How long will schools stay open?

[belay]

Just read that a secondary school in Derbyshire has closed. Says that some staff "unable to come to work" because of risk to themselves and their families?
Is the government forcing schools to stay open at the moment ?

If they close the schools by this weekend, they HAVE to enforce other closures. At the moment the teenagers out of school and kids that can't go due to no teachers are all just wandering round town shopping etc!

We are also not expecting exams to take place and have all set predicted exam grades instead
classically do you know if that has come from somewhere high up or is it just your school preparing as well as you can?

Scottish and Welsh schools to close Friday. Shame about those of us in England though surely BJ will have to announce now? People just won’t send their kids in.

Just announced: Scotland and Wales will close from Friday. But what about England and Northern Ireland?!

There's a cobra meeting this afternoon to discuss schools, so I expect there also to be more announcements to follow

I think asking the elderly and vulnerable to self isolate for now, with the right help, is the best way forward. We aren't really in a position to have half the work force of the UK off due to childcare issues and people losing an undetermined amount of wages due to self isolating without any need to. Not everyone is office based and can work from home. A lot of people do manual jobs and those include driving delivery vehicles with food in them, serving people in shops, fixing issues in people's homes/businesses, care workers attending to people that can't manage on their own, working in factories producing food etc. Will they be deemed essential workers or can they just F off

THIS!!! X100

I am sick to death of retired people moaning that they need to go about their daily business when they don't HAVE to, when we are having to go to work now but are facing potential financial ruin as hospitality/leisure industry workers.
And I'm sick of people saying their mental health will suffer if they have to give up their yoga class. My mental health will suffer if I can't feed my kids FFS. Most older people I know are indignant about ANY restrictions on their socialising, but waving away mine and DPs anxiety about our financial situation. My sister and her husband can work from home and she was moaning about it..they are in a 5 bed detached house with garden..what hardship.
Sorry to rant but people really need to focus on doing what is nessecary. I think the schools should have closed a week ago for kids whose parents CAN stay home, and run for kids whose parents need to stay working. I also want a really strong plan from the government on how people in closed industries are going to be helped. With details, and numbers!

There’s going be an announcement. By the Secretary of State at 5pm about education.