Not closing schools

[SkaLaLand]

Why does no-one seem to understand the reasons for this?

1. Children are super spreaders and need to be kept safely away from the vulnetable.
2. They are affected very mildly by the virus.
3. It discourages idiotic parents jollying off with them on holiday.
4. It keeps parents in work and the economy moving.
5. Some vulnerable children only get to eat and be in safety for they time they are at school. Think how weeks of closure would affect them.
6. Children keep learning.

I feel that people are losing all perspective on this situation. Very few children and healthy adults are at risk.

Surely protecting the vulnerable with the current guidelines and maintaining the status quo for the rest of us is the best way forward?

Knowing that my children are safe and maintaining relative normality means I can concentrate on the members of my family that really need me, my very elderly grandparents and disabled mother.

During the WHO press conference today they changed their tune of children and said they must be protected and that there had been child fatalities but they didn't go on to way why they had changed their attitude or give any further information or numbers on the fatalities.

And also that so that we can keep working mainly the people who work for nhs and the police . Can you imagine if schools close and all the doctors nurses with children can't work . It would be a nightmare

I don’t know about strikes. But we have been told we are working in unsafe conditions, and they are on to that. No training, no safetywear, no instructions. No briefing of kids. Nothing Everyone obsessing about the students education, no one giving a shit about the compromised or older teachers. A lot of anger

@SkaLaLand

This is not ‘what about me?’ There is no logic in telling me to avoid unnecessary contact with others, except between 8.30-5 when it’s fine as long as it’s in the school building.

It's the same for a lot of people non teaching .
No advice no contingency just shitting themselves at the financial cost of this .
I honestly don't think strikes would help but it would be something if your employer acted sympathetic and gave advice etc .
Maybe tomorrow after today's briefing .

@heartheal I agree - I’m not really bothered about myself getting ill and I don’t think that’s the case for most teachers otherwise we’d have had mass staff absence well before now, we’re used to soldiering on, we know school is important, but I just feel like a massive germ transporter from one town to another every single day!

Heart heal l’m with you. In every other countrify that has shut schools, childcare must be being dealt with in some way. Why is the UK different?

I'm not saying all schools should shut right now but you seem to have forgotten pregnant teachers and other members of staff in your argument. They're vulnerable too.

The buses are full of schoolchildren and poverty stricken elderly people who are going to bloody starve if they don't go to the shops. But they obviously deserve a bit of exposure to the 'super spreaders'.

And the grandparents aren't going to be looking after them because they're in self isolation.

This is economic preservation, nothing more

My classroom is nowhere near a sink. Have to go to the other side of the school and through several sets of doors to get to one. Can't get hold of hand sanitiser.
When they start putting classes together because staff go off sick, there won't be any learning taking place.

I would like the option to take my kids out of school without risk being fined.

‘Vulnerable’ doesn’t just include the kids whom may be neglected at home etc.

My son has a kidney condition and asthmatic. I won’t risk him catching it, as he has already endured a 4 week hospital stay in jan.

What about the vulnerable teachers and support staff too? Other countries are managing to get the essential staff to work with school closures.

If we are talking social distancing being necessary, that should include teachers and pupils too.

I'm fully behind it. It means my husband and I will be able to continue to work. There's going to be a lot of unemployment as a result of this and we need to have some businesses still able to function.

Our school is running out of loo roll and hand wash. What do we do then? The school is not just full of children. There are also adults there that can get ill and spread the virus.

Personally I don’t think anyone is going to take any notice untill schools are shut and we are all forced to stay home .
I nipped in to town today to the bank ,fully expecting town to be empty ,and it’s was as busy as ever ,so was yesterday and Saturday in Sainsbury’s was jam packed.
I don’t see any changes except people panic buying

People working in all sorts of industries are exposed to germs in much the same way, crammed on to public transport, sitting in open plan offices, we still have to work, must people realise this is for the greater good. However, I do think those who can should have the option to keep children off school without fear of being penalty.

Im fully behind it. It means my husband and I will be able to continue to work.
School is not bloody childcare ...except when it is. This is economic, to say otherwise means the social contact advice makes no sense.

I see both sides. I get all the reasons for needing to keep schools open as long as possible, BUT my husband is a head teacher. He has had no direction and has had staff asking all day whether they should be in because dd/dm/dgm is ill (obviously pre tonight's announcement). When he called the advice line, first thing this morning he was in a queue of over 170 people waiting.
Why should he and his staff be exempt from the measures? What's he supposed to do when he has a skeleton staff?
None of it is coherent and school staff are struggling.

Boris needs to get his hand in his pocket and deal with this.

Portugal is paying parents who are having to stay at home for their 3/4 of their salary every week.

France has skeleton staff who are trained and have procedures to follow to minimise risk.

Britain has Boris

Teachers should go on strike now

For their children

@iamthedanger why should teachers get priority over other members of the public who have to stay working?

I am finding it ridiculous the way teachers are behaving.

I for one am happy schools have stayed open and I hope Boris doesn't bow to the pressure of teenagers and teacher who don't want to work.

m fully behind it. It means my husband and I will be able to continue to work.
School is not bloody childcare ...except when it is. This is economic, to say otherwise means the social contact advice makes no sense.
So what do you suggest we do with the children then it's not like the holidays and we can book annual leave , book them on holidays clubs as relatives to help there is none of that if schools close .
Businesses are facing a shit time was told today that not paying suppliers it's to be reviewed daily so that means little companies may not get paid which could force closures, so the least we can do is work it would catastrophic if people couldn't work due to childcare there will be no jobs when this is all done . That scares me more than this virus :

I'm sorry but the schools are not safe at all. My school has no Hand gel, not enough facilities for 1300 kids to wash their hands before lunch never mind throughout the day, and we are having to keep coughing children in our classrooms with us because we were told it was the parents' call whether they were to attend. The reason children are super spreaders is largely because they go to school-you'd cringe at the amount of different things they touch going from classroom to classroom using keyboards, IT, borrowed calculators, even coloured pens and they have to sit right next to each other.
But those children sat next to those coughing children go home and pass it to you without showing symptoms initially and you pass it to your elderly and vulnerable. Also if you paid attention to the WHO you'd see children ARE dying. Even if it's 'just' the 0.2 percent that's around three children from my school. Childcare for keyworkers could be provided by a rotational skeletal staff with increased hygiene measures but right now my place of work is not safe for the young people, my immunocompromised colleagues or myself and my family.

Because kids are inherently unhygienic. Schools are small, class sizes large, and kids transmit germs even if they don’t get infected. They are cramped and it is impossible to to use any social distancing measures, as their is insufficient room to do this.

Most schools have run out of soap, no hand gel available. Conditions are bad in schools at the moment. Nothing is clean, rooms are overcrowded, insufficient sinks. Kids spit, snot, bite nails, and the virus is transferred in this way.

I cannot imagine any other work place where you are stuffed into rooms that are too small with too many people who can’t follow basic hygiene through lack of facilities or lack of thought.