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?

BIL is in upper management at a college in the NE. At a meeting earlier this week he was informed that it is likely that within the next 2-3 weeks they will close the college for a month. As far as I’m aware there has not as yet been a local outbreak. I assume that HE will be treated differently to schools though (unless things get dire) as the impact on the economy is vastly different.

My OH works in the events industry and almost all of his upcoming jobs have been cancelled. Many large businesses have already banned large meetings and grounded their staff.

I think that the pressure on the government to ‘do something’ could lead to closures to pacify the public.

Georgie I agree, it’s not as easy as “predicting a grade”, kids could miss out on A level entries and uni eateries by being given a “predicted grade” as their final exam result. My dd (and many others) have been working bloody hard to improve from their mock exams, after school and weekend revision classes and hours of revision at home, it would be shame if they can’t sit exams.

I agree that its too soon, and its because there are still too many "its just the flu" types. So sadly we will probably need to wait until there are more deaths before the severity of all this actually penetrates their thick skulls.

Two weeks

I think they'll try and hold out for the Easter holidays and see how it goes from there.

They won't get closed.

Now would be too early. People will be bored and start breaking the restrictions at the very time it becomes most important if they do it now. People won't put up with that level of restriction for very long. I think it will end up being a week or so before the Easter holidays and back to normal as school would have gone back anyway.

Lovemusic

i've just been talking to my dd GCSE year, trying to keep her and her friends spirits up. We all came to the conclusion that whatever happens they can tell future employers about their GCSE Coronavirus year.

Lots of teachers will still work if the school is shut to children though.

There's no way on Earth teachers in state schools will go unpaid @Littlescottiedog. Lots of other people with though.

Georgie- I’m a secondary school teacher. We predict grades when students are absent sometimes. We use a combination of teacher marks, tests etc. The exam board may apply some limitations or other restrictions, but that is easily what could happen

They've said they are modelling the disease so it may be triggering by a certain number of patients or fatalities. Maybe once we are in the 1000s. This could be in a week or two weeks Max.

Exam boards are contingency planning for this right now. These plans will have been/will be submitted to regulators for approval currently. There will be no information released from the boards until the regulator approves it. Please do not speculate about expected grades, teacher predictions, coursework moderation etc until it is released - it is not helpful for students. The exact process will be qualification dependent.

Please encourage kids not to worry about the impact of this on their grades there will be plans in place. If you are a teacher with exam classes get yourself using google classrooms and hangouts now -look on forums and twitter for tips and hints and get the kids on it now so they are ready for online learning and activity. This will be far more valuable than worrying students by telling them their exams are at risk.

So not actually 🐴💩..... just 24 years of teaching GCSE and Level, but hey what do l know?🤷🏼‍♀️

If schools close it will be disastrous for my family. All my income comes from schools and since I'm self employed if they are closed and I don't work I don't get paid. It takes me huge effort to save money to last through the 6 weeks in summer and even an extra two weeks of closures could seriously impact my ability to pay my bills.

Slothbyday- I’m with you. It will be sorted one way or another. They aren’t just going to let the entire cohort of 2020 exam students have no qualifications!

My DS has predicted grades for university entry as do others. Couldn’t they use those?

@Littlescottiedog youll get paid I'm surprised you think you don't, are you new to working in local government? Plus why would they announce it now?

23rd March - 2 weeks from today, 2 weeks before Easter

@PeppaisaBitch but can't you see this is about society as a whole not individuals?

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.

Seriously? I have zero faith. We don't know enough about the virus. There is a report that it is now starting to affect people that are younger. Children are a hotbed of passing infections/viruses to others. I think they need to seriously consider it.
Washing hands is a joke.

I suspect we'll get get an extra week or two added onto the Easter holidays, either before or after depending this it escalates

There’s year 6 sats coming up as well.
It’s all going to be an interesting few weeks.
My dh is firmly in the “why are you bothering buying extra tea bags” “I’m self employed it’s business as usual” camp

Which is helpful. Plenty of kids at my children’s school are being kept off, but are out and about shopping, parties at the park, football club.

#noblegiraffe, if only .
OP, I work in a school.
I am very aware of the exposure that is a potential risk in my work, to myself and others. We have measures in place to help minimise any risk.
We can only close if instructed to by the government, which is absolutely right.
As PPs have said, if parents needed to stay home to take care of their children, the entire country would grind to a halt - because it would include parents who are doctors, energy supply company workers, water supply workers, food delivery drivers and so on.
For now, I'm taking the view that if it's coming, I may as well just get on with things because I can't make any difference anyway to the overall picture.
If it starts to get serious, that's when I'll start to worry about it.

I think that sounds realistic @Brown76