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?

Why should the young suffer when the adults get their Cheltenham festival, their Football and their Rugby?
After all, its, primarily, a fatal disease of the old and sick, not the young, yet we want their futures get screwed over.

I hope my teenage children might like their 60+ father and their 40-something mother with the disability, neither of whom has any interest in the Cheltenham Festival, football, or rugby, to be with them for a few years yet, as otherwise their futures might get screwed over. They also quite like their 80 year old grandmother and their 82 year old neighbour. Also, when I was a boy, lots of boys liked football and some liked rugby. I'll grant you that not many liked horse racing though.

It does seem odd talking about schools

We have about 5/6 in Liverpool now with one at Aintree Hospital but no mention of the aintree grand national being cancelled!

After all, its, primarily, a fatal disease of the old and sick, not the young, yet we want their futures get screwed over

Do you think coronavirus thinks about what is fair?

The young are the biggest spreaders of illness and therefore shutting schools down may become a necessary measure. During the swine flu outbreak, when schools were on holiday, there was a noticeable reduction in transmission across all age groups.

The young don't live in a vacuum, they live with families. I can guarantee they will be more upset about family members dying than not being able to do their GCSEs.

Fantastic post Sir Ching!👍🏻

@TalbotAMan

I agree but before we start shutting schools (as a first course of action) we should be stopping these unnecessary sports gatherings.

The people at cheltenham interviewed today couldn't give a fig for anyone but themselves, there was no extra washing facilities or handwashes and most people were quite happy to contract CV if it meant they could have their festival.

Unbelievably gungho

They may tag an extra week onto Easter but that’s it. Our numbers are not jumping enough for them to take too much action.

My kid is in 6th form and said teachers are talking about the possibility of a 4 week long Easter break. I will verify that of course

Stop unnecessary travel. Insurance should pay out if you cancel a trip due to not wanting to travel, it won’t at the moment unless it’s to certain countries. I think most people would cancel if they could get their money back.

Isn’t Cheltenham and other mass gatherings down to Boris🤷🏼‍♀️. And obviously in my opinion he is strategically ignoring advice, because he’s scared of a backlash😕

@PeppaisaBitch the Irish government have already announced that they are making money available to pay those who are not entitled to sick pay and those who are self employed a social payment of over €200 a week. Hopefully the uk will do the same or similar!??

in my opinion he is strategically ignoring advice, because he’s scared of a backlash😕

I think he is deliberately stalling and pushing back the virus peak.

How? the govt is doing SFA, just wash your hands and keep calm, won't push back any peak, we'll just get it sooner and harder.

I guess like Trump he is playing to his base and not for the good of the country.

They'll all shut for the Easter holidays next month.

If there is any hint of coronavirus I daresay some will shut before then. It's not happening around my way yet but there is still time.

Exactly Jasjas. From what I’ve read other countries are doing stuff even though as yet, the numbers aren’t high.

Britain drifts along in it’s own complacent bubble. And Boris is helping it, instead of being decisive.

Places like Spain, Germany, France have only shut schools in selected areas. Only 16 countries have shut all schools.

Which areas of the U.K. would you shut schools in?

noblegiraffe at the very least the ones that have the coronovirus already.

it is the complacency that gets me.

Maybe it's not time for a complete shut down but-

Shut schools with active cases
Consider shutting those in areas which have high numbers
If parents want to isolate their kids don't fine them for doing so.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/300403
Now around 233,200 asking for school closures. As there are lots of regular colds about lots of children will be off when the regulations change to isolate for colds anyhow.

This is why our government is being complacent:

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-italian-doctor-says-fighting-covid-19-outbreak-is-like-war-11954229

In a post shared on Facebook, Dr Daniele Macchini likened the disease to a "tsunami that has swept us all".

As Italy battles Europe's worst outbreak, and with the virus spreading fast, doctors are making comparisons to war-time triage medics deciding who lives, who dies and who gets access to the limited number of intensive unit beds.

"After thinking for a long time if and what to write about what is happening to us, I felt that the silence was not at all responsible," Dr Macchini said.

He said he understood "the need not to create panic" but felt "the message of the danger of what is happening" was not reaching people.

The doctor said he "shuddered" at the thought of people complaining about not being able to go to the gym or football games.

And later on in the article:

He also stressed the virus does not just affect old people, warning that younger people "end up intubated in intensive care" or "worse in ECMO (a machine for the worst cases, which extracts the blood, re-oxygenates it and returns it to the body, waiting for the organism, hopefully, heal your lungs).

He bitterly scorned people "on social networks who pride themselves on not being afraid and ignoring the rules, complaining because their normal lifestyle habits are 'temporarily' in crisis - all the while an epidemiological disaster is taking place".

Boris is just burying his head in the sand IMO. Except this time it could have fatal consequences for people. In Italy they are deciding who to use ICU equipment on based on a list of criteria they have drawn up. That is truly frightening and the Northern Italian healthcare system is better funded than ours.

My friend is a teacher somewhere other then the UK (Europe) where they haven’t closed the schools but she said lots of parents choose to keep their children at home now. I give it 2 or 3 weeks before schools will be closed trough out more countries then the ones who have done so far.

Boris is being useless. Countries with a smaller number of cases are already taking action. Britain just drifts on and on in a sea of complacency and disregard.

They aren’t even checking people coming off flights from Italy.

I can see a big problem if A levels are cancelled in favour of predicted grades.

Everyone would get their conditional university offer. Unis routinely over-offer in the expectation that a certain percentage won't make it, and many will end up massively over subscribed this autumn. They won't have the accommodation or space in lectures for them all.

Unis which are second choices will end up massively undersubscribed and no chance of picking up students in Clearing.

nobelgiraffe in my small town in Devon there have been 6 confirmed cases and all the schools are still open. I would have thought if they were planning on shutting the schools anywhere they would have at least done it here.

It was interesting to see a couple of key education players on Twitter.

One is self isolating because he can't get a test and another (who just visited our school) joking - yes joking - about her persistent coughing and taking lots of train journeys, along with another inappropriate joke about Italian ski trip.

These are people from the DfE/who work closely with DfE, who go to conferences, who meet with our school leaders.

dh is a secondary teacher at a school in the burbs of a city.

There is a confirmed case nearby.
He thinks that MAYBE the school will close early for Easter?? Nothing been said about getting work for kids or anything though (its a deprived area, so quite a few free school meals and kids limited/ no accsess to technology for apps potentially).

another (who just visited our school) joking - yes joking - about her persistent coughing and taking lots of train journeys

Christ can’t people even joke now? I’ve been coughing and taking trains for weeks. I’ve been joking about it with my colleagues. There is no suggestion whatsoever I have Coronavirus, I’ve had a persistent cough for absolutely months. It’s po faced in the extreme to get all up in arms about someone making a joke about coughing on a train.