Why do people think closing schools is going to help?

[Bearbehind]

• Evidence suggests children are far less susceptible to Coronavirus than adults

• Unless you plan to quarantine them in the house 24/7 then they’ll be in contact with their friends anyway

• Very few working parents could cope with no childcare during school hours

• There’s been stories on here of parents who want schools to close but have no intention of cancelling other plans / holidays

What is it designed to achieve?

Don’t patronise me.

I am not, I am pointing out that you can stay away from others if you wish.

But of course you don't. You want others to do so so your life can continue as before.

The country needs to be kept going and the vulnerable groups need to be really really careful, that is how it is.

China have dome an incredible task of managing lockdown

Well apart from the initial cover up and the children who died from starvation numbering a higher number than the deaths in the UK so far.

The evidence suggests children don’t transmit the disease as much as adults. Frankly it’s probably safer to have them in school together. Countries who have implemented wide scale closures have very different demographics to the UK, in terms of childcare, proportion of working mothers. I just don’t think the economic and social impact is warranted at this stage.

But I’d like to see absence regulations/fines dropped so that those who are really worried, immunosuppressed etc could take their children out without consequence (and sign some sort of disclaimer that they won’t sue the school if their kids get lower exam results than they wanted).

Seventy, thanks

I just thought, they’d have to give notice otherwise a lot of people would be stuck in their workplace.

There are whole teams of people whose job it is to work out how best to deal with this. As and when they think further measures are necessary, fine. As yet, they don't.

A big part of the current plan is to delay the virus hitting. If it can be held off for a month or so, the seasonal flu will also have largely passed, which will free up hospital beds for people with coronavirus. There is also evidence to suggest that warmer weather will kill the virus.

Cases of seasonal flu are known to reduce each year after the Christmas and Easter holidays. Since most adults don't get 2 weeks off at these times, but children do, this suggests that school is a big factor in transmitting things.

All of this means that closing schools may well buy us enough time to see off the worst of an outbreak.

Incidentally, I wonder whether the government is considering moves to help people on 0-hours contracts, or shop owners who'd be affected by a lockdown? Has there ever been any kind of precedent? I imagine things like forcing banks to freeze mortgage repayments for 2 months, reducing or cancelling rates payments during the lockdown, that kind of thing, so that people wouldn't have those outgoings? Not sure what would happen with renters etc, I'm just throwing ideas around.

Children are little germ mongers who sneeze on each other and pick noses. Schools are hotbeds for illness to spread from one kid to 100 in a day and those 100 to all their family members and on

Schools are hotbeds for illness to spread

If you'd seen the site of our sets of iPads, just a week after being cleaned you could see just to what extent this is true! Not envy!! Even when I redid them, by the end of the day you could clearly see evidence of their use again! I just don't have the time to be wiping down 50+ iPads every session and the children are too young to be allowed to use the cleaning sprays we have!

Boys at my daughters school are purposely coughing over her cause they think it’s funny and she is freaking out cause she has asthma and another serious health condition.

but from a practical perspective it’s going to be a nightmare

Which is why it would be a good idea for parents to start making contingency plans of what they could do to help themselves get through it, if it happens. We do know it is a possibility and we do know it is happening elsewhere. We currently have the benefit of some planning and prep time to see if there is anything we can out in place to get through it. Speak to other families close by - can you share childcare and supervision, for example, so that you can reduce how many days a week you could still work? Could you work from home at all - make sure you bring home what you need or get important files uploaded to a cloud based storage? Don't forget school closures don't always mean total isolation - in lots of cases small groups are still fine with some health and hygiene things thrown in to help.

Which is why it would be a good idea for parents to start making contingency plans of what they could do to help themselves get through it, if it happens.

How about we get the teachers to do it as it is actually what they are paid for? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I know that MN actually hates children and parents but to make coronavirus the responsibility of parents to control, while holding down jobs and caring for the sick at a time when pensioners are still going on cruises is a whole level of baffling.

I know that MN actually hates children and parents but to make coronavirus the responsibility of parents to control, while holding down jobs and caring for the sick at a time when pensioners are still going on cruises is a whole level of baffling.

So much this!

Ime teachers will prepare home learning, but this will require considerable support from parents.
My dd has not been at school since 23rd January.

You do know it can cause long term lung damage? That might make life more difficult.

Tea, what would you like teachers to do? The planning will be in the hands of senior bods at school.

Purple, not sure to whom your comment is addressed but I already have that. I’m aware it could be worse but I’m always aware of that.

I wonder if healthy people are more worried than those of us with long term issues, I mean because we’re used to a range of health problems?

How about we get the teachers to do it as it is actually what they are paid for?

If the schools close, teachers may well be able to provide work on online platforms, respond to emails and mark work that is sent to them, but beyond that, they won’t be able to physically look after children.

I would 't be surprised if a large number of pupils in my kids school wouldn't have access to WIFI.

Their parents may have phones but good chance there would be no laptops/ tablets.

I guess we could manage as ultimately if needed I would just buy a couple of laptops / tablets but most couldn't do that.

It's not fair for those kids to suffer.

If schools are closed, why would we expect teachers to look after children?

They want to utilise 3 million people to help the NHS.

How would they manage that with schools closed?

The evidence suggests children don’t transmit the disease as much as adults

Is this true?

No

The evidence suggests children don’t transmit the disease as much as adults

Is this true?

Lol, not ture! So far children seem to get less physically ill (with exceptions) but they can and do get it and they do transmit it. Way back at the start of the outbreak one ten year old boy is believed to have infected his whole family inc grandparents.

That’s what I thought, thanks.

The current death rate in Italy is 18%. This is serious even WHO say so.