, either by attending a building (school) or offered online. Parents who want to H.ed can deregister, and have always been allowed to.

Teachers are not magicians.

They can't work on bringing all of the children up to date, including those who have done next to no work at home, and also offer online provision at the same time. It's just not possible for them.

They've already got the extra responsibility of ensuring covid measures.

@Comtesse but many group 6 people haven't been vaccinated and many people who are currently in hospital with COVID are people who fall within group 6, so should we not be trying to protect the remainder of the group 6 people until they have been vaccinated. And many parents and school staff (and some pupils) fall within group 6

@Comtesse good point!

People also talking as though there is no way out of this, seem to forget the vaccine?! Or would you rather eternal lockdown until we are at zero covid, ruining the economy and our kids futures?

I don’t think anyone would want to have an eternal lockdown.

Those who are against schools re-opening on the 8th still want schools open they just want staggered starts or to wait until more vaccinations have been given.

We all want schools to re-open. We all want non-essential shops and gyms to re-open. But it is obviously not wise/safe to reopen everything immediately so it is about re-opening in the safest way possible and in a way in which they can remain open forever and not just a couple of weeks.

If it’s not a time-travelling vaccine, siestalady then giving it to people in April won’t help them in March.

This is my favourite comment in ages!

[quote ineedaholidaynow]@Comtesse but many group 6 people haven't been vaccinated and many people who are currently in hospital with COVID are people who fall within group 6, so should we not be trying to protect the remainder of the group 6 people until they have been vaccinated. And many parents and school staff (and some pupils) fall within group 6[/quote]
What are you suggesting? Because it seems some people are all too happy to sit at home. I’m sorry it’s not just the schooling issue it’s everything.

We cannot lockdown until everybody has had their vaccine and it may not even work... then what?

We have to make a start from some where. Other wise everything will grind to a hault.

I have 2 DC primary age and 1 Y9 high school. am loving home schooling and my children are thriving and getting through all of the work with no issues, but that is within the structure that school set the work. I am not an educator and do not feel I could do it justice. Also I WFH so I do not have the time to be sorting schedules and marking work etc. In an ideal work for me schools would give the option to continue as we are now or send them in. The teachers are in with some children anyway so I would love them to give us the option, if they feel your children are coping OK and doing the work. Those children that need to go in can and others can stay home and continue with school setting the work. Surely this would keep the school children, home children and teachers safer anyway.

I'm not saying everyone has to have their vaccine but group 6 people are clinically vulnerable, and are more likely to be the people in hospital with COVID, so lets get them vaccinated without rushing pupils back into schools with no mitigating measures in place apart from a bit of yellow and black masking tape!

I would like to keep my children home till I have the vaccine. But the council will fine us. If we unlist them we lose our places. It's shitty.

3 reasons:

1. I’m not worried for myself as such, I’m worried for society as a whole.

2. I’m not a teacher. At the moment my DS is still being taught be a teacher, albeit remotely. I would like a teacher to teach my son.

3. I believe we are opening to early/quickly and therefore setting ourselves up for another lockdown. Even if I homeschool them they will still have to abide by and be detrimentally affected by the next lockdown. Hence I would like to avoid another lockdown.

This from Dr Deepti Gurdasani, (senior lecturer in epidemiology) really worries me and I don’t see how just me keeping my kids at home while everyone else sends them back will help.

“Vaccinating the population while allowing high transmission will favour selection of existing variants that escape vaccines better but are fortunately less dominant now. It'll also favour further adaptation towards escape.”

In my real life the people I know who want to keep their children off are the ones that don’t work who have time to home school. My friends who work from home or like me go to work, want their kids to go back. One of my DC has asd, I can’t wait for him to get back to a routine.

@Tiktokersmiracle get a grip it was hardly a 'vile' comment !!

Definitely a number of deluded posters on these threads who seem to want a zero covid approach

No. What we want is an approach that focuses on safety, enabling all children and families to feel that risks have been mitigated as much as possible. Some families may feel it is not enough for them even in those circumstances and decide to keep children off. Others may need some individualised approach in their particular school to make things safer for them. Ignoring even the basics like masks and not ensuring that there is funding for basics like hand santizier so teachers are not obliged to pay for it themselves or families that are struggling can rely on the school for it just isn't good enough.

I think they should stagger it as they are doing in Wales and Scotland. Sending 300+ pupils back into school at the same time is kinda bonkers. He said he wants this to be the final lockdown so he really needs to get it right this time.

Maybe it would have been less of a dick move to say "I hope those who are group 6 etc who haven't been vaccinated get the chance to keep kids home without a fine and continue to receive support while we send more kids back to school" rather than "I'm alright so deregister your kids if you don't like it"

Sending 300+ pupils back into school at the same time is kinda bonkers.

A local secondary has 2000 pupils. Most secondaries have 1000.