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.

The regs are prescriptive about the number of WCs per person (1 per 20 pupils)

I honestly don't think we have but I will be sure to go round and count on Monday.

However that is still 20 minutes and that is without the queuing , the flicking water and standing in lines breathing on each other.

So we need 75 sinks wow. We don't even have proper staff toilets and use the disabled.

Schools haven't been closed because government needs to work through the legislative and financial implications - schools would receive their usual funding whilst closed, so suffer little detriment. However nurseries and childminders would also be expected to close for the same reason as the schools - to stop children becoming superspreaders. They would expect similar assurances from the government on funding as schools were getting. But they are independent businesses. Similarly, lots of small businesses will struggle to deal with the sudden absence of workers when they have to stay home with the kids because the government has closed schools and childcare providers. They will look at nurseries and childminders seeking funding from the government, and be able to say that a precedent has been set for small businesses to claim compensation, because the only difference between a childminder/nursery and a small shop, for example, is the sector. They will be still independent businesses.

At present the government is looking at how they can safely address all of these issues without causing issues down the line that could end up being unmanageable and have long term repercussions.

I live in London and this thread made me count how many families I know who go off to "The Country" at weekends etc - its seven. I do think it's pretty common in some circles. I do not move in those circles myself but used to work for those who did. I don't think it's uncommon for a certain type of Londoner.

The people who go to the country had the highest rate at the beginning.

Kensington & Chelsea.

Travel, skiing, country.

The govt doesn’t make decisions for the individual, but for society as a whole. What measures will protect the greatest numbers of people. Teachers are not being abandoned any more than the millions of people in all sorts of other jobs that are carrying on as normal.

Isn’t it better to contain Covid 19 in schools rather than out and about which is what will happen if the kids are off school

Not for the school staff-especially not those over 50 with existing health complications.

People moan about schools closing now but they will have to close if the staff are sick/dying.

Lol at containing it in schools!

Are people going to draw straws as to who's going to supervise this hotbed of contamination, or is that the sole responsibility of the teachers and other school staff? Maybe they're just expected to take one for the team without even being asked if that's ok?

Who's going to teach the kids in school, or is education no longer a requirement in the grips of a pandemic unless you go to Eton?

poster AndNoneForGretchenWieners

Is totally correct.

I understand the issue re fines, but again, why is everyone so happy to just chuck teachers under the bus? Why are we the disposable employees?

Oh come on - it's not just teachers = what about healthcare and other essential workers?

@AndNoneForGretchenWieners - Yes, I think this is correct.

I own a nursery. The government will pay for the funded 2-4 year old places next term except where children have been pulled out due to anxieties about CV.

I assume the same criteria will be applied for school funding.

The government will want as many people as possible to pull their kids out of school/nursery now before they shut everything down. It will save them millions.

Oh come on - it's not just teachers = what about healthcare and other essential workers?

There's the same dismissive attitude towards delivery drivers and people who work in retail atm. But so far no one's throwing them into a building with 1500+ kids and however many staff in order to create herd immunity and/or provide childcare to working parents.

Healthcare workers expect to be in the front line, don't they? That's their job.

Teachers, nursery workers and childcare workers are getting exposed all the time to lots of kids viruses. If I was one of those and at risk, I would be ringing in sick. No way would I risk my life to keep schools, etc open.

EYprovider school funding is based on census at the start of the previous school year - so this year schools are receiving per pupil funding based on how many were on roll in September 2018. It's then split into equal payments that don't fluctuate based on pupil numbers that year (apart from the rare cases where schools are funded on estimated numbers, but they are mainly new schools without all year groups present). The only change to that would be if pupils don't start back in Sept 2020, and then the reduction won't be seen until Sept 2021 due to the lagged nature of the funding. They won't lose out if pupils are pulled out of school as long as they stay back in Sept - its the independents where payment is received based on attendance on a day to day basis that will suffer as you say. There isn't the capacity to oversee the schools in the same way as the 2-4 year funding.

Healthcare workers expect to be in the front line, don't they? That's their job.

