Just realised why schools are not closing

[NearlyGranny]

Going by the Spanish experience, half the London chatterati would make a dash for their closed-up holiday homes where they would strip our supermarket shelves and no doubt create a virus hotspot among us privileged year-round residents. I'm pretty sure the unmanageable spike we're all fearing would only be hastened by a general school closure.

If we could rely on people isolating at home, it would be a different matter.

I'm a TA working with 4 & 5yo.
I would say more than half the class were coughing yesterday, and still at school. They are extremely unhygienic and that's with constant reminders to cough into elbows, use a tissue and wash hands.

I've now got a cough and temp, and I'm not the only one. If parents don't keep coughing children away there won't be the staff there to teach anyway.

My theory (cynical) is the government won't close schools for economic and political reasons, but schools may have to close for staffing reasons. It will make heads look like the bad guy rather than the government.

Active cases in China have been dropping since mid February. Down to 12,000 from a peak of 60,0000. If only they had China Trump.

I agree with ifonly4.

Hand washing before a meal doesn't happen in our secondary school. The toilet facilities are vile. People avoid using them at all for the whole school day (causing other health concerns)
The timetable simply doesn't allow sufficient time for all the children to go to the toilet, was their hands, line up, get food and eat it. My children are regularly hurried to the point they throw away half of their food because they are being hassled to leave the canteen.

It is an issue of time and space.

Time and space, limited because both cost money.

I’m a teacher. I feel we are being used as they poor bloody infantry’

Who knows, maybe after all this, teachers will be better respected and valued. Even if it's just as glorified babysitters so other parents can do their Very Big Jobs.

Schools staying open is an economic decision as is much of the government thinking.We are different to other countries.
Isn't one of the differences here, when compared with Europe, the fact that we have many more families where both parents work. Think about it - in Germany, for instance, parents have financial support to stay at home with their children.Schools can be closed without European countries coming to a standstill because there are more families where one parents is at home anyway.
In this country lack of 'support systems' are not in place routinely, an emergency like this hits and we can't manage.

Leithwalk,

Totally agree, family lifestyles in this country are so busy! Everyone is under so much pressure. For what?

I would like to hear more conversations about how we can change our policies and politics so that families have the leeway to be able to respond to events.

@DinosApple I agree. Many schools will close simply because staff are off sick.

They’re keeping schools open, that’s fine, but any child in the school I work in with as much as a sniffle is being sent home for 7 days.

I recently also learned that in The Netherlands, credit cards ( debt) is frowned upon. Again makes families so much more resilient to an emergency like this.
The mess our country was in before this emergency impacts on our response. We just don't have the resources.

Schools closed here yesterday for 6 weeks. I don’t believe it’s the solution but we will see what happens.

Yes that is the problem with everything being organised so it is working up to the edge. From the level of debt to the just in time method used by supermarkets.

China has in the last four weeks, under total lockdown, reduced active cases from a peak of 60,000 to, as of day, 12,000.

When they have got it down to zero, which they will, or at least more or less, they will find a way to strictly monitor work places for signs of reemergence. At least until a vaccine is available.

Visitors to China will likely need to pass a test all clear before landing, unless the country of the traveler is also all clear. At least until a vaccine is available - currently billions is being spent on this and the world’s top scientists.

That is a strategy.

The UK, meanwhile is, according to some estimates, well on its way to passing the number of active cases in China. Ponder on that. And the strategy is to take it up to 40 million with a huge loss of human life which will eclipse the total number of cases in China, not deaths, just cases, several fold . What a disgrace.

Yes a lot of the economic reasons are that old chestnut of house prices being too high.
Where you have prices so high that houses can only be bought if there are two wage earners on the mortgage in huge swathes of the country, it puts huge pressure on people to keep working, and send their children in even when unwell.

I don't know about house prices and wages in other European countries so can't comment. Still, I now have a week off to ponder it .

It’s too late to do what China did for any other country not just us.

Has the government pushed through a law to force schools to stay open?

@MarshaBradyo WHO and lots of scientists are saying it is not too late in the UK. It soon will be though if they carry on doing nothing at all.

We are not doing nothing. We’re going to try and flatten the peak like everyone else. We all have a similar but slightly different approach.

What you see there - mass events, school closure - will happen just not yet. As the timing is key I’m not convinced we are wrong.

We have also understood that people need simple clear messages and but just to think closing things will resolve it. We need to change our personal behaviour.

What the hell are you going on about ! Don’t know anyone with second homes

Generally school D.C. are unsanitary creatures who are not in a high risk category. Shutting schools will result in D.C. being cared for my GPs who are in the vulnerable category or key workers not working.

UK cases and deaths have now surpassed Anhui province in China. One of the poorer provinces, similar size and area as the UK, who we had a 3 months head start on. They are now clear of all active cases by the way.

I'm not one of them but I know plenty of people with second homes. Yorkshire, Dorset, Cornwall, Norfolk, France etc... I live in London. I wouldn't be surprised if lots of them take off to the countryside if schools close.

What you see there - mass events, school closure - will happen just not yet.

What happens if too many staff get the virus, or have to self isolate? I can't imagine many willing volunteers stepping forward to keep schools open. It's all well and good wanting to close when the time is right, but we're dealing with a virus, it does what it wants, and it isn't about to follow the plan.

I live in Cornwall. 20% of the housing stock is second homes, and that doesn't include holiday complexes etc. A good chunk of those second home owners are indeed Londoners, against whom I have nothing, I might add, except that many locals are priced out of home ownership by the demand for second homes. And that, come Easter and beyond, we can hardly move on the roads. I'm sure some London posters may not personally know anyone who owns a second home, just as I don't know anyone who owns any sort of home in Belgravia or Mayfair, but those folk stubbornly exist nonetheless!

If we go to closure next week, I just hope the government follows the Italian example, not the Spanish, but I can't see people complying.

My planet, for those enquiring, is the little blue and green one currently brewing a pandemic. I think it's the same one everyone here is on!