Schools Reopening?

[Liveforever86]

When do you honestly think it will happen? And when do you want it to happen?!

I work in a school and they say September at the earliest.

Nobody working in a school has any more information than the rest of the country. They are just guessing like the rest of us.

Our school management team were very clear that they had no more information coming from the government or local authority than we had.

here is something to be said for seeing what the mortality and complication statistics are like in a month, and if it continues to be the case that children are by and large unaffected, healthy children, families and younger teachers with no underlying health conditions should be back in school. There is no justification for ruining the education and social welfare of the youngest in our society if there is almost no risk to them. Children that are compromised should be offered on line learning until it is safe.

An assessment should be carried out in the next few weeks to identify the dangers, and even a reduced timetable would be better than nothing.

I felt very strongly that schools should be closed initially, and I still think that action was correct at the time, as the risk was unknown, however once the facts become more obvious and become more reliable, and we know most children are safe from CV then we really ought to reopen the schools as soon as possible.

@cornishdreams1

Love your comment,! Level headed and fair. Hope you are right x

I think they should reopen and start easing this lock down at the end of April. There is going to be utter carnage when we emerge; worse the longer this continues. We need tests and isolation of vulnerable people, whilst continuing to ensure there are ventilators and beds. I believe many, many more people have had it than we realise and recovered. We aren't going to eradicate this virus in a few months - it will still be there, but we are putting more and more businesses into administration the longer this goes on. I don't think it's great for the mental health of young children in particular to have their worlds suddenly turned upside down. My five year old seems more volatile and I think he's confused and a little bit anxious.

Luckily it's not up to the parents.

I doubt till factor into the government’s calculations either. They’ll be concerned with a) the infections rate and b) the economy and c) public opinion. Teachers getting a proper rest won’t be up there.

I agree @fishface1979
We need to focus on testing (the strategy that has worked in other countries) and less on a long lockdown.

Keep isolating the vulnerable. Work out who has had it so they can go back to work and school. Businesses can get up and running.

If we need to lockdown again in October or November people will be more accepting and understanding.

Saying the schools won’t go back until Sprjng 2021 makes no sense whatsoever.

@gingerbreadslice

That's a lovely idea. My DD first teacher is on maternity cover. So she was at the school September-june. I'm really sad her years been cut short. My DD thinks the world of her. I'm pleased your little girl is picking it up!

Yesterday I wrote really simple sentences like

I am a dog.
The cat has a tail
A red car.

I told her I'll draw a pink heart next to every sentence. It really motivated her to read the words. She did fab

I've been doing all words with her too.

Ball
Call
Fall.
Tall.

Fingers crossed they get to go back x

I'd be surprised if they go back before August (Scotland).

Schools in our area had their leavers ceremonies - granted on a smaller scale - for kids moving on from Primary and High schools in the last week so they're not expected to return.

@fishface1979

There a women on my Facebook page. Her child was taken to hospital Saturday. X-rayed. One lung is affected. They didn't test him. Said he has coronavirus. Sent him home with inhalers and antibiotics. She's stumped as they've isolated for three weeks. Nobody else has it in the house. He's 8 years old.

What if he has a virus that causes a secondary chest infection? My son had it as a baby. A bad chest. Kept him in 4 days pumping him with antibiotics. He had the start of pnunomia and tonsilitis etc. Shocking really. If he had had it this year he would of been diagnosed with coronavirus but not tested! The UK is not being thorougher at all with tests.

I agree though people need testing! Then we can start living again.

Just for this one year, teachers have to accept the whole world doesn’t revolve around their long summer holiday.

Just for one year, parents may have to accept that reopening schools too early could affect teaching staff ( and schools will have to close if this happens as not enough staff), students and the wider community

I think they should reopen and start easing this lock down at the end of April

To do this, they will have to tell all the vulnerable members of school staff that the 12 weeks they have to self-isolate for doesn’t matter any more!

Over half of our staff are pregnant/diabetic/asthmatic/recovering from cancer/transplants or carers for someone in that group. We can’t open the school without them.

healthy children, families and younger teachers with no underlying health conditions should be back in school.

Could you explain how a school runs with

• 1 cleaner (all others vulnerable)
• less than half the teachers (all others vulnerable)
• few than half the TAs, including none of those who work with the most challenging children with EHCPs (all others vulnerable)

and that is BEFORE any of the others go into quarantine with members of their family ill?

We are just about managing a 3 weekly rota of non-quarantined, healthy, non-vulnerable staff for the childcare facility, for a tiny number of children....

Surely there will be peaks & troughs & the government are preparing for this otherwise they wouldn't be making new hospitals etc. We can't just stay inside for a yr. They can't stop the virus but they can increase the capacity to treat those who have it.

September

However, I just don’t see there being a feasible way that the government could afford this. They would have to pay extra salary to every single teacher in the country, as they are currently unpaid for the summer holidays.

And this is why it won’t happen.

At the moment most of the population is safe at home.
Surely without mass, mass testing and tracking and tracing of hot spots etc, the gov can't do anything?

I was thinking towards September but I think July for three weeks because the leak is expected in two weeks, and by then other measures should have been evaluated, testing rolled out and a better understanding. From a parent point of view, having woolly home ed from now til Sept incl a summer break of six weeks is pretty disastrous

Peak not leak

Also, for all the people thinking teachers are terribly workshy, I, along with all my teacher colleagues, would MUCH rather go back mid-June than September, if it was going to be safe to do so.

It'd be great to have the last few weeks of term in class, we'd feel way more prepared for next year and we all think it would be better for the students. So can we please stop the "lazy teachers need to suck it up" narrative - find me a teacher who wouldn't much rather be in their actual classroom teaching today!

I'm really hoping my Y6 DD will get to go back this term, if nothing else but to say goodbye to her friends. She missed the last day before school shut because we were self-isolating.

However, we're preparing mentally that she might not get a transition day to secondary and won't go back to school until September.

To the teachers on here, there is an interesting thread going on about unions telling key workers not to work unless they are provided with ppe.

For me, this would be a game changer. I’d be much more inclined to go back earlier if we had this. Atm we hardly have soap.

I think people don't realise that a huge part of the reason they bowed and shut schools was because just days before they had told vulnerable people to work from home. Then the shielding advice came out.
Teachers can't work from home but we were told by our (and the headteacher) unions that we should not go to work

So schools didn't have the staff to stay open, not even with supply teachers who are short supply around here anyway.

Shielding being for 12 week suggests that's the length of time schools will stay closed for too.

All modelling done was based on the restrictions being put in place for 3 months.

I really hope towards the end of June. Even if they’re back 3 or 4 weeks and then have the summer holidays, it will still feel like normality has resumed. But I also suspect it may not be until September. I’m not sure about childcare, am hoping that would open sooner given they don’t have the holidays.

Realistically I think September.

Certainly as a school we are planning that far ahead, although we obviously would prefer it to be sooner.

Yes DrMaxwell, I think the government were forced to close earlier than they intended because they fluffed the advice about the vulnerable groups and everyone with asthma, diabetes and the clinically obese thought they were in the 12 week stay at home group. We could reopen without the officially shielded group (the ones with a letter) but not without the ones who are "advised" to stay home. It's still not really clear what the difference is.