Anyone taken their kids out of school?

[mac12]

My husband wants to take our 3 kids out of school (ages 8-13). He’s involved in an international study on the incubation period (he works on comms side) so has lots of access to clinical data, which means he’s read some scary stuff & often sees worst case scenarios, which maybe skews our thinking.
I am v conflicted & worried, what is the process, will we get into trouble with the local authority, can heads have discretion at times like this? Has anyone else done it or thinking of it? Or are we mad to be even thinking about it? The eldest definitely would hate it as loves school (yeah, strange)
I was hoping the govt would follow Japan & shut schools for early containment but that doesn’t appear to be on the cards for now.

@DominicCummingsForehead where do you live, are you in the U.K.?

@Spartonian yes in the uk

@DominicCummingsForehead have you thought about what you would do if you can't actually get them a school place in Sept?

What class year are they Dominic?

Thread moved on since I last posted! I have taken some positives from relatively low infection rates ie it’s not as contagious as the flu & can be contained as China has shown. BUT the WHO has made it v clear what we have to do & there is no sign we are doing it. As WHO boss said today, why are countries with relatively low Numbers waving the white flag? Act now & we could push it back, eradicate it within 2 months. Close schools, cancel mass events, disrupt transmission chains & keep numbers low enough for rigorous tracing & testing programme. Look at SARS. Another week of singing bloody happy birthday & we will have lost this opportunity. So perhaps my anxiety is in overdrive, maybe it is lunacy to take kids out, but, you know, exponential maths...in the end, we’ll have to close them anyway...

@ineedaholidaynow China drafted 32,000 medics into Wuhan from the rest of the country. We simply don’t have that depth of resource here hence the planned army of retirees & volunteers

Not so easy to just pull the kids out of school when you have to work though - a lot of people have no choice but to continue commuting and going to work and sending kids to school! What can ya do!

They are year 2 and year 6 - eldest has a place at secondary school starting sept.
There are 4 primary schools within 20 minutes of where we live, they're not over subscribed...but if I couldn't get her a place I would just carry on HE until I could.

*carry on HE my youngest

Sure close all schools and that's many nurses, doctor's, people involved in the supply chain, emergency services off work to look after their children- sounds great.

Closing primary schools would have terrible consequences for other services, including health and emergency care, because of the childcare problems it would create. Closing secondaries would create real problems in terms of finishing the teaching of exam courses, public exams, university places etc. I’m a teacher, and I think closing schools should be delayed as long as possible.

I imagine as poster above said, schools will be kept open as long as possible to keep other services running.

I’m fairly wary about the situation, I already catch every airborne illness going in my classroom due to my little treasures struggling with basic hygiene (despite our many lectures and hand washing trips). I’m sure if they catch and carry Covid-19, teaching staff will all have it very quickly.

Nevertheless, I’m sure we will all keep on trudging to school until told otherwise....

The financial implications for some is going to be huge. My husband and I both work for public services and would have to stop work to care for children if school and childcare close. We don't have anyone else. For people on zero hours contracts the whole coronavirus thing could be catastrophic if they have to isolate.

Not sure how we'll be able to balance keeping people safe from the spread of the virus vs people not being able to afford to live.

Op with kindness you haven’t thought this through.

1. It will be 12-18 months before a vaccine is available. Are you prepared to keep them off, at home and isolated from everyone for the duration?
2. What will you do with them if you or your partner contracts it?
3. Children get it mildly.

You said your husband sees worst case scenario and that *maybe skews our thinking"

The answer is simple, think for yourself, not what your worst case scenario thinking husband thinks.

How’s everyone feeling after the numbers have grown to 85? I think more parents will be considering the option of taking children out now.

We havent had much choice. The UAE have closed schools for 5 weeks 😭😭😭

Seen as though 85 out of a population of 66 million (I know we're above that in the UK now but just for ease, closer to 67 in reality) is 0.0001% of the population, probably wouldn't keep children home just yet.

More than doubling in a day isn't great news is it

5 weeks @UAEmum!? What's happening to parents who need to work there?

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Robuns, I don't believe that only 85 people have it though. I believe that's all they have found in limited testing.

I reckon by Friday, having included those in ict that will bumps figs up

I heart, if I could I would take dc off now yes.

I wouldn't expect to keep them in off for 2 years.

I'd like to keep them off until May June... Summer or even till Sept and the new year school year. Neither are at imp places at the moment.

The idea being that the longer I protect my dc, if they need care at hospital they are more likely to access it.
And the longer we keep them safe, the more we find out about the virus and the more chance of the vaccination.

At this stage planning on taking your kids out of school with the current percentage means you are a panicking idiot, let's shut down society why don't we what you going to eat if we all do what you do.

Reading these threads is a shocking reminder of how bad the general public's ability to risk assess is.

I can’t believe people have deregistered their children for school for no real reason than hysteria. The panic on this site is nuts.