I keep seeing people saying that there is no point to schools being closed because grandparents will look after children / children will congregate in large groups / working parents won’t cope.
Believe me, I have every sympathy for that last predicament.
But this is what happens in schools. You have anything up to 2000 students in the bigger secondaries crammed together in a relatively small space. They eat together. They brush against one another in the corridor. They queue up for classrooms practically sat on top of one another. Think about how headlice spread around schools - that should give an indication of how close children get to one another.
Not all school aged children will require childcare. That will hit primary aged children, not secondary. I understand that’s awful for the parents put in that position, and shouldn’t be done lightly. However, to claim that because perhaps a group of five or six children might all be looked after by the same caregiver that this is equivalent to hundreds of children under the same roof is misleading.
I’m really shocked that this hasn’t been done. Yesterday, my school took a group of children to an educational visit - led by someone who had just returned from Italy. Parents evenings are still going ahead in a small, humid hall - perfect breeding ground for germs. In short, schools are clueless.
I strongly recommend if you CAN that you temporarily remove your child. I know not everyone can but I’m shocked and scared by how idiotic people are being about this.