To ask when you think all schools will shut

[Helpmechangemymindsetplease]

Due to the corona virus.

Have been talking to a relative and am more worried than I was. Have three dc, one of whom gets ill at the drop of a hat.

Facts emerging from Italy are not great, so why aren’t we in complete shut down now? What is the government waiting for?

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/869827/Coronavirus_action_plan_-_a_guide_to_what_you_can_expect_across_the_UK.pdf

I think closing schools now would be a premature move

I don’t know. There are 6 confirmed cases in my small town and all the schools are reopened now. It seems a bit crazy.

I would be extremely surprised if it happened. I just don't feel it will.

I will come back and apologise if it turns out to be the case!

Should be this Friday, will be next Friday.

I’d be gutted if they did- ds1 is about to take his GCSEs, it could really affect their future.

I'd be surprised if they close too especially as there is a two week break coming up soon anyway.

Never.

Hopefully not at all. I'm a teacher - there are 9 weeks until the start of GCSE exams. I need my Yr 11s in class. There have been 2 cases in my local area. It would grieve me massively if we shut at this point.

Ffs move this to the right board

Reading between the lines today the govt are waiting for the spread to be so big it needs to be curtailed.

If the ask for social restrictions now, in two weeks everyone will give up on them. They need to wait for it to get serious and then shut down certain areas to limit the spread when the NHS is near crisis.

They're waiting on data, info on spread etc. I am sure they will assess it every day but my absolute un-scientific guess is 2-3 weeks.

If nothing else it's not particularly prevalent in children they will likely be considering other options before schools so when they start to kick in I will start googling home schooling

Boris said we may not need draconian measures and could just let it happen.🤷‍♀️

However, given we’re apparently 12-18 days behind Italy, the staff room prediction today was close early for Easter. Better before Easter than after with GCSEs looming. I don’t know, I can’t see it happening. People won’t self isolate properly-how can they?

A cleaner came and wiped a filthy cloth over every door handle, just pointless given the next person to open the door will potentially put germs on it.

Section 4.45 and 4.46 of Hadjabs useful link above:
The delay phase: next steps
4.45 Action that would be considered could include population distancing strategies
(such as school closures, encouraging greater home working, reducing the
number of large scale gatherings) to slow the spread of the disease throughout the
population, whilst ensuring the country’s ability to continue to run as normally as
possible. The UK governments' education departments' planning assumptions
include the possibility of having to close educational settings in order to reduce the
spread of infection.
4.46 We would consider such measures in order to protect vulnerable individuals with
underlying illnesses and thus at greater more at risk of becoming seriously
affected by the disease. The effectiveness of these actions will need to be
balanced against their impact on society.

I’d say it should be by the end of this week. Random stab in the dark though.

Cue a wave of posters with their head in the sand mentality, demanding that all life continue undisturbed.

It's a huge step to take that will have massive knock on effects for parents and all the places parents work and current advice is it's not necessary. Hopefully it'll stay that way.

It probably wont happen in some areas it possibly needs to

Cue a wave of posters with their head in the sand mentality, demanding that all life continue undisturbed.

It is not a head in sand mentality to say that not all aspects of the governments plan will come to pass, it is also not head in sand mentality to say that a lot of people seem to be focused entirely on worst case scenarios and a general sense of "we're all doomed".

It's a virus. Its concerning because it's new and we don't entirely understand it yet but we are not facing the apocalypse.

I don’t think they will and there is a 2 week break in 3 weeks ...
Plus there is a whole topic for this !

We observe that containment measures, that limit individuals’ mobility, are advantageous in reducing risk but may deteriorate the system’s functionality for a very long time and thus correspond to low resilience....

The natural tendency to be conservative in managing potentially inflated risks associated with new and emerging epidemics can result in unnecessary burdensome and possibly ineffective actions like quarantines as well as travel bans.

Nature article.

Closing schools is not necessarily helpful. Evidence so far shows that children in general suffer only very mild symptoms if at all. Closing schools would mean parents would be unable to work for weeks/months having a severe impact on the economy and the country - shops shut, businesses closed, essential services running on limited staff. For those parents who might send their children to older relatives this would mean potentislly over-exposing the most at-risk group, the elderly, for very little benefit. People would very quickly get fed up of being stuck at home with their kids and would start to take day trips, visit the library etc and meet up with other families and he whole point of shutting schools would be negated.

The parents of children who are immune compromised or live with family members who are elderly or ill should take a view on their individual cases and specific outbreaks in specific schools should of course be addressed but I would be very disappointed to see schools being shut as a blanket policy.

It isn't about the children being ill per se, but spreading it.

I suspect maybe an early Easter break, if anything.

I suspect they may just have an extended Easter and close a week or so before the Easter break.

While I think this government are a shower of shite, the plans and advice are coming from PHE and other experts. I trust that they know a hell of a lot more than me about this and 99% of the people giving opinions. Who am I to say that the decision not to close schools is wrong? I’m an accountant, I know shit all about it.

YABU to post this outside the Coronavirus topic.