Kids still feeling the effects of lockdowns…

[sloanedanger]

I just got caught reading a really interesting thread on Twitter started by a teacher:

“Is anyone else thinking we are starting to see the impact of 2 years of disruption and time at home, due to COVID 19, in schools? Extreme behaviours? Some pupils very emotional and struggling to regulate? Low attendance compared to normal? Winter bugs hitting hard?”

A lot of the comments say Y3 is the worst, others saying Years 7 and 8.

My DS is in Year 2 and often struggles with emotions and self regulation at school. It’s made me think, perhaps there’s a reason why linked to the pandemic. Lockdown was hard, DP and I were home with very young DC, trying to work, poor mental health, emotions high. Very little patience.

Yep Leicester was condemned to the pits of hell for sinning whilst Manchester was merely shat on.

The rule in Scotland were ridiculous. Absolutely stupid. Remember when covid could tell the time?

Safe to go for dinner at 4pm but not safe at 6pm - What was that all about really???

All in the pursuit of zero covid - which was never going to happen.
I swear I saw more international trucks on the M74 during covid than at any point in time before or since.
Remember all the threats of Police stopping people at Carlisle?

My favourite Scottish moment was summer 2021 when Sturgeon tried to ban Scottish people from going to Greater Manchester. How she thought that one was getting enforced I shall never know.

Behaviour has deteriorated hugely (and in the school I teach it was challenging anyway). We now have staff off sick due to stress of managing immense behavioural needs in class which are having an impact on everyone's learning. Many, like me, are leaving or moving abroad as it's so exhausting to teach children who are so dysregulated and challenging. There's no slack from ofsted and academically there's still pressure to get them where they 'should' be despite the fact that they've missed so much and are so behind emotionally.

I'd forgotten about that moment of madness.

So much stuff that made no sense and completely unenforceable.

I liked it when the Welsh government made it illegal to go to work

Oh that was hilarious. I went for work. I think that was “allowed” mind you, not that it could be enforced anyway

It would be good to see some proper data on the effects the different rules had on kids.

I think Scotland had different mask rules to England 5-11 in Scotland needed masks but I don't think England did.

England ditched masks for a bit in 2021 Scotland didn't although they did ditch them for kids.

The other place there must be clear data is the effect of the second lockdown on nursery aged children.

The DfE have just released an analysis showing that mask wearing in schools reduced absences due to covid.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1119353/Analysis_on_the_use_of_face_coverings_in_secondary_schools_and_COVID-19_absence_rates.pdf

This would have made such an enormous difference for us. I will never ever again restrict my children's outdoor time.

I think one of the things my children found hardest was all the different chopping and changing of the rules.

@EndlessRain

Ok, I'll be more specific, in Western Europe. Still though. That's pretty widely accessible information.

+++

Hmm still factually incorrect. Look at the chart in the Spectator article:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-truth-about-britains-covid-deaths/

It would be more accurate to say that the UK had a covid death rate around the average of European countries.

Another secondary impact of the Covid lockdowns that was also widely predicted at the time:

news.sky.com/story/why-australias-worst-flu-season-in-five-years-could-be-a-warning-of-whats-to-come-in-uk-12754782 Why Australia's worst flu season in five years could be a warning of what's to come in UK

I remember several posts on MN stating that it was only by locking down hard enough and long enough with full compliance that we could defeat Covid and get back to normal life.

Seriously where did they think Covid would go - back in the genie bottle?

I had a 17 yo and a 16 yo at the time of the first lockdown.

The elder had just won a place to a specialist music school on the MDF scheme. Watching all their dreams come crashing down was heart breaking. Watching them avidly switch on the news every 3 weeks to see if there was any change in the school attendance rules and seeing the despondence when there wasn't was awful. I hope I never have to go through that experience again as I'd often lock myself in the bathroom and cry at their reaction. Basically everything they'd worked so hard for in the last 5 years was wiped out.

The younger one had to cope with their GCSEs being cancelled and the stress of an unknown system to determine what the results would be. Then the day of coming home knowing that in 2 days time they'd be moving schools and never seeing their friends again without the usual rite of passage. THey were pretty grown up about it - finding a food bank type service to volunteer at and seemed fine at the time. However, in retrospet I can see that the stress of that time led them to pound the pavements every day with a tough run that led to stress fractured vertebrae, a sixth form dogged by pain, A level exams where they ended up lying on the floor as it was too uncofortable to sit, missing their offers due to pain and now spinal fusion surgery that will take 18 months to recover from.

Chris Whitty did not deserve that Knighthood

Don't get me started on what Chris Whitty deserves.

I don't have children but that paper worries me - an excuse to normalise masks.

as for the genie bottle - I pointed out, on here and IRL, that trying to fight an airborne virus was mad.

I also pointed out the risk of nosocomial infection many times and talked about ways to mitigate it. Certainly no one here gave a shit.

just had news of another covid death in local area. Hospital acquired.

The vitriole on MN for questioning the policies was huge. I joined UFThem who were portrayed as crank conspiracy theorists.

I know of so many troubled children. My eldest missed her settling into secondary school and developed at eating disorder. My younger children have been ok.

I will never forgive nor forget

Remember "just because you can doesn't mean you should"? People were allowed daily "exercise" but they were criticised even for that by some. "Just do Joe Wicks, you don't NEED to go outside". Someone on a local FB group said shopping once a week was too much and selfish

One of the things that got me mad was the judgement. I remember at the beginning and “panic buying” my DDs nursery teacher getting abuse for “over buying/panic buying”. Had I been her I would have lost it but she managed to stay calm. This woman was amazing, she had six adopted children all with severe special needs & disabilities. They had all been foster children, neglected and abused, some not expected to survive. Her and her husband had fostered then adopted them all, gave them homes and provided the care they needed. The shop she was doing would have lasted at most 2-3 days, yet she had people abusing her and accusing her of panic buying. Thankfully the local Aldi is amazing and the staff stuck up for her pulling her and her shopping to one side. They did the same for me, I always bought my DDs milk by the tray, she can’t have dairy. When the murmurs started about lockdown started I made sure I had enough in, she was 2 at the time. I remember one day going in and the milk because it was uht was limited, a staff member who recognised me said just take a tray I will put you through the check out. She knew I wasn’t “panic buying” as I bought a whole tray every week, but the looks I got 😡

Are you still under some stupid impression schools chose to close? The government made us close, and gave us a list of who we could and couldnt have in, we didn't decide to have an early holiday for goodness sake 🙄.
I saw this view trotted out so many times on here, it's dumb.

I joined UFThem who were portrayed as crank conspiracy theorists.

Us4Them who recently had their PayPal account closed? Who were part of a group of antivaxx nutjobs whose chat logs planning antivax messaging you can read on the internet because they're not very good at web security?

Maybe some people are better at spotting grifters than others.

@SirMingeALot

Yes. It doesn't imply that he's well.

I wish your Granddad the best.

@noblegiraffe
Curious that you’d join this thread given your attitude at the time to closing schools

My attitude to trying to keep them open, you mean, hamstersarse?

I’m still angry at the head in the sand approach to the situation in schools where covid was running rampant while the government and its useful idiots insisted it didn’t. This approach and the loud, vocal (and often abusive) shouting down of anyone who suggested that perhaps mitigation measures to reduce the spread in schools would help keep them open contributed to the second set of national school closures in Jan 2021,

Anyone who wants to complain about kids missing school and the impact of that should take a long, hard look at the events that led up to that second set of closures and wonder whether shitty abuse of those trying to point out the issues was actually the best for kids in the long run.

Gosh yes, who would have thought a teacher, interested in children and their welfare would join such a thread 🙄