Not all healthcare workers are frontline, no - the office workers, receptionists, engineers and other tradespeople, cleaners, caterers - too many to mention. The majority are as little prepared for or protected as teachers and other public service workers.

Are people going to draw straws as to who's going to supervise this hotbed of contamination, or is that the sole responsibility of the teachers and other school staff? Maybe they're just expected to take one for the team without even being asked if that's ok?

We’re just expected to get on with it. Of course Uni’s have shut though (most adults are perfectly capable of washing their hands I’d have thought) yet primary schools are still open? As I said earlier any child with as much as a sniff will be going home for 7 days in the school I work in and frankly I don’t give a shit if parents are pissed off. I never trained for 4 years to babysit children, I trained to educate children. Many teachers or education staff also have vulnerable adults or children at home which appears to have been forgotten. Of course, we are ‘invincible’ according to the government 🙄 Stiff upper lip, carry on and get snot wiped on you numerous times a day....

I don't have a dogmatic take on whether schools should be closed, however:

1. I recognise that they are not just child holding areas. Some top level discussion gives me the feeling that that is what they are seen as. There are vulnerable staff there. I am concerned about the kids with complicating conditions and the older staff (teaching and support) at level 1. At level 2 I am concerned about the older staff with complicating conditions. Yes I have a 55 year old relative who is a teacher and does not have terribly bad complicating conditions (so level 1.5). I have a primary age child who seems robust and I'm happy for her to be at school, or not, as I work from home half the time and can increase it to almost all the time fairly easily.

1. Where do the children go if they are not at school? I think there are a number of destinations but in the mobile device era many seemed to be absorbed into their rooms. Would I be happy if others were roaming freely?

1. Jeremy Hunt. I'm pushing myself to type this, but his idea of schools being 'closed' but still 'open' at a skeleton level for those with parents in certain jobs is worth considering.

1. Year 11 and 13. I have exam year relatives. There doesn't seem to be the coursework etc. we used to do. They are stressing over exams already. I'd hope that they are given serious consideration as policies evolve.

Healthcare workers are either in sterile environments, have some protection or at least some control over their environments.

Teachers are being thrown into a sea of infection.

Where I am our schools will be closed for a month from tomorrow and the government have very clearly said children need to be kept at home - so no soft play etc.

For the majority of people here childcare isn’t a problem so they’ve not had to take it into account.

Teachers are being thrown into a sea of infection.

Schools are revolting germ-ponds, especially in EYFS. Having to tell children not to lick each other, Sneeze on each other, cough on each other etc etc is endless in reception.

Teachers are not being abandoned more than any other worker!

You are fucking joking here right?! We have to walk into a mire of infection every day to protect the rest of the country.

We're two weeks away from the Easter holidays, when most parents will have childcare plans sorted. I think the Govt is trying to get us to there and it's then easier to extend the Easter holidays if needed. Plus schools can be deep cleaned then

It's not children's snot per se, it's the feeling you get when you're working alongside an individual child and they turn and sneeze without warning into your open mouth as you're talking to them. That's the snot that bothers me. 😷

Not all healthcare workers are frontline
A lot of non frontline nurses (myself included) will he called upon to provide frontline care. If you are registered and employed, you will be relocated to meet patient needs.

Healthcare workers are either in sterile environments, have some protection or at least some control over their environments.
That’s a very naive thing to say. Do district nurses, home carers, community mental health nurses and midwives have control over the environments they work in? Certainly not. They will continue to be expected at work and have to navigate the risks.

We’re going to our uk holiday home at Easter as we usually would. If one of us has symptoms we will either not go depending on how ill or go but keep that person in the house. We will be driving down in our car and going straight into the house so don’t see what difference it makes.

It’s all over the uk now anyway...

Not all healthcare workers are frontline
A lot of non frontline nurses (myself included) will he called upon to provide frontline care. If you are registered and employed, you will be relocated to meet patient needs.

Same for non 'front line' education staff - advisory teams in education are being told to 'prepare' for anything, flexibility demanded in covering anything expected of us. I expect to be working in childcare or teaching to keep pupils in school.